The activism of composer Sir Michael Tippett
I've been a fan of Sir Michael Tippett's music since my Music student days in the late '80s. He was someone who showed that artistic creativity can be a powerful force for good when allied with political activism. This article by his biographer and former personal assistant/manager, Meirion Bowen, (Tippett died in '98) describes very well how his creative life as a composer and his compassion for the sufferings of others were inseparable. The one fed the other. His profoundly moving 2nd WW oratorio, "A Child Of Our Time" about the real-life plight of a young Jewish boy, is still performed regularly around the world today and is one of the great classical works of the 20th century. We need people like him today to give voice - as he did in "A Child..." - to the oppressed, the persecuted, the marginalised. I will add after the article a link to the final section of the oratorio in which he uses the negro spiritual "Deep River" (one of a numbe...