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My Favourite Things Music 1 - Saint Nicholas Cantata by Benjamin Britten |
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Music
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St Nicholas Cantata is to me a mysterious piece of music thanks to a gap of
over 35 years when I forgot about its existence. I first heard it when I attended the King Edward VI (The Norwich) School in the late 1960s. At that time it somehow captivated me with its key changes and was different to anything I had heard before. That doesn't mean to say the piece was unique, but I had a severe limitation in the amount of music that I had listened to. Certainly I knew nothing of Benjamin Britten or his close connections with East Anglia and Snape and Aldeburgh in particular. |
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Index Section
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| Benjamin Britten | On leaving school I thought no more about this piece of music until I came
across a vinyl LP in Norwich lending library. It was very scratched, but I
made a recording of it but barely, if ever, played it due to its poor
condition. So the years passed until I received a record token for my 50th birthday and I decided to look out a CD version. Not surprisingly the Cantata reminds me of Christmas and the wonderful fable of St Nicholas (or Santa Claus as he is possibly better known). Above all Britten tells us the story of the real St Nicholas, of his kindness and magnanimity and of his charisma. And the music somehow seems to bridge a gap between rock and classical. It is difficult to explain just how it does this, it could simply be a trick that my mind plays. Since buying the CD I have returned to it on a number of occasions and seem to hear something different every time. It includes a beautiful and stately version of the hymn "All People That On Earth Do Dwell. Britten's work glorifies God and goodness. It works on a number of levels - as a cantata in its own right, but also as a story for children. It will certainly be on my play list for 2003. The links on the left of this section will lead you to a trio of excellent web sites connected with this article. Click on Benjamin Britten to learn about the life of the British composer. Click on St Nicholas to learn about the man who became Father Christmas and click on St Nicholas Cantata to learn about the work itself.
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