Preparing to Hear Benjamin Britten’s <i>War Requiem</i>

Preparing to Hear Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem

Fall (4-8 hours) | This course is completed

Online Lebanon, NH 03766 United States

Online Meeting

New

10/2/2020-10/23/2020

1:30 PM-3:30 PM EDT on Fri

Download iCalendar

$45.00

To assist you in preparing for this class, we have provided a link to the setup / test pages from the conference provider. If you have never used this conference service before please click on the link below so that your PC or device will be ready to participate in this class.

Click here to download app

The Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra had planned to perform Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem in May of this year. While that performance was postponed, the War Requiem—one of the monumental compositions for chorus and orchestra of the 20th century—warrants and rewards careful attention. Commissioned to mark the consecration of the restored Coventry Cathedral in 1962, it is a moving anti-war work for full orchestra, chamber orchestra, large choir, boys choir, organ, and three vocal soloists. Its texts include the traditional Latin text from the Requiem Mass and nine poems by Wilfred Owen. We will consider Britten’s treatment of these texts, and his masterful shaping of sound textures to evoke them, as we prepare to hear this singular masterwork.

Composer, conductor, theorist, and musicologist, Dr. Mark Nelson has over 30 years’ experience teaching music and directing music ensembles. He currently teaches a series of music appreciation seminars at the Upper Valley Music Center and directs several area ensembles. He is animated by the notion that a musician is an historian—that performance and understanding are enriched by careful consideration of the aesthetic, socio-political, and biographical contexts from which a composition emerges.