England, long criticized as a nation of bowler-topped conformists, gave the world an important 20th-century composer who was a quiet non-conformist.
Benjamin Britten was a lifelong pacifist - even during World War II, when blitzed and battered Londoners were inclined to regard conscientious objectors as seditious fiends. He was also a homosexual in a country where such sexual activity was a criminal offense.
Britten was something of a musical outsider, too. His compositions were more advanced than those of England's great folklorists, chief among them Ralph Vaughan Williams. But his compositions also seemed conservative compared to Europe's avant-garde howls and America's musical equivalent of Sanskrit crossword puzzles.
Britten's music didn't even sound English. In the beginning it was brash, like that of the Russians and Americans. Certain early works could be mistaken for those of Sergei Prokofiev or Morton Gould. Later, it became more dusky and introverted. It wasn't English or American or Russian, or anything but pure Britten.
Outsider though he was, Britten invited the rest of the world to come out with him. He loved to collaborate with other artists, producers and designers. Some of his finest works were written especially for tenor Peter Pears, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich or hornist Dennis Brain; others set the words of his friend W.H. Auden to music.
He did not mingle only with the famous. In the 1960s, Britten wrote a series of what he called ``church parables'' - religious pageants, really. He intended these to be presented by children and amateurs with the help of a few key professionals, and supervised their first performances himself.
Bringing music to children was important for Britten. Come Christmas, there's hardly a boys' choir in England or North America that doesn't sing ``A Ceremony of Carols,'' Britten's often tender, sometimes mischievous setting of traditional carol texts with harp accompaniment.
Most famous of all his works for children is ``The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.'' Originally intended to accompany a 1946 instructional film, this piece borrows a tune by Henry Purcell for a set of variations, each one played by a different section of the orchestra. In the end, all the sections combine in a grand, impressive fugue.
There's much more to Britten than kiddie concerts. His greatest contribution was in the realm of vocal music for adults. No one has set English poetry to music with more delicacy, understanding and brilliance than Britten.
Since Wagner, composers have tended to engage vocalists in speech-song. This is a kind of singing without big tunes, where the vocal line mirrors the patterns of speech. Nowadays, the vocal line doesn't even have that much to go on; singers must leap from low notes to high notes and stress odd syllables in a way that obscures the text.
Britten's goal was to clarify the text. While he did favor speech-song techniques, and while he wasn't opposed to giving his singers an occasional wide leap, every aspect of the music from the rhythm to the mood enhanced the words.
The most famous of his settings for solo voice are ``Les Illuminations'' for high voice and strings, with poetry by Rimbaud; ``Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo'' for tenor and piano; Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, with dark texts by several centuries' worth of English poets; ``A Charm of Lullabies'' for mezzo-soprano and piano; ``Songs from the Chinese'' for high voice and guitar; ``Nocturne'' for tenor, several solo instruments and strings, with more crepuscular English texts; and arrangements of British and French folk songs.
Britten's most devastating work is his 1962 ``War Requiem,'' written for the dedication of Coventry's new cathedral. The old one was destroyed during World War II air raids, and the new one was built in part with German funds.
The ``War Requiem'' is a work of many layers, both physical and textual. Britten intended it to be premiered by an English tenor, a German baritone, a Soviet soprano, adult and children's choirs, and two main groups of instruments, with the forces spread around the cathedral.
Textually, it combines the standard Latin requiem Mass sequence with English anti-war poems by Wilfred Owen. In many ways, the ``War Requiem'' may be considered the most important work of this pacifist composer.
But then there is Britten's remarkable series of operas. He preferred compelling dramas, not the sappy melodramas favored by 19th- century composers.
He achieved wide acclaim for his first full-fledged opera, ``Peter Grimes,'' a grim story about an outcast fisherman in an English coastal village. ``Peter Grimes'' has been hailed as the first great English opera since the time of Purcell, who died 300 years ago.
This 1945 work is also one of the few modern operas to have entered the standard repertory in England and North America. Aside from one work by Francis Poulenc and two by Alban Berg, its only competition is from Britten himself - especially his large-scale ``Billy Budd,'' based on the Herman Melville story, and the chamber opera ``The Turn of the Screw,'' after Henry James. Note that these three works all revolve around outcasts and betrayed innocents.
Then there is Britten's chamber and orchestral music - three mature string quartets, three suites for solo cello, pieces for oboe, concertos for piano, violin and cello (the last called a ``symphony''), and much more.
Britten's music grew more dissonant over the years and became less tied to melody. But the 1973 opera ``Death in Venice'' is still obviously the work of the man who'd written the more traditional ``Peter Grimes'' 30 years before. There's the same masterful use of instrumental color, and the same feeling of leanness - Britten unleashes the full orchestra for only a few well-placed, mighty climaxes.
Compared to England's other leading 20th-century composers, Britten is deeper than William Walton (11 years Britten's senior), more public-spirited than Michael Tippett (eight years his senior) and Peter Maxwell Davies (young enough to be Britten's son), and more universal than the self-consciously English Ralph Vaughan Williams (old enough to have been Britten's father).
Britten was that rare outsider who, by his death in 1976, had come to the center of England's musical life. More correctly, the center had come to him.
Britten listening suggestions In the 1950s and '60s, London Records invited Britten to record most of his major operas and orchestral works, and to supervise recordings of his vocal and chamber music by his close associates. Most of this has been reissued on compact disc, and the performances are at least as good as, often superior to, other artists' efforts on Britten's behalf.
Where to begin? People who can't stand vocal music should try ``The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra,'' the alternately witty and depressing ``Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge'' for string orchestra, and the gripping ``Four Sea Interludes'' for orchestra from ``Peter Grimes.'' All are in Britten's most accessible style, and all are available under his direction.
Listeners lacking a pathological aversion to the human voice must hear the ``War Requiem'' in Britten's recording with tenor Peter Pears, baritone Dietrich Fiescher-Dieskau and soprano Galina Vishnevskaya - the singers for whom it was intended.
Then, on to any Pears recording that can be found. An important London disc features Pears in Britten's three most notable works for tenor and small ensemble: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings; ``Les Illuminations''; and ``Nocturne.''
For the operas, it's best to begin with ``Peter Grimes,'' then move on to the later works. For tragedy, listen to ``Billy Budd''; for comedy, try ``Albert Herring.'' Adventuresome listeners should also sit down with the more difficult ``Turn of the Screw.''