One way composers help make ends meet is to accept commissions for occasional pieces — works written for some special occasion, a private or public celebration or anniversary of some event, large or small. Sometimes these works go on to have a life of their own apart from the special occasion that prompted their creation, so that subsequent audiences might not even be aware of the original event at all.
In 1959, English composer Benjamin Britten accepted a commission from Swiss conductor Paul Sacher for a cantata to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the University of Basel in Switzerland. The texts selected for the cantata were all in Latin, the old academic language of universities 500 years ago, and included excerpts from the founding charter of the institution as well as medieval odes in praise of the university written by its students and faculty.
Britten’s score, which premiered at the University of Basel on today’s date in 1960, was quite literally, an academic exercise — and it’s amusing to note that apparently he wrote out the text for the work in the pages of one of his old school exercise books.
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976): Cantata Academica (Carmen Basiliense); Jennifere Vyvyan, soprano; Helen Watts, mezzo-soprano; Peter Pears, tenor; Owen Brannigan, bass; London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra; George Malcolm, conductor; Decca 4251532