''Children's Crusade'', Op. 82, subtitled a ''Ballad for children's voices and orchestra'' is a composition by

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

. He completed it in 1969, setting

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

's poem ' for children's choir with some solo parts, keyboard instruments and an array of percussion, to be performed mainly by children. It was first performed in an English version at

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

in London on 19 May 1969.

History

Benjamin Britten composed several works for performance by children. He wrote ''Children's Crusade'' in October and November 1968, setting a narrative poem by

entitled ''Kinderkreuzzug 1939'', translated by

Hans Keller Hans (Heinrich) Keller (11 March 19196 November 1985) was an Austrian-born British musician and writer, who made significant contributions to musicology and music criticism, as well as being a commentator on such disparate fields as psychoana ...

. The composer stated that he had been interested in setting the text for some time, and suggested it as appropriate when he was approached to compose a work for the 50th anniversary of the

Save The Children Fund The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic ...

. ''Children's Crusade'' was performed, in an English version, by members of the

Wandsworth School Wandsworth School was a local authority maintained boys' secondary school in Southfields, London. Established in 1895, it became a selective grammar school, then an all-ability comprehensive school, before merging in 1986 and finally closing ...

Choir, conducted by Russell Burgess, at

in London on 19 May 1969, as part of a commemorative service. The same year, the performance was repeated as part of the

Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

, in a concert at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

on 31 August, with Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G minor and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique". It was published by

Faber Music Faber Music is a British sheet music publisher best known for contemporary classical music. It also publishes music tutor books, and in 2005 acquired popular music publisher International Music Publications. Faber Music has close relations to th ...

in 1970, dedicated to

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as t ...

. The first performers recorded the work in 1970 for a collection of ''Britten Rarities'', with the Wandsworth School Boys' Choir, among the soloists Adrian Thompson, pianists Ian Cobb and John Clegg, organist Jonathan Smith and six percussionists. The first performance of the German version took place in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...

in 1980 by girls and boys of the Braunschweiger Jugendchor (Brunswick Youth Choir), conducted by Manfred Ehrhorn, followed by the first recording in German a year later. It was reissued in 2012. In 2002 and 2003, the work was recorded, with other music by Britten for children, by the Choristers of Christ Church Cathedral and Worcester College Chapel Choristers, Christian Wilson (piano), John Madden (percussion and chamber organ) and the Oxfordshire Youth Percussion Ensemble, conducted by

Stephen Darlington Stephen Mark Darlington (born 21 September 1952) is a British choral director and conductor, and president of the Royal College of Organists from 1999–2001. Darlington attended King's School, Worcester. Then during the early 1970s, he was o ...

. A 2015 recording by the

Mädchenchor Hannover Der Mädchenchor Hannover is a girls' choir of girls and young women, based in Hannover, the state capital of Lower Saxony, Germany. Girls and young woman between ages 14 and 20 perform a wide range of repertoire from Renaissance to contemporary m ...

conducted by

Gudrun Schröfel Gudrun Schröfel (born 1 February 1943) is a German choral conductor, conductor and academic teacher. She led choirs, namely the Mädchenchor Hannover, to competition successes and awards for recordings. Life Schröfel studied music pedagogy, c ...

combined the work with Britten's ''

A Ceremony of Carols ''A Ceremony of Carols,'' Op. 28, is an extended choral composition for Christmas by Benjamin Britten scored for three-part treble chorus, solo voices, and harp. The text, structured in eleven movements, is taken from ''The English Galaxy of Shor ...

''.

Theme

The topic is a group of children in Poland during World War II in quest of peace. It was, after Britten's ''

War Requiem The ''War Requiem'', Op. 66, is a large-scale setting of the Requiem composed by Benjamin Britten mostly in 1961 and completed in January 1962. The ''War Requiem'' was performed for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, which was b ...

,'' another work inspired by his pacifist convictions, pointing out the "futility of war, witnessed through the eyes of a group of brave Polish children in the face of overwhelming odds", based on Brecht's imagery.

Music

Britten scored the vocal part for a

boys' choir A boys' choir is a choir primarily made up of choirboys who have yet to begin puberty or are in the early to middle stages of puberty and so retain their more highly pitched childhood voice type. Members of a boys' choir are technically known as '' ...

with nine solo parts. The orchestra includes a battery of percussion, two pianos and electronic organ or portable organ. The work takes about 19 minutes to perform. The percussion is intended to be played by children with the help of a few adults. The pianos and organ are designed to establish pitch. The work has been regarded as "a bleak pacifist message", and an "utterly serious piece of music, cleverly designed so as to involve as many children as possible in conveying the rather desperate, bleak message of Brecht’s poem".

References

External links

Benjamin Britten: "Children's Crusade", op. 82 (full score)

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

Children's Crusade
Britten Thematic Catalogue * * Seigo Inoue
Children's Voices as Musical Materials: In Case of Benjamin Britten's "Children's Crusade"
schedule.irsclcongress2019.com 2019
Children's Crusade, Op. 82 (Der Kinderkreuzzug)
(text in Italian, English, German, French) antiwarsongs.org

prints.paimages.co.uk {{authority control Compositions by Benjamin Britten

Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

1969 compositions World War II in popular culture