ABSTRACT
Early Life Edward Benjamin Britten was born November 22, 1913, St. Cecilia's Day, in Lowestoft, Suffolk. His mother, nee Edith Roda Hockey, was the secretary of the Lowestoft Choral Society and a fine amateur singer. His father, Robert Victor Britten, was a successful dentist. Britten studied piano, first with his mother and then with a local teacher. He began composing at age five and continued while attending South Lodge Preparatory School in Lowestoft as a day student. He also studied viola, and when he was twelve, his teacher introduced him to the composer Frank Bridge, with whom he arranged private composition studies. Bridge, with whom he continued to work for many years, was the outstanding influence on Britten's development as a composer and musician. Britten later remembered his childhood as idyllic, and this contributed to his later interest in writing music for children and his treatment of the theme of innocence betrayed.
