Tippett’s A Child of Our Time – Sheet Music & Scores
5 Articles5 Articles
`I would know my shadow and my light, So shall I at last be whole.´ A Child of Our Time
A Child of Our Time – A Jungian work for all those who are oppressed
Conception
Execution
Tippett had been undergoing Jungian psychoanalysis, to deal with the depression brought on by such political unrest. When he found his theme, Kristallnacht, he went straight to a relatively new acquaintance, T.S Eliot. Eliot’s advice on being asked to write the text for A Child of Our Time was that Tippett should undertake this task himself. From this moment on, Tippett always wrote his own librettos.
`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.´
Reception
Although Tippett finished working on A Child of Our Time in 1941, he chose not to premier the work immediately, due to its pacifist message. Despite passing the tribunal as a conscientious objector, in 1943 Tippett was ordered to support the war effort with non-combatant duties. He felt he had to refuse, and was sentenced to three months in prison. On his release, he knew he had to bring this work to life.
