 |
 |
|
|
|
         |
| Composers Biography - Languages - |
 |
|
 |
                          |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
Sir Michael Tippett
[ Life | Works | Best Works | Photo Gallery | Home Page] |
 |
One of Britain’s foremost 20th century composers, Tippett studied at the Royal Academy of Music. His dislike of teaching methods there meant he was to a great extent self-taught. His idiosyncratic style developed relatively slowly, to flower in a series of remarkable operas, for which he provided his own librettos. Public recognition came with a knighthood in 1966 and appointment as a Companion of Honour in 1979.
|
Tippett's first important opera, "The Midsummer Marriage", was staged at Covent Garden in 1955, followed six years later by "King Priam", "The Knot Garden" in 1970 and "The Ice Break" in 1977, all of them, in one way or another, exploring a world illuminated by Jungian theories of psychology. Well known orchestral music includes a Concerto for Double String Orchestra, a Triple Concerto, Little Music for Strings and a Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli, as well as four symphonies. Tippett's debt to English tradition is heard in his Divertimento on Sellinger's Round, using an Elizabethan melody. Tippett's "A Child of Our Time" seemed highly relevant to the state of the world at the time of its completion in 1941. Other remarkable and moving choral works include "The Vision of St. Augustine", completed in 1965. Among solo songs or song cycles "The Heart's Assurance", settings of poems by Sidney Keyes and Alun Lewis, is of central importance. Tippett's chamber music includes four string quartets that reflect developments in his style, and four piano sonatas.
|
