The open areas of the Library are in a single-storey building, with unstepped access and egress. Toilet facilities are available. All library guides and descriptive literature are available in large-print and/or on buff paper upon request. Staff are always on hand to help visitors with access, consistent with the proper observation of standard procedures relating to conservation and security.
Open
The Library welcomes readers by appointment from Monday to Friday, 10.00am to 1.00pm and 2.00pm to 5.00pm. Guided tours of the Library and The Red House take place each weekday at 3pm, April to October and at other times by appointment. Larger parties (whether educational or general interest) are also welcome to visit; please contact us for more details.
Admission charges
Guided tours are charged at £5 per head, under 14s free of charge. All other visits and services are free.
Description
The Britten–Pears Library was originally assembled by Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) and Peter Pears (1910–1986), as a working library built on their personal collections of books manuscripts, printed scores and sound recordings.
The Library buildings are adjacent to The Red House, where Britten and Pears came to live in 1957. In 1963 they engaged the architect Peter Collymore to design a library and music room. This involved the demolition of a cowshed on the chosen site, which was in a dangerous state of repair, although one wall was retained in the new building. Once completed, the room was used by Britten and Pears not only for their private library, but also as a private rehearsal space for vocal, chamber and small choral ensembles. Today, with the original furniture and books still filling the space, together with Britten’s piano, the Library retains much of the ambience instilled there by its founders.
Time, however, has not stood still, and since Britten’s death, the Library buildings have been much expanded to incorporate a reading room, archival storage space, offices, and a large exhibition area, built in 1993 to a design by Robert Wilson and Malcolm Ness over the swimming pool that Britten and Pears had installed in 1960, but which had fallen into disuse after Pears’s death in 1986.
The Britten-Pears Library Trust was established in 1973, and the building was officially opened to the public as a facility for research by Sir Peter Pears in May 1980. Since that time the holdings have expanded to include, in addition to books, scores and sound recordings originally owned by Britten and Pears, all published studies on the composer and singer’s life and works, together with a comprehensive collection of unpublished dissertations. Today the Library is still a growing collection and books on composers, writers, artists and musicians who worked with and who inspired them through their lives are continually added, together with all commercial releases of Britten’s music, making the library particularly strong in the areas of twentieth-century music and the arts.
The Holst Library at Snape
The Holst Library, located at the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme at Snape Maltings (six miles from Aldeburgh), is staffed and administered by The Britten-Pears Library. This lending library was initiated by the gift of the late Imogen Holst (who worked closely with Britten for many years) and contains music, books and sound recordings covering a wide repertoire. It includes scores that formerly belonged to Gustav Holst, and has greatly benefited by gifts from the late Eva, Countess of Rosebery, DBE, Mr. W. T. O'Brien (the Dwayne Phillips Collection), Lord Balfour of Inchrye, the Estate of John Julian Stanton, and bequests from Leslie A. Periton and others.
Collections description
The extensive collections comprise printed scores, books and periodicals, electronic resources and audio and video recordings.
The Library’s collection development policy relating to printed music includes the acquisition of all new Britten publications and reprints, the continuation of collected and complete editions to which Britten and Pears subscribed (and some others) and the occasional purchase of new editions of music closely related with Britten. The collection includes: the complete published works of Benjamin Britten; music used and annotated by Pears or Britten; a range of complete and collected editions; printers' copies, proofs and early editions of Britten's works; English vocal music, from the sixteenth century to the present day, often in early editions.
Books and periodicals: Building on the extensive collection put together by Britten and Pears themselves, the Library continues to acquire new books relating to twentieth-century music (especially British), and to literary and artistic movements in which Britten and Pears were interested and figures with whom they were connected. The collection is particularly strong in the following areas: literature relating to Britten, Pears and their associates; literature related to English songs and singers; published and unpublished dissertations relating to Britten and Pears. There is also an extensive general collection of poetry, drama and books on other subjects.
The Library subscribes to a range of music journals, and also collects individual copies of journals containing articles relating to Britten.
A range of online resources are available on site, including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Mediated searches on other online databases are also available to readers on request.
Sound & film: The Library seeks to acquire a copy of every commercially available sound recording of Britten's music. In addition it has an extensive archive of sound recordings and video cassettes relating to the careers and lives of Britten and Pears. The library is currently engaged on a project to transfer many of its analogue tape recordings onto CD.
Key artists and exhibits
Benjamin Britten archive
;
Peter Pears archive
;
Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts archive
;
Britten–Pears Young Artist Programme archive
;
English Opera Group / English Music Theatre Company archive
;
Lennox Berkeley and the Berkeley Family papers
;
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs Papers
;
Paul Hamburger Collection
;
Nancy Evans and Eric Crozier papers
;
Joan Cross papers
;
Julian Herbage papers
;
London Boy Singers Association archive
;
Aldeburgh Music Club archive
;
Gustav Holst and Imogen Holst
General Information
Brochure or leaflet available with directions to museum
Pre-booking service for groups
Guided tours
Collections
Object identification and/or written enquiry service
Public access available to collections information
Disability Access
Large print information and/or interpretation
Toilets for disabled
Wheelchair access to some public areas
Children and Families
Gardens open to public
General Education
Academic publications and resources available
Teaching/resources available for HE/FE students
Facilities
Gardens open to public
Library
Research facilities for academics
Shop
Study facilities
