painting music: Britten Sea Interludes
A sense of place
Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Opus 33a, Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Incredibly evocative of the sea, and indelibly associated with the stretch of Suffolk coast around Aldeburgh, the Sea Interludes are orchestral pieces from the powerful opera Peter Grimes. The opera, written in 1945, tells the story of a community in turmoil, with the sea as a constant backdrop. The whole work is dark, ultimately tragic, and highly atmospheric. The interludes, titled ‘Dawn’, ‘Sunday Morning’, ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Storm’, portray the sea in different settings and moods and are often performed as standalone concert pieces.
Britten uses different voices and textures in the orchestra to portray sudden gusts of wind and bird cries, and beams of light on the sea. In this painting I wanted to show the dark foreboding atmosphere that pervades the whole work, so the background started as a monochrome drawing using graphite powder, liberally spread around, to which I added watercolour, and some raw indigo pigment which reacts in interesting ways to water. Thinking about the bird cries, I used a feather to introduce highlights and dynamic marks.
“Music expresses the emotions of a human being.”
Benjamin Britten, on why he writes opera (1968)
For me, there are few pieces of music so evocative of a sense of place as these Interludes. The coast of East Anglia has a particular stark beauty, and I only have to hear the first few bars of this piece to be taken right back there.