Benjamin Britten’s compositions for children and amateurs: cloaking simplicity behind the veil of sophistication.

The principal aim of this thesis is to examine a portion of Britten’s oeuvre which was intended for performance by children and amateurs and thereby to assess the extent of the composer’s success in achieving music which betrayed all the hallmarks of a sophisticated composition, yet providing a score which was accessible to its performers. Indeed, ‘because of his refusal to ‘write down’ to the child performer, although drawing on his considerable technical expertise to tailor his music to the appropriate level of skill, there can be little doubt that this body of work contributes significantly towards what Humphrey Carpenter termed Britten’s “‘huge achievement.’