I’ve mentioned before about the little book of “Great Composers” I had as a kid. I’m still amazed at how much of my basic knowledge has come from this book.
All I knew of Michael Tippett, the important mid-century english composer, up until watching The Midsummer Marriage, was the main work listed in the book and the one that he’s most known for A Child of Our Time. The book also told me he was the sort of “second” to Benjamin Britten. This sort of lumping of composers together into schools or movements always intrigued and irritated me - Debussy and Ravel; Berg, Webern and Schoenberg; Adams, Reich and Glass etc. It gave me a chance to discover varying techniques and approaches, but as we know to compare so many of these composers almost misses the point and distracts us from looking at a composer in their own light. I’ve always been a big Ravel nut, but its often Debussy who get the limelight. I think there is clearly a similar comparison to Tippett and Britten, and so it’s been a real treat to dive into Tippetts work.
I have always loved Britten. To have such wonderful works to reference when working on setting english text are invaluable. Because of his success it’s easy to find varying interpretations and performances of his pieces, and he’s entered the operative cannon and vernacular of the english speaking world. His influence can be seen as far flung as Jeff Buckley to Thomas Ades. But my love for Britten’s music hasn’t always translated into my knowledge of him as person. In interviews he seems distant and reluctant to engage, some of the accounts of his behaviour with young boys, prior to meeting Peter Pears, sounds a little dodgy and the tiff with W. H. Auden, and what it’s over strikes me as little lame. If you don’t know it, it’s worth looking into. However, exploring interviews and reading some of Michael Tippett’s writings I am excited by his enthusiasm, passion and bravery for speaking out about social issues.
What I loved in Tippett’s music for The Midsummer Marriage is the energy and vibrancy it seems to have. Strikingly different to Britten. It got me thinking about something that I obsessed with while I was studying my undergraduate - the third way. 20th century music is often lumped (much like my discussion above) into two or three camps - neo-classical, neo-romantic and atonality. Upon my study there seemed to be a “third way” that didn’t really get going, or has perhaps only just got going. Composers I had gravity toward didn’t seem to fit in the above. Names like Respigi, Delius, Henze, Messiaen (sort of), Poulenc (sort of) and then more contemporary composers like Saariaho, Rhim and Lachermann. These names can sort of be added to one camp, but not really wholeheartedly. And I really love this about their music and I feel that sort of element in Tippett. A desire to chisel out their own space. It’s especially thrilling to think of Tippett against the back drop of other english composers, Vaughn Williams and Elgar being the main names. There is a freshness and originality there that I wish we could hear more often.
Finally, I found this video of MT talking about art, music and the act of creation. I don’t think I’ve heard someone encapsulate the practice of how and what being a composer is.
“I am quite certain in my heart of hears that modern music and modern art is not a conspiracy, but is a form of truth and integrity for those who practice it honestly, decently and with all their being.”
