War requiem. Op. 66. Words from the Missa Pro Defunctis & the Poems of Wilfred Owen

Notes ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 957
Author(s):  
Henry Leland Clarke ◽  
Benjamin Britten ◽  
Wilfred Owen
Keyword(s):  
Missa Pro Defunctis ◽  
War Requiem ◽  
Wilfred Owen

scholarly journals The Poetry is the Pity: The War Requiem and Poetic Consolation

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Ferrari
Keyword(s):  
Church And State ◽  
Text Setting ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Missa Pro Defunctis ◽  
War Requiem ◽  
Trench Warfare

Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem sets nine of Wilfred Owen’s war poems alongside the words of the Missa pro defunctis, allowing these texts to interrogate and comment on each other. Owen’s poems describe the horrors of trench warfare, and often, harshly indict both church and state for their complicity in war-mongering. Scholars such as Philip Rupprecht, Heather Wiebe, David B. Greene, and George D. Herbert have explored how Owen’s texts work to subvert the text of the Mass, and deny religious and musical consolation. Such readings place the War Requiem in line with Owen’s preface to his Collected Poems, in which he rejects consolatory mourning. This article, however, suggests that moments in the War Requiem work to deconstruct Owen’s preface. Britten’s juxtaposition of Owen’s poems with the text of the Missa pro defunctis, specifically in the Agnus Dei and Libera me, works to undermine Owen’s poetic goals as outlined in the preface, bringing out irony not immediately apparent in Owen’s work. This article closely examines Owen’s poems in the context of Britten’s settings and compares Owen’s poems to their Latin counterparts. It reveals moments in which Britten’s text setting alters the implications of Owen’s words to allow moments of consolatory mourning that directly contradict Owen’s purported poetic goals and cast doubt on the possibility of completely non-consolatory mourning. It concludes that the War Requiem offers a new kind of consolation, in which the acknowledgement of the impossibility of musical and poetic consolation becomes a tool to confront grief.

Benjamin Britten – War Requiem

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Shrock
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Performance Practice ◽  
Benjamin Britten ◽  
World War ◽  
Musical Compositions ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
War Requiem ◽  
Requiem Mass ◽  
Wilfred Owen

The chapter begins with testimonies about the aesthetic impact of the War Requiem at the time of its premiere followed by a survey of war-themed musical compositions that preceded Britten’s work and Britten’s reflection of his pacifism in musical works such as the Sinfonia da Requiem op. 20. Discussion is then focused on the commission from Coventry Cathedral that led to the War Requiem; Britten’s choice of nine poems by the war-poet Wilfred Owen, which Britten interspersed with traditional texts from the Roman Requiem Mass; and the choice of three specific soloists to represent three countries involved in World War II. The music of Britten’s work is discussed in terms of musical and structural symbolism, particularly in Britten’s choice of the tritone interval to express tension. Performance practice concerns address the staging of the work into three distinct strata, the vocal characteristics of the original three soloists, and the intended acoustical environment of Britten’s conception.

Reconciliation in the Cathedral: Isaac's Religion in “Owen-Mass”

10.34690/125 ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 6-36
Author(s):  
Роман Александрович Насонов
Keyword(s):  
Song Cycle ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Christian Religion ◽  
Religious Symbolism ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
War Requiem ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Church ◽  
Church Tradition

Статья представляет собой исследование религиозной символики и интерпретацию духовного смысла «Военного реквиема» Бриттена. Воспользовавшись Реквиемом Верди как моделью жанра, композитор отдал ключевую роль в драматургии сочинения эпизодам, созданным на основе военных стихов Оуэна; в результате произведение воспринимается подобно циклу песен в обрамлении частей заупокойной мессы. Военная реальность предстает у Бриттена амбивалентно. Совершая надругательство над древней верой и разбивая чаяния современных людей, война дает шанс возрождению религиозных чувств и символов. Опыт веры, порожденный войной, переживается остро, но при всей своей подлинности зыбок и эфемерен. Церковная традиция хранит веру прочно, однако эта вера в значительной мере утрачивает чистоту и непосредственность, которыми она обладает в момент своего возникновения. Бриттен целенаправленно выстраивает диалог между двумя пластами человеческого опыта (церковным и военным), находит те точки, в которых между ними можно установить контакт. Но это не отменяет их глубокого противоречия. Вера, рождаемая войной, представляет собой в произведении Бриттена «отредактированный» вариант традиционной христианской религии: в ее центре находится не триумфальная победа Христа над злом, а пассивная, добровольно отказавшаяся защищать себя перед лицом зла жертва - не Бог Сын, а «Исаак». Смысл этой жертвы - не в преображении мира, а в защите гуманности человека от присущего ему же стремления к агрессивному самоутверждению. The study of religious symbolism and the interpretation of the spiritual meaning of “War Requiem” by Britten have presentation in this article. Using Verdi's Requiem as a model of the genre, the composer gave a key role in the drama to the episodes based on the war poems by Wilfred Owen; as a result, the work is perceived as a song cycle framed by parts of the funeral mass. The military reality appears ambivalent. While committing a blasphemy against the ancient belief and shattering the aspirations of modern people, the war offers a chance to revive religious feelings and symbols. This experience of war-born faith is felt keenly, but for all its authenticity, it is shaky and ephemeral. The church tradition keeps faith firmly, but this faith largely loses the original purity and immediacy. Britten purposefully builds a dialogue between the two layers of human experience (church and military), finds those points where contact can be established between them. But this does not change their profound antagonism. In Britten's work, faith born of war is an “edited” version of the traditional Christian religion: in its center is not the triumphant victory of Christ over evil, but a passive sacrifice that voluntarily refused to defend itself in the face of evil-not God the Son, but “Isaac.” The meaning of this sacrifice is not in transforming the world, but in protecting the humanity of a person from his inherent desire for aggressive self-assertion.

The Importance of Wilfred Owen

1954 ◽  
Vol 10 (55) ◽  
pp. 9-12
Author(s):  
H. Sergeant
Keyword(s):  
Wilfred Owen
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