Editing Michael Tippett (section)

===Influences===
{{Quote box|width=300px|bgcolor=#E0E6F8|align=right|quote= "During his fifty or so years as a composer, Tippett has undoubtedly cultivated a distinctive language of his own. The prime emphasis in this language has been on a linear organisation of musical ideas, helped by a genuine flair for colour and texture."|salign = right |source= Meirion Bowen, writing in 1982.<ref>Bowen, p. 152</ref> }}
The style that emerged from Tippett's long compositional apprenticeship was the product of many diverse influences. Beethoven and Handel were initial models (Handel above Bach, who in Tippett's view lacked drama), supplemented by 16th- and 17th-century masters of counterpoint and madrigal—[[Thomas Weelkes]], Monteverdi and Dowland.<ref name= Kemp65>Kemp, pp. 65–67</ref> Purcell became significant later, and Tippett came to lament his ignorance of Purcell during his RCM years: "It seems to me incomprehensible now that his work was not even recommended in composition lessons as a basic study for the setting of English".<ref name= Kemp68/><ref>Tippett and Bowen, p. 57</ref>

Tippett recognised the importance to his compositional development of several 19th- and 20th-century composers: [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]] for his clear melodic lines,<ref name= Kemp65/> Debussy for his inventive sound, Bartók for his colourful dissonance, Hindemith for his skills at counterpoint, and [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]] for his originality in musical forms.<ref>Kemp, p. 72</ref> He revered Stravinsky, sharing the Russian composer's deep interest in older music.<ref>Bowen, p. 90</ref> Tippett had heard early [[ragtime]] as a small child before the First World War; he noted in his later writings that, in the early years of the 20th century, ragtime and jazz "attracted many serious composers thinking to find ... a means to refresh serious music by the primitive".<ref>Tippett and Bowen, p. 29</ref> His interest in these forms led to his fascination with [[blues]], articulated in several of his later works.<ref name= grove/><ref>Tippett and Bowen, p. 96</ref> Among his contemporary composers, Tippett admired Britten and shared his desire to end the perception of English music as provincial.<ref>Kemp, p. 87</ref> He also had a high regard for [[Alan Bush]], with whom he joined forces to produce the 1934 Pageant of Labour. "I can remember the excitement I felt when he outlined to me his plan for a major string quartet".<ref>Tippett (1991), pp. 43–44</ref>

Although influences of folk music from all parts of the British Isles are evident in Tippett's early works, he was wary of the English folksong revival of the early 20th century, believing that much of the music presented as "English" by [[Cecil Sharp]] and his followers originated elsewhere.<ref name= Kemp68>Kemp, pp. 68–69</ref> Notwithstanding his doubts, Tippett took some inspiration from these sources. The composer [[David Matthews (composer)|David Matthews]] writes of passages in Tippett's music which "evoke the 'sweet especial rural scene' as vividly as Elgar or Vaughan Williams ... perhaps redolent of the Suffolk landscape with its gently undulating horizons, wide skies and soft lights".<ref>Matthews, pp. 17–18</ref>