Profile of Michael Tippett on Famous Like Me

Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was one of the foremost English composers of the 20th century.

Born in London of English and Cornish stock, he was educated at Fettes, Stamford School and the Royal College of Music, where he studied composition with Vaughan Williams and conducting with Adrian Boult. In the 1920s, living simply in Surrey, he plunged himself into musical life, conducting amateur choirs and local operas. Unlike his contemporaries Walton and Britten, Tippett was a late developer as a composer and was severely critical of his early compositions. At the age of 30, he studied counterpoint and fugue with Reginald Owen Morris. His first mature compositions show a fascination with these aspects.

Tippett was never a prolific composer, and his works, completed slowly over the following 60 years, comprised five string quartets, four concertos, four symphonies, five operas and a number of vocal and choral works. His music is typically seen as falling into four distinct period. The first period (1935–1947), includes the first three quartets, the Concerto for Double String Orchestra, the oratorio A Child of Our Time (written to his own libretto at the encouragement of T. S. Eliot) and the First Symphony. This period is characterised by strenuous contrapuntal energy and deeply lyrical slow movements. The second period, from then until the late 1950s, includes the opera The Midsummer Marriage, the Corelli Fantasia, the Piano Concerto, and the Second Symphony; this period features rich textures and effervescent melody. The third period, the 1960s and 70s, is in stark contrast, and is characterised by abrupt statements and simplicity of texture, as in the opera King Priam, the Concerto for Orchestra and the Second Piano Sonata. The fourth period is a rich mixture of all these styles, using many devices, such as quotation (from Ludwig van Beethoven and Modest Mussorgsky, among others). The main works of this period were the Third Symphony, the operas The Ice Break and New Year, and the large-scale choral work The Mask of Time.

Tippett was regarded by many as an outsider in British music, a view that may have been related to his early conscientious objection and his homosexuality. His pacifist beliefs led to a prison sentence in World War II, and for many years his music was considered ungratefully written for voices and instruments, and difficult to perform. An intense intellectual, he maintained a much wider knowledge and interest in the literature and philosophy of other countries (Africa, Europe) than was common among British musicians. His (sometimes quirky) libretti for his operas and other works reflect his passionate interest in the dilemmas of human society and the enduring strength of the human spirit.

The BBC's Radio 3 has honoured his centenary with a Composer of the Week program of his music in January 2005.

Some other important works not mentioned above include

• The Knot Garden (1966–70) (and the related Songs for Dov)
• The Vision of St. Augustine for baritone, chorus and orchestra (1965)
• fourth symphony (premiered 1977)
• fourth string quartet (1978)
• Triple Concerto for string trio and orchestra (1978–9)
• The Rose Lake, for orchestra (1993. His last major work)

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