Michael Tippett

Tippett's music is characterized by exuberant, rhythmically vital counterpoint — springy, dancing melodic lines that tumble over each other in a uniquely buoyant way. His harmonic language evolved from a luminous, English-pastoral clarity in his early works to a more complex, sometimes abrasive modernism in his middle period, and finally to a visionary, eclectic late style that freely mixed idioms. His orchestration can be brilliant and quirky, sometimes deliberately unpolished in pursuit of expressive truth.

Tippett was deeply influenced by Beethoven's late quartets, Purcell's English vocal tradition, and the additive rhythms of African and Indonesian music. The psychology of Jung profoundly shaped his operatic and choral works. He was an exact contemporary and friend-rival of Benjamin Britten, and their contrasting approaches — Britten's craft vs. Tippett's vision — defined British music for decades.

Tippett was a late developer — his mature style didn't emerge until his thirties, and he destroyed his earliest works. A Child of Our Time (1941) was his breakthrough. The operas (The Midsummer Marriage, King Priam, The Knot Garden) show radical stylistic evolution from lyrical to angular to eclectic. His late works, including the Triple Concerto and the opera New Year, are wildly ambitious syntheses that incorporate blues, rock, and jazz alongside classical forms.

Tippett was imprisoned for three months during World War II as a conscientious objector. While in Wormwood Scrubs prison, he conducted the prison orchestra and continued working on A Child of Our Time, the oratorio that would make his name. The experience of imprisonment deepened his commitment to pacifism and social justice that permeates his entire output.

Tippett's decision to include African American spirituals in A Child of Our Time — in place of the Lutheran chorales Bach used in his Passions — was a radical, deeply personal act of solidarity with the oppressed that anticipated the civil rights movement by two decades and gives the oratorio an emotional directness that still overwhelms audiences.

A Child of Our Time is regularly performed by choral societies and orchestras, especially around Holocaust Memorial Day. The Ritual Dances from The Midsummer Marriage are an orchestral favorite. The Double Concerto appears on British orchestral programs regularly. His operas receive occasional revivals. Tippett's centenary in 2005 prompted a reassessment, and his music is holding its place in the repertoire — not as universally beloved as Britten's, but cherished by those who know it.