Benjamin Britten Timeline

1913

Benjamin Britten born 22 November at Lowestoft.

In US, Woodrow Wilson becomes President. In Greece, George I assassinated.

Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring. Debussy, Jeux.
Thomas Mann, Death in Venice.
Henry Ford creates assemblyline.

1918

5

First piano lessons from his mother. First attempts at music composition.

Food shortage in Britain leads to rationing. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Russia and the Central Powers.

Spengler, The Decline of the West. Stravinsky, Histoire du soldat. NYPhil Society bans performances of living German composers.

1921

8

Piano lessons with Miss Ethel Astle, teacher at local pre-preparatory school.

National Economic Policy in Soviet Union.

Honegger: Le Roi David.
Ku Klux Klan activities increase in U.S.

1923

10

Enters South Lodge Preparatory School, and begins viola lessons with Audrey Alston.

(1922) Soviet Union formed.
Benito Mussolini’s fascists march on Rome.

Stravinsky, Les noces. Joyce, Ulysses. T.S. Eliot, The WasteLand.
BBC radio launched.

1924

11

Hears Frank Bridge’s orchestral suite, The Sea, at Norwich Triennial Festival.

Lenin dies.

Fauré dies.
E.M. Forster, A Passage to India.
Thomas Mann, The MagicMountain.

1925

12

Overture in B flat, for full orchestra.

Locarno Pact. Chiang Kai-shek launches campaign to unify China.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
Kafka, The Trial.
Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin.
Television is invented.

1927

14

Meets Frank Bridge, who takes him as composition student.

Joseph Stalin comes to power. Charles Lindbergh flies the Atlantic non-stop.

Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex.
Woolf, To the Lighthouse.
Heidegger, Being and Time.

1927-8

Head Boy of South Lodge, captain of cricket and Victor Ludorum.

Amelia Earhart is first woman to fly across Atlantic.

First regularly scheduled television broadcasts.

1928

15

Enters Gresham’s School. Continues composition lessons with Bridge; piano lessons with Harold Samuel in London.

Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.

Gershwin, An American in Paris.
Weill, Die Dreigroschenoper.
Ravel, Bolero.

1929

16

The Birds (Belloc song).

Lateran Treaty.
Yugoslavia under kings of Serbia.

Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury.
Robert Graves, Good-bye to all That.

1930

17

Hymn to the Virgin. Leaves Gresham’s. Wins open scholarship to Royal College of Music, where he has composition lessons with John Ireland and piano lessons with Arthur Benjamin.

London Round-Table Conferences on India.
Mahatma Gandhi leads Salt March in India.
Frank Whittle patents turbo-jet engine.
Pluto discovered.

Stravinsky, Symphony of Psalms.
W.H. Auden, Poems.
T.S. Eliot, ‘Ash Wednesday.’
Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies.

1931

18

Wins Ernest Farrar Prize for Composition.
String Quartet in D major.

Spanish Republic formed.

George Gershwin: Of Thee I Sing. Antoine de St-Exupéry, Vol de nuit.

1932

19

Sinfonietta, Op. 1
Phantasy Quartet, Op. 2.

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia becomes independent.

Schoenberg, Moses und Aron.
Huxley, Brave New World.

1933

20

First performance of Sinfonietta. Wins Ernest Farrar composition prize for second time. First performance of three movements from unpublished, unfinished string quartet, ‘Go play, boy, play’. A Boy was Born.

Nazi Party wins German elections.
Adolf Hitler appointed chancellor.
Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes President of the United States.

Malraux, La condition humaine.
Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas. Invention of FM radio.

1934

21

Simple Symphony, based on juvenilia composed between 1923 and 1926; Britten conducts first performance.
Father dies at Lowestoft, while Britten is in Florence.

In Germany, the Night of the Long Knives.
In China, the Long March (lasting until 1935).

Elgar, Delius and Holst die.
Shostakovich, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night.
Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer.

1935

22

Begins earning living in London by writing incidental music for the theatre, documentary films and radio features. Meets W.H. Auden. Suite for violin and piano, Op. 6, and Friday Afternoons completed.

In Germany, Nuremberg Laws enacted.
Philippines becomes self-governing.
Italy invades Ethiopia.

Alban Berg dies.
Nicholas Maw born.
Gershwin, Porgy and Bess.
Marx Brothers, A Night at the Opera.
Nazi exhibition of “Degenerate Art”

1936

23

Signs contract with music publisher Boosey & Hawkes. Joins permanent staff of GPO Film Unit. Unpublished march, Russian Funeral, for brass and percussion, first performed at Westminster Theatre, conducted by Alan Bush.

Germany occupies Rhineland.
Edward VIII abdicates throne in Britain; George VI becomes king.
Léon Blum forms ‘Popular Front’ government in France.

Prokofiev, Peter and the Wolf.
Barber, Symphony No. 1.
Hindemith, Trauermusik.
A.J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic.
BBC television inaugurated.

1937

24

His mother dies. And his friendship with Peter Pears begins. He acquires the Old Mill at Snape.
The Company of Heaven.

Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine.
Japan invades China.
Nanjing massacre.

Shostakovich, Symphony No. 5. Sartre, La Nausée.
Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men.
Picasso, “Guernica” mural.

1938

25

His sister Beth marries. Performs Piano Concerto.

In Soviet Union, trial of Nikolai Bukharin and other political leaders.

Weill: Knickerbocker Holiday.
Graham Greene, Brighton Rock.

1939

26

Leaves UK with Pears, first going to Canada and then to New York. Les Illuminations, Violin Concerto.

Stalin and Hitler sign non-aggression pact.
1 September: Germany invades Poland.
Second World War begins.

Copland: Billy the Kid.
Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath.
John Ford, Stagecoach.

1940

27

Seriously ill at the beginning of the year. At the end of October, he finishes the Michelangelo Sonnets, composed for and dedicated to Peter Pears.

Germany occupies France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark.
In France, Vichy government established.
Britain retreat from Dunkirk.

Stravinsky, Symphony in C.
Rogers and Hart, Pal Joey.
Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls,
Chaplin, The Great Dictator.
Disney, Fantasia.

1941

28

Frank Bridge dies. Paul Bunyan is first performed at Columbia University.

Operation Barbarossa: Germany invades Soviet Union.

Brecht, Mother Courage and her Children.
Orson Welles, Citizen Kane.

1942

29

Return to the UK. As a Conscientious Objector he is exempted from military service.
Hymn to St. Cecilia and Sinfonia da Requiem

Japanese take Kuala Lumpur, Rangoon, Singapore. Battle of Stalingrad. Battle of Midway. Battle of El Alamein.

Shostakovich, Symphony No. 7, Leningrad.
Irving Berlin, White Christmas.

1943

30

Rejoice in the Lamb and Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings.

Siege of Leningrad ends. Mussolini overthrown.
7 September: Italy surrenders.

Rodgers and Hammerstein, Oklahoma!
T S Eliot, Four Quartets.

1945

32

The Holy Sonnets of John Donne. First performance of Peter Grimes at Sadler’s Wells, London. Visit to Belsen concentration camp with Yehudi Menuhin.

Yalta Agreement.
9 May: Germany surrenders. United Nations formed.

Webern is accidentally killed.
Strauss: Metamophosen.
Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited.

1946

33

The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. The Rape of Lucretia is first performed at Glyndebourne and then taken on tour.

Cold War begins.
Italian Republic formed.

Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy.

1947

34

English Opera Group is formed and gives the first performance of Albert Herring at Glyndebourne.

Puppet Communist states in Eastern Europe. India becomes independent. Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier.

Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar named Desire.
Camus, The Plague.

1948

35

First Aldeburgh Festival opens with a performance of Saint Nicolas at the Parish Church.

Marshall Plan in effect (until 1951). Berlin airlift. In Britain, welfare state created.

Brecht, The Caucasian Chalk Circle.
Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

1949

36

Spring Symphony receives its premiere at the Holland Festival. Autumn: North American recital tour with Pears. The Little Sweep.

People’s Republic of China created.

Strauss dies.
Weill, Lost in the Stars. Rogers and Hammerstein, South Pacific.
Orwell, 1984

1950

37

Five Flower Songs and Lachrymae

North Korea enters South Korea. Riots in Johannesburg against apartheid.

Weill dies.

1951

38

Billy Budd first performed at Covent Garden, Britten conducting.

ANZUS Pact in Pacific.
In Britain, Churchill returns to premiership.

Schoenberg dies.
Stravinsky, The Rake’s Progress.
J D Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye.

1952

39

Canticle II, ‘Abraham and Isaac.’ First television production of a Britten opera: Billy Budd.

Gamal Abdel Nasser leads coup in Egypt.
Elisabeth II becomes Queen.

Tippett, The Midsummer Marriage.
Beckett, Waiting for Godot.

1953

40

Gala performance of Gloriana at Covent Garden as part of the Coronation celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II.

Stalin dies.
Egyptian Republic formed.
Mau Mau rebellion begins in Kenya

Prokofiev dies, on same day as Stalin. Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood.
Arthur Miller, The Crucible.

1954

41

Premiere of The Turn of the Screw at the Teatro la Fenice, Venice

Nasser becomes leader of Egypt.
French surrender at Dien Bien Phu.

Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim.
Golding, Lord of the Flies.
JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.

1955

42

Concerts with Pears in Belgium and Switzerland. English Opera Group overseas tour of The Turn of the Screw. World tour.

West Germany joins NATO.
Warsaw Pact formed.

Boulez, Le marteau sans maître.
Cole Porter, Silk Stockings.
Nabokov, Lolita.

1956

43

German tour with Pears.

At Twentieth Congress of Soviet Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev denounces Stalin.

Stravinsky, Canticum sacrum.
Bernstein, Candide.
Elvis Presley becomes popular.

1957

44

Noye’s Fludde. The Prince of the Pagodas, at Covent Garden, Britten conducting. English Opera Group tour of Canada. Britten visits Berlin. Moves into the Red House, Aldeburgh.

Treaty of Rome; EEC formed.
Russia launches Sputnik 1.
Ghana becomes independent.

Bernstein, West Side Story.
Poulenc, Dialogues of the Carmélites.
Meredith Wilson, The Music Man.
Bergman, The Seventh Seal.

1958

45

Nocturne.
With Imogen Holst, publishes The Story of Music.

Pope John XXIII elected.

Vaughan Williams dies.
Stravinsky, Threni.

1960

47

Premiere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in reconstructed Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh.

U2 affair.
Congo becomes independent.

Nono, Intoleranza.
Fellini, La Dolce Vita.
Hitchcock, Psycho.

1961

48

First performance of Cello Sonata at Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh, by Rostropovich and Britten.

Berlin Wall erected.
Bay of Pigs invasion.
Yuri Gagarin is first man in space.

Nureyev defects.
Truffaut, Jules et Jim.
The Rolling Stones are formed.

1962

49

War Requiem is first performed at the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral. Psalm 150.

Cuban missile crisis.
Second Vatican Council (until 1965).

Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

1963

50

Cantata misericordium. 50th birthday celebrations: all-Britten Prom, a new production of Peter Grimes at Sadler’s Wells and Gloriana at the Royal Festival Hall

President John Kennedy is assassinated.
Martin Luther King leads march on Washington.

Hindemith dies.
The Beatles, ‘She Loves You’ and ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand.’

1964

51

First performance of Cello Symphony in Moscow, with Rostropovich as soloist, and Britten conducting.

Khrushchev ousted by Leonid Brezhnev. First race relations act in Britain. Civil Rights Act passed in US.

Stockhausen, Plus/Minus.
Jerry Herman, Hello, Dolly!
Kubrick, Doctor Strangelove.

1965

52

Songs and Proverbs of William Blake. Newly established music division of Faber & Faber publish Nocturnal and Curlew River.

Military coup in Indonesia.
Indo-Pakistan War.

Bernstein, Chichester Psalms.
Pinter, The Homecoming.

1966

53

Premiere of The Burning Fiery Furnace in Orford Church. The English Opera Group then takes it on tour in the UK and overseas.

Indira Gandhi becomes prime minister of India. H.F. Verwoerd, prime minister of South Africa, is assassinated.

Stravinsky, Requiem Canticles.
Barber, Antony and Cleopatra.
Plath, Ariel.

1967

54

The Maltings Concert Hall is opened by Queen Elizabeth II. The English Opera group participates in Expo ’67 at Montreal.

Six Day War.
Biafra War (until 1970).
First heart transplant performed.

The Beatles, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

1968

55

Edinburgh International Festival: programs built around Schubert and Britten. Britten and Pears participate as performers.

Martin Luther King is assassinated.
Soviet Forces invade Czechoslovakia.
In Vietnam, Tet offensive.

Oliver Knussen, 15, conducts Symphony No. 1 with LSO.
Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

1969

56

BBC TV production of Peter Grimes at The Maltings. On the night of the opening of the 22nd Aldeburgh Festival, the Maltings Concert Hall burns down.

Nixon becomes President of the United States.
Sino-Soviet frontier war.
First manned landing on moon.

Shostakovich, Symphony No. 14.
Stockhausen, Stimmung.
Berio, Sinfonia.
Kenneth Clark, Civilization.
Puzo, The Godfather.

1970

57

Owen Wingrave, television opera. Queen Elizabeth II attends opening concert of the rebuilt Maltings.

Israel and Syria clash over Golan Heights.
Northern Ireland riots.

Simon and Garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Greer, The Female Eunuch.

1971

58

First performance of Who are these Children? at The Maltings.

Fighting in Indochina spreads to Laos and Cambodia.

Stravinsky dies.
Louis Armstrong dies.

1972

59

Records (as conductor) Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust for Decca.

US/Soviet Union détente.
SALT I signed.
Break-in at Watergate Hotel
Richard Nixon re-elected President.

Shostakovich, Symphony No. 15.
Berio, Concerto for Two Pianos.
Bernstein, Mass.
Richard Adams, Watership Down.

1973

60

Death in Venice. Undergoes operation to replace a defective heart valve and a long period of recuperation.

Yom Kippur War.
Denmark, Ireland and Britain enter E.C.

Completion of the Sydney Opera House.

1974

61

First performance of Third Cello Suite by Rostropovich at The Maltings.

Watergate scandal erupts; Richard Nixon forced to resign.

Solzhenitsyn is expelled from the Soviet Union.

1975

62

On 9 July Britten attends performance of new production of Peter Grimes at Covent Garden. This was his last appearance at the Royal Opera House. In November he travels to Venice for the last time.

Franco dies; King Juan Carlos restored in Spain. Angola and Mozambique become independent. End of Vietnamese War. Khmer Rouge seize power in Cambodia. Civil War in Lebanon.

Shostakovich dies.
Duke Ellington dies.
Boulez, Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna.
Spielberg, Jaws.

1976

63

First performance in UK of Paul Bunyan, as a BBC radio production at The Maltings. First performance of Phaedra, with Janet Baker as soloist. On 4 December, Benjamin Britten dies at the Red House, Aldeburgh.

Chairman Mao Zedong dies.
Soweto massacre.

Alex Haley, Roots.