Benjamin Britten

Jubilate Deo in C

Britten's Jubilate is arranged for SATB choir and Organ accompaniment. Benjamin Britten's birthday (22nd November 1913, Lowestoft) falls on St. Cecilia's Day, a happy augury for the career of one of Britain's greatest composers. Essentially a vocal composer, Britten won international fame for his operas and song-cycles. He never abandoned the principles of tonality and was a 'modern' composer who reached a mass audience and a conservative whose originality no radical would sensibly deny. He shared with his predecessors Parry, Vaughan Williams, and Holst an intense interest in works for amateurs and children. His brilliant gifts as a pianist and conductor, coupled with his virtuosic inventiveness, also led him to compose music for great performers such as the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and the singers Galina Vishnevskaya, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Janet Baker. The greatest personal influence on his music was the Tenor Peter Pears, for whom he composedmany operatic and vocal roles.

In 1948 Britten, Pears and Eric Crozier founded the Aldeburgh Festival, now one of the most respected established for new English music. In 1952 he was made a Companion of Honour, in 1965 recieved the Order of Merit, and in 1976, the year of his death, he became the first composer to recieve a life peerage.

Oxford University Press was Britten's first publisher. In the early 1930s A Boy Was Born and the Simple Symphony brought him great critical acclaim and launched his compositional career. Oxford is delighted to present some previously unpublished pieces in collaboration with the Britten Estate. These include the Double Concerto for Violin and Viola, premiered at Snape by the Britten-Pears Orchestra under Kent Nagano in June 1997; Two Portraits for String Orchestra premiered on BBC Radio 3 in December 1995 by the Northern Sinfonia under Martyn Brabbins; The World Of The Spirit, the full version first performed in 1938 on the BBC Home Service, the abridged version in December 1995; and the King Arthur Suite for Orchestra premiered at Snape in 1995 by the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra under Lutz Köhler.