Benjamin Britten composed the exquisite A Ceremony of Carols while cooped up, bored, on a ship crossing the Atlantic and a nation has been everlastingly grateful, says Ysenda Maxtone-Graham
ONE had to alleviate the boredom,’ Benjamin Britten wrote to a friend in 1942, explaining why he’d written his A Ceremony of Carols. Never have we been more thankful for someone’s boredom needing to be alleviated. Bring on boredom, if it gives a composer the urge to create such a magical work!
Just thinking about A Ceremony of Carols, with its wintry harp sounds and thrilling three-part treble choir, sends shivers up and down the spines of all of us for whom the piece is the quintessence of beauty, expressing the mystery of the Christmas story like no other piece of music.
It happened like this. After three years in the USA, the homesick Britten and his partner, the tenor Peter Pears, decided to return to wartime Britain in the spring of 1942. They sailed in convoy on a Swedish ship, the Axel Johnson, which stopped off at various ports before setting off across the Atlantic. Going for a stroll in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Britten happened to wander into a second-hand bookshop where he bought a book of medieval English verse.
Cooped up on the ship for the following weeks as it zig-zagged across the Atlantic avoiding U-boats, in a cabin facing the ship’s refrigerator, which gave off noxious smells, Britten composed not just one but two masterpieces: Ode to St Cecilia and (using some of the medieval verse from that book as his text) A Ceremony of Carols, scored for trebles and harp.
This is the cussedness of the creative process: in the wrong place at the right time, inspiration can suddenly strike. In the unpromising surroundings of that swaying ship, Britten burst out of the creative block that had imprisoned him for months.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 28, 2018-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 28, 2018-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
