missa brevis in d war requiem - university of rochester
TRANSCRIPT
“Voices of Boys”: The Influence of Britten’s
Missa Brevis in D on his War Requiem
by
Justin Scott Perkins
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the
Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Supervised by
Professor William Marvin
Department of Music Theory Eastman School of Music
University of Rochester Rochester, New York
2011
!"
Curriculum Vitae
The author was born in New Britain, Connecticut on June 25, 1980. He
attended Boston University from 1998 to 2002, and graduated with a Bachelor
of Music degree, summa cum laude, in 2002. He came to the Eastman School of
Music of the University of Rochester in the Fall of 2002 and began graduate
studies in Music Theory Pedagogy. He received teaching assistantships from
2002 through 2008. He pursued his research in Music Theory Pedagogy under
the direction of Professor Steven Laitz and received the Master of Arts degree
in Music Theory Pedagogy from the University of Rochester in 2004. He
began graduate studies in Music Theory and in Composition in 2004. He
received the Master of Arts degree in Music Theory from the University of
Rochester in 2010.
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Abstract
Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem of 1963 is a distinct monument in his
career as a composer. Drawing largely on his own earlier music and works by
other composers as sources for material, the piece has been described as
“encyclopedic.” As such, it testifies to Britten’s matured skill and craft as a
composer, much in the same way the B-Minor Mass relates to J. S. Bach.
Many of the sources for the War Requiem are fairly obvious; for
instance, Britten’s Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac is quoted directly in the
Offertorium as “The Parable of the Old Man and the Young;” it also provides
the material for the fugue on “Quam olim Abrahae promisisti” surrounding
the “Parable.” Analysts have noted associations between the militaristic
fanfares of the Dies irae of the War Requiem, Britten’s quintessential pacifist
work, and those of earlier political pieces, including the Ballad of Heroes and
Our Hunting Fathers, as well as the unavoidable connection to the Dies irae
of his Sinfonia da Requiem. Critics have also been quick to point out
similarities between the War Requiem and Verdi’s Requiem.
Little attention, however, has been paid to the relationship between the
War Requiem and Britten’s only other mass, the Missa Brevis in D, despite
their having been written concurrently. A comparison of the two works
illuminates striking similarities with respect to motifs, melodies, harmony,
form, texture, style, and text setting.
!!!"
The paper unfolds in two sections. In the first part, a case will be made
that the Missa Brevis may have been a model for sections of the War
Requiem, particularly the four sections written for boys’ voices. This
relationship will be demonstrated through analysis and examination of
secondary sources.
The second part of the paper concerns the hermeneutical significance
of the Missa Brevis as a source through which passages in the War Requiem
may be interpreted in a new light. Of particular interest is music borrowed
from the Missa Brevis, incorporated into sections for boys’ voices in the War
Requiem, and then further re-contextualized in English-language tropes of
the War Requiem. By considering the new context of this borrowed material,
the English texts take on new, often ironic, meaning.
!#"
List of Figures
Figure Title Page
1 The sections of the Missa Brevis and the War Requiem. 3
2a Missa Brevis, Kyrie, bars 1-2. 5
2b Missa Brevis, Gloria, incipit. 5
3 Motivic plan of the Kyrie of the Missa Brevis. 6
4 The beginning of the Offertorium of the War Requiem. . . . 7
5 Organ parts for the opening of the Missa Brevis, Kyrie, and the War Requiem, Offertorium.
7
6 Missa Brevis, Sanctus, bar 2. . . . 8
7 Missa Brevis, Sanctus, bars 10 and 14. . . . 9
8 A form graph of the first Sanctus and the second Sanctus of the Missa Brevis. . .
11
9 The dissolution of a melody through the elimination of pitch classes in the “Te decet hymnus” of the War Requiem.
11
10 A graph of the “Te decet hymnus” of the War Requiem. . . 13
11 The progression of bars 1-3 of the Missa Brevis Kyrie. . . 15
12 The two measures of the vocal line preceding Rehearsal 57 in the War Requiem. . .
16
13 The vocal line in bars 3-10 of the “Agnus Dei” of the War Requiem. . .
17
14 Chant at the opening of the War Requiem. 18
15 Character-piece imitations. . . 19
16 “Requiescant in pace” chorale from Rehearsal 137. 20
17 Petitionary utterance in the “Libera me”. . . 21
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18 Classification by type of melody for the passages for boys’ choir in the War Requiem.
21
19 The intervals of the incipit of the Gloria are inverted. . . 24
20 The four-phrase “In paradisum,” beginning one measure after Rehearsal 128. . . .
25
21 Each successive phrase beginning with “Motive X” starts a minor third lower than the previous. . . .
29
22 Wilfred Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth, with annotations. 35
23 The opening of the Benedictus of the Missa Brevis. . . 35
24 The final bars of the Benedictus of the Missa Brevis. . . 36
25 The opening of the Benedictus of the War Requiem. . . 37
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1
“Voices of Boys”: The Influence of Britten’s
Missa Brevis in D on his War Requiem
by
Justin Scott Perkins
Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, Op. 66, of 1963 is a distinct monument
in his career as a composer. Drawing largely on his own earlier music and
works by other composers as sources for material, the piece has been
described as “encyclopedic.”1 As such, it testifies to Britten’s matured skill
and craft as a composer, much in the same way the B-Minor Mass relates to J.
S. Bach.
Many of the sources for the War Requiem are fairly obvious; for
instance, Britten’s Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac, Op. 51, is quoted directly in
the Offertorium as “The Parable of the Old Man and the Young;” it also
provides the material for the fugue on “Quam olim Abrahae promisisti”
surrounding the “Parable.” Analysts have noted associations between the
militaristic fanfares of the Dies irae of the War Requiem, Britten’s
quintessential pacifist work, and those of earlier political pieces,2 including
the Ballad of Heroes, Op. 14, and Our Hunting Fathers, Op. 8, as well as the
unavoidable connection to the Dies irae of his Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20.3
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 Peter Evans. The Music of Benjamin Britten (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 451. 2 Mervyn Cooke, ed. Benjamin Britten: War Requiem (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 11-19. 3 ibid., 54
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Critics have also been quick to point out similarities between the War Requiem
and Verdi’s Requiem. 4
Little attention, however, has been paid to the relationship between the
War Requiem and Britten’s only other mass, the Missa Brevis in D, Op. 63,
despite their having been written concurrently. A comparison of the two
works illuminates striking similarities with respect to motifs, melodies,
harmony, form, texture, style, and text setting.
The paper unfolds in two sections. In the first part, a case will be made
that the Missa Brevis clearly seems to have been a model for sections of the
War Requiem, particularly the four sections written for boys’ voices. This
relationship will be demonstrated through analysis and examination of
secondary sources.
The second part of the paper concerns the hermeneutical significance
of the Missa Brevis as a source through which passages in the War Requiem
may be interpreted in a new light. Of particular interest is music borrowed
from the Missa Brevis, incorporated into sections for boys’ voices in the War
Requiem, and then further re-contextualized in English-language tropes of the
War Requiem. By considering the new context of this borrowed material, the
English texts take on new, often ironic, meaning.
Figure 1 shows the sectional divisions of both the Missa Brevis and the
War Requiem. Because the layout of the War Requiem in particular is quite
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!4 Malcolm Boyd. “Britten, Verdi and the Requiem.” Tempo (New Series) 86 (1968): 2-6. Britten himself acknowledged his debt to Verdi and others in an interview with Donald Mitchell in 1969 [Cooke, Mervyn, ed. Benjamin Britten: War Requiem (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 50].
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complicated, it may be useful to consult this figure as various sections of
movements are referenced throughout this paper. The reader is encouraged
to have at hand a full score of both works.
Figure 1: The sections of the Missa Brevis and the War Requiem.
Missa Brevis in D, Op. 63
Kyrie Gloria
Sanctus
Sanctus Benedictus Hosanna
Agnus Dei
War Requiem, Op. 66
Requiem aeternam
Requiem aeternam (chorus) Te decet hymnus (boys’ choir) Anthem for Doomed Youth (tenor solo) Kyrie eleison (chorus)
Dies irae
Dies irae (chorus) But I was looking at the permanent stars
(baritone solo) Liber scriptus (soprano solo and
chorus) The Next War (tenor and baritone solos) Recordare (chorus) Sonnet/On Seeing a Piece of Our Heavy
Artillery (baritone solo) Dies irae/Lacrimosa (chorus and
soprano solo) Futility (tenor solo) Pie Jesu (chorus)
Offertorium
Domine Jesu Christe (boys’ choir) Sed signifer sanctus (chorus) The Parable of the Old Man and the Young
(baritone and tenor solos) Hostias (boys’ choir)
Sanctus
Sanctus (soprano solo and chorus) The End (baritone solo)
Agnus Dei
At a Calvary near the Ancre (tenor solo)/Agnus Dei (chorus)
(continues)
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Missa Brevis in D, Op. 63, cont.
War Requiem, Op. 66, cont.
Libera me
Libera me (chorus and soprano solo) Strange Meeting (tenor and baritone
solos) In paradisum (boys’ choir, chorus, and
soprano solo)
It should be noted here in reference to Figure 1 that various English
texts have been inserted between sections of the Latin texts of the traditional
Requiem mass. These English tropes are by Wilfred Owen, a British poet,
pacifist, and soldier in World War I. Britten’s selections of his poems
correspond closely to the Latin texts they accompany or frame, thus serving
as (at the time of the War Requiem’s composition) modern-day commentaries
on war and death.5 Owen was killed in battle on November 4, 1918, at the age
of 25, exactly one week before the Armistice.6
The Missa Brevis, written in 1959, is a testament to Britten’s capacity for
extremely economical treatment of musical material. The Kyrie, for instance,
is based entirely on a two-bar phrase consisting of a three-pitch motif
spanning a perfect fourth: this motif is shown in brackets in Figure 2a. This
motif, transformed by simple processes such as transposition and inversion,
and extended through the reiteration of motivic segments, generates all the
music of the Kyrie. The motif itself is clearly related to the incipit that opens
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!5 In this regard, the function of the poems in the context of the War Requiem is similar to that of the arias in Bach’s Passions: in the Passions, the arias comment on the biblical texts they accompany or frame. 6 Wilfred Owen. The Poems of Wilfred Owen. Edited by Jon Stallworthy. (New York: Norton, 1985), xi-xvii.
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the Gloria by segmentation and inversion; the incipit, which Britten borrows
from the Missa Dominator Deus chant given in the Liber Usualis, is shown in
Figure 2b, and I have pointed out the presence of [025] trichords in Figures 2a
and 2b.7
Figure 2a: Missa Brevis, Kyrie, bars 1-2.
Figure 2b: Missa Brevis, Gloria, incipit.
Glo ri- a
[025]
- in
[025]
ex cel- sis- De
[025]
o.-
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!7 Perfect fourths and [025] trichords are of structural importance to the other movements of the mass as well. The composite melody of the Sanctus (shown in Figure 6) features melodic and harmonic dyads, the pitches of which are a perfect fourth apart, and three-note melodic segments that form [025 trichords]. The prominence of perfect fourths in the Benedictus is discussed later in this paper. Additionally, more than half of the triads in the right hand of the organ part belong to the [025] set class, and all the tetrachords can be described as composite [025] trichords. The same trichord is featured in the Agnus Dei. Britten sets each of the three lines of the text to the same melody, but at different levels of transposition. The first line begins on the pitch B-flat, the second a major second above (C-natural), and the third a minor third higher (E-flat). These three pitches span a perfect fourth, and the pitch classes form an [025] trichord.
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Figure 3 shows the motivic plan of the Kyrie. The second row of the
table shows that both Kyrie sections present the motif in prime form, while
the Christe section presents it in inversion. The lowest two columns show that
the motif is sequenced down by a perfect fourth in both Kyries, beginning on
F-sharp in the first phrase, C-sharp in the second phrase, and G-sharp in the
third and fourth phrases. In the Christe, the motif is sequenced up by a
perfect fourth, the same distance but in the opposite direction as in the Kyrie,
from C-sharp to F-sharp to B.
Figure 3: Motivic plan of the Kyrie of the Missa Brevis.
Section Kyrie Christe Kyrie
Bar number 1 3 5 9 12 14 16 20 23 25 27 31
Motif form P P P P+ I I I I+ P P P P+ Motif pc level F# C# G# G# C# F# B B F# C# G# G#
Distance* - !P4 !P4 0 - "P4 "P4 0 - !P4 !P4 0
* measured from the preceding motif in diatonic steps
P = prime form I = inverted + = entended
The beginning of the Offertorium of the War Requiem, which Britten
composed between 1958 and 1962, parallels this kind of motivic treatment.
The boys’ choir is divided in two; the first, higher group invokes Christ in
motivic fragments that combine to span a perfect fourth, and the second,
lower group delivers the plea of the invoker with more connected, chant-like
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material. As shown in Figure 4, the material of the lower group is an
inversion of the material of the upper group, rotated around the pitch-class-
axis dyad C-sharp and D-sharp.8 Even the organ accompaniment of the Missa
Brevis Kyrie resembles that of the War Requiem Offertorium, as shown in
Figure 5: both feature a strictly chordal texture, with scalar, grace-note figures
ligatured to the chords they precede.
Figure 4: The beginning of the Offertorium of the War Requiem.
The two systems are consecutive; that is, the “Boys I” line leads directly into the “Boys II” line.
Broadly, h = 44(Largamente)
BOYS I
Do
f
mi- ne- Je su,- Je su,- Je su- Chri ste,- Do mi- ne- Rex glo ri- ae,-
Collection: [0235]
(e = e)
li
BOYS II
p
be- ra- a ni- mas- o mni- um- fi de- li- um- de fun- cto- rum- de poe nis- in fer- ni,- et de pro fun- do- la cu:-
Collection: [0235] The composite is symmetrically arranged:
Figure 5: Organ parts for the opening of the Missa Brevis, Kyrie, and
the War Requiem, Offertorium.
Missa Brevis, Kyrie, bars 1-3
War Requiem, Offertorium, bars 1-3
ORGAN
Slowly moving (h = 40)
Gt.f
Sw.
ORGAN
(or Harmonium)
Broadly, h = 44(Largamente)
(with 4 ft.)
f
6 6 6
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!8 In fact, the collection of pitches in each line of the Offertorium passage under discussion belongs to the set class [0235], which itself contains two [025] trichords.
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. . .
Beginning with his opera The Turn of the Screw, completed in 1954,
Britten sometimes used twelve-tone melodies in his music. It has been noted
that these instances often have symbolic significance, such as a representation
of God, the most “complete” being, through the use of the all the pitch
classes.9 The Sanctus of the Missa Brevis is one such example: as shown in
Figure 6, the singers combine to sing a twelve- tone line over a sustained D-
major chord in second inversion.
Figure 6: Missa Brevis, Sanctus, bar 2. A twelve-tone line is divided between the three voice parts.
San
I
f
ctus,-TREBLES
II
f
San -TREBLES
III
San
f
ctus,-
+4ft.
fORGAN
The contours of the outer voice parts are nearly mirror images of each
other, a symmetry reflected in the inverse-arch-like shape of the composite !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!9 Cooke, Mervyn, ed. Benjamin Britten: War Requiem (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 61.
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line, more clearly noticeable in the right hand material of the organ part, also
shown in Figure 6. Figure 7 shows how this mirroring governs the wedge-like
shape of the vocal material in the “Pleni sunt caeli” and “Hosanna” sections
that follow. As shown in Figure 8a, there are four sections to the first Sanctus,
each separated by a bar of the aforementioned D-major chord, and each
featuring a one-bar phrase repeated three times. After the Benedictus, the
Sanctus material returns, this time truncated, as shown in Figure 8b: each of
the three variations appears once in direct succession to the text “Hosanna in
excelsis.”
Figure 7: Missa Brevis, Sanctus, bars 10 and 14. Note the wedge-like construction of both passages.
I
II, III
Ple
mf
ni- sunt
3
cae li- et ter ra
3
- glo ri- a- tu a,- Ho
ff
san- na in- ex cel- sis,-
3 3
mf
Ple ni- sunt3
cae li- et
mfPle
ter
ni- sunt
ra
3
3-
cae
glo
li
ri
-
-
et
a-
ff
ff3
3
3
In the “Te decet hymnus” verse of the first movement of the War
Requiem, reproduced in its entirety in Figure 9, Britten treats the idea of the
Missa Brevis Sanctus in an even more sophisticated way. While the theme
itself encompasses only 11 of the 12 tones of the chromatic scale, the roots of
the twelve chords that accompany it and its immediately subsequent
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inversion form the aggregate, one of the few instances of 12-tone music in the
War Requiem; see the first two phrases of Figure 9, in which chords have been
given under the organ part. This theme, which, perhaps only incidentally,
bears strong resemblances to that of the Sanctus of the Missa Brevis, is
manipulated using the same techniques of inversion found in the Missa Brevis
Kyrie and War Requiem Offertorium, mentioned earlier. A theme with such
contour and character is aurally striking: up to this point in the piece, the
listener has heard the choir utter only two pitch classes, C and F-sharp,
forming the tritone central to the motivic and harmonic structure of the War
Requiem.10 Like the Sanctus of the Missa Brevis, the material of the “Te decet”
is truncated, but this time it is not the form that is abbreviated; it is the
melody itself, and it is done so apparently with a specific goal in mind: to be
reduced back to the two original pitch classes of the choir, C and F-sharp.
This goal is accomplished by gradually trimming the number of distinct pitch
classes employed in each double-phrase. In Figure 10, the last row of the table
shows the decreasing number of pitch classes from 11 to 1 in each double-
phrase from the beginning of the section to the end.11
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!10 For a more in-depth discussion of the role of the tritone in the War Requiem, please consult Mervyn Cooke, ed. Benjamin Britten: War Requiem (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 56-57. 11 The notes C and F-sharp (and their enharmonic equivalents) pervade the War Requiem; these two pitches and the tritone separating them will be referenced many times throughout this paper. Even in the excerpt under consideration, C and F-sharp appear numerous times beyond those already pointed out. For example, each vocal phrase begins and ends on either C or F-sharp (or G-flat); the violins that accompany the boys sustain either C or F-sharp; and all vocal phrases are registrally bounded at one or both extremes (highest or lowest pitch) by a C or F-sharp.
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11
Figure 8: A form graph of the first Sanctus (i.e., before the Benedictus) and the second Sanctus (i.e., after the Benedictus) of the Missa Brevis, showing the
truncated relationship of the second to the first.
a. First Sanctus.
Section - A - A - A1 - A2 -
Bar(s) 1 2-4 5 6-8 9 10-12 13 14-16 17
Text - Sanctus - Dominus Deus... - Pleni sunt
caeli... - Hosanna... -
Mel. - Voices - Voices - Organ Ped. - Organ R.H. -
b. Second Sanctus.
Section - A A1 A2 -
Bar(s) 1 2 3 4 5-6
Text - Hosanna... Hosanna... Hosanna... -
Mel. - Voices Organ Ped. Organ R.H. -
Figure 9: The dissolution of a melody through the elimination of pitch classes in the “Te decet hymnus,” from the War Requiem.
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12
Figure 9, cont.
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13
Figure 9, cont.
Figure 10: A graph of the “Te decet hymnus” of the War Requiem,
showing the number of distinct pitch classes employed in each phrase after rehearsal 3.
!!Bar(s) 1-4 5-8 9-13 14-18 19-21 22-24
Singers Boys I Boys II Boys I Boys II Boys I Boys II
Text Te decet... Te decet... Et tibi... Et tibi... Exaudi... Exaudi...
# of pcs 11 11 9 9 5 5
Bar(s) 25-26 27-28 29 30 31 32
Singers Boys I Boys II Boys I Boys II Boys I Boys II
Text ad te omnis... ad te omnis... ad te... ad te... ad te... ad te...
# of pcs 4 4 1 (C) 1 (F#) 1 (C) 1 (F#)
The connections between the “Te decet” and portions of the Missa
Brevis extend beyond the treatment of the melody. The style and harmony of
the accompaniment of the “Te decet” find their ancestry in the Kyrie of the
Missa Brevis. As mentioned earlier, the Kyrie features a strictly chordal
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14
texture. Generally these chords are related not by traditional harmonic
motion; rather, typical progressions are defined by the planing of
harmonically remote chords to points of relative rest, which then connect to
subsequent progressions through a single common tone. The root motion of
the chords of these progressions is regular, always moving by a whole step in
one direction followed by a tritone in the same direction: as shown in Figure
11, the first phrase of the Kyrie is built on a D major chord which descends
first by whole step to C major and then by tritone to F-sharp major. The third
phrase of each section follows a slight variation on this progression, but
embedded within it is the same whole-step/tritone motion of the initial
phrase paradigm. This variation occurs through the repetition of the word
“Kyrie,” thus extending the phrase. The extension results in a cadential
gesture, and resulting in an overall sentence form.12
The accompaniment of the “Te decet” of the War Requiem is also
strictly chordal. Like the Missa Brevis Kyrie, the progressions are non-
traditional in their function. Here, progressions result from the triadic
harmonization of an ascending six-note scale spanning a tritone (C to F-sharp
or F-sharp to C) in the lowest voice of the organ part, resulting in a string of
planing chords, just as in the Missa Brevis.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!12 William Caplin might analyze this sentence as having a presentation phrase composed of a sequential repetition (bars 2-5: 2 bars + 2 bars) and a compressed continuation phrase featuring fragmentation by sequential repetition (bars 6-8: 1 bar + 1 bar + 1 bar). For an exhaustive explanation of sentence types according to his own definitions (with roots in Schoenberg’s Fundamentals of Music Composition), see William E. Caplin. Classical Form: A Theory of the Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 35-48.
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15
Figure 11: The progression of bars 1-3 of the Missa Brevis, Kyrie, serves as a model for all subsequent phrases in the Kyrie.
TREBLES I
ORGAN
Slowly moving (h = 40)
Ky
f passionate
ri- e- e lei- son,-
Gt.f
Sw.
DW.T.
CTritone
F#
In summation, the “Te decet hymnus” of the War Requiem can be
thought of as a combination of the melodic and formal techniques of the
Missa Brevis Sanctus and the harmonic and contrapuntal techniques of the
Missa Brevis Kyrie.
. . .
Of the four sections of the War Requiem written for boys’ voices, two
have been discussed: the “Te decet” and the opening of the Offertorium. The
two remaining sections are the “Hostias” of the Offertorium and the “In
paradisum” near the very end of the final movement, the Libera me. They too
bear strong resemblances to passages in the Missa Brevis in their treatment of
musical utterance, particularly the use of plainchant-like melodies.
Britten uses several different types of musical utterance in the War
Requiem, and these varieties help to illustrate the difference between the styles
of writing for the soloists, the adult choir, and the boys’ choir. The soloists
and adult choir together form a sort of opera company. The soloists play the
lead roles, and their musical material can always be characterized as aria or
!!
16
recitative. The choir is the opera chorus: it tends to sing “character music”
that is directly influenced by the nature of the text (i.e., Britten’s writing for
the adult choir can often be described as “text painting”). The boys’ choir,
however, is somewhat out of place on multiple levels: not only is it set at a
distance from the rest of the ensemble, but it also sings music reminiscent of
florid plainchant and innocent children’s songs, types unique within the
context of the work. That Britten reserved for the boys this kind of music
suggests that he had in mind a specific character role for the boys in the
context of the piece, namely as the incarnation of innocence, purity and
beauty. This portrayal, in turn, exemplifies the well-documented feelings
Britten had for young men.
The soprano, tenor and baritone solos may be classified as either
speech-like (recitative) or stylized (arias or ariosos). Speech-like numbers
feature short, separated musical gestures parsed by succinct word-phrases,
with pitches and irregular rhythms that mimic speech. Thus, the rising and
falling of pitch is dependent upon speech inflection, as in Figure 12, an
excerpt from Britten’s setting for the tenor soloist of Owen’s “Futility” in the
Dies irae of the War Requiem.
Figure 12: The two measures of the vocal line preceding Rehearsal 57
in the War Requiem, exemplifying speech-like utterance.
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17
Examples of speech-like utterance in addition to “Futility” include the
baritone solo “The End” (“After the blast”) and the final duet, “Strange
Meeting.”
Stylized utterance, in contrast, includes dramatic and lyrical material
much in the style of Britten’s operatic arias: the musical style reflects larger
passages of text rather than specific, small gestures. An example of this is the
tenor aria “At Calvary near the Ancre,” of the War Requiem’s Agnus Dei, as
shown in Figure 13.
Figure 13: The vocal line in bars 3-10 of the Agnus Dei of the War Requiem, exemplifying lyrical stylized utterance.
TenorSolo
One
p
e ver- hangs where shelled roads part. In this war He too lost a limb,
(Slow y = 80)
All solos not listed above as speech-like have this operatic quality and can be
considered “stylized.”
The adult choir’s utterance types vary considerably—far more so than
those of the soloists—but most of its music can be grouped into four
categories: chant, character-piece imitations, chorales, and petitions.
The very first sung passage in the War Requiem is an example of chant,
as shown in Figure 14. The overlapping, detached, syllabic recitations on
single pitches of the prayer “Requiem aeternam [dona eis, Domine, et lux
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18
perpetua luceat eis],”13 are reminiscent of a celebrant invoking God in an
actual mass for the dead, but with the use of the unsettling tritone as the
interval between adjacent voice parts.
Figure 14. Chant at the opening of the War Requiem.
The other instance in the War Requiem of simple chant for the adult
choir has been mentioned already as the Benedictus, with its parallel fourths
recalling medieval organum beneath the soprano soloist’s aria.
In the character-piece imitations, the words are sung in a style typically
associated with instrumental music of a specific character. Five sections of the
War Requiem may be considered character-piece imitations: marches (“Dies
irae,” “Lacrymosa,” and “Dum veneris”), fanfares (“Hosanna”), and dances
(“Quam olim Abrahae”). These sections feature overt text painting, such as
the march of the limping, wounded soldiers suggested in the “Dies irae” in
time, or the loud, bombastic eruptions of major triads in the “Hosanna,” both
shown in Figure 15.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!13 “[Grant them] eternal rest, [O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them]”
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19
Figure 15. Character-piece imitations: A., “Dies irae” from one bar after rehearsal 17 (orchestral reduction); and B., “Hosanna” from
13 bars after rehearsal 87 (soprano and alto parts only).
A. Dies irae
Tenors
Basses
ORCH.
Di
ppp short.
es- il la,- sol vet- sae clum-
(Quick q = 160)
Di
ppp short.
es- i rae,- di es- il la,- in fa vil- la:-
(pp short) sim.
Cl, Bn
Vc, Db
B. Hosanna
Sopranos
Altos
Ho
f
san- na,- Ho
f
san- na-
cresc.
in
(Brilliant q = 69)
Ho
f
san- na- in ex cel- sis,-
The adult choir sings three short chorales in the War Requiem, all with
the same musical material but with different texts: the “Kyrie eleison” of the
Requiem aeternam, the “Pie Jesu” of the Dies irae, and the “Requiescant in
pace” that closes the entire work. These chorales are very slow, very short
(eleven bars at most), very soft, unaccompanied apart from punctuating bells,
homophonic in texture, and generally in six parts (although the sonorities
comprise only two or three distinct pitch classes. All dyads are separated by
the trademark tritone on C (spelled B-sharp here) and F-sharp). Each appears
at the very end of its respective movement, serving as a sort of musical
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20
punctuation. The shortest of these is the seven-bar “Requiescant in pace,”
reproduced in its entirety in Figure 16.
Figure 16. “Requiescant in pace” chorale from Rehearsal 137.
Percussion
Sopranos
Altos
Tenors
Basses
pp
Very slow (molto lento) rall.
Re qui- e- scant- in pa ce.- A men,- A men.
pppp
- -
Re qui- e- scant- in pa ce.- A men,- A men.
pppp
- -
Re qui- e- scant- in pa ce.- A men,- A men.
pppp
- -
Re qui- e- scant- in pa ce.- A men,- A men.
pppp
- -
Bells
unis.ppp sustained ppp dim. div.
ppp sustained ppp dim.
ppp sustained ppp dim.
ppp sustained ppp dim.
Finally, the adult choir’s petitions feature twisting, chromatic material
at a tempo brisk enough to suggest a sense of urgency, as shown in Figure 17.
This type of utterance may be found in the “Quid sum miser” through the
“Salva me” of the Dies irae; the tenor parts from the “Confutatis” from the
same movement; and the “Libera me” and “Quando caeli movendi sunt”
sections from the Libera me movement. The texts associated with petition
utterances are personal supplications, asking forgiveness for the speaker’s
wretchedness, for safety, or for deliverance.
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21
Figure 17. Petitionary utterance in the “Libera me,” (tenor and baritone parts only) from two bars before Rehearsal 101.
Tenors andBasses
Li
pp lamenting
be- ra- me, de
pp lamenting
mor te- ae ter- na,-
(q = approx. 63, with gradual accelerando)
Tenors Basses
The roles of the soloists and the adult choir differ, evidenced by the
subject matter of the texts they sing, the languages in which they sing those
texts, the style of their material, and the types of utterance they deliver. As
this paper focuses on Britten’s writing for boys’ choir, the following sections
will focus on their specific and unique utterance types. The qualities of their
music speaks to a special role they appear to play in the work as a whole.
The melodic material of the four sections for the boys’ choir can be
classified by type as shown in Figure 18:
Figure 18: Classification by type of melody for the
passages for boys’ choir in the War Requiem.
Movement Section (Text) Melodic Type 1. Requiem aeternam “Te decet hymnus” Song 3. Offertorium “Domine Jesu Christe” Chant 3. Offertorium “Hostias et preces” Nursery Rhyme 6. Libera me “In paradisum” Chant
Two of these sections, the “Domine Jesu Christe” and the “In
paradisum,” are chants. Britten uses two, distinct, contrasting types of chant
in the War Requiem, and these two varieties help to illustrate further the
difference between the styles of writing for the boys’ choir and those of the
other voices. The chants may be summarized as “simple” and “florid,” and
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22
they correspond roughly to the two types of chant used in Christian liturgies
since its founding.14, 15
The first of these, “simple” chant, recalls the functional chant used for
the recitation of text in some religious traditions, such as the reading of the
psalms or the Gospel. This variety of chant, in both Britten’s music and in the
aforementioned religious contexts, features text that is delivered at a
relatively quick tempo and in such a way as to support natural text stress,
and is set syllabically to a single, repeating tone (sometimes with slight
deviations). In his book “Britten’s Musical Language,” Philip Rupprecht calls
simple chant, “chant.”16
Rupprecht draws the parallel between Britten’s use of this chant and
its liturgical counterpart, assigning it a “pious” quality. He characterizes it as
a prayer in the context of his example, “Rats away!” from Our Hunting
Fathers, rehearsal 5:
The chant, backed by the hurdy-gurdy sound of the open strings (in solo viola), is a litany of holy and saintly names recited with a very distinct purpose. The song, a listener soon realizes, is a prayer of exorcism: “God grant in grace / That no rats dwell in this place.”
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!14 Indeed, such chants predate Christianity altogether, since they were likely borrowed from Jewish worship traditions, but Britten’s religious (but not theological) proclivities make the association of chant with any other ritualistic practices illogical. 15 David Hiley and Willi Apel have created detailed taxonomies according to plainchant types in their respective books Western Plainchant: A Handbook and Gregorian Chant. The reader is directed to these sources for further information {[David Hiley. Western Plainchant: A Handbook. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995)] and [Willi Apel. Gregorian Chant. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1958)}. 16 Philip Rupprecht. Britten’s Musical Language (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 8-9.
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23
Indeed, Britten’s use of this type of utterance occurs only with text with
religious (specifically, Christian) subject matter.17
Two examples of simple chant for the adult choir in the War Requiem
have been presented previously: the opening (and all subsequent material for
the adult choir in the movement until the “Kyrie”) of the Requiem aeternam
(refer back to Figure 14) and the “Benedictus.”
The boys sing simple chant as well, at the opening of the Offertorium
(refer back to Figure 4). In this instance, the boys’ choir is divided into two,
antiphonal groups. The first group’s material does not conform extremely
well to the definition of simple chant—while it is registrally constrained and
centers around a reciting tone of D-sharp, its rhythms are irregular, and the
large gaps obscure the sense of pitch repetition (repetition of gesture is more
prominent than that of pitch). The second group’s material, however, fits very
well. The text is set syllabically to a consistent and relatively rapid (! = 176)
eighth-note pulse, and text stress is linked to both metric stress (i.e., stressed
syllables are on strong beats according to Britten’s dotted barlines) and
pitch—all unstressed syllables fall on the reciting tone, C-sharp, while all
stressed syllables fall on a neighbor note of D-sharp, B-sharp, or A-sharp.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!17 Note that, although Britten wrote many monotonal settings of secular text, they tend to differ from the simple chant in discussion either because of the pace of delivery or because of their rhythmic patterns. The aria “Now the Great Bear and Pleiades” from Peter Grimes serves as an example of the former—the delivery is very slow, suggesting a trance-like utterance more than a prayer—and the “Dance of Death,” from Our Hunting Fathers is set to a consistent, iambic rhythmic gesture exemplifies the latter. The late 16th- to early 17th-century author of the “Dance of Death,” Thomas Ravencroft, was a noted composer of rounds and catches, and the country dance-like quality of Britten’s setting seems inspired by Ravencroft’s output.
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24
“Florid” chant recalls not liturgical chant of the functional variety
based on a reciting tone, but the graceful melodies of the ordinaries of the
mass, of antiphons and canticles, and such. Like simple chant, the durations
of notes are fairly consistent, but the delivery may be slower and syllables
may be set to multiple notes. More significantly, florid chant does not feature
a reciting tone; rather, it is characterized by flowing, lyrical, stepwise melodic
motion.
As noted earlier, plainchant is a feature of the Missa Brevis: the incipit
of its Gloria is that of the Missa Dominator Deus, the fifteenth mass of the
Vatican Kyriale. That initial gesture serves as the basis for nearly all the
material of the Gloria: it pervades both the vocal and organ parts. Most of the
time, the incipit is not even transposed, although there are instances of
transposition and inversion, such as with the text “miserere nobis” (“have
mercy upon us”) as shown in Figure 19.18
Figure 19. The intervals of the incipit of the Gloria are inverted to generate the notes to which the text “miserere nobis” is set.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!18 The transposition and inversion of [025] trichords in the Gloria recalls the Kyrie of the Missa Brevis and the Offertorium of the War Requiem, in which the same processes occur; see pages 4-7 of this paper.
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25
This example of chant is of the “florid” variety. The use of florid
plainchant in the Missa Brevis is another connection to the War Requiem.
Unlike the Missa Brevis, the florid chant of the War Requiem does not seem to
be borrowed, but rather is Britten’s own, an example of stylistic mimicry.
Nevertheless, the connection through shared melodic characteristics further
strengthens the ties between these two works.
The War Requiem concludes with two texts sung simultaneously: the
final line of Owen’s poem Strange Meeting (“Let us sleep now. . . .”) and the
Latin text “In paradisum,” an antiphon from the traditional Burial Service.19
The boys introduce the text and the tune, shown in Figure 20; later the adult
choir and soprano soloist borrow their material.
Figure 20. The four-phrase “In paradisum,” beginning one measure
after Rehearsal 128. Single bars of rests have been omitted.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!19 This text is not a part of the Mass for All the Faithful Departed (i.e., the Requiem Mass), but rather from the traditional Burial Service, texts and chants for which may be found in the Liber Usualis (page 1768 in the edition published in 1953). The original Latin text may be found in Figure 20; a translation is thus: “Into paradise may angels lead you; upon your arrival, may the martyrs receive you, and may they lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem. May the choirs of angels receive you, and with Lazarus the pauper, may you have eternal rest.”
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26
The “In paradisum” is a clear example of chant of the “florid” variety.
All note values of the slow (h = 60), nearly exclusively homorythmic setting
are equal (Britten emphasizes the homorhythmicity of the passage by
ligaturing quarter notes) with the exception of the final notes of the first,
second, and third phrases for a cadential effect. With one exception (the small
leap between the syllables of the word “sanctam”), the melody moves by
step.
Because Britten has the adult choir and soloists introduce no chant of
the florid variety on their own but rather mimic what Britten writes for the
boys, this chant may be considered unique to the boys’ choir.
Traditionally, chant of this variety has been considered the most
exquisite. As Richard Taruskin notes, Roman cantors moved particularly
joyous chants such as the extraordinarily melismatic neuma triplex to different
feast days as late as the ninth century to highlight their specialness.20 Taruskin
goes on to remark:
Noting that in its original context (the feast of St. John the Baptist) the triple melisma fell on the word intellectus, which [Amalar of Metz, a ninth-century cleric and compiler of liturgical books] interprets to mean an ecstatic or mystical kind of “understanding” beyond the power of words to convey, Alamar exhorts monastic musicians that “if you ever come to the ‘understanding’ in which divinity and eternity are beheld, you must tarry in that ‘understanding,’ rejoicing in song without words which pass away.”21
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!20 Richard Taruskin. The Oxford History of Western Music, Volume I: The Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century, (New York: Oxford, 2005), 37. 21 ibid., 38. Alamar’s quote comes from J. M. Hanssens, Amalarii episcope opera liturgica omnia, Vol. III (Studi e testi, 140; Vatican City, 1950), p. 54. Translation adapted from that of Daniel J. Sheerin given in Ruth Steiner, “The Gregorian Chant Melismas of Christmas Matins,” in J. C. Graue, ed., Essays on Music in Honor of Charles Warren Fox (Rochester: Eastman School of Music Press, 1979), p. 250.
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27
The jubilus, a lengthy melisma composers of chant ascribed to the final
syllable of the word “Alleluia” at the end of certain chants, serves as another
example of the special nature of florid chant.
Even today, Pope Benedict XVI advocates a return to Latin chant
because of its “sublimity and purity”:
“In the West, in the form of Gregorian chant, the inherited tradition of psalm-singing was developed to a new sublimity and purity, which set a permanent standard for sacred music, music for the liturgy of the Church.”22
It is curious that Britten uses this kind of chant as the boys sing of
heavenly things and eternal rest while the two soloists, playing the role of
two soldiers, one of whom killed the other in battle, sing of eternal rest in
their reconciliation. It is also interesting to note Britten’s instruction in the
score upon their entrance that the boys should be “distant.” This type of
utterance, in combination with their physical placement as they sing, suggests
a beautiful heavenly quality to the boys. They embody the heavenly while the
adult soloists are earthly representatives of war. This portrayal speaks to
Britten’s well documented special feelings towards boys and young men.23
Britten again juxtaposes boyish purity and adult corruption and
ruthlessness in his simultaneous settings of Owen’s poem “The Parable of the
Old Man and the Young” and the Latin text “Hostias et preces”24 of the War
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!22 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now, Pope Benedict XVI). The Spirit of the Liturgy. Translated by John Saward (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), 146-47. 23 Of the numerous writings devoted to this topic, perhaps the most comprehensive is John Bridcut. Britten’s Children (London: Faber and Faber, 2006). 24 Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, laudis offerimus; tu suscipe pro animabus illi quarum hodie memoriam facimus. Fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam. “Sacrifices and prayers of praise, O Lord, we offer you; accept them on behalf of those souls whom we remember. Let them, O Lord, cross from death over to life.”
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28
Requiem’s Offertorium. The Owen poem recounts the familiar Old Testament
story of Abraham and Isaac, but with a gruesome twist: instead of slaying the
ram “caught in a thicket by its horns” God provides as an alternative to
Abraham’s sacrificial burnt offering of his son, Abraham refuses it and slays
his son “and half the seed of Europe, one by one.”25 At the same time the
soloists sing the final line (“half the seed...”), the boys, again with the score
instruction “distant,” sing the “Hostias et preces,” as a sort of lilting lullaby
reminiscent of “Ring a Ring o’ Roses.” The effect of this juxtaposition is eerie:
not only are the boys set apart from the main action physically, but they also
sing at a tempo with, in Britten’s score instructions, “no exact connection”
with the tempo of the soloists and their accompanying chamber orchestra.
Further, the boys sing in a key other than the dull, monotonous, harmonium
part that accompanies them and than the key of the soloists: they begin in a
sort of A minor that gradually sinks through transposition to modes based on
F-sharp and D-sharp. This process is shown in Figure 21, in which successive
phrases, each beginning with a gesture labeled “Motive X,” begin a minor
third lower than their predecessors. The unsettling effect of the boys’
ignorance or unawareness of the violent actions of the adults is not unlike
that of the final scene of Berg’s opera Wozzeck: children play and sing “Ring a
Ring o’ Roses,” and Marie’s child rides a hobby-horse, continuing to play
unfazed after a child yells out to him, “Du! Dein Mutter ist tot!” [“You! Your
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!25 Wilfred Owen. The Poems of Wilfred Owen. Edited by Jon Stallworthy. (New York: Norton, 1985), 151.
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29
mother is dead!”]. This scene may have influenced Britten’s setting as Britten
was from an early age a great admirer of Berg.26
Figure 21. Each successive phrase beginning with “Motive X”
starts a minor third lower than the previous. The passage begins after Rehearsal 77.
Ho sti- as- et pre ces- ti bi- Do mi- ne- lau dis- of fe- ri- mus:-
fac e as- Do mi- ne,- de mor te- trans i- re- ad vi tam.-
Quam o lim- A bra- hae- pro mi- si- sti,- et se mi- ni- e jus.-
Motive X: Tonic = A
3 1 3 2 3 1 (ten measures) . . .
Motive X: Tonic = F #
3 1 3 2 3 1
Motive X: Tonic = D #
3 1 3 2 3 1
Britten frames the parable with the adult choir’s singing a jaunty
fugato on the requiem text “Quam olim Abrahae promisisti, et semini ejus.”27
A transformation takes place because of the events of the parable and the
boys’ prayer: when the adult choir sings (softly, but again jovially) “Quam
olim Abrahae” after the parable, the melody of the “Quam olim Abrahae”
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!26 Britten recalled, in an article he wrote for the Sunday Telegraph in 1963, one year after the completion of the War Requiem, that attending a concert performance of Wozzeck at the age of 20 on March 14, 1934, he said to his mother “I am going to study with Berg, aren’t I?” [Britten’s italics.] (Benjamin Britten. “Britten Looking Back.” Sunday Telegraph, November 17, 1963.) 27 “As you [God] promised to Abraham and to his seed.” The “promise” is the final line of the aforementioned “Hostias et preces” section the boys sing: “Let them, O Lord, cross from death over to life.”
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from before the parable is inverted. This change suggests a musical negation
of God’s promise to Abraham.
Thus, while the adults (soloists and choir) are portrayed as icons of
violence and negativity, the boys are depicted as innocent, naïve characters.
This purity again suggests the special feelings Britten had for boys.
The notion of “distance” has been mentioned several times already in
reference to score instructions: Britten uses the word “distant” in his score
instructions for the boys at the beginning of three of the four sections they
sing. In fact, Britten actually wanted the boys to be separated from the adults
in the War Requiem in performance: on May 12, 1961, he wrote a letter to John
Lowe, the director of the Coventry Festival, expressing his wishes. Thus,
Lowe was responsible for overseeing the entire enterprise surrounding the
rededication of St. Michael’s Cathedral, Coventry, the space for which the
piece was conceived and where it was first performed. In this letter, Britten
makes specific requests regarding the physical arrangement of the
performers:
Then there is the chamber orchestra to make room for, and I think the best position would be immediately in front of the conductor with the two male soloists. The boys, however, I would like to have placed at a distance . . . I realise there is no gallery in Coventry, but I am sure some remote position can be found for them.28
Thus, although Britten wishes the soloists to be removed from the
adult choir, he requests that they be in close proximity. The boys themselves,
however, are actually at a distance from the other performers. Taking into !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!28 Philip Reed, and Mervyn Cooke, eds. Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Volume Five (1958-1965) (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2010), 334.
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consideration the aforementioned qualities of Britten’s writing for them only
strengthens the possibility that he viewed them as pure, celestial beings,
“distant” from the adults slaughtering their brethren on earth. This notion is
corroborated by Britten himself by his words to the boys singing for the first
recording of the War Requiem. In a rehearsal of the “In paradisum” prior to a
take for the recording, he addresses first Edward T. Chapman, director of
music of the Highgate School Choir (the boys’ choir for the recording), and
then the boys themselves:
Now, Mr. Chapman: Do you think that the boys can sing a bit more ethereally, a little quieter than that? I know it goes high and all that… I don’t want to cut the numbers down, but if you can, without losing pitch, sing a little bit quieter… It’s the beginning particularly. Imagine yourselves, chaps, in heaven, a long way away from here….”29
Britten directs the boys explicitly to think of themselves as being “in heaven,”
a very distant place, as they sing.
Perhaps Britten, given his inclinations towards boys, even considered
this separation a form of protection: it is, after all, the young men whom
nations have traditionally sent to the battlefields.
The influence of the Missa Brevis on the War Requiem extends beyond
those sections written for boys’ voices. Material from the Missa Brevis,
reshaped in passages for boys’ voices in the War Requiem, takes on new
meaning when placed in new contexts in the English tropes in the War
Requiem. Also, the use of archaic contrapuntal techniques, possibly for ironic !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!29 Benjamin Britten. “Libera me: Rehearsal of closing page,” January 10, 1963. War Requiem, Decca 460 818-2, 1:39-2:08.
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32
effect, illustrates yet another link between the Benedictus sections of the Missa
Brevis and the War Requiem.
While the sections of the War Requiem are clearly delineated by
instrumentation and character, they are not completely disconnected from
each other. As mentioned earlier, the material of the “Quam olim Abrahae
promisisti,” a section for the adult choir, is derived from the material of “The
Parable of the Old Man and the Young,” a section for tenor and baritone
soloists with chamber orchestra. Indeed, references to musical material
between sections play a very important role in defining the nature of the
English poem settings as tropes commenting on the Latin passages. These
clear, illustrative, and dramatic tropes on war and humanity by the poet-
soldier Wilfred Owen, written in the vernacular, clarify the archaic and
sometimes vague texts of the Missa pro defunctis. Most often these
commentaries are ironic in nature, from the juxtaposition of the “long black
arm” of the “Sonnet” leading into the return of material from the Dies irae,30
to the offering of Isaac (and “half the seed of Europe, one by one”) in the
Offertorium, to the reconciliation, or deliverance, in the afterlife in the
“Strange Meeting” at the end of the Libera me.
The Missa Brevis is too concise to warrant this sort of musical
commentary within the work itself, nor is there any real need for annotation.
However, elements of some sections of the War Requiem that find their roots
in the Missa Brevis resurface in these tropes.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!30 Mervyn Cooke, ed. Benjamin Britten: War Requiem (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 28-29.
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The first trope within the War Requiem is the “Anthem for Doomed
Youth,” which leads into the brief (11-bar) “Kyrie” that ends the first
movement. The sonnet is filled with religious verbiage and imagery: orisons,
prayers, bells (passing and other), choirs, candles, (altar) boys, and holy
glimmers. Britten sets the opening octet-plus-one-line of the poem to brisk,
anxious dotted figures to reflect the “monstrous anger of the guns” and the
“stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle,” horn fanfares for “bugles calling,” and high
woodwind lines and vocal melismas to illustrate the “wailing shells.” The
remainder of the poem (the last five lines of the sestet), however, beginning at
rehearsal number 3 in the War Requiem, returns to the material of the “Te
decet hymnus,” reprising its melody and its characteristic planing-chordal
accompaniment. The connection between these two sections lies in the
references to boys, who sing the “Te decet hymnus,” and who are the subject
of the second stanza of the sonnet. The text of the passage is reproduced in
Figure 22; the line between lines 9 and 10 reflects the division of the poem
according to Britten’s setting.
Britten’s reference to the boys is not nearly as sardonic as those of
some of the other tropes in the War Requiem. There is still a sense of irony,
however: the melody of the last part of the “Anthem,” a lament for the young
men killed in battle who do not receive a proper funeral, is that of the “Te
decet,” an exultant song of praise to God. This melody, as it has been shown,
is likely derived from the Sanctus of the Missa Brevis, the most direct and
overt tribute to God in the mass. In each of these three settings, the melody is
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34
recontextualized for a completely different affect. In the Missa Brevis Sanctus,
the melody represents the completeness and perfection of God, as discussed
earlier in reference to Britten’s symbolic use of 12-tone melodies. In the “Te
decet hymnus” of the War Requiem, the tune is still joyful, but it deflates,
whittling down into the work’s hallmark tritone, and the ecstatic nature of the
melody is considerably muted. Finally, in the “Anthem,” the tune takes on a
mournful character, associated with the piteous lamentations of the poet.
Thus, there is a clear progression from a sort of naivete ! in the Missa Brevis to a
subdued pathos in the “Anthem for Doomed Youth” with respect to a single
melody.
Another connection between the Missa Brevis and the War Requiem is
the similar nature of the Benedictus of both works. The Benedictus of the
Missa Brevis is simple and quaint: as shown in Figure 23, a treble soloist sings
an economical passage outlining perfect fourths, the interval featured in the
organ pedal part, and characterized by a distinct texture, juxtaposing legato
and staccato articulation, mirrored by the relationship between the manual
and pedal parts of the organ. After five bars, the material (with some small
adjustments to the pedal part) is repeated up a perfect fourth with a second
soloist. For the third and final section of the Benedictus, the two soloists
repeat the same material they had just sung but in canon, spinning out into a
brief extension to conclude the movement. The perfect fourth, integral to the
intervallic content of the melody and the interval of the canon (and to the
entire mass, as noted previously), is showcased in this extension as a string of
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35
parallel fourths that recalls medieval organum, shown in Figure 24. The use
of such contrapuntal techniques as organum and canon gives the Benedictus
a distinctly archaic feel.
!Figure 22. Wilfred Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth,31 with annotations.
1 What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries for them from prayers or bells,
6 Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,– The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes 11 Shall shine the holy glimmer of good-byes.
The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
Brisk, anxious dotted figures (Britten’s musical division)
Return of “Te decet” melody
Te
Quick crochets, q = 162(Allegro)
f smooth
de cet- hy mnus,-
. . .
Figure 23. The opening of the Benedictus of the Missa Brevis, featuring perfect fourths.
TREBLES
ORGAN
Be
Solo III
Slow and gentle (e = slower q of preceding = 66)
ne- dic- tus- qui ve nit- in no mi- ne- Do mi- ni.-
ppp Ped.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!31 Wilfred Owen. The Poems of Wilfred Owen. Edited by Jon Stallworthy. (New York: Norton, 1985), 76.
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36
Figure 24. The final bars of the Benedictus of the Missa Brevis. The second bar illustrates Britten’s use of organum (at P4).
TREBLES
ORGAN
ne
(Solo I)
Do
Organum at P4
mi- - -
As before (q = 80)
ni.-
no
(Solo III)
mi- ne- Do mi- ni.-
pp
The use of organum is a striking aspect of the Benedictus of the War
Requiem as well. As shown in Figure 25, flutes and clarinets accompany the
soprano in parallel fifths throughout the movement, and the choir echoes
their material in fifths. Britten’s choice of organum in the Benedictus of both
pieces, particularly in the War Requiem, may have ironic implications. In his
analysis of the War Requiem, Mervyn Cooke asserts that Britten’s use of
parallel fourths and fifths “emphasize[s] the remoteness and historical
inappropriateness of the religious concepts expressed.”32 Cooke points to
instances in the Agnus Dei and “Parable of the Old Man and the Young,” but
perhaps the use of organum in the “Benedictus” is equally significant: the
latter may be a reference to what is perhaps the most common motivation for
war throughout history, religious difference. In this context, the text of the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!32 Mervyn Cooke, ed. Benjamin Britten: War Requiem (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 56.
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37
“Benedictus,” “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord,”
suggests the mantra of crusaders and “holy warriors.”
Figure 25. The opening of the Benedictus of the War Requiem,
also illustrating Britten’s use of organum (at P5).
SOPRANO SOLO
CHORUS
ORCHESTRA
Be
p
ne- di- ctus,- be ne- di- ctus-
(san) na.-
S. unis.
A. unis.Be
pp
ne- di- ctus.-
T. unis.
B.pp
Hrns.pp
Fls., Cls.
Str.+8vb.(arco)
Vc.+Db. pizz,perc., low winds
The similarities between the Benedictus of the Missa Brevis and that of
the War Requiem are also apparent in the musical texture: as illustrated by the
passages shown in Figures 22 and 24, both feature a disjointed, staccato bass
line supporting a more flowing texture in the manuals of the organ in the
Missa Brevis or the smooth woodwind lines in the War Requiem.
. . .
The relationships between the Missa Brevis and the War Requiem are
many. The economical generation of sections, even movements, of works
!!
38
from single, germinal ideas developed through such operations as
transposition and inversion, as exemplified in the Kyrie of the Missa Brevis,
returns in the Offertorium and “Te decet hymnus” of the War Requiem. The
“Te decet” also draws from the Missa Brevis in the behavior of harmony and
texture in the accompaniment of the Kyrie and the treatment of melody and
form in the Sanctus. Sections only for boys’ choir in the War Requiem share the
chant-like melodic characteristics of the Missa Brevis. Further investigation
into the types of musical utterance Britten reserves for the boys in the War
Requiem betrays the special role he may have assigned them as icons of purity
and innocence.
As the works were composed simultaneously, it seems logical to
presume that the Missa Brevis functioned as a testing ground of sorts for the
more sophisticated treatment of musical materials in the sections for boys’
voices in the War Requiem.
Furthermore, considering the contexts in which Britten places
borrowed material from the Missa Brevis in the War Requiem yields new
interpretations of meaning, particularly irony, in Britten’s text settings.
Despite its short length, the Missa Brevis deserves attention not only as a work
in itself, but also as a lens through which Britten’s magnum opus may be
viewed.
!!
39
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(1968): 2-6.
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Elliott, Graham. Benjamin Britten: The Spiritual Dimension. New York: Oxford
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