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| Four Sea Interludes - Britten (1913-1976) |
| Dawn: Sunday Morning: Moonlight: Storm |
| Benjamin Britten's evocative Four Sea Interludes are taken from the opera Peter Grimes which was written during 1944 and 1945 and first performed at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London on June 7th 1945. An article on the English poet George Crabbe by the writer E. M. Forster had attracted Britten's attention. Crabbe's The Borough, the first poem that Britten read, immediately kindled Britten's interest. Set in the composer's native Suffolk and steeped in the strong traditions of a small fishing community, The Borough tells the tragic story of fisherman Peter Grimes and his unhappy relationship with his boy apprentices. The opera opens with a highly dramatic inquest scene where Peter Grimes is called to account concerning the death at sea of his first young apprentice. Britten's music brilliantly contrasts the busy chatter of the crowded courtroom with the appearance of Peter Grimes; the orchestral hubbub is quelled by a tender chord of C major each time Grimes intones the familiar courtroom lines, "I swear by Almighty God". This startling musical effect is just one of the masterly techniques used by Britten's to emphasise the deeply disturbed nature of Crabbe's Peter Grimes. |
| "Old Peter Grimes made fishing his employ, His wife he cabined with him and his boy, And seemed that life laborious to enjoy: To town came quiet Peter with his fish, And had of all a civil word and wish. He left his trade upon the Sabbath day, And took young Peter in his hand to pray; But soon the stubborn boy from care broke loose, At first refused, then added his abuse; His father's love he scorned, his power defied, But, being drunk, wept sorely when he died. Peter had heard there were in London then Still have they being! workhouse-clearing men, Who, undisturbed by feelings just or kind, Would parish boys to needy tradesmen bind; They in their want a trifling sum would take, And toiling slaves of piteous orphans make. Such Peter sought, and when a lad was found, The sum was dealt him, and the slave was bound. Some few in town observed in Peter's trap A boy, with jacket blue and woollen cap; |
But none inquired how Peter used the rope, Or what the bruise, that made the stripling stoop; None could the ridges on his back behold, None sought him shivering in the winter's cold; None put the question, 'Peter, dost thou give The boy his food? What, man! the lad must live. Consider, Peter, let the child have bread, He'll serve thee better if he's stroked and fed.' None reasoned thus - and some, on hearing cries, Said calmly, 'Grimes is at his exercise.' For three sad years the boy his tortures bore, And then his pains and trials were no more. 'How died he, Peter?' when the people said, He growled - 'I found him lifeless in his bed'; Then tried for softer tone, and sighed, 'Poor Sam is dead.' Yet murmurs were there, and some questions aske How he was fed, how punished, and how tasked? Much they suspected, but they little proved, And Peter passed untroubled and unmoved." |
| Grimes is acquitted but warned never to take another apprentice. However, schoolmistress, Ellen Orford, helps him find another boy but is horrified to learn that he too has been badly misused. When the villagers learn of this, they set out after Grimes. As he attempts to escape, the boy slips and falls to his death. Three days pass, and Grimes returns to the village at dawn, physically and emotionally drained. He is advised by Captain Balstrode to sail out to sea and scuttle his boat with himself aboard. Grimes's life ends as that of the village resumes for another day. The Four Sea Interludes portray Dawn: the first grey light of the day, Sunday Morning: the church bell summons the villagers to worship, the tranquil Moonlight and as powerful an orchestral Storm as ever was penned: a brief respite from the violence refers to "What harbour shelters peace?" sung by Grimes as the storm commences in Act 1. | |