A Child of Our Time

Not to be confused with Child of Our Time.

A Child of Our Time is an oratorio written by Michael Tippett between 1939 and 1941.

"After more than ten years of thoughtful planning, Michael Tippett (1905-1998) summed up his musical, political, spiritual and philosophical beliefs in his first oratorio, A Child of Our Time. Representing the emergence of a new stage of assurance and musical maturity for Tippett, the oratorio has become the composer’s most widely known and performed work. Indeed, the popular success of this first large-scale work opened the door for his exploration of new musical genres such as the opera and the symphony. A Child of Our Time is most widely known for its adoption of the African-American spiritual, and the unique philosophical content of its libretto inspired by the ideas of Carl Jung."

The oratorio was inspired by events in 1938: Herschel Grynszpan, a Jewish refugee teenager in Paris, murdered the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath. This was a catalyst for the Nazis' attacks against Jews in Germany on Kristallnacht.

After producing a rough draft, Tippett asked T. S. Eliot to complete the libretto, but Eliot encouraged Tippett to write it. Tippett completed it himself. The text reflects Tippett's pacifism and belief that people contain both "shadow and light". The title comes from Ödön von Horváth's novel, Ein Kind unserer Zeit (A Child of Our Time), written in 1938 (and published in English in 1939.) Tippett began composition on 5 September 1939, two days after the British declaration of war against Germany.

He draws on multiple sources for his musical inspiration. The oratorio is decidedly twentieth-century, but Tippett also uses traditional African-American spirituals in a structure similar to the Passion chorales of Bach. The structure in three parts is based on Handel's Messiah. The work runs a little over an hour.

Structure

Tippett described the basic structure of his work as follows:

"Part I of the work deals with the general state of oppression in our time. Part II presents the particular story of a young man's attempt to seek justice by violence and the catastrophic consequences; and Part III considers the moral to be drawn, if any."

• First part:
  • Chorus: The world turns on its dark side
  • The Argument & Interludium: Man has measured the heavens
  • Scena: Is evil then good?
  • The Narrator: Now in each nation there were some cast out
  • Chorus of the Oppressed: When shall the usurer's city cease?
  • Tenor Solo: I have no money for my bread
  • Soprano Solo: How can I cherish my man?
  • A Spiritual: "Steal away to Jesus"

• Second part:
  • Chorus: A star rises in midwinter
  • The Narrator: And a time came
  • Double Chorus of Persecutors and Persecuted: Away with them!
  • The Narrator: Where they could, they fled
  • Chorus of the Self-righteous: We cannot have them in our Empire
  • The Narrator: And the boy's mother wrote
  • Scena: The Mother, the Uncle and Aunt, and the Boy: O my son!
  • A Spiritual: "Nobody knows the trouble I see"
  • Scena: Duet: The boy becomes desperate
  • The Narrator: They took a terrible vengeance
  • Chorus: The Terror: Burn down their houses!
  • The Narrator: Men were ashamed
  • Spiritual of Anger: "Go down, Moses"
  • The Boy Sings in his Prison: My dreams are all shattered
  • The Mother: What have I done to you, my son?
  • Alto Solo: The dark forces rise
  • A Spiritual: "By and by"

• Third part:
  • Chorus: The cold deepens
  • Alto Solo: The soul of man
  • Scena: The words of wisdom
  • General Ensemble: I would know my shadow and my light
  • A Spiritual: "Deep river"

Performances

The première took place at London's Adelphi Theatre on 19 March 1944. Performers included:

• London Philharmonic Orchestra
• Walter Goehr (conductor)
• Joan Cross, Margaret McArthur, Peter Pears, Roderick Lloyd (soloists)
• Morley College Choir

The piece was a success with performers, public, and critics. Some people objected to the subject matter, orchestration, and the inclusion of the spirituals and jazz elements.

The oratorio received its Israeli premiere in Haifa in 1952, a performance for which Grynszpan's father was present.

References

• Hurd, Michael (1978). Tippett. Novello Short Biographies. Borough Green, Sevenoaks, Kent: Novello. 
• Tippett, Michael (1995). Bowen, Meirion. ed. Tippett on Music. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-816542-2. 
• Vallee, Jean-Sebastien (2009). A Critical Analysis of Michael Tippett's A Child of Our Time, DMA Dissertation, University of Illinois.
• Henahan, Donal (January 19, 1978). "Music: Bostonians Give Premiere of Oratorio". New York Times: p. C17. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60713FF3A5A13728DDDA00994D9405B888BF1D3. 
• Gloag, Kenneth (1999). Tippett, A child of our time. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-59753-1. http://books.google.ca/books?id=BgbHKrGODnIC&dq=%22A+Child+of+Our+Time%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s. 
• Emsley, Clive (2003). War, Culture and Memory. Open University Worldwide Ltd.. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-7492-9611-7. http://books.google.ca/books?id=SmxcoPsHdO0C&dq=%22A+Child+of+Our+Time%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s. 
• Steinberg, Michael (2005). Choral masterworks: a listener's guide. Oxford University Press US. p. 280. ISBN 978-0-19-512644-0. http://books.google.ca/books?id=Ex6JR8JBYisC&dq=%22A+Child+of+Our+Time%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s. 
• Ford, Boris (1992). The Cambridge cultural history of Britain: Modern Britain, Volume 9. Cambridge University Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-521-42889-7. http://books.google.ca/books?id=z3I_wzri-SUC&dq=%22A+Child+of+Our+Time%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s. 

External links

• Richard Smith, An introduction to Michael Tippett's 'A Child of Our Time', documentary, Part 1 · Part 2 · Part 3