Young Britten

That photo was taken by me today on the seafront at Lowestoft. Here is the opening section of Young Britten in Alex Ross' acclaimed book The Rest Is Noise.

Homosexual men, who make up approximately 3 to 5 per cent of the general population, have played a disproportionately large role in composition of the last hundred years. Somewhat around half of the major American composers of the twentieth century seem to have been homosexual or bisexual: Copland, Bernstein, Barber, Blitzstein, Cage, Harry Partsch, Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison, Gian Carlo Menotti, David Diamond, and Ned Rorem. In Britain, too, the art of composition skewed gay. The two young composers who seized the spotlight in the early postwar era were Britten and Michael Tippett, neither of whom made an effort to hide their homosexuality.  

Alex's book provides a salutary reminder of what we have lost in the era of lowest common denominator music writing. As does his long-running The Rest Is Noise website; a relevant and engaged resource which provides a much-needed counterpoint to the tawdry click bait journalism elsewhere.

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