“Music-making in a Joyous Sense”: Community and the Dangers of Modernity at Benjamin Britten's Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts

Location

King Building 323

Document Type

Presentation

Start Date

4-29-2016 4:00 PM

End Date

4-29-2016 5:15 PM

Abstract

In 1948, the composer Benjamin Britten inaugurated the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts in the provincial British town of Aldeburgh. My research explores Britten’s attempt through the festival to combat the alienation and consumerism of modernity by creating a vividly human community based upon a shared, localized musical experience. Through amateur participation and interpersonal connection, Britten sought to affirm the social value of art in the modern era.

Notes

Session III, Panel 13 - Deciphering Musical Codes: Studies of "Excess," Joy, and Jewishness
Moderator: Ben Geyer, Visiting Instructor of Music Theory

Full text thesis available here.

Major

History; Piano Performance

Advisor(s)

Alvin Chow, Piano
Annemarie Sammartino, History

Project Mentor(s)

Annemarie Sammartino, History

April 2016

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Apr 29th, 4:00 PM Apr 29th, 5:15 PM

“Music-making in a Joyous Sense”: Community and the Dangers of Modernity at Benjamin Britten's Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts

King Building 323

In 1948, the composer Benjamin Britten inaugurated the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts in the provincial British town of Aldeburgh. My research explores Britten’s attempt through the festival to combat the alienation and consumerism of modernity by creating a vividly human community based upon a shared, localized musical experience. Through amateur participation and interpersonal connection, Britten sought to affirm the social value of art in the modern era.