The Music of Benjamin Britten (Clarendon Paperbacks)

This comprehensive guide to Britten's musical achievement discusses all the published compositions in subdivisions of genre and period, and devotes a separate chapter to each opera. With the help of over 300 music examples and diagrams, Evans demonstrates Britten's mastery of the art of composition. Since this book's first appearance in 1979, Britten's publishers have made available a considerable number of works withheld during the composer's lifetime; some are juvenilia, but others date from as late as the Peter Grimes period. In a postscript to this edition, Peter Evans assesses the creative stature of these works and their significance in Britten's development. The catalogue of works now includes these additional titles, and the selective bibliography has been revised.