Britten and the Supernatural RANKING = 4

This chapter focuses on the ways in which Britten sets tonal and symmetrical processes in direct dialogue with each other to paint a variety of struggles between human and supernatural forces. Rather than subsuming atonal elements into an otherwise tonal language, Britten’s music often shows a deliberate parsing of the two techniques. Similar to other composers of the 19th and 20th centuries, Britten often sets supernatural characters and ideas to music that usurps the consonance/dissonance boundaries through use of inversionally symmetrical processes and constructs. Furthermore, Britten often sets these forces against tonally represented human characters and ideas. The result is a stratified texture of incompatible syntaxes that mirrors certain incompatibilities between natural and supernatural entities.