Benjamin Britten - Saint Nicolas

In 1947, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears moved into Aldeburgh, returning to Britten's own roots, since he stemmed from Lowestoft. At this time Pears floated the idea of an Aldeburgh Festival, as a vehicle for Britten's music-making and composition. Surrounding him with a coterie of friends had the advantage of making him less vulnerable to the hostility heaped on him by the more general musical public.

Saint Nicolas was composed for the opening of the first Aldeburgh Festival in 1948; Let's make an opera (1949) and Noyes Fludde (1958) have the same origins. Performed in Aldeburgh's Jubilee Hall, they clearly are works for the community, involving amateur musicians, local school children, two of them involving the whole audience in the singing of hymns at significant points in the action. St. Nicholas needs just seven professionals: a tenor, two percussionists and a string quartet.

This is very much at odds with the ethos of the avant garde music of the time, which was centred round, indeed could not be performed without performers of at least near-professional standard. Britten's own music is uncompromising in its demands, idiomatic though it is. There was, though, a counter-culture of important composers such as Malcolm Arnold producing music for amateurs and school children. In state schools, Music was about to blossom with the establishment of orchestras and instrumental tuition at all levels. In St. Nicolas Britten is clearly tapping into the first stirrings of this movement; it was also a very effective way of getting himself established and accepted in his new community.

The 'official' premiere of St. Nicolas was given at Lancing College (Peter Pears' old school) a few weeks after the Aldeburgh performance.