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Programm notes
"A
Ceremony of Carols" (op. 28) is a piece by Benjamin Britten scored
for three-part treble chorus, solo voices, and harp. It consists of
eleven movements, the texts of which came from "The English Galaxy
of Shorter Poems", by Gerald Bullett; the text is in Middle English.
The piece was written in 1942 while Britten was at sea, going from the
United States to England. Originally conceived as a series of unrelated
songs, it was later unified into one piece with the framing processional
and recessional. (From: Wikipedia)
Benjamin
Britten is the most widely performed British 20th century composer He
studied with Frank Bridge and at Royal College of Music. After the war he
founded a new English-language opera tradition, with works such as Peter
Grimes, Billy Budd and The Turn of the Screw now
established in the international repertoire. Craftsmanship and
versatility produced works for every genre, from large-scale symphonic
scores to songs and choral works. Recurring themes include conflicts
between the outsider and society, innocence and experience, moral good
and lurking evil, beauty and passion. He wrote works for leading soloists
of day including Peter Pears, Janet Baker, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau,
Mstislav Rostropovich and Julian Bream and conducted classic accounts of
his oeuvre on the Decca label. Benjamin Britten is published by Boosey
& Hawkes.
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