Michael Tippett

Michael Tippett

In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music. The works for which he is best known are the Concerto for Double String Orchestra, the oratorio A Child of our Time and the Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli. Tippett was one of the first openly gay composers to explore issues of sexuality in his work. The libretti of his operas, which he wrote himself, attracted criticism for their apparent naivety and use of contemporary slang, as well as for their sometimes obscure extra-musical references.

Tippett was born in London in 1905, the younger of two boys. His father, Henry William Tippett (1858–1944), came from an old Cornish family. A lawyer and entrepreneur, his investments included the Lyceum Theatre, London and a hotel in Cannes, France. His mother, Isabel Clementina Binny Kemp (1880–1969) trained as a nurse. She was a novelist and playwright, a member of the Labour Party and a suffragette who went to prison for her beliefs.

In the year of his birth, the family moved to Wetherden in rural Suffolk. He had a happy and active childhood, enjoying home theatricals and singing in the church choir. From an early age he showed an aptitude for music. Despite their liberal views his parents knew little about music as a profession and were bemused when, aged ten, he told them that he wanted to become a composer. At preparatory school in Dorset he wrote an essay disproving the existence of God. He was sent to Fettes College near Edinburgh, which he hated. After admitting an affair with another boy, his parents removed him. The remaining years of his school education were at Stamford Grammar School in Lincolnshire. Here he flourished, learning piano and harmony with Frances Tinkler, a dedicated and supportive mentor. His first experience of modern music was...