Voices of Boys : The Influence of Britten s. Missa Brevis in D on his War Requiem. Justin Scott Perkins. Submitted in Partial Fulfillment.

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.

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 7 War Requiem, Offertorium. 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 11 the Missa Brevis... 9 The dissolution of a melody through the elimination of pitch 11 classes in the Te decet hymnus of the War Requiem. 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 16 the War Requiem... 13 The vocal line in bars 3-10 of the Agnus Dei of the War 17 Requiem... 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

# 18 Classification by type of melody for the passages for boys 21 choir in the War Requiem. 19 The intervals of the incipit of the Gloria are inverted... 24 20 The four-phrase In paradisum, beginning one measure after 25 Rehearsal 128.... 21 Each successive phrase beginning with Motive X starts a 29 minor third lower than the previous.... 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

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

2 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].

3 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 War Requiem, Op. 66 Requiem aeternam Kyrie Gloria 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 Benedictus Hosanna Agnus Dei Sanctus Sanctus (soprano solo and chorus) The End (baritone solo) Agnus Dei At a Calvary near the Ancre (tenor solo)/agnus Dei (chorus) (continues)

4 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.

5 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. [025] Glo - ri - a in ex - cel - sis De - [025] [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 (Eflat). These three pitches span a perfect fourth, and the pitch classes form an [025] trichord.

6 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

7 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-classaxis 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. BOYS I 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) Collection: [0235] f Do - mi - ne Je- su, Je - su, Je - su Chri - ste, Do - mi - ne Rex glo - ri- ae, BOYS II (e = e) p li - be - ra a - ni - mas o - mni - um fi - de - li - um de - fun - cto - rum Collection: [0235] de poe - nis in - fer - ni, et de pro - fun - do la - cu: 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.) 6 6 6 f 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.

8... 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. I TREBLES f San II TREBLES III - San ctus, f San f - - ctus, ORGAN +4ft. f 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.

9 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 mf 3 Ple - ni sunt cae - li et ter 3 3 3 mf 3 3 Ple - ni sunt cae - li et ter a, - ra glo - ri - a tu - Ple - ni sunt cae - li et mf 3 3 3 - ra 3 glo - ri - a ff ff Ho - san - na in ex - cel - sis, ff 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

10 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 doublephrase 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.

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. Sectio n - A - A - A 1 - A 2 - 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 A 1 A 2 - 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.

12 Figure 9, cont.

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

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 nontraditional 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.

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) Gt. f Sw. f passionate Ky D - ri - e e C W.T. Tritone - lei - son, 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.

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. Tenor Solo (Slow y = 80) p One e - ver hangs where shelled roads part. In this war He too lost a limb, 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

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]

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). Tenors Basses (Quick q = 160) A. Dies irae ppp short. ppp short. Di Di - es il - la, sol - vet sae-clum - es i- rae, di - es il - la, in fa - vil- la: Cl, Bn ORCH. (pp short) Vc, Db sim. Sopranos Altos (Brilliant q = 69) B. Hosanna f f Ho - san - na, Ho - san - na f Ho - san - na in ex - cel - sis, cresc. in 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

20 punctuation. The shortest of these is the seven-bar Requiescant in pace, reproduced in its entirety in Figure 16. Percussion Sopranos Altos Tenors Basses Figure 16. Requiescant in pace chorale from Rehearsal 137. Very slow (molto lento) Re - qui - e - scant in pa - ce. A - men, A - - men. pppp Re - qui - e - scant in pa - ce. A - men, A - - men. pppp ppp sustained ppp dim. Re - qui - e - scant in pa - ce. A - men, A - - men. ppp sustained Re Bells - qui - e - scant in pa - ce. A - men, A - - men. pp rall. unis. ppp sustained ppp dim. div. ppp sustained ppp dim. ppp dim. pppp pppp 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.

21 Figure 17. Petitionary utterance in the Libera me, (tenor and baritone parts only) from two bars before Rehearsal 101. Tenors and Basses (q = approx. 63, with gradual accelerando) pp lamenting pp lamenting Tenors Basses Li-be-ra me, de mor-te ae-ter - na, 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

22 they correspond roughly to the two types of chant used in Christian liturgies 14, 15 since its founding. 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.

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 16 th - to early 17 th -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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. Motive X: Tonic = A 3 1 3 2 3 1 (ten measures)... Ho-sti-as et pre - ces ti - bi Do-mi-ne lau - dis of - fe - ri - mus: Motive X: Tonic = F# 3 1 3 2 3 1 fac e - as Do - mi- ne, de mor - te trans - i - re ad vi - tam. Motive X: Tonic = D # 3 1 3 2 3 1 Quam o - lim A - bra-hae pro - mi - si - sti, et se - mi- ni e - jus. 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.

30 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.

31 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.

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 poetsoldier 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.