Britten as a composer can be difficult to categorize, as each of his operas is unique in their musical approach to the solving of quite different dramatic problems. He was certainly eclectic, pulling from a broad palette of compositional techniques, forms and styles in order to express himself. Yet his music is easily identifiable because of its strong personality. With regard to Peter Grimes we can readily hear that we’re dealing with a composer with a considerable amount of experience in film music and scoring for radio plays. There are a number of instances in the opera where one experiences the musical equivalent of a ‘cross-fade’, moving from one scene into another seamlessly with the music constantly thrusting forward. In other words, the physical set changes from one scene to the next while the orchestra bridges the visual gap with music that moves us from one environment to another. This takes some compositional ingenuity. The music from the previous scene must come to a satisfactory close without a sense of completion, and the music for the new scene must enter almost imperceptibly and establish the new ‘feel’ quickly and forcefully.
An obvious example of this musical cross-fading occurs at the end of the Prologue, set in the borough’s Moot Hall where an inquest into the death of Grimes’ boy apprentice is being held. After it is found that the boy died in ‘accidental circumstances’, Peter and Ellen the schoolmistress are left alone. Peter complains that he will always be under suspicion by the gossips in the borough, and Ellen tries to comfort him. This is all sung in an unaccompanied recitative for the two voices, singing in distinctly opposite keys (this helps to establish Grimes’ isolation from the village). As soon as their phrase comes to a quiet close the first violins in the orchestra introduce the First Interlude. The curtain closes on the Moot Hall then opens on the scene outside the Hall, a street by the sea. This orchestral interlude perfectly sets the tone of early morning as the borough awakens to the sounds of seagulls and the calm ocean lapping gently against the dock. This technique is obviously cinematic and occurs a number of other places throughout the opera.
The whole score is built in order to constantly remind the audience of Grimes’ “otherness”, his role as an outcast in the village. Britten often gives his title character wide interval leaps in the vocal line, as in the soliloquy “What harbour shelters peace, away from tidal waves, away from storms”. It begins with a leap of a major ninth, seeming to symbolize the wide gap that exists between himself and the rest of society. His first utterance (in the Prologue during the inquest), as he is sworn in to testify, is typical. Mr. Swallow, the mayor and coroner of the town, reads the oath (“I swear to almighty God…”) in quick, short note values. Peter repeats the oath with longer, more deliberate note values an octave above Swallow’s pitch level. Again the separation between Peter and other beings is emphasized as the two voices begin to overlap each other with complete independence one from the other. When the villagers take shelter from a storm at the local pub, someone begins singing a round in order to perk up their spirits: “Old Joe has gone fishing”. The round is taken up enthusiastically by everyone gathered but when Peter enters the rhythm is ‘wrong’, the timing ‘off’. The tuneful round falls apart. He can’t keep step with any other human being in his acquaintance. His very existence seems to be an affront to the well-ordered universe within which he finds himself.
Something else that sets Grimes the character apart from the villagers is that most of his solo utterances are monologues or soliloquies, not true arias. They are closer to the tradition of the great Verdi ariosos from Rigoletto, Falstaff or Otello. They are freer in shape than a closed aria (which has a clear beginning and end) and have far more resonance in the drama than a formal set-piece. That’s not to say that there are not real tunes in the opera. Some of the choral melodies in particular are quite memorable, from the opening “Oh hang at open doors the net” to “Old Joe has gone fishing” and “Grimes is at his exercise”.
Britten, like other great composers of theatre music, is a painter of text and scene. The so-called Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes (often performed by orchestras in concert outside the context of the opera) draw quite specific and literal portraits of the time and place. The first, evoking dawn on a street beside the sea, has already been alluded to. The second interlude moves us from Act I, scene i into the storm which drives the inhabitants to the pub for protection. It is certainly one of the most musically exciting storms in all opera. The third takes us into the scene on the beach with Ellen and the boy; it is Sunday morning and in the music we hear allusions to the ringing of church bells and their overlaying of sonic elements associated with the sea. These interludes hearken to the influence of Berg’s Wozzeck (one of Britten’s favorite works), similar in length, ‘feel’ and purpose, not just providing for movement from one scene to another but providing an emotional or psychological context for the upcoming scene.
All in all, Peter Grimes is a remarkable statement from a young composer just beginning his operatic career.