A Child of Our Time

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A Child of Our Time ( German  One child of our time ) is an oratorio by the English composer Michael Tippett (1905-1998), which was created in 1939 to 1,941th At its center is the anonymised story of the 17-year-old Jew Herschel Grynszpan , who shot and killed the German embassy secretary Ernst vom Rath in the German embassy in Paris on November 7, 1938 , which the National Socialists welcomed as a pretext for a wave of anti-Semitic attacks spreading across the country Violence that delivered the November pogroms . It was the escalating fate of the politically and racially persecuted in the 20th century that prompted Tippett to present the urgent problem of his time in a timely manner. The oratorio was first performed in London on March 9, 1944.

To the work

The darkness declares the glory of light - The darkness heralds the glory of light . Tippett put this motto in front of his most important and best-known work. His oratorio A Child of Our Time , composed during the first years of World War II, wanted to be understood as a work of reconciliation, despite the massive protest against dictatorship, racism and oppression it expressed. In accordance with the dualistic theses of CG Jung , he expressed the conviction that bad and good always belong together, just as light and shadow are mutually dependent.

title

The title A Child of Our Time goes back to a novel by Ödön von Horváth (1938), in which the story of a soldier despairing of senseless war is told. Although the central part of the three-part oratorio refers specifically to the historical story of Herschel Grynszpan -  the child of our time  - Tippett's haunting message has lost none of its relevance and charisma thanks to its emotional language.

occasion

On the morning of November 7, 1938, the 17-year-old Jewish youth Herschel Grynszpan bought a revolver in Paris and used it to assassinate the embassy secretary Ernst vom Rath. Two of the five shots were fatal. His motive is still controversial to this day, in any case he was desperate about the deportation of his parents and closest relatives living in Hanover. The Nazis made the assassination a welcome pretext for a wave of anti-Semitic violence and destruction organized by the party, the Reichskristallnacht of November 9th.

For Tippett, these events - which he learned about through a newspaper article on November 26th - were the immediate cause to begin designing A Child of Our Time . "The work began to join together with the shots themselves and the splintering of the glass in the 'Kristallnacht'" , Tippett later said himself about it. He had already had plans for a larger oratorio or an opera, including about the Easter Rebellion in Ireland in 1916, but the current political developments have pushed him thematically in a different direction. Regardless of the concrete content - the child of our time remains anonymous in the oratorio - his work should be an unambiguous statement for the oppressed, poor and socially excluded, whose lives he had come to know through his own experiences.

text

When Tippett was finished with the rough planning and conception for A Child of Our Time, he asked TS Eliot (1888–1965) to write the text for his work. The British poet was a friend of Tippett's and also lived near Oxted, south of London. To do this, Tippett made a sketch in which he detailed how he imagined the text. Eliot then advised Tippett to write the text himself, as he had already written part of it and no one could write the text for his work better than Tippett himself. In addition, the music itself is so strong that not many poetic words are needed to get the content to make tangible. Eliot therefore recommended that Tippett make the text as simple as possible, because poets would only do with words what was already the task of music. So Tippett was then admittedly by poets such as B. Wilfred Owen ("The Seed") inspired, but ultimately wrote the text for A Child of Our Time himself. From then on, he did the same with all of his other oratorios and opera librettos.

Conception

The basis for Tippett's compositional approach were, among other things, the Passions of Bach and Handel's Messiah . The Messiah was the model for the formal design of the oratorio, whose 30 numbers are also divided into three main parts. The central part contains the actual dramatic plot, while the first and third parts reflect on the topic in general.

Similar to the cantatas and oratorios of Bach, four to eight-part choirs, recitatives (bass) and arias are used as musical forms for the various acting, narrating or reflecting people. There are only two polyphonic numbers for soloists, the solo quartet No. 15 "Scena: The Mother, the Uncle and Aunt, and the Boy." And the bass-alto duet No. 17 "The boy becomes desperate in his agony." . - A curse is born… “ . Turba choirs describe the actions and emotions of the masses, while other artfully contrapuntal choirs meditate on the events. Instead of Bach's usual lyrical, contemplative chorales, Tippett uses traditional Negro spirituals (see below).

Tippett had dealt intensively with the psychology of CG Jung (1875–1961). Certain elements of Jungian psychology, such as For example, the complementary or dualistic existence of good and bad, the limits of rationality and the loss of the psychological foundations of modern man played an important role in the conception of the oratorio. The archetypes are also taken up: The alto voice in the second movement represents the anima that describes the “feminine” in people. Tippett also shared the view of the desired unity of consciousness and subconsciousness and incorporated it into his text: “I would know my shadow and my light, so shall I at last be whole”. ("I would have to know my shadow and my light so that I will finally be complete / whole.")

occupation

The full title of the work is A Child of Our Time. Oratorio for Soli, Chorus and Orchestra with Text and Music by Michael Tippett. The soloists are soprano, alto, tenor and bass, plus a four to eight-part mixed choir and orchestra.

The soloists are not assigned any fixed roles. Although the bass appears mainly as a narrator , it also appears in the ensemble. The same applies to the tenor, which is primarily assigned the role of child . The soprano appears as his mother, the alto as his aunt, but both have a general observational function.

The role of the choir is just as varied. In terms of content, he plays the role of the persecutor and the persecuted, the hard-hearted and the suffering, the haters and the hated. He sets the mood at the beginning of the three main parts. In the end it is synonymous with the whole of fearful and hopeful humanity.

In addition to the four to eight-part choir and the solo parts, an orchestra of strings, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones and percussion is used. A performance of the oratorio usually lasts 70 minutes, 25 for the first and second part and 20 minutes for the third part.

part One

The first part of the oratorio basically introduces the subject and gives a historical description of the situation. First, Tippett uses a seasonal metaphor that expresses the cold and gloom of the world in the entrance choir:

The world turns to its dark side. It is winter.
The world turns to its dark side. It is winter.

An alto solo describes the soulless state of the world, whereupon the choir thematizes the relationship between good and bad and the limits of rationality:

Is evil then good? Is reason untrue?
Is Evil Good? Is reason a mistake?

Whether this is meant in the Jungian sense (necessary duality of good and bad, limits of rationality) or whether it means: “Evil cannot count as good now”, “Reason and rationality cannot suddenly turn out to be wrong” remains consciously in the balance for the listener. The observation culminates in the recognition of being lost and the existential threat as well as the vision of a “great slaughter”. Choir:

We are lost. We are as seed before the wind. We are carried to a great slaughter.
We are lost. We are like the seed before the wind. A great slaughter awaits us.

The chorus of the oppressed replies to the description of the situation by a narrator (bass) "In every country there were outcasts ... pogroms in the east, lynching in the west, hunger war in Europe" :

When shall the usurers' city cease? And famine depart from our fruitful land?
When will the usury come to an end? When does hunger leave our fertile land?

However, there are also tentative hopes that the situation will improve.

Part II

The second part describes the momentous events of the Paris attack. The choir presents the theme in messianic words, the child of our time appears for the first time :

A star rises in mid-winter. Behold the man! The scape-goat. The child of our time.
A star rises in the middle of winter. Look there, man! (Ecce homo!) The scapegoat! The child of our time.

The shape of this part reminds especially on the Passions of Bach: the plot is advanced by the recitatives of the narrator, Turba choirs as the double chorus of persecutors and persecuted enter the aufgeputschten and anxious feelings of the masses again:

Persecutors: Away with them! Curse them! Kill them. They infect the state. -
Persecuted: Where? Why? How? We have no refuge.
Pursuit: Away with them! Curse them! Kill her! They poison the state. -
Persecuted: Where to? Why? How? We have nowhere to go.

As a counterpart to Bach's chorale movements, Tippett uses artfully formed traditional spirituals. The choir of the self-righteous describes drastically the mental attitude of those who reject a saving reception of those persecuted by National Socialism in their own country:

We cannot have them in our Empire. They shall not work nor draw a dole. Let them starve in No-Man's-Land!
We cannot accept them in our country. They shouldn't work or get unemployment benefits. Let them starve in no man's land!

The emotional climax of the second part is an exchange of letters between the boy and his mother. But the mother's warnings and fears cannot dissuade Herschel from his plan, and he shoots the officer. This is followed by revenge, which the hateful terror choir, a musical highlight of the whole work, expresses drastically:

Burn down their houses! Beat in their heads! Break them in pieces on the wheel!
Burn down their houses! Beat their heads in! Break them to pieces on the bike!

The second part ends with the lamentations of the son and mother.

Part III

Finally, in the third part, the question is asked what moral consequences - if at all - can be drawn from what has happened. The experience is meditated on and the listener, trusting in God, is set for a better future. Again the entrance choir sets the mood:

The cold deepens. The world descends into the icy waters where lies the jewel of great price.
The cold is getting bigger. The world is sinking in icy waters, but there lies a jewel of great value.

Then the soloalt gives the prospect of redemption, the wise (bass) follows with words of hope: The winter's frost gives inner warmth and is the secret germination site of the seed (which produces new fruit). The choir responds impatiently to these positive promises:

How shall we have patience for the consummation of the mystery? Who will comfort us in the going through?
How should we be patient until the mystery is completed? Who will comfort us in the meantime?

The doubting people (chorus) and the sage continue their dialogue about the power of fate. The choir's anxious question about the boy's fate

... what of the boy then? What of him?
... and what about the boy? What will happen to him?

answers the way in which he presents the child of our time as an example for humanity:

He, too, is outcast, his manhood broken in the clash of powers. God overpowered him - the child of our time.
He too is an outcast, his humanity is broken in the clash of forces. God overwhelmed him - the child of our time.

The final is formed by the comforting choir, which once again expands the dualistic view of CG Jung

I would know my shadow and my light, so shall I at last be whole.
I wanted to get to know my shadow and my light so that I would finally be complete (whole).

and the final spiritual "Deep River" , which marks a religiously hopeful end.

music

The musical and artistic means to represent the wide arc of tension are varied. They range from the clear and simple tonality of spirituals to complex rhythmic sections - e.g. B. No. 6 "I have no money" , the soprano aria No. 23 "The mother" and the alto aria No. 27 "The soul of man" - up to borderline formations such as in the rousing double choir of the pursuers and persecuted (No. 11).

Particularly important content-related or formal concerns are often highlighted by artistic contrapuntal work, such as As the in parts canonically guided terror Fugue no. 19 "Burn down Their houses!" . The young man's lament in prison (No. 22) experiences an oppressive condensation through the four-part canon in the violins and flutes as prelude and interlude. The opening chorus of the third part “The cold deepens” expands the tonality to the point of breaking. The fine woodwind prelude, which introduces the penultimate number 29, is a 16-bar strict fifth canon for two flutes and cor anglais and a dramatic masterpiece of high expressive intensity. The trick used here to brace two numbers is used by Tippett several times in the course of his work. The final chorus (No. 29) is in turn seamlessly linked with the final spiritual Deep River . Its unanimous pianissimo cadenza "I want to cross over into camp ground" provides a summary of the ultimately reconciling and comforting idea of ​​the entire oratorio.

From the initially planned use of Lutheran chorales - as they are used in the Passions of Bach - Tippett again refrained from because their appealing character seemed too limited in the statement. Tippett wanted to address and touch the audience directly with his music and therefore used a total of five traditional spirituals to structure and at the peaks of the work:

  • Steal away, steal away to Jesus (No. 8)
  • Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord! (No. 16)
  • Go down Moses, way down in Egypt land (A Spiritual of Anger, No. 21)
  • O by and by ... (No. 25)
  • Deep river, my home is over Jordan (No. 30)

Due to their origin as chants of the oppressed black slaves, Tippett considered the spirituals to be a contemporary and universally understandable form, especially since the work not only addresses the persecution of the Jews, but - according to Tippett - "generally deals with the fate of those who are rejected, pushed out of the The center of communal life on the fringes of society: in slums, concentration camps, ghettos. ” Although the original melody with its rhythmic structure shines through in the Spirituals, these are clad in an artful, polyphonic movement that reveals Handel's role model. Tippett later arranged the five Spirituals into a cappella choral movements for eight-part mixed choir.

Performance and impact

premiere

In particular, the composer Benjamin Britten and the tenor Peter Pears used their influence for a performance of Tippett's oratorio. A Child of Our Time was performed for the first time on March 19, 1944 at the Adelphi Theater in London with Joan Cross, Margaret McArthur, Peter Pears, Roderick Lloyd, various choirs and the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of the German émigré Walter Goehr . The success was lasting, even if some initially took offense at the complexity of the musical structure. "It contains a lot of really beautiful things, but you can't easily learn it when you first listen to it," wrote composer Lennox Berkeley to Britten after the premiere.

In 1994, on the 50th anniversary of the world premiere, there was a wave of productions across Europe, including the German premiere of the Munich Symphony Orchestra with the Markus Choir Munich on March 22nd. The Berlin premiere took place in 1995 - 50 years after the end of the war - with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Rundfunkchor Berlin , in the presence of the composer.

A December 2007 recording with the London Symphony Orchestra and Choir conducted by Sir Colin Davis was nominated for a 2009 Grammy Award (Best Choral Performance).

Aftermath

Tippett's A Child of Our Time is a reminder to tolerance, humanity and justice that has few counterparts in this unambiguous statement and universal comprehensibility in modern music. When the libretto for A Child of Our Time was completed in 1939, Tippett could not have foreseen the full extent of the Nazi atrocities that followed, as World War II was only just beginning and knowledge about the Holocaust was only gradually percolating. His prophetic visions of actual disaster are all the more astonishing.

The work marked a breakthrough for Tippett personally and was the beginning of his international recognition as a composer. Even while working on his work, Tippett knew by his own admission that

“This was the turning point in my compositional work, both technically - I had learned how to cope with extensive dramatic forms - as well as thematically: because now I had finally found my true role in how I could play these twentieth-century blues. Century wanted to sing. "

A Child of Our Time soon spread beyond England and conquered the continent of Europe and North America after World War II. It became Tippett's most frequently performed composition. Tippett himself commented on the success of the oratorio in 1987:

“It is perhaps every composer's dream that one of his works will reach audiences all over the world. In my case, 'A Child of Our Time' really seems to have gotten its message to all parts of the world. When it was held in Tel Aviv in 1962, Grynszpan's father was among the audience, demonstrably moved by the work that had inspired his son's momentous act 24 years earlier. But the work is not only about the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis, but as I have found, people constantly relate it to their own concerns and problems. When I conducted it in Atlanta in 1981, the predominantly black members of the choir saw it as a piece about their own struggles against harassment and racism. In Brazil in 1985 it seemed to be of depressing relevance for the abandoned, unwanted children. In 1986 André Previn conducted a performance of the oratorio at the Royal Festival Hall in London. A German doctor happened to be in the auditorium who was attending an AIDS conference. He later wrote to me that he couldn't help but relate the piece to the situation of hundreds of thousands of AIDS sufferers who are now victims of discrimination and ostracism in many countries. "

The sequence of sentences

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 userer'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
  • A 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

See also

literature

Oratorio guide

To Tippett

  • Meinhard Saremba : Elgar, Britten & Co. A history of British music in twelve portraits. M&T Verlag, Zurich / St. Gallen 1994, ISBN 3-7265-6029-7 . (From this all Tippett quotations.)
  • Thomas Schulz: Tippett, Michael. In: Horst Weber (Hrsg.): Metzler composers lexicon. Metzler Stuttgart / Weimar 1992, ISBN 3-476-00847-9 .
  • David Clark: Tippett, Michael. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): Music in past and present (MGG). Person part. Volume 16. Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel / Stuttgart et al. 2006, ISBN 3-7618-1136-5 .
  • Kenneth Gloag and Nicholas Jones (Eds.): Michael Tippett. Cambridge 2013.
  • Jean-Philippe Héberlé: Michael Tippett, ou l'expression de la dualité en mots et en notes. Paris 2006.
  • David Matthews: Michael Tippett: An Introductory Study. London / Boston 1980.
  • Michael Tippett: Essays on Music. Mainz 1996.
  • Ian Kemp: Tippett. The composer and his music. London, 1984.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of performances at Schott .
  2. ^ Encounters with Michael Tippett . BZ of January 7, 1995, available online .