Britten''s Unquiet Pasts - Sound and Memory in Postwar Reconstruction

Heather Wiebe's book looks to the music of Benjamin Britten to elucidate a British postwar vision of cultural renewal.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. Music and cultural renewal; 2. 'Today on Earth the Angels Sing': carols in wartime; 3. Realizing Purcell; 4. Gloriana and the 'new Elizabethans'; 5. Noye's Fludde and the rituals of lost faith; 6. Ghosts in the ruins: the War Requiem at Coventry.

About the author

Heather Wiebe is Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Virginia. A member of the editorial board of The Opera Quarterly, she has published widely on twentieth-century music, British musical culture and opera.

Summary

Heather Wiebe's book examines educational, occasional and religious works of Benjamin Britten that engage both with the distant past and with key episodes of postwar reconstruction, elucidating the role of music in mid-century British culture while exploring issues of memory, enchantment and cultural citizenship.

Additional text

'Unfailingly readable ' Musical Times

Product details

• Authors: Heather Wiebe, Heather (University of Virginia) Wiebe
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 05.03.2015
• EAN: 9781107507821
• ISBN: 978-1-107-50782-1
• No. of pages: 250
• Series: Music Since 1900; Music Since 1900
• Subjects: Education and learning > Adult education/adult education classes; Humanities, art, music > Music > Music history