Michael Tippett (1905 - 98)

[edashtav]

True indeed - but what really was the supposed problem with some of Tippett's earler work (i.e. pre the wonderful Second Symphony), including (but not necessarily limited to) the first piano sonata, the first three string quartets, the first symphony, The Midsummer Marriage and the piano concerto?

Michael Tippett may have sympathised with Arnold Schönberg when he said words to the effect that his music wasn't modern, it was just badly played. Post WWII, regional orchestras on tight budgets and limited rehearsal time did turn the refulgent orchestral detailing in works such Michael's Piano Concerto into a grey, swirling, inchoate mess, as I well remember from one early provincial performance. Tippett was not alone... early performances of Walton's Second Symphony were just as foggy.

[Richard Barrett]

"Intellectual" has often been a term used by British critics (and not only critics) to denigrate something they can't be bothered to engage with. But if Tippett's music was underrated before the appearance of King Priam, it remains underrated now. Most music being composed in the UK is still watered-down compared to his.

[gurnemanz]

I spent a year at York University in 1971/72, doing a PGCE not music, but we went to a lot of the Music Department's many interesting events (eg a talk from John Cage). I remember someone there telling us that in 1963 when the University was founded they had invited Michael Tippett to be the first Head of the Music Department. They received a prompt reply by telegram: "Not on your Nellie. Michael." Wilfrid Mellers got the job and went on to be a great appointment.

[edashtav]

"Intellectual" has often been a term used by British critics (and not only critics) to denigrate something they can't be bothered to engage with. But if Tippett's music was underrated before the appearance of King Priam, it remains underrated now. Most music being composed in the UK is still watered-down compared to his.

J.F. Waterhouse was the Music Critic of the Birmingham Post in the 1950s and, as such, reported on the First Night of Tippett's ' The Midsummer Marriage'. JFW was underwhelmed and signed off his column with a sneering quotation from Michael's libretto," Now is this nonsense at its noon, but I'll be even with it yet."

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I think ed has put his finger on why and how Tippett's reputation as an amateurish, overintellectual composer became as wiodespread as it did: many of the critics responsible for this view had access to the interested public through newspapers and books aimed at the larger readership. Thus, Harold Truscott could write in the Penguin The Symphony of Tippett's "occasional unpracticality [sic] in instrumentation" - and his is by no means a malicious or entirely negative essay*. But the negative opinions are the more prevalent, such as Tippett "makes manifest a preoccupation with ... contrapuntal line and rhythmic complexity [which] can be carried too far", and "of the [first two symphonies], I think that there can be no question that the first is the finer" and that the second "while being a highly enjoyable work ... does not show carry Tippett's symphonic growth any further; it is perhaps too defiantly in C major, and too content with material which exists more to provide interesting rhythmic patterns, rather than for its own sake" (I'm not sure what that last phrase means!)

This was a widely-read book, first published before recordings of the works were available; for the general Music-loving reader, these (and others more overtly hostile) were the attitudes to trust, and accumulated to become the general opinion of and attitude towards Tippett's Music. Tippett had his enthusiasts - Goehr, Glock, Kemp, White, and others - but their comments were less widely "available" - in publications such as the (still wonderful) "Symposium on his 60th Birthday", which were at a price beyond (or, at the very least "offputting") to the less specialised listener.

(* - Truscott concludes "the work leaves most contemporary symphonies asleep at the post".)

[vinteuil]

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... I am finding Oliver Soden's contributions compelling. This week is being an eye/ear-opener for me. I am woefully under-acquainted with the music, despite personal childhood and later memories of the man. I have lots to learn...

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[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

This was a widely-read book, first published before recordings of the works were available; for the general Music-loving reader, these (and others more overtly hostile) were the attitudes to trust, and accumulated to become the general opinion of and attitude towards Tippett's Music.

In other words, Truscott's opinions became the received wisdom - "facts" - for huge numbers of people who might never have heard the works themselves.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

.... I am finding Oliver Soden's contributions compelling.

- I had no idea that Francesca Allinson came from the family who milled the famous flour. I shall be keen to get his biography of the composer - there is also a lot of fascinating biographical material in the Schuttenhelm book - not least about the terribly sad events that led to Allinson's suicide.

This week is being an eye/ear-opener for me. I am woefully under-acquainted with the music, despite personal childhood and later memories of the man. I have lots to learn

If you feel that these are appropriate to the Forum, I for one would love to hear some of these recollections, vinty.

[vinteuil]

If you feel that these are appropriate to the Forum, I for one would love to hear some of these recollections, vinty.

... o, they are of the most trivial. Like Tippett, my father was a conscientious objector - tho' he chose to join the Friends' Ambulance Unit rather than go to prison - and they moved in similar circles. After the war my father was one of the founding members of staff of Bath Academy of Art at Corsham Court, to which Tippett became connected. He became a family friend - my memories are of summer picnics in his garden at Corsham (I was so impressed with a garden that had a gazebo... ), of his being tickled by my playing (trying to play.... ) pieces from the Fitzwilliam book on our harmonium at home (he said I shd look out the Dvorak bagatelles). My piano teacher and his wife played endless games of Mah-Jonng with Michael and Karl (this wd all have been in the period when he was with Karl Hawker). Much, much later, in my professional life as a cultural bureaucrat, I 'looked after' him in what may have been his last visit to Paris, for The Knot Garden at la Ferme du Buisson in January 1994 ...

But I really don't know his music, not at all. As I say, much to discover!

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[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Many thanks, vinty - lovely memories (and in keeping with the general image of Tippett from all other accounts as being a very sympathetic human being).

[vinteuil]

... my memories are of summer picnics in his garden at Corsham (I was so impressed with a garden that had a gazebo... .



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... et voici - the garden avec gazebo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-1gR1kgC_8

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[Conchis]

This thread has reminded me that, COOT apart, I've never listened to Tippett.

I'd be interested in checking out his operas - received wisdom tells me that The Midsummer Marriage is the obvious place to start and that things like King Priam and The Ice Break are best left to last. Any truth in this?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... et voici - the garden avec gazebo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-1gR1kgC_8

- why the Elgar playing in the "background"?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'd be interested in checking out his operas - received wisdom tells me that The Midsummer Marriage is the obvious place to start and that things like King Priam and The Ice Break are best left to last. Any truth in this?

Depends what your preferences are, Conchis - Marriage is a "lusher", more warm and Romanntic score, Priam, Knot Garden, Ice Break drier, more brittle. So, dry white wine or sweet; Milk or dark chocolate - your choice.

(New Year - which, IIRC from previous discussions here and on the BBC Messageboards, I am the only person in the world to find any merit in - taking characteristics from both earlier "styles": but it hasn't been recorded, so ... )

[Richard Barrett]

New Year - which, IIRC from previous discussions here and on the BBC Messageboards, I am the only person in the world to find any merit in

Not quite - although I haven't heard the whole thing, I'm rather fond of the orchestral suite recorded by Hickox and combined on CD with the Second Symphony. If I were me I would think Priam would be a good place to begin with MT's operas.