A Child of Our Time - Music

Music

Kemp describes Tippett's central problem in composing A Child of Our Time as integrating the language of the spirituals with his own musical style. Tippett was, in Kemp's view, entirely successful in this respect; "O by and by", he says, sounds as if it could almost have been composed by Tippett. To assist the process of integration the composer had obtained recordings of American singing groups, especially the Hall Johnson Choir, which provided him with a three-part model for determining the relationships between solo voices and chorus in the spirituals: chorus, soloists, chorus. Tippett's instructions in the score specify that "the spirituals should not be thought of as congregational hymns, but as integral parts of the Oratorio; nor should they be sentimentalised but sung with a strong underlying beat and slightly 'swung'".

The brief orchestral prelude to Part I introduces the two contrasting moods which pervade the entire work. Kemp likens the opening "snarling trumpet triad" to "a descent into Hades", but it is answered immediately by a gently mournful phrase in the strings. In general the eight numbers which comprise this first part each have, says Gloag, their own distinct texture and harmonic identity, often in a disjunctive relationship with each other, although the second and third numbers are connected by an orchestral "interludium". From among the diverse musical features Steinberg draws attention to rhythms in the chorus "When Shall The Usurer's City Cease" that illustrate Tippett's knowledge of and feel for the English madrigal. What Kemp describes as "one of the supreme moments in Tippett's music" occurs towards the end of the Part, as the soprano's aria melts into the spiritual "Steal away": "a so poignant as to set off that instant shock of recognition that floods the eyes with emotion ... although the soprano continues to grieve in a floating melisma, the spiritual comes as a relief as well as a release".

Because of its large number (17) of generally short components, Part II is the most diffuse of the three parts, texturally and harmonically. The narrative is driven largely by alternating choruses and comments from the Narrator, with two brief operatic scenas in which the four soloists participate. Kemp finds in one of the choruses an allusion to "Sei gegrüsset" from Bach's St John Passion, and hears traces of Elgar in the soprano's solo "O my son!" which begins the first scena. The narrative climax is reached with the "Spiritual of Anger": "Go Down, Moses", which Tippett arranges in the form of a chorale. This is followed by three short meditations from tenor, soprano and alto soloists, before a possible redemption is glimpsed in the spiritual which ends the Part, "O by and by", with a soprano descant which Steinberg describes as "ecstatic". Part III consists of only five numbers, each rather more extensive than most of those in the earlier sections of the oratorio. The Part has, on the whole, a greater unity than its predecessors. The musical and emotional climax to the whole work is the penultimate ensemble: "I Would Know my Shadow and my Light". Kemp writes: "The whole work has been leading to this moment ... the ensemble flows into a rapturous wordless benediction a modulation leads into 'Deep River'". In this final spiritual, for the first time the full vocal and instrumental resources are deployed. The oratorio ends quietly, on an extended pianissimo "Lord".

The total vocal and instrumental resources required for the oratorio are: SATB chorus; soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists; two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, timpani, cymbals and strings. According to the vocal score, the approximate duration of the work is 66 minutes.