The Gift He Gave Us: How W. H. Auden’s Influence Shaped Benjamin Britten into England’s Next Henry Purcell

Abstract

While Britten possessed a brilliant mind, he looked outward to others for inspiration, both those who had come before him, like Henry Purcell, and his peers, like his life-long partner, Peter Pears, and the poet, Wystan H. Auden. To become the great English composer he became, Britten needed to have been impacted by these different relationships. Without Wystan H. Auden’s influence on and collaboration with Benjamin Britten, the composer would not have developed as deep an appreciation for poetry within music and an awareness of the challenges of text setting. Consequently, Britten emulated hallmarks of Purcell, revitalizing tradition and asserting himself into the canon of Western music.

Keywords

• auden
• britten
• purcell
• poetry
• text setting
• text depiction