This definitive encyclopaedic work explores the origins of percussion through the development of the early drums and xylophones right up to the wide range of modern instruments and the sounds they make. James Blades covers these early developments globally from China and the Far East, India and Tibet, the early civilisations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome and Persia through to mediaeval and renaissance Europe. He continues to examine the role of percussion in the classical and romantic orchestras and finally looks at the ways composers have pushed the boundaries in modern music. Each chapter has its own photographs, illustrations and bibliography and there are comprehensive indices referencing all the composers and works discussed. This extended edition includes two important new chapters. The first covers the rise of the solo percussionist and is written by the world's leading practitioner and one of Blades' former pupils, Dame Evelyn Glennie, who also contributes a new Foreword, while recent developments in orchestral percussion are covered by Neil Percy, Head of Timpani and Percussion at the Royal Academy of Music and Principal Percussionist of the London Symphony Orchestra.

The third volume of the annotated selected letters of composer Benjamin Britten covers the years 1946-51, during which he wrote many of his best-known works, founded and developed the English Opera Group and the Aldeburgh Festival, and toured widely in Europe and the United States as a pianist and conductor. Correspondents include librettists Ronald Duncan (The Rape of Lucretia), Eric Crozier (Albert Herring, Saint Nicolas, The Little Sweep) and E. M. Forster (Billy Budd); conductor Ernest Ansermet and composer Lennox Berkeley; publishers Ralph Hawkes and Erwin Stein of Boosey & Hawkes; and the celebrated tenor Peter Pears, Britten's partner. Among friends in the United States are Christopher Isherwood, Elizabeth Mayer and Aaron Copland, and there is a significant meeting with Igor Stravinsky. This often startling and innovative period is vividly evoked by the comprehensive and scholarly annotations, which offer a wide range of detailed information fascinating for both the Britten specialist and the general reader. Donald Mitchell contributes a challenging introduction exploring the interaction of life and work in Britten's creativity, and an essay examining for the first time, through their correspondence, the complex relationship between the composer and the writer Edward Sackville-West.

This second of two volumes of the letters and diaries of Benjamin Britten is supplemented by the editors' detailed commentary and extensive contemporary documentation. The aim is to present a portrait not only of the composer but of an age.

Volume One of these remarkable letters and diaries opens with a letter from Britten aged nine to his formidable mother, Edith. Music is already at the centre of his life, and it accompanies him through prep and public school and then to London to the Royal College of Music, where the phenomenally gifted but inexperienced young composer is plunged into metropolitan life and makes influential new friends, among them W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood. This was a time of prodigious musical creativity, a growing awareness of his sexuality, and the dawning of his political convictions. Most importantly, during this period Britten met Peter Pears and established the musical and personal relationship that was to last a lifetime. Volume One comes to a close in May 1939, when Britten, accompanied by Pears, departs for North America. The letters and diaries in this illuminating first volume and its successor are supplemented by the editors' detailed commentary and by exhaustive contemporary documentation. Together they constitute a comprehensive portrait not only of the composer but of an age.

A Midsummer Night's Dream was Benjamin Britten's seventh major opera and had its premiere at Aldeburgh in 1960. Britten and his partner Peter Pears prepared a condensed version of Shakespeare's much-loved comedy for the libretto, using (with the exception of a single line) only the original text. In this newly commissioned guide, Andrew Plant explores the genesis of the opera's composition, including passages of recently published material from Britten's own correspondence. Philip Reed examines the musical language of the opera and has prepared a detailed thematic guide, while David Nice outlines many of the different approaches to the work in productions that have taken place over the last forty years. An essay by Philip Brett discusses how the opera reflects the central issues in Britten's work. Finally, a unique article is included which Britten himself wrote for the Observer immediately preceding the work's premiere. The present edition also contains twentyfive black-and-white and colour photographs, the full libretto, a discography, DVD guide, bibliography and website guide. It will prove an invaluable companion to opera-goers wanting to increase their understanding and enjoyment of this magical work.

This is a double volume dedicated to two masterpieces by Benjamin Britten. While Peter Grimes established Britten as a composer of international standing, Gloriana, composed for the coronation of Elizabeth II, has never enjoyed a comparable fame. The variety of mood, characterization and pace, in each, illustrates Britten's exceptional gift for theatre. Commentaries on the scores reveal, for instance, how much the popular concert extracts gain from their context in the dramas. The essay by E.M. Forster - the inspiration for Peter Grimes - is reprinted here, and Michael Holroyd discusses Lytton Strachey's controversial Elizabeth and Essex - the source for Gloriana. Contents: Benjamin Britten's Librettos, Peter Porter; George Crabbe: The Poet and the Man, E.M. Forster; 'Peter Grimes': A Musical Commentary, Stephen Walsh; Peter Grimes: Libretto by Montagu Slater; 'Peter Grimes' and 'Gloriana', Joan Cross, Peter Pears and John Evans; Some Reflections on the Operas of Benjamin Britten, Buxton Orr; 'A daring experiment', Michael Holroyd; The Librettist of 'Gloriana', Rupert Hart-Davis; The Music of 'Gloriana', Christopher Palmer; Notes on the Libretto of 'Gloriana', William Plomer; Gloriana: Libretto by William Plomer

Edward Gardner conducts the English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus in this production of Benjamin Britten's final opera based on the novella by Thomas Mann. John Graham-Hall plays Gustav von Aschenbach, an ageing novelist who becomes obsessed with Polish boy Tadzio (Sam Zaldivar). The performance was recorded at The London Coliseum in June 2013.

Director Tony Britten's drama documentary examines the acclaimed composer's lifelong commitment to pacifism. Using a dramatic narrative to explore the development of Britten's pacifist beliefs during the time he spent at the liberally progressive Gresham's School in Norfolk between the years of 1928-1930, the film charts a time which marked a crucial period of the composer's personal and musical development. Interwoven throughout are contemporary performances of the composer's works and contributions from, amongst others, conductor and composer Joseph Horovitz, cellists Anita Lasker Wallfisch and Raphael Wallfisch, and Britten's agent for many years, Sue Phipps. John Hurt narrates.

Andris Nelsons leads the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in this 50th anniversary performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. The piece was commissioned to mark the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, which was built after the original fourteenth-century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing raid in 1940. 50 years after its premiere it returns to the cathedral to be performed, as it was on its first airing, by the the City of Birmingham Orchegstra, Chorus, and Youth Chorus. The featured vocalists are Erin Wall, Mark Padmore and Hanno Müller-Brachmann.

Benjamin Britten's opera, composed to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. He took as his starting point Lytton Strachey's 'Elizabeth and Essex'. Sarah Walker and Anthony Rolfe Johnson star.

Steuart Bedford conducts the Britten-Pears Orchestra in this production of Benjamin Britten's opera, recorded on the beach at the Aldeburgh Festival. The performance stars Alan Oke as the eponymous character with Giselle Allan as Ellen Orford and David Kempster as Captain Balstrode.

Jamie Walton performs three suites for solo cello composed by Benjamin Britten. His performance is captured in Blythburgh's Holy Trinity Church in Suffolk, England.

Collection of scenes from 12 productions performed at the Glyndeboure Festival Opera over the last 13 years. The operas featured are: 'Le nozze di Figaro', 'The Cunning Little Vixen', 'Gianni Schicchi', 'Cosi fan tutte', 'Billy Budd', 'Falstaff', 'Carmen', 'Giulio Cesare', 'Tristan und Isolde', 'The Rake's Progress', 'La Cenerentola' and 'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'.

David McVicar's acclaimed production of Benjamin Britten's chamber opera, recorded live during its premiere run at the Aldeburgh Festival in 2001. Paul Daniel leads the English National Opera, with performances by Sarah Connolly, Christopher Maltman, Catherine Wyn-Rogers and Mary Nelson.

Richard Jones's production of Benjamin Britten's most popular opera takes to the stage at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. John Graham-Hall stars as the eponymous, impetuous fisherman in this mysterious tale set in a small fishing village on England's east coast in the 19th century. Robin Ticciati, principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, takes the helm in his La Scala opera debut.

The renowned Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich performs Tchaikovsky's 'Rococo Variations' at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall in 1968, with Benjamin Britten conducting. Also included are rare performances of Britten conducting excerpts from his opera 'Gloriana', with Peter Pears performing 'The Lute Song'.

Lauded 1936 documentary, showing the various stages and procedures of the operation of the Royal Mail train delivery service, that remains one of the most instantly recognised films in British film history.

It begins with a voiceover commentary describing how the mail is collected for transit. Then, as the train proceeds along the course of its journey, we are shown the various regional railway stations at which it collects and deposits its cargo. Inside the train the process of sorting takes place.

As it nears its destination there is a sequence - the best known in the film - in which WH Auden's spoken verse and Benjamin Britten's music are combined over montage images of racing train wheels.