112-549: King Priam is an opera by Michael Tippett , to his own libretto. The story is based on Homer's Iliad , except the birth and childhood of Paris, which are taken from the Fabulae of Hyginus . The premiere was on 29 May 1962, at Coventry . The opera was composed for an arts festival held in conjunction with the reconsecration of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral , for which Benjamin Britten also wrote his War Requiem , which
224-506: A 1912 essay on the paintings of Arnold Schoenberg by Wassily Kandinsky . King Priam takes a private view of the events of the Trojan War , focusing on individual moments of moral choice. The opera begins soon after the birth of Paris, when an Old Man prophesies that the baby will grow up to cause his father's death. Queen Hecuba immediately declares that her child must be killed. Priam hesitates, but reflects, "What means one life when
336-467: A New Zealand soprano, was given the award in 2018 and Canadian author Margaret Atwood was given the award in 2019. Sebastian Coe , Baron Coe CH represented the Order at the 2023 Coronation . The insignia of the order is in the form of an oval medallion, surmounted by a royal crown (but, until recently, surmounted by an imperial crown ), and with a rectangular panel within, depicting on it an oak tree,
448-656: A Theme of Handel for piano and orchestra was performed at the Wigmore Hall in March 1942, with Sellick again the soloist, and the same venue saw the première of the composer's String Quartet No. 2 a year later. The first recording of Tippett's music, the Piano Sonata No. 1 played by Sellick, was issued in August 1941. The recording was well received by critics; Wilfrid Mellers predicted a leading role for Tippett in
560-543: A career as a composer, a prospect that alarmed them and was discouraged by his headmaster and by Sargent. By mid-1922 Tippett had developed a rebellious streak. His overt atheism particularly troubled the school, and he was required to leave. He remained in Stamford in private lodgings, while continuing lessons with Tinkler and with the organist of St Mary's Church . He also began studying Charles Villiers Stanford 's book Musical Composition , which, he later wrote, "became
672-693: A centenary celebration of the Tolpuddle Martyrs , as part of a grand Pageant of Labour at the Crystal Palace . Tippett was not formally a member of any political party or group until 1935, when he joined the British Communist Party at the urging of his cousin, Phyllis Kemp. This membership was brief; the influence of Trotsky 's History of the Russian Revolution had led him to embrace Trotskyism , while
784-657: A composer". Companion of Honour The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms . It was founded on 4 June 1917 by King George V as a reward for outstanding achievements. It was founded on the same date as the Order of the British Empire . The order was originally intended to be conferred upon a limited number of persons for whom this special distinction seemed to be
896-407: A consequence. From around 1976 his late works began to reflect the works of his youth through a return to lyricism. Although he was much honoured in his lifetime, critical judgement on Tippett's legacy has been uneven, the greatest praise generally reserved for his earlier works. His centenary in 2005 was a muted affair; apart from the few best-known works, his music has not been performed frequently in
1008-488: A curriculum that included piano lessons—his first formal contact with music. There was a piano in the house, on which he "took to improvising crazily ... which I called 'composing', though I had only the vaguest notion of what that meant". In September 1914 Michael became a boarder at Brookfield Preparatory School in Swanage , Dorset. He spent four years there, at one point earning notoriety by writing an essay that challenged
1120-684: A decade previously Malcolm Sargent had been a pupil. Around this time Henry Tippett decided to live in France, and the house in Wetherden was sold. The 15-year-old Michael and his brother Peter remained at school in England, travelling to France for their holidays. Michael found Stamford much more congenial than Fettes, and developed both academically and musically. He found an inspiring piano teacher in Frances Tinkler, who introduced him to
1232-636: A degree that the collective, magical archetypes take charge—Jung's anima and animus . Tippett, outlining the origins of The Midsummer Marriage . The musical and philosophical ideas behind the opera had begun in Tippett's mind several years earlier. The story, which he wrote himself, charts the fortunes of two contrasting couples in a manner which has brought comparison with Mozart's The Magic Flute . The strain of composition, combined with his continuing responsibilities at Morley and his BBC work, affected Tippett's health and slowed progress. Following
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#17327759263151344-476: A festival of his music. After suffering a stroke he was taken home, where he died on 8 January 1998, six days after his 93rd birthday. He was cremated on 15 January, at Hanworth crematorium, after a secular service. Bowen has called Tippett "a composer of our time", one who engaged with the social, political and cultural issues of his day. Arnold Whittall sees the music as embodying Tippett's philosophy of "ultimately optimistic humanism". Rather than ignoring
1456-450: A force greater than himself. As if in answer to his question, the god Hermes appears, and instructs him to choose between three goddesses: Athene, Hera, and Aphrodite, whose roles are sung by Hecuba, Andromache, and Helen. Athene/Hecuba offers Paris glory in war, Hera/Andromache offers domestic peace, but Aphrodite/Helen simply says his name, and he responds with hers, his choice made unconsciously. The other two goddesses curse him, foretelling
1568-614: A fruitful musical friendship with Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears , for whom he wrote the cantata Boyhood's End for tenor and piano. Encouraged by Britten, Tippett made arrangements for the first performance of A Child of Our Time , at London's Adelphi Theatre on 19 March 1944. Goehr conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra , and Morley's choral forces were augmented by the London Regional Civil Defence Choir. Pears sang
1680-521: A hero of the 1930s class war In the summers of 1932 and 1934 Tippett took charge of musical activities at miners' work camps near Boosbeck in the north of England. Known as the Cleveland Work Camps , they were run by a munificent local landowner, Major Pennyman, to give unemployed miners a sense of purpose and independence. In 1932 Tippett arranged the staging of a shortened version of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera , with locals playing
1792-562: A house in the Wiltshire village of Corsham , where he lived with his long-term partner Karl Hawker. By then Tippett had begun work on his second major opera, King Priam . He chose for his theme the tragedy of Priam , mythological king of the Trojans , as recorded in Homer 's Iliad , and again he prepared his own libretto. As with The Midsummer Marriage , Tippett's preoccupation with
1904-546: A large, dilapidated house, Tidebrook Manor in Wadhurst , Sussex. As The Midsummer Marriage neared completion he wrote a song cycle for tenor and piano, The Heart's Assurance . This work, a long-delayed tribute to Francesca Allinson (who had committed suicide in 1945), was performed by Britten and Pears at the Wigmore Hall on 7 May 1951. The Midsummer Marriage was finished in 1952, after which Tippett arranged some of
2016-552: A libretto for the oratorio, and the poet showed interest. But when Tippett presented him with a more detailed scenario, Eliot advised him to write his own text, suggesting that the poetic quality of the words might otherwise dominate the music. Tippett called the oratorio A Child of Our Time , taking the title from Ein Kind unserer Zeit , a contemporary protest novel by the Austro-Hungarian writer Ödön von Horváth . Within
2128-536: A live broadcast from the Royal Festival Hall on 5 February 1958, the work broke down after a few minutes and had to be restarted by the apologetic conductor: "Entirely my mistake, ladies and gentlemen". The BBC's Controller of Music defended the orchestra in The Times , writing that it "is equal to all reasonable demands", a wording that implied the fault was the composer's. In 1960 Tippett moved to
2240-456: A lyrical song of their home, "O rich soiled land," accompanied by solo guitar. But Patroclus is ashamed that Achilles will not fight, and asks to be allowed to go into battle wearing Achilles' armor, so that the Greeks will take hope from the sight of their greatest warrior. Achilles agrees, and offers a libation to the gods for Patroclus' safety. Watching invisibly under the protection of Hermes,
2352-463: A memorial to Stravinsky, who had died on 6 April 1971, and the Piano Sonata No. 3 (1973). In February 1974 Tippett attended a "Michael Tippett Festival" arranged in his honour by Tufts University , near Boston , Massachusetts. He was also present at a performance of The Knot Garden at Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois —the first Tippett opera to be performed in the US. Two years later he
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#17327759263152464-567: A pencil". Tippett overcame his initial ignorance of early music by attending Palestrina masses at Westminster Cathedral , following the music with the help of a borrowed score. At the RCM, Tippett's first composition tutor was Charles Wood , who used the models of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to instil a solid understanding of musical forms and syntax. When Wood died in 1926, Tippett chose to study with C.H. Kitson , whose pedantic approach and lack of sympathy with Tippett's compositional aims strained
2576-549: A performance in November 1941 of Purcell's Ode to St Cecilia , with improvised instruments and rearrangements of voice parts, attracted considerable attention. The music staff at Morley was augmented by the recruitment of refugee musicians from Europe, including Walter Bergmann , Mátyás Seiber , and Walter Goehr , who took charge of the college orchestra. A Child of Our Time was finished in 1941 and put aside with no immediate prospects of performance. Tippett's Fantasia on
2688-669: A performance of Handel's Messiah , using choral and orchestral forces close to Handel's original intentions. Such an approach was rare at that time, and the event attracted considerable interest. In mid-1932 Tippett moved to a cottage in neighbouring Limpsfield, provided by friends as a haven in which he could concentrate on composition. His friendships with Ayerst and Allinson had opened up new cultural and political vistas. Through Ayerst he met W. H. Auden , who in due course introduced him to T. S. Eliot . Although no deep friendship developed with either poet, Tippett came to consider Eliot his "spiritual father". Ayerst also introduced him to
2800-466: A project through from conception to completion was very long—seven years, Tippett said, in the case of the Third Symphony. In the earlier, contemplative stages he might be simultaneously engaged on other works, but once these stages were complete he would dedicate himself entirely to the completion of the work in hand. Tippett preferred to compose in full score; once the writing began, progress
2912-429: A quiet scene, Priam kisses Achilles' hands, "the hands of him who slew my son" and begs to be given Hector's body for burial. Achilles agrees, and the two look ahead to their own deaths: Achilles to be killed by Paris, and Priam to be killed by Neoptolemus, Achilles' son. Troy is in ruins. Priam refuses to leave his city, and one by one his family leaves him. His last farewell is with Helen, to whom he speaks gently. There
3024-616: A quota of 45 members for the United Kingdom , seven for Australia , two each for New Zealand and South Africa , and nine for India , Burma , and the other British colonies . The quota numbers were altered in 1970 to 47 for the United Kingdom, seven for Australia, two for New Zealand, and nine for other Commonwealth realms. The quota was adjusted again in 1975 by adding two places to the New Zealand quota and reducing
3136-529: A recurring factor in his music. He was a strong advocate of music education , and was active for much of his life as a radio broadcaster and writer on music. The Tippett family originated in Cornwall . Michael Tippett's grandfather, George Tippett, left the county in 1854 to make his fortune in London through property speculation and other business schemes. A flamboyant character, he had a strong tenor voice that
3248-677: A result, he gave up his teaching position at Hazelwood to become the conductor of the South London Orchestra, a project financed by the London County Council and made up of unemployed musicians. Its first public concert was held on 5 March 1933 at Morley College , later to become Tippett's professional base. "So God He made us outlaws To beat the devil's man To rob the rich, to help the poor By Robin's ten-year plan." Robin Hood, interpreted by Tippett as
3360-597: A shield with the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom hanging from one branch, and, on the left, a mounted knight in armour. The insignia's blue border bears in gold letters the motto IN ACTION FAITHFUL AND IN HONOUR CLEAR , Alexander Pope 's description (in iambic pentameter ) in his Epistle to Mr Addison of James Craggs the Younger , later used on Craggs's monument in Westminster Abbey . Men wear
3472-528: A text by Christopher Fry; piano variations on the song "Jockey to the Fair"; and a string quartet. Professional soloists and orchestral players were engaged, and the concert was conducted by David Moule-Evans , a friend from the RCM. Despite encouraging comments from The Times and the Daily Telegraph , Tippett was deeply dissatisfied with the works, and decided that he needed further tuition. He withdrew
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3584-471: A three-part structure based on Handel's Messiah , Tippett took the novel step of using North American spirituals in place of the traditional chorales that punctuate oratorio texts. According to Kenneth Gloag's commentary, the spirituals provide "moments of focus and repose ... giving shape to both the musical and literary dimensions of the work". Tippett began composing the oratorio in September 1939, on
3696-478: A torrent of musical invention". His status as a national figure was now being increasingly recognised. He had been appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1959; in 1961 he was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Music (HonFRCM), and in 1964 he received from Cambridge University the first of many honorary doctorates . In 1966 he was knighted . In 1965 Tippett made
3808-401: A volley of insults. Helen responds with a virtuoso aria claiming that erotic passion is greater than either morality or politics, that her love "touches Heaven, because it stretches down to Hell." Finding no comfort in sisterhood, the three women make separate prayers, each to the goddess she represented in the first act. Helen and Hecuba go, and a serving-woman enters to ask if she should light
3920-506: A young artist, Wilfred Franks . By this time Tippett was coming to terms with his homosexuality, while not always at ease with it. Franks provided him with what he called "the deepest, most shattering experience of falling in love". This intense relationship ran alongside a political awakening. Tippett's natural sympathies had always been leftish, and became more consciously so from his inclusion in Allinson's circle of left-wing activists. As
4032-500: Is a moment of stillness before Achilles' son appears to strike the killing blow and Hermes, the drama over, departs for Olympus. Michael Tippett Sir Michael Kemp Tippett CH CBE (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten as one of
4144-678: Is derived in part from Bartók and Stravinsky but also from the English madrigalists. Sympathy with the past, observed by Colin Mason in an early appraisal of the composer's work, was at the root of the neoclassicism that is a feature of Tippett's music, at least until the Second Symphony (1957). In terms of tonality, Tippett shifted his ground in the course of his career. His earlier works, up to The Midsummer Marriage , are key-centred, but thereafter he moved through bitonality into what
4256-455: Is hunting on the mountain with his eldest son, Hector. Hector attempts to subdue a wild bull, but a strange child leaps onto its back and rides away. The child returns, asks to join Hector among the heroes of Troy, and says his name is Paris. Priam is filled with joy that his secret wish was fulfilled, and he welcomes Paris back to Troy as its prince, whatever the consequences may be. The Nurse and
4368-620: Is marked by the expansive nature of his melodic line—the Daily Telegraph ' s Ivan Hewett refers to his "astonishingly long-breathed melodies". According to Jones, a further element of the "individual voice" that emerged in 1935 was Tippett's handling of rhythm and counterpoint, demonstrated in the First String Quartet—Tippett's first use of the additive rhythm and cross-rhythm polyphony which became part of his musical signature. This approach to metre and rhythm
4480-549: The Zorian Quartet . His main creative energies were increasingly devoted to his first major opera, The Midsummer Marriage . During the six years from 1946 he composed almost no other music, apart from the Birthday Suite for Prince Charles (1948). I saw a stage picture ... of a wooded hilltop with a temple, where a warm and soft young man was being rebuffed by a cold and hard young woman ... to such
4592-414: The "excessive complexity of the contrapuntal writing ... there was so much going on that the perplexed ear knew not where to turn or fasten itself". Such comments helped foster a view that Tippett was a "difficult" composer, or even that his music was amateurish and poorly prepared. These perceptions were strengthened by controversies around several of his works in the late 1950s. The Piano Concerto (1955)
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4704-426: The 1930s Wilf Franks continued to be an important influence on Tippett both creatively and politically. Franks had a passion for the poetry of both William Blake and Wilfred Owen ; Tippett claimed that Franks knew Owen's poetry 'almost word for word and draws it out for me, its meanings, its divine pity and so on...'. Before the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Tippett released two further works:
4816-466: The 21st century. Having briefly embraced communism in the 1930s, Tippett avoided identifying with any political party. A pacifist after 1940, he was imprisoned in 1943 for refusing to carry out war-related duties required by his military exemption. His initial difficulties in accepting his homosexuality led him in 1939 to Jungian psychoanalysis; the Jungian dichotomy of " shadow " and "light" remained
4928-594: The Delectable Mountains and of Tippett's own adaptation of an 18th-century ballad opera, The Village Opera . He passed his Bachelor of Music (BMus) exams, at his second attempt, in December 1928. Rather than continuing to study for a doctorate, Tippett decided to leave the academic environment. The RCM years had brought him intense and lasting friendships with members of both sexes, in particular with Francesca Allinson and David Ayerst. On leaving
5040-704: The Old Man begs the god to warn Priam of the danger, but in Troy, Paris is already announcing to the king that Hector has slain Patroclus in single combat. The father and sons sing a trio of thanks for the victory, but they are interrupted by the chilling sound of Achilles' war-cry, taken up and echoed by the Greek army. Greece's greatest warrior has returned to the field in a berserk fury. In Hector's bedchamber, Andromache sits and waits for her husband. She remembers with terror
5152-521: The Old and Young Man observe this reversal with foreboding, but are interrupted by revellers at the wedding of Hector and Andromache. The guests gossip that Hector and Paris never became friendly, and that Paris has left Troy for the court of Menelaus in Sparta. In Sparta, Paris and Helen have already become lovers. Paris wonders if there is any choice in life at all - he feels pulled irresistibly toward Helen by
5264-587: The Peace Pledge Union. In 1977 he made a rare political statement when, opening a PPU exhibition at St Martin-in-the-Fields , he attacked President Carter 's plans to develop a neutron bomb . In his seventies, Tippett continued to compose and travel, although now handicapped by health problems. His eyesight was deteriorating as a result of macular dystrophy , and he relied increasingly on his musical amanuensis Michael Tillett, and on Meirion Bowen, who became Tippett's assistant and closest companion in
5376-522: The Piano Sonata No. 1, first performed by Phyllis Sellick at the Queen Mary Hall, London, on 11 November 1938, and the Concerto for Double String Orchestra , which was not performed until 1940. In a climate of increasing political and military tension, Tippett's compositional efforts were overwhelmed by an emotional crisis. When his relationship with Franks ended acrimoniously in August 1938 he
5488-811: The RCM in the summer term of 1923, when he was 18 years old. At the time, his biographer Meirion Bowen records, "his aspirations were Olympian, though his knowledge rudimentary". Life in London widened his musical awareness, especially the Proms at the Queen's Hall , opera at Covent Garden (where he saw Dame Nellie Melba 's farewell performance in La bohème ) and the Diaghilev Ballet . He heard Chaliapin sing, and attended concerts conducted by, among others, Stravinsky and Ravel —the last-named "a tiny man who stood bolt upright and conducted with what to me looked like
5600-570: The RCM, Tippett settled in Oxted to continue his work with the choir and theatrical group and to compose. To support himself he taught French at Hazelwood, a small preparatory school in Limpsfield , which provided him with a salary of £80 a year and a cottage. Also teaching at the school was Christopher Fry , the future poet and playwright who later collaborated with Tippett on several of the composer's early works. In February 1930 Tippett provided
5712-654: The String Quartet No. 5; and The Rose Lake , a "song without words for orchestra" inspired by a visit to Lake Retba in Senegal during his 1990 trip. He intended The Rose Lake to be his farewell, but in 1996 he broke his retirement to write "Caliban's Song" as a contribution to the Purcell tercentenary. In 1997 he moved from Wiltshire to London to be closer to his friends and caregivers; in November of that year he made his last overseas trip, to Stockholm for
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#17327759263155824-929: The United States San Francisco Opera Center Showcase in 1994. In 2014 the work was revived by English Touring Opera , with a reduced orchestration by Iain Farrington , the first performance of this version being given at the Linbury Studio Theatre at the Royal Opera House on 13 February 2014. As epigraph to the score Tippett placed the German words "Es möge uns das Schicksal gönnen, dass wir das innere Ohr von dem Munde der Seele nicht abwenden," or, "May Fate grant that we never turn our inner ear away from our soul's lips." These words conclude
5936-402: The actual notes". He elaborated: "I compose by first developing an overall sense of the length of the work, then of how it will divide itself into sections or movements, then of the kind of texture or instruments or voices that will be performing it. I prefer not to consider the actual notes of the composition until this process ... has gone as far as possible". Sometimes the time required to see
6048-643: The barbarism of the 20th century, says Kemp, Tippett chose through his works to seek "to preserve or remake those values that have been perverted, while at the same time never losing sight of the contemporary reality". The key early work in this respect is A Child of Our Time , of which Clarke writes: "[t]he words of the oratorio's closing ensemble, 'I would know my shadow and my light, So shall I at last be whole', have become canonical in commentary on Tippett ... this [Jungian] statement crystallizes an ethic, and aesthetic, central to his world-view, and one which underlies all his text-based works". Sceptical critics such as
6160-487: The basis of all my compositional efforts for decades to come". In 1923 Henry Tippett was persuaded that some form of musical career, perhaps as a concert pianist, was possible, and agreed to support his son in a course of study at the Royal College of Music (RCM). After an interview with the college principal, Sir Hugh Allen , Tippett was accepted despite his lack of formal entry qualifications. Tippett began at
6272-505: The choice involves a whole city?" and gives the baby to the Young Man to be abandoned on a mountainside. Left alone, the Old Man, the Young Man, and the child's Nurse discuss Priam's choice. These three characters will return throughout the opera to comment on the action from their differing perspectives. Sensing Priam's true feelings the Young Man does not kill the baby, but gives him to shepherds to raise as their own. Years later, Priam
6384-471: The college, using temporary premises and whatever resources he could muster. He revived the Morley College Choir and orchestra, and arranged innovative concert programmes that typically mixed early music ( Orlando Gibbons , Monteverdi , Dowland ), with contemporary works by Stravinsky, Hindemith and Bartók . He continued the college's established association with the music of Purcell ;
6496-453: The composer Charles Fussell has called "the freely-organized harmonic worlds" of the Third Symphony and The Ice Break . Although Tippett flirted with the "twelve-tone" technique —he introduced a twelve-tone theme into the "storm" prelude that begins The Knot Garden —Bowen records that he generally rejected serialism as incompatible with his musical aims. Tippett described himself as the receiver of inspiration rather than its originator,
6608-525: The composer has found the right music for his ends". Much of the music Tippett composed following the opera's completion reflected its lyrical style. Among these was the Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli (1953) for string orchestra, written to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the composer Arcangelo Corelli 's birth. The Fantasia eventually became one of Tippett's most popular works, though The Times ' s critic lamented
6720-666: The compositions that followed King Priam retained the musical idiom of the opera, notably the Piano Sonata No. 2 (1962) and the Concerto for Orchestra (1963), the latter written for the Edinburgh Festival and dedicated to Britten for his 50th birthday. Tippett's main work in the mid-1960s was the cantata The Vision of Saint Augustine , commissioned by the BBC, which Bowen marks as a peak of Tippett's compositional career: "Not since The Midsummer Marriage had he unleashed such
6832-402: The conclusion of his dream therapy and immediately after the outbreak of war. With the South London Orchestra temporarily disbanded because of the war, Tippett returned to teaching at Hazelwood. In October 1940 he accepted the post of Director of Music at Morley College , just after its buildings were almost completely destroyed by a bomb. Tippett's challenge was to rebuild the musical life of
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#17327759263156944-652: The conductor Colin Davis to rescue the Bath International Music Festival from a financial crisis, and became the festival's artistic director for the next five seasons. In 1970, following the collapse of his relationship with Hawker, he left Corsham and moved to a secluded house on the Marlborough Downs . Among the works he wrote in this period were In Memoriam Magistri (1971), a chamber piece commissioned by Tempo magazine as
7056-476: The contemporary turmoil in the world and his own recent catharsis. Having briefly considered the theme of the Dublin Easter Rising of 1916, he based his work on a more immediate event: the murder in Paris of a German diplomat by a 17-year-old Jewish refugee, Herschel Grynszpan . This murder triggered Kristallnacht (Crystal Night), a coordinated attack on Jews and their property throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938. Tippett hoped that Eliot would provide
7168-452: The creative spark coming from a particular personal experience, which might take one of many forms but was most often associated with listening to music. The process of composing was lengthy and laborious, the actual writing down of the music being preceded by several stages of gestation; as Tippett put it, "the concepts come first, and then a lot of work and imaginative processes until eventually, when you're ready, finally ready, you look for
7280-464: The day Achilles killed her father and brothers. Queen Hecuba enters and tells her to save Hector by going to the walls of Troy and calling him out of battle. Andromache refuses, asking why Priam will not end the war by returning the stolen Helen to her own husband. Hecuba scoffs that no war was fought for a woman: Helen may be the pretext, but the great city of Troy is the Greek's real prize. Helen herself now enters, and Andromache relieves her feelings with
7392-545: The death in 1949 of Morley's principal, Eva Hubback , Tippett's personal commitment to the college waned. His now-regular BBC fees had made him less dependent on his Morley salary, and he resigned his college post in 1951. His farewell took the form of three concerts he conducted at the new Royal Festival Hall , in which the programmes included A Child of Our Time , the British première of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana , and Thomas Tallis 's rarely performed 40-part motet Spem in alium . In 1951 Tippett moved from Limpsfield to
7504-425: The doom he will bring to Troy. Troy is under siege. In the city, Hector taunts Paris with cowardice for having run away from Menelaus in battle. Scolded by Priam, the brothers return to the fight together. The Old Man, fearful for Troy, calls on Hermes and asks to be shown Achilles, hero of the Greeks. Achilles has withdrawn from battle, and the scene in his tent is a peaceful one, as he sings to his friend Patroclus
7616-463: The existence of God. In 1918 he won a scholarship to Fettes College , a boarding school in Edinburgh, where he studied the piano, sang in the choir, and began to learn to play the pipe organ. The school was not a happy place; sadistic bullying of the younger pupils was commonplace. When Michael revealed to his parents in March 1920 that he had formed a homosexual relationship with another boy, they removed him to Stamford School in Lincolnshire, where
7728-436: The fire for Hector's evening bath. Denying her instinctive knowledge of his death, Andromache answers "Yes...yes," but her slave mockingly echoes "No...no," as the servants are first to hear all the bad news. Andromache runs out in despair, and the serving-woman is joined by a chorus of slaves who comment cynically: "We could tell the story too, the pathetic story of our masters, viewed from the corridor." Paris brings King Priam
7840-413: The first of several visits to the United States, to serve as composer in residence at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. His American experiences had a significant effect on the music he composed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with jazz and blues elements particularly evident in his third opera, The Knot Garden (1966–69), and in the Symphony No. 3 (1970–72). At home in 1969, Tippett worked with
7952-413: The future of English music. In 1942, Schott Music began to publish Tippett's works, establishing an association that continued until the end of the composer's life. The question of Tippett's liability for war service remained unresolved until mid-1943. In November 1940 he had formalised his pacifism by joining the Peace Pledge Union and applying for registration as a conscientious objector . His case
8064-520: The incidental music for a performance by his theatrical group of James Elroy Flecker 's Don Juan , and in October he directed them in his own adaptation of Stanford's opera The Travelling Companion . His compositional output was such that on 5 April 1930 he gave a concert in Oxted consisting entirely of his own works—a Concerto in D for flutes, oboe, horns and strings; settings for tenor of poems by Charlotte Mew; Psalm in C for chorus and orchestra, with
8176-404: The leading British composers of the 20th century. Among his best-known works are the oratorio A Child of Our Time , the orchestral Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli , and the opera The Midsummer Marriage . Tippett's talent developed slowly. He withdrew or destroyed his earliest compositions, and was 30 before any of his works were published. Until the mid-to-late 1950s his music
8288-421: The main parts, and the following year he provided the music for a new folk opera, Robin Hood , with words by Ayerst, himself and Ruth Pennyman . Both works proved hugely popular with their audiences, and although most of the music has disappeared, Tippett revived some of Robin Hood for use in his Birthday Suite for Prince Charles of 1948. In October 1934 Tippett and the South London Orchestra performed at
8400-462: The methods of Puccini and Verdi". Tippett's libretto was variously described as "one of the worst in the 350-year history of opera" and "a complex network of verbal symbolism", and the music as "intoxicating beauty" with "passages of superbly conceived orchestral writing". A year after the première, the critic A.E.F. Dickinson concluded that "in spite of notable gaps in continuity and distracting infelicities of language, [there is] strong evidence that
8512-537: The monarch of the Commonwealth realms, who is the Sovereign of the Order of the Companions of Honour, and a maximum of 65 members. Additionally, foreigners or Commonwealth citizens from outside the Commonwealth realms may be added as honorary members. Members are organised into a single class and are appointed by the monarch of the Commonwealth realms in their capacity as sovereign of the order. While membership of
8624-531: The most appropriate form of recognition, constituting an honour dissociated from either the acceptance of title or the classification of merit. It is now described as being "awarded for having a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine, or government lasting over a long period of time". The first recipients of the order were all decorated for "services in connection with the war " and were listed in The London Gazette . The order consists of
8736-595: The music as a concert suite, the Ritual Dances , performed in Basel , Switzerland, in April 1953. The opera itself was staged at Covent Garden on 27 January 1955. The lavish production, with costumes and stage designs by Barbara Hepworth and choreography by John Cranko , perplexed the opera-going public and divided critical opinion. According to Bowen, most "were simply unprepared for a work that departed so far from
8848-514: The music of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin. Sargent had maintained his connection with the school, and was present when Tippett and another boy played Bach's C minor Concerto for Two Harpsichords on pianos with a local string orchestra. Tippett sang in the chorus when Sargent directed a local performance of Robert Planquette 's operetta Les Cloches de Corneville . Despite his parents' wish that he follow an orthodox path by proceeding to Cambridge University , Tippett had firmly decided on
8960-461: The music, and in September 1930 re-enrolled at the RCM for a special course of study in counterpoint with R. O. Morris , an expert on 16th-century music. This second RCM period, during which he learned to write fugues in the style of Bach and received additional tuition in orchestration from Gordon Jacob , was central to Tippett's eventual discovery of what he termed his "individual voice". On 15 November 1931 Tippett conducted his Oxted choir in
9072-569: The musicologist Derrick Puffett have argued that Tippett's craft as a composer was insufficient for him to deal adequately with the task that he had set himself of "transmut[ing] his personal and private agonies into ... something universal and impersonal". Michael Kennedy has referred to Tippett's "open‐eyed, even naive outlook on the world", while accepting the technical sophistication of his music. Others have acknowledged his creative ingenuity and willingness to adopt whatever means or techniques were necessary to fit his intentions. Tippett's music
9184-601: The news of Hector's death. Priam curses his surviving son, wishing him dead as well, and Paris goes, swearing not to return until he has killed Achilles in revenge. Alone, Priam weeps that the Old Man years ago spoke only of his own death, not of Hector's. The Old Man, the Young Man, and the Nurse appear and question the king: "One son to live by another's death, is that the law of life you favour?" Priam weakly tries to answer "Yes...yes," but an unseen chorus replies "No...no": his heart's answer. Hermes guides Priam to Achilles' tent. In
9296-509: The nine for the other countries to seven. Whilst still able to nominate candidates to the order, the Cabinet of Australia has effectively stopped the allocation of this award to that country's citizens in preference to other Australian honours. The last Australian member, Doug Anthony , former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, died on 20 December 2020. Companions from other Commonwealth realms continue to be appointed, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa ,
9408-405: The opera has not found a place in the general repertory. Mellers finds that its fusion of "art music, rock ritual and performance art fail to gel". The Triple Concerto includes a finale inspired by the gamelan music Tippett absorbed during his visit to Java. In 1979 Tippett was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH). The main composition that occupied him in the early 1980s
9520-547: The opera meant that his compositional output was limited for several years to a few minor works, including a Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis written in 1961 for the 450th anniversary of the foundation of St John's College, Cambridge . King Priam was premièred in Coventry by the Covent Garden Opera on 29 May 1962 as part of a festival celebrating the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral . The production
9632-425: The opera was a considerable success with critics and the public. Lewis later called it "one of the most powerful operatic experiences in the modern theatre". This reception, combined with the fresh acclaim for The Midsummer Marriage following a well-received BBC broadcast in 1963, did much to rescue Tippett's reputation and establish him as a leading figure among British composers. As with The Midsummer Marriage ,
9744-415: The order confers no title or precedence , those inducted into the order are entitled to use the post-nominal letters CH . Appointments to the order are generally made on the advice of prime ministers of the Commonwealth realms. For Canadians, the advice to the Sovereign can come from a variety of officials. Originally, the order was limited to 50 ordinary members, but in 1943 it was enlarged to 65, with
9856-543: The party maintained a strict Stalinist line. Tippett resigned after a few months when he saw no chance of converting his local party to his Trotskyist views. According to his obituarist J.J. Plant, Tippett then joined the Bolshevik-Leninist Group within the Labour Party, where he continued to advocate Trotskyism until at least 1938. Although Tippett's radical instincts always remained strong, he
9968-409: The relationship between teacher and pupil. Tippett studied conducting with Sargent and Adrian Boult , finding the latter a particularly empathetic mentor—he let Tippett stand with him on the rostrum during rehearsals and follow the music from the conductor's score. By this means Tippett became familiar with the music of composers then new to him, such as Delius and Debussy , and learned much about
10080-574: The remaining years of the composer's life. The main works of the late 1970s were a new opera, The Ice Break , the Symphony No. 4 , the String Quartet No. 4, and the Triple Concerto for violin, viola and cello. The Ice Break was a reflection of Tippett's American experiences, with a contemporary storyline incorporating race riots and drug-taking. His libretto has been criticised for its awkward attempts at American street vernacular, and
10192-493: The sounds of orchestral instruments. In 1924 Tippett became the conductor of an amateur choir in the Surrey village of Oxted . Although he saw this initially as a means of advancing his knowledge of English madrigals , his association with the choir lasted many years. Under his direction it combined with a local theatrical group, the Oxted and Limpsfield Players, to give performances of Vaughan Williams 's opera The Shepherds of
10304-479: The tenor solo part, and other soloists were borrowed from Sadler's Wells Opera . The work was well received by critics and the public, and eventually became one of the most frequently performed large-scale choral works of the post-Second World War period, in Britain and overseas. Tippett's immediate reward was a commission from the BBC for a motet , The Weeping Babe , which became his first broadcast work when it
10416-400: The wish that they should have children together. After his psychotherapy he enjoyed several committed—and sometimes overlapping—same-sex relationships. Among the most enduring, and most tempestuous, was that with the artist Karl Hawker, whom he first met in 1941. While his therapy proceeded, Tippett was searching for a theme for a major work—an opera or an oratorio —that could reflect both
10528-432: Was "the Jungian ' shadow ' and 'light' in the single, individual psyche ... the need for the individual to accept his divided nature and profit from its conflicting demands". This brought him to terms with his homosexuality, and he was able to pursue his creativity without being distracted by personal relationships. While still unsure of his sexuality, Tippett had considered marriage with Francesca Allinson, who had expressed
10640-409: Was a popular feature at Christian revivalist meetings. In later life his business enterprises faltered, leading to debts, prosecution for fraud, and a term of imprisonment. His son Henry, born in 1858, was Michael's father. A lawyer by training, he was successful in business and was independently wealthy by the time of his marriage in April 1903. Unusually for his background and upbringing, Henry Tippett
10752-596: Was a progressive liberal and a religious sceptic. Henry Tippett's bride was Isabel Kemp , from a large upper-middle-class family based in Kent . Among her mother's cousins was Charlotte Despard , a well-known campaigner for women's rights, suffragism , and Irish home rule . Despard was a powerful influence on the young Isabel, who was herself briefly imprisoned after participating in an illegal suffragette protest in Trafalgar Square . Though neither she nor Henry
10864-829: Was again in the country, engaged on a lecture tour that included the Doty Lectures in Fine Art at the University of Texas . Between these American journeys, Tippett travelled to Lusaka for the first African performance of A Child of Our Time , at which the Zambian president, Kenneth Kaunda , was present. In 1976 Tippett was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society . The following few years saw journeys to Java and Bali—where he
10976-419: Was aired on 24 December 1944. He also began to give regular radio talks on music. In 1946 Tippett organised at Morley the first British performance of Monteverdi's Vespers , adding his own organ Preludio for the occasion. Tippett's compositions in the immediate postwar years included his First Symphony , performed under Sargent in November 1945, and the String Quartet No. 3, premiered in October 1946 by
11088-622: Was aware that excessive political activism would distract him from his overriding objective of becoming recognised as a composer. A significant step towards professional recognition came in December 1935, when the Brosa Quartet performed his String Quartet No. 1 at the Mercury Theatre in Notting Hill , London. This work, which he dedicated to Franks, is the first in the recognised canon of Tippett's music. Throughout much of
11200-404: Was broadly lyrical in character, before changing to a more astringent and experimental style. New influences—including those of jazz and blues after his first visit to America in 1965—became increasingly evident in his compositions. While Tippett's stature with the public continued to grow, not all critics approved of these changes in style, some believing that the quality of his work suffered as
11312-478: Was by Sam Wanamaker and the lighting by Sean Kenny . John Pritchard was the conductor. The music for the new work displayed a marked stylistic departure from what Tippett had written hitherto, heralding what a later commentator, Iain Stannard, calls a "great divide" between the works before and after King Priam . Some commentators questioned the wisdom of so radical a departure from his established voice, but
11424-660: Was declared unplayable by its scheduled soloist, Julius Katchen , who had to be replaced before the première by Louis Kentner . The Dennis Brain Wind Ensemble , for whom Tippett had written the Sonata for Four Horns (1955), complained that the work was in too high a key and required it to be transposed down. When the Second Symphony was premièred by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Boult, in
11536-758: Was first performed in the Cathedral the day after the premiere of King Priam . The first Covent Garden performance was on 5 June, conducted by John Pritchard . It was premiered in Germany at the Badisches Staatstheater in 1963 (in a translation by Walter Bergmann ), in Greece at the 1985 Athens Festival , in France at the Opéra de Nancy et de Lorraine in 1988, in Italy at Batignano in 1990, and in
11648-591: Was heard by a tribunal in February 1942, when he was assigned to non-combatant duties. Tippett rejected such work as an unacceptable compromise with his principles and in June 1943, after several further hearings and statements on his behalf from distinguished musical figures, he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment in HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs . He served two months, and although thereafter he
11760-483: Was his oratorio The Mask of Time , loosely based on Jacob Bronowski's 1973 TV series The Ascent of Man . In Tippett's words, this is an attempt to deal "with those fundamental matters that bear upon man, his relationship with Time, his place in the world as we know it and in the mysterious universe at large". The oratorio was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for its centenary, and
11872-733: Was indifferently received on its première in Houston , Texas, on 17 October 1989. Donal Henahan in The New York Times wrote, "Unlike Wagner, [Tippett] does not provide music of enough quality to allow one to overlook textual absurdities and commonplaces." The opera was introduced to Britain in the Glyndebourne Festival of 1990. Despite his deteriorating health, Tippett toured Australia in 1989–90, and also visited Senegal . His last major works, written between 1988 and 1993, were Byzantium , for soprano and orchestra;
11984-745: Was much attracted by the sounds of gamelan ensembles—and to Australia, where he conducted a performance of his Fourth Symphony in Adelaide . In 1979, with funds available from the sale of some of his original manuscripts to the British Library , Tippett inaugurated the Michael Tippett Musical Foundation, which provided financial support to young musicians and music education initiatives. Tippett maintained his pacifist beliefs, while becoming generally less public in expressing them, and from 1959 served as president of
12096-592: Was musical, she had inherited an artistic talent from her mother, who had exhibited at the Royal Academy . After their marriage the couple settled outside London in Eastcote , where two sons were born—the second, Michael, on 2 January 1905. Shortly after Michael's birth, the family moved to Wetherden in Suffolk. Michael's education began in 1909 with a nursery governess and various private tutors who followed
12208-418: Was often not fluent, as evidenced by Tippett's first pencil draft manuscripts, which show multiple rubbings-out and reworkings. In this, the musicologist Thomas Schuttenhelm says, his methods resembled those of Beethoven, with the difference that "whereas Beethoven's struggle is considered a virtue of his work, and almost universally admired, Tippett's was the source and subject of a debate about his competency as
12320-587: Was one of several of Tippett's late compositions that were premièred in America. In 1983 Tippett became president of the London College of Music and was appointed a Member of the Order of Merit (OM). By the time of his 80th birthday in 1985 he was blind in his right eye, and his output had slowed. Nevertheless, in his final active years he wrote his last opera, New Year . This futuristic fable involving flying saucers, time travel, and urban violence
12432-426: Was technically liable to further charges for failing to comply with the terms set by his tribunal, the authorities left him alone. On his release, Tippett returned to his duties at Morley, where he boosted the college's Purcell tradition by persuading the countertenor Alfred Deller to sing several Purcell odes at a concert on 21 October 1944—the first modern use of a countertenor in Purcell's music. Tippett formed
12544-520: Was thrown into doubt and confusion about both his homosexuality and his worth as an artist. He was saved from despair when, at Ayerst's suggestion, he undertook a course of Jungian analysis with the psychotherapist John Layard . Through an extended course of therapy, Layard gave Tippett the means to analyse and interpret his dreams. Tippett's biographer Ian Kemp describes this experience as "the major turning point in [his] life", both emotionally and artistically. His particular discovery from dream analysis
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