Michael Tippett : music and literature

One of the great composers of the 20th century, Michael Tippett found inspiration for his music amongst literary works that spanned all ages and many nations.

His numerous settings of poetry, his several large works for voice and orchestra and the five operas that he wrote testify to his impressive command of literary history.

The texts of these works are densely allusive, self-consciously interweaving quotations and half-quotations.

The essays that make up this volume are specially commissioned interpretations of the relationships between music and literature that permeate and characterize Tippett's music and his writings.

Indeed the first chapter in the volume is Tippett's own essay "The Relation of Autobiographical Experience to the Created Work of Art" which guides the reader through his literary loves. This is followed by essays from an international group of contributors who examine such topics as Tippett's main literary writings and the insights these offer into his other creative work; the development of Tippett's musical borrowings; an analysis of the intertextuality of the texts of "A Child of our Time" and "King Priam"; the conjoining of words and music in "War Requiem", and music's ultimate transcendence of words in Tippett's vocal compositions.

Other facet's of Tippett's career which are explored include the composer's persistent courtship of the BBC, and his time as Director of Music at Morley College.

The volume concludes with an investigation of the reception of Tippett's music in Germany.