Editing Michael Tippett (section)

===Royal College of Music===
[[File:Royal College of Music - April 2007.jpg|thumb|The [[Royal College of Music]], where Tippett studied between 1923 and 1928]]
Tippett began at the RCM in the summer term of 1923, when he was 18 years old. At the time, his biographer [[Meirion Bowen]] records, "his aspirations were Olympian, though his knowledge rudimentary".<ref name= Bowen18>Bowen, p. 18</ref> Life in London widened his musical awareness, especially [[the Proms]] at the [[Queen's Hall]], opera at [[Covent Garden]] (where he saw [[Dame Nellie Melba]]'s farewell performance in ''[[La bohème]]'') and the [[Ballets Russes|Diaghilev Ballet]]. He heard [[Feodor Chaliapin|Chaliapin]] sing, and attended concerts conducted by, among others, [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]] and [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]]—the last-named "a tiny man who stood bolt upright and conducted with what to me looked like a pencil".<ref>Tippett (1991), pp. 17–18</ref> Tippett overcame his initial ignorance of early music by attending [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|Palestrina]] masses at [[Westminster Cathedral]], following the music with the help of a borrowed score.<ref name= Bowen18/>

At the RCM, Tippett's first composition tutor was [[Charles Wood (composer)|Charles Wood]], who used the models of Bach, [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] and Beethoven to instil a solid understanding of musical forms and syntax. When Wood died in 1926, Tippett chose to study with [[Charles Herbert Kitson|C.H. Kitson]], whose pedantic approach and lack of sympathy with Tippett's compositional aims strained the relationship between teacher and pupil.<ref>Kemp, pp. 14–15</ref>{{#tag:ref|Tippett could have studied with [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]], but decided against this because he thought that study under so distinguished a teacher would lead him to imitation rather than towards finding his own voice.<ref name=Bowen18/>|group= n}} Tippett studied conducting with Sargent and [[Adrian Boult]], finding the latter a particularly empathetic mentor—he let Tippett stand with him on the rostrum during rehearsals and follow the music from the conductor's score.<ref name= Bowen18/> By this means Tippett became familiar with the music of composers then new to him, such as [[Frederick Delius|Delius]] and [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]],<ref>Tippett (1991), pp. 14–15</ref> and learned much about the sounds of orchestral instruments.<ref name= Kemp16>Kemp, pp. 16–17</ref>

In 1924 Tippett became the conductor of an amateur choir in the Surrey village of [[Oxted]]. Although he saw this initially as a means of advancing his knowledge of English [[madrigals]], his association with the choir lasted many years. Under his direction it combined with a local theatrical group, the Oxted and Limpsfield Players, to give performances of [[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]]'s opera ''The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains'' and of Tippett's own adaptation of an 18th-century ballad opera, ''[[The Village Opera]]''.<ref name= Gloag49>Cole, pp. 49–50</ref> He passed his [[Bachelor of Music]] (BMus) exams, at his second attempt, in December 1928. Rather than continuing to study for a doctorate, Tippett decided to leave the academic environment.<ref name= Kemp16/> The RCM years had brought him intense and lasting friendships with members of both sexes, in particular with [[Francesca Allinson]] and David Ayerst.<ref name= Kemp16/>