title: Advance Democracy
text: # Advance Democracy
  
  Advance Democracy is a 1938 piece for unaccompanied choir by British composer Benjamin Britten.
  
  ## History
  
  In 1938, in reaction to the Munich Agreement and threat posed by the Axis against the liberal order in Europe, the London Co-operative Society commissioned a propaganda piece to promote democracy. Poet Randall Swingler wrote the lyrics.
  
  ## Music
  
  The piece begins with text evoking the fascist menace, with a minor key and staccato. The call to advance democracy is underlined by a bright C major.
  
  