A Child of Our Time
An oratorio of Sir Michael Tippett
Part I
Part II
Part III
PART I
CHORUS
The world turns on its dark side.
It is winter.
The Argument
ALTO
Man has measured the heavens
with a telescope,
driven the gods from their thrones.
But the soul,
watching the chaotic mirror,
knows that the gods return.
Truly, the living god consumes
within and turns the flesh to cancer.
Scene
CHORUS
Is evil then good?
Is reason untrue?
ALTO
Reason is true to itself;
But pity breaks open the heart.
CHORUS
We are lost.
We are as seed before the wind.
We are carried
to a great slaughter.
BASS (Narrator)
Now in each nation
there were some cast out
by authority and tormented,
made to suffer for the general wrong.
Pogroms in the east,
lynching in the west;
Europe brooding
on a war of starvation,
And a great cry went up from the people.
CHORUS OF THE OPPRESSED
When shall the usurers city cease,
And famine depart from the fruitful land?
TENOR
I have no money for my bread;
I have no gift for my love.
I am caught between
my desires and their frustration
as between the hammer and the anvil.
How can I grow
to a man stature?
SOPRANO
How can I cherish my man
in such days,
or become a mother
in a world of destruction?
How shall I feed my children
on so small a wage?
How can I comfort them when I am dead?
A Spiritual
CHORUS & SOLOISTS
Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus;
Steal away, steal away home
I ain't got long to stay here.
My Lord, He calls me,
He calls me by the thunder,
The trumpet sounds within-a my soul,
I ain't got long to stay here.
Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus;
Steal away, steal away home
I ain't got long to stay here.
Green trees a-bending,
poor sinner stand a-trembling,
The trumpet sounds within-a my soul,
I ain't got long to stay here.
Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus;
Steal away, steal away home
I ain't got long to stay here.
PART II
Part I
Part II
Part III
CHORUS
A star rises in mid-winter.
Behold the man!
The scapegoat!
The child of our time.
BASS (The Narrator)
And a time came
when in the continual persecution
one race stood for all.
DOUBLE CHORUS
PERSECUTORS, PERSECUTED
Away with them!
Curse them! Kill them!
They infect the state.
Where? How? Why?
We have no refuge.
BASS (The Narrator)
Where they could,
they fled from the terror,
And among them a boy escaped secretly, and
was kept in hiding in a great city.
CHORUS OF THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS
We cannot have them in our Empire.
They shall not work,
nor beg a dole.
Let them starve
in No-Mans-Land!
BASS (The Narrator)
And the boys mother
wrote a letter, saying:
Scene
MOTHER (Soprano)
Oh my son! In the dread terror
they have brought me near to death.
BOY (Tenor)
Mother! Mother!
Though men hunt me like an animal,
I will defy the world to reach you.
AUNT (Alto)
Have patience.
Throw not your life away in futile sacrifice.
UNCLE (Bass)
You are as one against all.
Accept the impotence
of your humanity.
BOY (Tenor)
No! I must save her.
A Spiritual
CHORUS & SOLOISTS
Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord,
Nobody knows like Jesus.
Oh brothers, pray for me,
Oh brothers, pray for me,
And help me to drive
Old Satan away.
Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord,
Nobody knows like Jesus.
Oh mothers, pray for me,
Oh mothers, pray for me,
And help me to drive
Old Satan away.
Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord,
Nobody knows like Jesus.
Scene
BASS (The Narrator)
The boy becomes desperate in his agony.
ALTO
A curse is born.
The dark forces threaten him.
BASS (The Narrator)
He goes to authority.
He is met with hostility.
ALTO
His other self rises in him,
demonic and destructive.
BASS (The Narrator)
He shoots the official—
ALTO
But he shoots only his dark brother
And see
he is dead.
BASS (The Narrator)
They took a terrible vengeance.
The Terror
CHORUS
Burn down their homes!
Beat in their heads!
Break them in pieces on the wheel!
BASS (The Narrator)
Men were ashamed
of what was done.
There was bitterness and horror.
A Spiritual of anger
CHORUS & BASS
Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land;
Tell old Pharaoh,
to let my people go.
When Israel was in Egypt's land,
Let my people go.
Oppressed so hard they could not stand,
Let my people go.
"Thus spake the Lord",
bold Moses said,
Let my people go.
"If not, I'll smite your first-born dead",
Let my people go.
Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land;
Tell old Pharaoh,
to let my people go.
The boy sings in his Prison
BOY (Tenor)
My dreams are all shattered
in a ghastly reality.
The wild beating of my heart
is stilled: day by day.
Earth and sky are not
for those in prison.
Mother! Mother!
MOTHER (Soprano)
What have I done to you, my son?
What will become of us now?
The springs of hope are dried up.
My heart aches in unending pain.
ALTO
The dark forces rise like a flood.
Men's hearts are heavy:
they cry for peace.
A Spiritual
CHORUS & SOPRANO
Oh, by and by, by and by,
I'm going to lay down my heavy load.
I know my robe's going to fit me well,
I tried it on at the gates of hell.
Oh, hell is deep and a dark despair,
Oh, stop, poor sinner, and don t go there!
Oh, by and by, by and by,
I'm going to lay down my heavy load.
PART III
Part I
Part II
Part III
CHORUS
The cold deepens.
The world descends
into the icy waters
where lies the jewel of great price.
ALTO
The soul of man
is impassioned like a woman.
She is old as the earth,
beyond good and evil,
the sensual garments.
Her face will be illumined like the sun.
Then is the time of his deliverance.
Scene
BASS
The words of wisdom are these:
Winter cold means inner warmth,
the secret nursery of the seed.
CHORUS
How shall we have patience
for the consummation of the mystery?
Who will comfort us
in the going through?
BASS
Patience is born
in the tension of loneliness.
The garden lies beyond the desert.
CHORUS
Is the man of destiny master of us all?
Shall those cast out be unavenged?
BASS
The man of destiny
is cut off from fellowship.
Healing springs from the womb of time.
The simple-hearted shall exult in the end.
CHORUS
What of the boy, then?
What of him?
He, too, is outcast,
his manhood broken
in the clash of powers.
God overpowered him—
the child of our time.
GENERAL ENSEMBLE
TENOR
I would know
my shadow and my light,
so shall I at last be whole.
BASS
Then courage, brother,
dare the grave passage.
SOPRANO
Here is no final grieving,
but an abiding hope.
ALTO
The moving waters renew the earth.
It is spring.
(Chorus repeats the words
of the soloists)
A Spiritual
CHORUS & SOLOISTS
Deep river,
my home is over Jordan.
Deep river, Lord,
I want to cross over into camp-ground.
Oh chill! Oh don't you want to go,
To that gospel feast,
That promised land,
That land where all is peace?
Walk into heaven,
and take my seat,
And cast down my crown
at Jesus' feet.
Deep river,
my home is over Jordan,
I want to cross over into camp-ground,
Lord!
T h e E n d
Part I
Part II
Part III
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