Books about Michael Tippett

Books about Sir Michael Tippett

Meirion Bowen: Michael Tippett (Robson Books, 2nd ed. 1997). ISBN 1 86105 099 2. Available in the USA through Parkwest Publications.

Meirion Bowen's new updated study offers an in-depth examination of all Tippett's major compositions - extending from the First String Quartet (1934-5), where his characteristic rhythmic vitality, melodic freshness and dramatic tension are first encountered, through the ground-breaking works of his subsequent decades, right up to those of his astonishing Indian summer, such as The Rose Lake (1991-3).

The author's thirty-five-year association with the composer and immense experience of Tippett's music in performance result here in some unique insights into his creative personality. Working with the full co-operation of Sir Michael Tippett, Meirion Bowen sketches his development and considers each work in a context of technical and aesthetic exploration. Above all, he illustrates those strands of continuity running throughout Tippett's work that have made it so distinctive and individual. Bowen reveals Tippett both as a Blake-like visionary and an intensely human artist, sensitive to people and to public events in a strife-torn century, but also stubbornly upholding the integrity and independence of his art.

Philip Clark: Songs of Experience: Tippett's piano music (International Piano, September/October 2003, pp.38-53)

David Clarke: Language , Form, and Structure in the Music of Michael Tippett (2 vols., Garland Publishing Inc. New York & London, 1989) ISBN 0 8240 23390

David Clarke (ed.) : Tippett Studies (Cambridge University Press, 1999: ISBN 0521592054)

This collection of studies is the first completely new, internationally available book on the composer to appear for over a decade. It includes the thinking of established scholars and some new commentators. Detailed analyses of individual works are counterpointed against critical investigations of contextual issues, such as the composer's relationship to the past, his 'Englishness', his fascination with ancient Greece and his pursuit of the visionary.

The book covers all style-periods of Tippett's compositional output and many of the key genres within his oeuvre. What transpires is a rich portrait of an artist whose work reflects the century's triumphs and tragedies with particular intensity and who is upheld by younger generations of composers as a source of inspiration and example.

David Clarke: The Music and Thought of Michael Tippett -Modern Times and Metaphysics (Cambridge University Press, 2001) ISBN 0 521 58292 X

Tippett has often been characterised as a visionary and Clarke¹s latest book, The Music and Thought of Michael Tippett: Modern Times and Metaphysics, explores what this means for an artist in the twentieth century. In this multi-faceted study, Clarke explores Tippett¹s complex creative imagination - its dialogue between a romantic¹s aspirations to the ideal and absolute, and a modernist¹s sceptical realism. He shows how the musical formations of works such as The Midsummer Marriage, King Priam and The Vision of Saint Augustine resonate with the aesthetic and theoretical ideas of key figures in modern Western culture - some known to have been influential on the composer (such as Jung, Wagner and Yeats), others not usually associated with him (such as Kant, Nietzsche and Adorno). These interpretations illuminate the struggle between the rational and irrational in Tippett¹s music, and suggest that this might ultimately contain an apprehension of an emancipated future society. Analyses of late works such the Triple Concerto and Byzantium also speculate on Tippett¹s gay sexuality as a (literally) critical element in his creative and political consciousness.

J. Fenton, J. Pilgrim: Tippett's Suite in D for the Birthday of Prince Charles (Mayflower Enterprises paperback 1983, ISBN no. 0946896038)

Nicholas John (ed.) The Operas of Michael Tippett (London, John Calder; New York, Riverunn Press, 1985) ISBN 0-7145-40617

English National Opera Guide No: 29. It contains the libretti for Tippett's first four operas, an Introduction and essays by Meirion Bowen, Paul Driver, John Lloyd Davies, Andrew Clements and Leslie East, discography and bibliography.

Kenneth Gloag: Tippett: A Child of Our Time (Cambridge Music Studies)(Cambridge University Press publication date October 1999: hardback ISBN 0521592283 £25; paperback ISBN 052159753 £8.95)

Michael Tippett's oratorio A Child of Our Time was written at the beginning of the second world war as an expression of 'man's inhumanity to man'. It has become one of his most widely known works and one which is seen to symbolise the composer's extra-musical concerns, both political and psychological. This study places these concerns within a wider historical and cultural context while also focusing on specific aspects of Tippett's musical language. Central to this enquiry is Tippett's relationship to the work of T. S. Eliot, a relationship which is seen to condition both the text and its musical representation through Tippett's allusions to specific poetic images within the text and references to historical genres, forms and gestures within the musical dimension. Also of importance is the initial critical reception of the work, a reception which determined responses that still surround the work.

Richard Elfyn Jones: The Early Operas of Michael Tippett (Edwin Mellen Press, 1996: ISBN 0773488162)

Michael Tippett articulates and expresses his concern for the human condition and the discovery of self in his five operas, the first three of which form the subject of this study. The text first deals with the range of verbal and dramatic symbolism of three operas ("The Midsummer Marriage", "King Priam", and "The Knot Garden"), in chapters which do not require from the reader a technical knowledge of music. The other chapters, with their musical analyses, will be of interest to musical scholars and students.

Ian Kemp (ed.): Michael Tippett- A Symposium on his Sixtieth Birthday (London, Faber, 1965) ISBN: 052159054

Festschrift, including: "A biographical sketch" by Eric Walter White; "Tributes and reminiscences" by thirty-two well known composers, conductors, performers, critics and scholars; essays on "The music" by Robert Donington, William Mann, Peter Evans, Wilfrid Mellers, Alan Ridout, Colin Mason, and Antony Milner; a "chronological list of works"; and a select bibliography of writings by the composer.

Ian Kemp: Tippett: The Composer and his Music (Eulenberg/DaCapo,1984; 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, 1987) ISBN0-19-282017-6

A major critical study, divided into five main sections: 1) biography; 2) formative attitudes, student works 1923-34; 3) compositional techniques, works leading up to The Midsummer Marriage, 1934-52; 4) works of the transitional period between the first and second operas, 1952-58; and 5) the change of style in King Priam and further development through The Ice Break, 1958-76. A Postscript touches on the works from Symphony no 4 on. Appendices include a brief biography of Herschel Grynspan, whose act of violence significantly influenced the genesis of A Child of Our Time. Includes a list of works and writings and a selected bibliography. A substantial volume of over 500 pages, well received critically.

Michael Hurd: Tippett (London, Novello short biographies, edited by Michael Hurd. London: Novello, 1978).

Introductory study containing a biography, a general discussion of Tippett's stylistic development, and a consideration of his creative intellectual concerns as presented in the plots of his first four operas. Includes a list of principle works and a select bibliography.

Geraint Lewis (ed): Michael Tippett OM: A Celebration (Tunbridge Wells, Kent: The Baton Press, 1985) ISBN 0-85936-140-3

Festschrift, designed in part as a sucessor to Ian Kemp's Michael Tippett: A Symposium on his 60th Birthday. Intersperses tributes and greetings in music, prose and verse by 29 prominent composers, writers and performers with factual and analytical articles. Well illustrated with musical examples, facsimiles and photographs. Out of print

David Matthews: Michael Tippett - an Introductory Study (Faber, 1980) Michael Tippett: A Man of Our Time [Catalogue of the Tippett exhibition] (London, Schott, 1977) ISBN 0-571-10954-3

Biographic and stylistic study of Tippett intended "for those who enjoy his music and would like to know more abut the composer and his work". Traces the development of his musical style, incorporating substantial discussions of indivdual works, in particular A Child of Our Time and the first three operas. Includes many musical examples, a chronological list of works, and a section of photographs.

Gordon Theil: Michael Tippett: A Bio-Biliography (Greenword Press, New York, Westport, Conn., London, 1989) ISBN 0-313-24270-4

Contains short biography of the composer, list of works and selected performances, discography and bibliography (books, articles and reviews). The Appendices also list Tippett's honors and awards, and ballet and TV productions of his work.

Eric Walter White: Tippett and His Operas (London, Barrie & Jenkins, 1979; New York, DaCapo, 1981, with a new introduction by Andrew Porter) ISBN 0-214-20573-8 (Out of print).

Contains factual information about the conception and development of the four operas and A Child of Our Time, with separate chapters for each work. Considers, in varying degrees the literary sources for the librettos,development of the dramatic and musical structures , stylistic characteristics and techniques, and subject matter. Provides detailed plot summaries. The chapter on The MidsummerMarriage contains a significant series of letters from Tippett to White revealing much about the composer's process of evolving and shaping the opera. Includes a biographical first chapter and a chronological list of published compositions.

Margaret Scheppach: Dramatic Parallels in Michael Tippett's Operas: Analytical Essays on the Musico-Dramatic Techniques. Studies in History and Interpretation of Music, Vol. 22 (Edwin Mellen Press, 1990: ISBN 0889464472)

Arnold Whittall: Britten and Tippett: Studies in Themes and Techniques(CUP, 1982; 2nd edn. 1991 ) ISBN 0-521-23523-5

Substantial parallel study of the major works of Tippett and Britten, exploring in particular issues of tonality. The material is presented chronologically in a series of analytical essays on individual compositions alternating, in blocks of time, between the two composers.

See also: Twentieth Century Composers Part I: The Music Manuscripts of Sir Michael Tippett, Sir Arthur Bliss and Gerald Finzi - A History and Guide to the Research Publications Collection. (Research Publications, hardcover, 1992: ISBN 0862571421)