ブリテンの子供時代
現在、ブリテンのシンプルシンフォニーはどんな経緯で作曲されたのか、興味を持ったので、彼の子供時代に興味を持ちました。育ったのは、英国東部の田舎で、お母さんが歌手であった影響がすごくあったそうです。シンプルシンフォニーは21歳の時の作品なようですが、子供の頃に作った曲がその中に入っているようです。下記のVirginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary Composer Biographiesの引用を参考にして下さい。Benjamin Britten was born in Lowestoft, England, a fishing port and seaside resort about 100 miles northeast of London. His father was an affluent dental surgeon and his mother was an accomplished amateur singer. Britten was extraordinarily precocious; he composed songs before he could read or write. He had completed a string quartet and an oratorio by age nine, and by the time he was 14 he had written a symphony, five more string quartets, ten piano sonatas, and several other smaller works. His "Simple Symphony", dating from 1934, contains many of the melodies and themes from these early works. He studied viola with Audrey Alston, composition with Frank Bridge and John Ireland, and piano with Arthur Benjamin and Harold Samuel. Britten was an outstanding student at the Royal college of Music; he won the Earnest Farrar Prize for composition and, as a pianist, was awarded the title of Associate of the Royal College of Music. He had several composition published between 1932 and 1935.