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Sir Michael Tippett (Composer) | Sir Michael Tippett (Text writer)

A Child of Our Time

Name: A Child of Our Time
Brand: Schott Music
SKU: 175102
Availability: InStock

Oratorio for soloists (SATB), chorus and orchestra

text by the composer

A Child of Our Time arose out of the general situation in Europe before the Second World War. But a Europe, for me, stretching out through its torments towards Russia in the east, and even America in the West. So that though, after much searching, the final jolt into composition came from a particular and political event, I knew from the first that the work itself had to be anonymous and general, in order to reach down to the deeper levels of our com- mon humanity. Michael Tippett, 1975

Edition: Performance material

Series: A Child of Our Time

Product Type

Hire Order

Product Details

Description

In the early 1930’s, as Michael Tippett was approaching maturity as a composer, he became aware of the social injustices caused by the Depression and widespread unemployment – especially in the North of England. He also sensed the likely consequences of the rise of Nazism in Central Europe and Stalinism in Russia. He felt that he must express his solidarity with the deprived and the downtrodden through his work as a composer. In 1938, the shooting of a German diplomat in Paris by a young Polish Jew, made desperate by the Nazi persecution of his race in general and his family in particular, led to the infamous ‘Kristallnacht’ of 9 November. Tippett shared in the public horror which this aroused, deciding that he must respond with a composition which, as it turned out, was to be his first major public statement as an artist, and one that is now performed all over the world.

A Child of Our Time is a traditional baroque oratorio with a famous twist: Tippett places five Spirituals at its heart, instead of Bach’s Lutheran chorales. He knew that audiences would recognise them and be able to sing them in the same way Bach’s congregation sang the chorales. Embodying texts and music of an inherently universal significance, they flow unselfconsciously out of the simplicity of Tippett’s structure and musical language, ensuring that the emotional power of this work never fails.

Orchestral Cast

2.2.ca.2.2.cbsn-4.3.3.0-timp.perc(cym)-str

Content

I "The world turns on its dark side"
II "Man has measured the heavens'"
III "Is evil then good?"
IV "Now in each nation"
V "When shall the usurer's city cease?"
VI "I have no money for my bread"
VII "How can I cherish my man in such days?"
VIII "Steal away"
IX "A star rises in midwinter"
X "And a time came"
XI "Away with them!"
XII "Where they could, they fled from the terror"
XIII "We cannot have them in our Empire"
XIV "And the boy's mother wrote a letter saying"
XV "O my son!
XVI "Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord"
XVII "The boy becomes desperate in his agony"
XVIII "They took a terrible vengeance"
XIX "Burn down their houses!"
XX "Men are ashamed of what was done"
XXI "Go down, Moses"
XXII "My dreams are all shattered"
XXIII "What have I done to you my son?"
XXIV "The dark forces rise like a flood" - XXV "Oh, by and by"
XXVI "The cold deepens" - XXVII "The soul of man is impassioned like a woman"
XXVIII "The words of wisdom are these"
XXIX "I would know my shadow and my light"
XXX "Deep river"

More Information

Title:

A Child of Our Time

Oratorio for soloists (SATB), chorus and orchestra

text by the composer

Language:

English

Edition:

Performance material

Publisher/Label:

Schott Music

Year of composition:

1939 - 1941

Duration:

66 ′0 ′′

World Premiere:

March 19, 1944 · London (UK)
Adelphi Theatre
Joan Cross, soprano; Margaret McArthur, alto; Peter Pears, tenor; Roderick Lloyd, bass · Conductor: Walter Goehr · London Philharmonic Orchestra · London Region Civil Defence Choir; Morley College Choir

Series:

A Child of Our Time

Description

Orchestral Cast

Content

More Information

Technical Details

Sir Michael Tippett (Composer)

Sir Michael Tippett (Text writer)