Manuscript materials and ephemera
Music manuscripts of Benjamin Britten
Britten’s autograph sketch for Peter Grimes
The archive holdings encompass a unique collection of Britten's music manuscripts, including the vast majority of works written from early boyhood until his death. This includes a number of manuscripts belonging to the national collection at the British Library, which are deposited in The Britten-Pears Library on permanent loan. Manuscripts continue to be added to the collection as they become available; most recently these have included 35 pages of sketch leaves from the opera Peter Grimes, the composition draft of the opera Albert Herring and, on a more intimate scale, Britten’s youthful transcription of some string parts for Cowen’s Four English Dances, which he would have rehearsed during informal gatherings with friends in Lowestoft during the late 1920s.
- Music manuscripts are catalogued within the Library collections. To find details, link to the Library catalogue and select 'Printed & ms Music'
Music manuscripts of other composers
Manuscript of Michael Tippett’s The Heart's Assurance
In addition to its central collection of Britten manuscripts, the Archive also holds a range of manuscripts by other British composers, including Arnold Bax, Lennox Berkeley, Michael Berkeley, Frank Bridge, Rebecca Clarke, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Gustav Holst, Elizabeth Maconchy, Nicholas Maw, Roger Quilter and Michael Tippett.
Correspondence
The Archive holds an extensive collection of correspondence to and from Britten, totalling approximately 76,000 items. Many key figures of twentieth century music and culture are represented amongst these holdings, including W. H. Auden, Martin Luther King, Mstislav Rostropovich, etc. The archive also holds a further 5,000 items of correspondence to and from Peter Pears, and some correspondence to and from associated people, including letters from Frank Bridge to Marjorie Fass, and from E. M. Forster to Eric Crozier.
Letter from Britten to Arthur Benjamin, 1934
A selection of Britten's letters written before 1951 has been published in Letters from a Life, ed. Donald Mitchell and Philip Reed, and Mervyn Cooke for Volume 3 (Faber and Faber, London, Vols. 1-2 1991, rev. 1998, and Vol. 3 2004). Further volumes covering the rest of the composer's life are planned.
Other papers of Britten and Pears
In addition to the correspondence files, the Archive holds a comprehensive collection of other papers relating to Britten and Pears. These include diaries (Britten kept a full diary from 1928 to 1939 and office diaries for much of his life), manuscripts of Britten's and Pears's writings, (including articles, programme notes, drafts of speeches and lectures, and travel diaries), financial, administrative and personal papers, and awards and honours.
Literary works
The Archive holds a selection of manuscript literary works, including items by W.H. Auden, Ronald Duncan, E.M. Forster, Thomas Hardy, Wilfred Owen, and Edith Sitwell, as well as draft librettos of Britten's operas by Eric Crozier, Ronald Duncan, E.M. Forster, Myfanwy Piper and William Plomer, and also unset libretto drafts.
Draft libretto for Curlew River by William Plomer, 1964
Press cuttings
The Archive holds a large collection of press reviews and articles, from newspapers and magazines, dating from about 1931 to the present day. The collection comprises reviews of performances of Britten works, in the UK and abroad, and also reviews of concert and stage performances involving Britten or Pears. There are articles about Britten and his work, and also about Pears and their associates and contemporaries. Reviews and articles relating to the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts, and other concerts and events held in Aldeburgh and Snape Maltings Concert Hall are also well represented.
Review from the Daily Sketch of the opera Peter Grimes, June 1945
The collection includes cuttings from UK national and regional press as well as from foreign press. Since May 1997 the Library has subscribed to a press monitoring service, resulting in a comprehensive collection of press articles and reviews from the UK press relating to Britten and performances of his works.
Programmes
The Archive maintains an extensive collection of programmes, from about 1900 to the present day, of performances in the UK and abroad.
The collection principally comprises programmes for performances of Britten works (including most first performances) and programmes for concert and stage performances involving Britten or Pears. There are also programmes relating to associates of Britten and Pears, and for birthday, memorial and anniversary events celebrating the lives of Britten, Pears and their contemporaries. Programmes for the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts and other concerts and events held in Aldeburgh and Snape Maltings Concert Hall have been comprehensively collected. Opera programmes are well represented including programmes for performances at Sadler's Wells Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Glyndebourne Festival, and also performances by the English Opera Group and the English Music Theatre Company.
Programmes for performances by Britten or Pears that are not already held in the collection are acquired whenever possible, and programmes for performances of Britten works are added regularly.
Photographs
The Archive holds more than 12,000 photographs covering many aspects of the lives of Britten, Pears and their associates. The Archive is about to embark on a major cataloguing project for this collection, which will include the digitisation of many of these images.
The photographs of Britten and Pears cover the whole of their lives and include photographs with family, friends, colleagues and associates, taken during formal and informal occasions, at home, on trips in the UK and abroad. There are numerous formal portraits of Britten and Pears, and photographs of Britten and Pears performing in recitals and concerts, of Britten conducting and of Pears in Britten and non-Britten opera roles.
The collection also includes portraits of friends and contemporaries of Britten and Pears. There are extensive production photographs of Britten operas, staged by various groups or companies and including first performances. Photographs of the English Opera Group and the English Music Theatre are well represented. These include production photographs of Britten and non-Britten operas, and photographs of members in rehearsal and at leisure, in the UK and on tour abroad. Photographs of The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts are comprehensive, forming a photographic record of the festival from its foundation in 1948 to the present day. These include photographs of performers on and off stage as well as production photographs.
There are photographs of other concerts, performances and events held throughout the year at Snape Maltings Concert Hall, in Aldeburgh and local venues. The Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme (formerly the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies) is also represented with photographs of staff, students, master classes, rehearsals and performances.
John Lewis’s costume design for Tom the coachman from the first production of The Little Sweep, 1949
Stage and costume designs
The Archive holds stage and costume designs for several of Britten's operas, including those for the original productions of Peter Grimes (designer Kenneth Green), The Little Sweep (John Lewis), Noye’s Fludde (Ceri Richards) and Owen Wingrave (David Myerscough-Jones), as well as designs by John Piper for a number of operas. There are also extensive set and costume designs for Britten and non-Britten operas produced by the English Opera Group and the English Music Theatre.
The Archive holds many smaller collections and individual papers relating to Britten, his works and associates, and other aspects of twentieth-century music. For further details of the archive holdings visit the online archive catalogue: