Auden, W(ystan) H(ugh)

Andrew Porter

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.01498

Extract
(b York, Feb 21, 1907; d Vienna, Sept 29, 1973). English poet, naturalized American. Of all the
mid-20th-century poets, Auden was the most actively concerned with music; the third part of his
Collected Poems (New York, 1945) consists of 38 ‘songs and other musical pieces’, including the
five lyrics set in Britten’s cycle On this Island (1938), his Song for St Cecilia’s Day (1941) and
arias from his ‘choral operetta’ Paul Bunyan (1941). With Britten he collaborated on films (Coal
Face, 1935; Night Mail, 1936), broadcasts (Hadrian’s Wall, 1937; The Dark Valley, 1940), plays
(The Ascent of F.6, 1937; On the Frontier, 1938), on the ‘symphonic cycle’ Our Hunting Fathers
(1936) and on cabaret songs for Hedli Anderson (1938). Two quotations from the St Cecilia poem
show how well Auden wrote words for music. The opening lines:...

You do not currently have access to this article

Login Subscribe

Please login to access the full content. Please subscribe to access the full content.

Page 1 of 1
Printed from Grove Music Online. Grove is a registered trademark. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an
individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy).

date: 26 January 2021