Tippett, Sir Michael (1905-1998), was a British composer. He gained recognition for composing in a variety of forms, notably stage works, orchestral pieces, songs and choral music, and chamber music. Tippett won fame with his oratorio A Child of Our Time (1944), based on the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Germany in the 1930’s and 1940’s. His other major choral works include The Vision of St. Augustine (1966) and The Shires Suite (1970). Tippett wrote five operas—The Midsummer Marriage (1955), King Priam (1961), The Knot Garden (1970), The Ice Break (1977), and New Year (1989). His other works include four symphonies, a concerto for double string orchestra (1940), piano sonatas, and string quartets.
Michael Kemp Tippett was born on Jan. 2, 1905, in London and studied at the Royal College of Music from 1923 to 1928. He refused to fight during World War II (1939-1945) because of his pacifist beliefs and served three months in prison in 1943. Tippet was musical director of Morley College from 1940 to 1951. He was knighted in 1966. Tippett’s essays on music were collected in Tippett on Music (1995). He wrote an autobiography, Those Twentieth-Century Blues (1991). He died on Jan. 8, 1998.
See also Deep River ; Midsummer Marriage, The .
