Britten and Barber
Their Lives and Their Music
By Daniel Felsenfeld

220 pp., softcover, 6” x 9”
© 2005, 1-57467-108-1, $22.95
( To be published May 2005)

How did one of the most significant British composers of the second half of the twentieth century, Benjamin Britten, and American Pulitzer prize-winning composer Samuel Barber, together inspire generations of composers? The impact of their seemingly flawless compositional techniques and their bold experimentations has been undeniably boundless. Now, composer and music writer Daniel Felsenfeld explores this mutual influence, the lives and works of the two composers in the new book Britten and Barber: Their Lives and Their Music, the second book from the Amadeus Press series Parallel Lives. An accompanying full-length CD from Naxos features their most popular works, for example, Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Barber’s Adagio for Strings, as well as lesser-known pieces, such as Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings and Barber’s Sonata for Piano.

In clear, concise language, Britten and Barber: Their Lives and Their Music “. . . aims to fill the gap between academic study (where neither is given his due) and cursory liner notes (which never allot the proper space to the nuts and bolts of the music), giving the willing, yet musically uninitiated soul access to the work of these two great composers,” asserts Mr. Felsenfeld in the book’s introduction. Part 1 offers biographical sketches of the two composers; Part 2 includes two essays; and in Part 3, Felsenfeld offers eight “Listening” chapters, “maps to navigate the aural landscapes of the music,” the author notes in the book’s introduction.

Felsenfeld draws strong comparisons between the two, whom he refers to as “prolific, involved musical presences on the world stage”, in his introduction. For example, they came of age during a time of war, achieving acclaim amidst political and artistic unrest and upheaval. Further, they each wrote mainly (and most successfully) for the voice. The psychological background surrounding the darker themes of Britten’s work is examined along with Barber’s rise to fame as the celebrated fourth B, after Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, as well as his insecurity and struggles to fight the bigotry of the musical establishment.

A prolific composer and music writer, Daniel Felsenfeld also authored the first title from the Parallel Lives series, Ives and Copland: A Listener’s Guide. Born and raised in California, he earned master’s and doctor’s degrees at the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Lee Hyla and Arthur Berger.

Mr. Felsenfeld, who now lives in New York City, has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Composer’s Conference (1997, 2003), and the Atlantic Center for the Arts (2003), and taught at the New England Conservatory and Harvard University. A regular guest (as a composer and journalist) for WNYC’s Soundcheck, he is also a music writer for Newsday, Time Out, Playbill, Strings magazine, and others.

In 2004, his first full-scale operatic collaboration with poet Ernest Hilbert, The Last of Manhattan, was given a “first look” at the Kitchen in downtown New York City.