Benjamin Britten

United Kingdom, 1930–1976

English composer (1913-1976), the central figure of British music in his century. Peter Grimes revived English opera at a stroke, and the War Requiem, the church parables and the Young Person's Guide made a tonal, deeply English modernism out of Purcell's inheritance.

MusicRoots documents 4 artists who influenced Benjamin Britten and 1 artist Benjamin Britten influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Benjamin Britten?

• Frank Bridge — Bridge taught Britten from the age of thirteen and was the greatest influence of his adolescence - he pushed him toward an individual voice and opened European modernism to him.
• Henry Purcell — Purcell was the ancestor Britten claimed for himself - the model for setting English words to music, and arguably the bigger musical impact on him than any living teacher.
• Gustav Mahler — Hearing Mahler's Fourth Symphony in 1930 hit Britten hard - 'entirely clean and transparent, the material remarkable, the melodic shapes highly original' - and the orchestral transparency stayed with him.
• John Dowland — Britten wrote the Nocturnal after John Dowland for guitar as a set of variations that only reveal Dowland's 'Come, heavy sleep' at the end.

Which artists did Benjamin Britten influence?

• The Durutti Column — Britten is the classical side of Reilly's formation - he studied piano stimulated by Tatum, Waller and Britten before ever taking up the guitar.