a few short hours, thousands of synagogues,
Jewish businesses and homes were damaged
or destroyed. This event has become known as
Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass, and refers to
the broken shop windows of Jewish-owned stores
that carpeted the streets.
The reports had a profound impact on Michael
Tippett, a young English composer and pacifist
who began crafting a new work only two days after
the outbreak of World War II. Kristallnacht would
fuel his creativity over the two years he spent
writing the oratorio A Child of Our Time, although
the piece is less a literal depiction than a musical
commentary on inhumanity and the forces of
oppression. He called it an impassioned protest
against the conditions that make persecution
possible – and its message is as relevant today as
it was 80 years ago.
Tippett turned to the poet T.S. Eliot to write the
libretto, but Eliot felt that Tippett could make it
more personal through his own selection of texts,
if he kept them simple. So Tippett designed an arc
in three parts – and 30 sections – based loosely on
the most famous oratorio of all, Handel’s Messiah.
Tippett went a step further by molding the music
and text in the style of Bach’s Passions, with soloists
and chorus commenting on the action, and then he
quotes five African-American spirituals at critical
junctures. His imagery moves back and forth from
shadow to light, and to create a timeless statement
he avoids using proper names.
“A Child of Our Time is indeed a Passion,’’ the
composer wrote in describing his most famous
composition, “not of a god-man, but of a man
whose god has left the light of the heavens for
the dark of the unconscious. The works asks
the question: What happens to this man as the
confusion deepens and the forces become more
undiscriminating and unjust?’’
THE FLORIDA OR 60 CHESTRA | 2018-2019
Tippett describes the three main sections as
beginning with the “general state of affairs in the
world today as it affects all individuals, minorities,
classes or races who are felt to be outside the
ruling conventions, Man at odds with his shadow.
Part II appears the Child of Our Time, enmeshed in
the drama of his personal fate and the elemental
social forces of our day. Part III is concerned with
the significance of this drama and the possible
healing that would come from Man’s acceptance of
his shadow in relation to his light.’’
The oratorio opens with the chorus singing The
world turns on its dark side, with the alto soloist
asking if evil is good and reason untrue. “We are
lost,’’ the chorus responds, “we are as seed before
the wind, we are carried to a great slaughter.’’ Part
II includes the spiritual Nobody Knows the Trouble I
See, and Tippett’s treatment of Deep River, My Home
is Over Jordan closes this tragic and illuminating
work.
Pairing Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess with A Child of
Our Time gives listeners a chance to hear the power
of spirituals in different settings, said TFO Music
Director Michael Francis. “The oratorio is a very
powerful piece of music, and Porgy and Bess is too.
When you listen to Porgy and Bess first, it gets your
ear ready for the spirituals in the Tippett, and they
begin to connect in a deeper way. They become far
more profound in their depiction of injustice.’’
Program notes by Kurt Loft, a freelance writer and
former music critic for The Tampa Tribune. © 2018
Program Notes