Michael Tippett
The Biography
Published on 18. April 2019
Book
Hardback
768 pages
978-1-4746-0602-8 (ISBN)
Description
'A delight to read' Philip Pullman
'Essential reading ... a genuine landmark publication' Tom Service
A BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week'
The music of the British composer Michael Tippett - including the oratorio A Child of Our Time, five operas, and four symphonies - is among the most visionary of the twentieth century. But little has been written about his extraordinary life. In this long-awaited first biography, Oliver Soden weaves a century-spanning narrative of epic scope and penetrating insight.
Soden has discovered troves of unpublished letters and manuscripts, and recorded moving interviews with Tippett's friends and colleagues. He paints a portrait of a powerful intellect and infectious personality: charming, stubborn, and great fun. But he also uncovers the sorrows and secrets that Tippett stowed away beneath his cheerfulness, not least the darker reaches of some tempestuous and often tragic love affairs.
Soden's achievement is to have enriched our understanding not only of Tippett but of his times. Figures such as T.S. Eliot, E.M. Forster, Barbara Hepworth, and W.H. Auden jostle in the cast list. An Edwardian world of gaslight and empire cedes to turmoil and warfare; one startling revelation is the extent of Tippett's involvement in the fiery left-wing politics of the 1930s. The narrative roves from the mining villages of the north, blighted by unemployment, to a cell at Wormwood Scrubs, where Tippett was imprisoned as a conscientious objector. Later chapters uncover his operas' game-changing attitudes to gay and civil rights, against a backdrop of the Cold War and the Space Race. And singing from the page comes the music, through which Soden charts an exquisitely written course, offering lucid readings of Tippett's most famous works while resuscitating forgotten masterpieces. The result is a landmark in the study of twentieth-century culture, simultaneously an astonishing feat of scholarship and a story as enthralling as in any great novel.
'Essential reading ... a genuine landmark publication' Tom Service
A BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week'
The music of the British composer Michael Tippett - including the oratorio A Child of Our Time, five operas, and four symphonies - is among the most visionary of the twentieth century. But little has been written about his extraordinary life. In this long-awaited first biography, Oliver Soden weaves a century-spanning narrative of epic scope and penetrating insight.
Soden has discovered troves of unpublished letters and manuscripts, and recorded moving interviews with Tippett's friends and colleagues. He paints a portrait of a powerful intellect and infectious personality: charming, stubborn, and great fun. But he also uncovers the sorrows and secrets that Tippett stowed away beneath his cheerfulness, not least the darker reaches of some tempestuous and often tragic love affairs.
Soden's achievement is to have enriched our understanding not only of Tippett but of his times. Figures such as T.S. Eliot, E.M. Forster, Barbara Hepworth, and W.H. Auden jostle in the cast list. An Edwardian world of gaslight and empire cedes to turmoil and warfare; one startling revelation is the extent of Tippett's involvement in the fiery left-wing politics of the 1930s. The narrative roves from the mining villages of the north, blighted by unemployment, to a cell at Wormwood Scrubs, where Tippett was imprisoned as a conscientious objector. Later chapters uncover his operas' game-changing attitudes to gay and civil rights, against a backdrop of the Cold War and the Space Race. And singing from the page comes the music, through which Soden charts an exquisitely written course, offering lucid readings of Tippett's most famous works while resuscitating forgotten masterpieces. The result is a landmark in the study of twentieth-century culture, simultaneously an astonishing feat of scholarship and a story as enthralling as in any great novel.
Reviews / Votes
A delight to read ... Oliver Soden's vivid biography of this major figure in twentieth-century music brings Tippett very clearly to life -- Philip Pullman Compelling ... an exceptional piece of work ... The joy of Soden's biography is largely in its novelistic grasp of the telling details ... It has so much to say about the 20th century from an unusual and compelling angle that it ought to appeal to many readers who don't necessarily find themselves deep in the world of art music ... The Britten bibliography may be 100 times the size, but it contains hardly anything as brilliant as this book. Let the revival begin -- Philip Hensher * The Spectator * Exhaustively researched, lovingly detailed, epic in scale, revelling in gossip, stuffed with information, this book furnishes every event ... from birth to death, with comment, observation, quotation ... [A] super-abundant, loving account. Its like will not come again -- Fiona Maddocks * Observer * [A] narrative in which readers can effortlessly lose themselves. Anyone wishing to discover the life of Tippett as a way into his music - his works include A Child of Our Time, five operas and four symphonies - will find in Soden's book meticulously researched biographical detail and a good story well told ... Soden's biography paints an authoritative, intricate portrait of Tippett, providing a stunning, delicate and engrossing portrayal of the composer as very much a child of his time -- Yvonne Sherratt * Literary Review * That rarest of things: a genuine landmark publication ... As much a biography of the twentieth century as it's about Tippett's music ... Essential reading -- Tom Service * Music Matters </i>on BBC Radio 3<i></i> * A beautifully written, emotionally comprehensive account of one of our finest twentieth-century composers. Tippett's burning idealism and frequent impracticality - in matters of both music and love - shines through Soden's sensitive prose, and his conjuring of the spirit of the place in the diary entries that intersperse the chapters is exceptionally well done -- Nicholas Kenyon * Times Literary Supplement </i>Summer Books<i></i> * [E]xcellent ... The challenge to a biographer is to make us feel the of a talent unfolding in slow obedience to its own laws. Soden succeeds at this difficult task wonderfully well. The early chapters are especially rewarding, summoning up the Edwardian ambience of Tippett's country childhood ... Soden is especially good at tracing Tippett's increasing involvement in Leftwing politics, which eventually led to membership of a Trotskyite Militant faction - an episode Tippett was keen to gloss over in later life ... Soden doesn't shrink from suggesting that Tippett's cold determination to protect his inner life at times caused huge damage to those near him. It's a measure of his searching and beautifully written biography that, despite that, Tippett comes across as essentially generous and lovable. The exultation of his music finds its echo in the passionate intensity of his life -- Ivan Hewett * Daily Telegraph * [T]horoughly researched ... [Soden] tells the story of this socially fertile life with skill -- Michael Henderson * The Times * This first full biography of Tippett is a treasure trove of detailed information and yet it reads as compellingly as a thriller or psychological novel ... [T]o get inside the mind, and under the skin, of such a complex figure so completely is nothing short of miraculous -- Geraint Lewis * Gramophone * [A] page-turner of a biography whose irresistible brio drills deep into a psychologically complex man, painting a portrait studded wit fraught emotional entanglements and passionately-held political affiliations. On both counts Soden's formidable research is able to contradict previous erroneous claims ... His verve and flair for lassoing a vivid simile are illuminating, and he's happy to spice up the narrative with dissenting views ... [U]nputdownable, [the biography] crackles with a life force worthy of Tippett himself -- Paul Riley * BBC Music Magazine * I very much enjoyed this book and wholeheartedly recommend it. Soden writes with a rare poetic quality and imagination - especially elusive qualities when one is describing music -- Philip Borg-Wheeler * Classical Music </i>magazine<i></i> * Oliver Soden is a young but impressive writer who has taken on the task of re-evaluating Tippett. And he does it well, with a generosity of spirit that's arguably too forgiving of Tippett's failings as a human being (which were many) but properly celebrates his strengths as a creative artist (which were legion) -- Michael White * CATHOLIC HERALD * Oliver Soden's Michael Tippett was exemplary and placed this wonderful, neglected, undeniably silly composer in his world of political idealism and radical experiments -- Philip Hensher * THE SPECTATOR 'Books of the Year' * In a strong year for books on music, Oliver Soden's generous, game-changing biography of Michael Tippett topped the list -- Fiona Maddocks, best classical music of 2019 * Observer * Soden spent three years writing his book, and clearly developed a strong bond with his subject . . . Soden soaks up the atmosphere of the places where Tippett lived and worked. He strikes gold on one trip when he unearths the autograph manuscript of the First Piano Sonata. As a final coup de theatre he produces a long tube that Soden knows, even before he opens it, must contain Tippett's ashes. . . It would be going too far to claim that the revival of Tippett's reputation rests in Soden's hands, but any such revival must begin with his plea that we listen to Tippett again, with fresh ears * London Review of Books *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Orion Publishing Co
Illustrations
2x8pp plate sections, 19 integrated images and a genealogical table
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 158 mm
Thickness: 54 mm
Weight
1148 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4746-0602-8 (9781474606028)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
04/2019
1st Edition
Weidenfeld and Nicholson
€3.99
Available for download
Person
Oliver Soden is a writer and broadcaster. He took a double first in English from Clare College, Cambridge, and for his research on Michael Tippett was awarded a Fellowship in the Humanities from the University of Texas at Austin. His essays and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of publications, including the Guardian, Gramophone, The Art Newspaper, and Musical Quarterly, and he has appeared as a guest on the Six O'Clock News (BBC Radio 4); Proms Plus, Twenty Minutes, and Live in Concert (BBC Radio 3). Born in 1990, he grew up in Bath and Sussex, and lives in London.