Editing Michael Tippett (section)

===Early career===

====False start====
On leaving the RCM, Tippett settled in Oxted to continue his work with the choir and theatrical group and to compose. To support himself he taught French at Hazelwood, a small preparatory school in [[Limpsfield]], which provided him with a salary of £80 a year and a cottage. Also teaching at the school was [[Christopher Fry]], the future poet and playwright who later collaborated with Tippett on several of the composer's early works.<ref name= Kemp18>Kemp, pp. 18–22</ref><ref>Tippett (1991), p. 22</ref>

In February 1930 Tippett provided the incidental music for a performance by his theatrical group of [[James Elroy Flecker]]'s ''Don Juan'', and in October he directed them in his own adaptation of Stanford's opera ''The Travelling Companion''. His compositional output was such that on 5 April 1930 he gave a concert in Oxted consisting entirely of his own works—a Concerto in D for flutes, oboe, horns and strings; settings for tenor of poems by Charlotte Mew; ''Psalm in C'' for chorus and orchestra, with a text by Christopher Fry; piano variations on the song "Jockey to the Fair"; and a string quartet.<ref name= Bowen19>Bowen, pp. 19–20</ref> Professional soloists and orchestral players were engaged, and the concert was conducted by [[David Moule-Evans]], a friend from the RCM. Despite encouraging comments from ''The Times'' and the ''Daily Telegraph'', Tippett was deeply dissatisfied with the works, and decided that he needed further tuition. He withdrew the music, and in September 1930 re-enrolled at the RCM for a special course of study in [[counterpoint]] with [[R. O. Morris]], an expert on 16th-century music. This second RCM period, during which he learned to write [[fugue]]s in the style of Bach and received additional tuition in orchestration from [[Gordon Jacob]],<ref name= Kemp18/> was central to Tippett's eventual discovery of what he termed his "individual voice".<ref name= Gloag49/>

On 15 November 1931 Tippett conducted his Oxted choir in a performance of Handel's ''[[Messiah (Handel)|Messiah]]'', using choral and orchestral forces close to Handel's original intentions. Such an approach was rare at that time, and the event attracted considerable interest.<ref name= Kemp18/>

====Friendships, politics and music====
In mid-1932 Tippett moved to a cottage in neighbouring Limpsfield, provided by friends as a haven in which he could concentrate on composition.<ref>Tippett (1991), p. 23</ref>{{#tag:ref|In 1938, with financial help from his father, Tippett bought this cottage and some adjoining land, and built a new bungalow on the site, which remained his home until 1951.<ref>Kemp, pp. 17–18</ref>|group= n}} His friendships with Ayerst and Allinson had opened up new cultural and political vistas. Through Ayerst he met [[W. H. Auden]], who in due course introduced him to [[T. S. Eliot]]. Although no deep friendship developed with either poet, Tippett came to consider Eliot his "spiritual father".<ref name="Kemp, p. 33">Kemp, p. 33</ref><ref name= Bowen21>Bowen, pp. 21–22</ref> Ayerst also introduced him to a young artist, [[Wilfred Franks]]. By this time Tippett was coming to terms with his homosexuality, while not always at ease with it. Franks provided him with what he called "the deepest, most shattering experience of falling in love".<ref>Tippett (1991), pp. 57–58</ref> This intense relationship ran alongside a political awakening. Tippett's natural sympathies had always been leftish, and became more consciously so from his inclusion in Allinson's circle of left-wing activists. As a result, he gave up his teaching position at Hazelwood to become the conductor of the South London Orchestra, a project financed by the [[London County Council]] and made up of unemployed musicians.<ref name= Kemp30>Kemp, pp. 30–32</ref> Its first public concert was held on 5 March 1933 at [[Morley College]], later to become Tippett's professional base.<ref name= Kemp25>Kemp, pp. 25–28</ref>
{{Quote box|width=18em|bgcolor=#E0E6F8|align=left|quote="So God He made us outlaws<br />To beat the devil's man<br />To rob the rich, to help the poor<br />By Robin's ten-year plan."|salign = left |source=Robin Hood, interpreted by Tippett as a hero of the 1930s class war<ref name= T42>Tippett (1991), p. 42</ref> }}
In the summers of 1932 and 1934 Tippett took charge of musical activities at miners' work camps near [[Boosbeck]] in the north of England. Known as the [[Cleveland Work Camps]], they were run by a munificent local landowner, Major Pennyman, to give unemployed miners a sense of purpose and independence. In 1932 Tippett arranged the staging of a shortened version of John Gay's ''[[The Beggar's Opera]]'', with locals playing the main parts, and the following year he provided the music for a new folk opera, ''[[Robin Hood (Tippett opera)|Robin Hood]]'', with words by Ayerst, himself and [[Ruth Pennyman]]. Both works proved hugely popular with their audiences,<ref name= Kemp25/><ref name= T42/> and although most of the music has disappeared, Tippett revived some of ''Robin Hood'' for use in his ''Birthday Suite for Prince Charles'' of 1948.<ref>Cole, p. 60</ref><ref>Kemp, pp. 296–298</ref> In October 1934 Tippett and the South London Orchestra performed at a centenary celebration of the [[Tolpuddle Martyrs]], as part of a grand Pageant of Labour at [[the Crystal Palace]].<ref name="Kemp, p. 33"/><ref name= grove>{{cite web|title= Tippett, Sir Michael (Kemp)|last= Clarke|first= David|url= http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/28005|website= Grove Music Online|access-date= 26 August 2013}} {{subscription}}</ref>

Tippett was not formally a member of any political party or group until 1935, when he joined the [[Communist Party of Great Britain|British Communist Party]] at the urging of his cousin, Phyllis Kemp. This membership was brief; the influence of [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky]]'s ''History of the Russian Revolution'' had led him to embrace [[Trotskyism]], while the party maintained a strict [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] line. Tippett resigned after a few months when he saw no chance of converting his local party to his Trotskyist views.<ref name= Kemp30/><ref name= grove/> According to his obituarist J.J. Plant, Tippett then joined the [[Militant Group|Bolshevik-Leninist Group]] within the Labour Party, where he continued to advocate Trotskyism until at least 1938.<ref>{{cite journal|last= Plant|first= J.J.|title= Michael Tippett (1905–1998)|journal=Revolutionary History|year=1998|volume=7|issue=1|url= https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/revhist/backiss/vol7/no1/plant.html|access-date= 16 June 2016}}</ref> Although Tippett's radical instincts always remained strong, he was aware that excessive political activism would distract him from his overriding objective of becoming recognised as a composer.<ref name= odnb/> A significant step towards professional recognition came in December 1935, when the Brosa Quartet performed his String Quartet No. 1 at the Mercury Theatre in [[Notting Hill]], London. This work, which he dedicated to Franks,<ref name= Rees>Rees, p. xxiv</ref><ref name= Kemp498>Kemp, pp. 498–499</ref> is the first in the recognised canon of Tippett's music.<ref name= odnb/> Throughout much of the 1930s Wilf Franks continued to be an important influence on Tippett both creatively and politically. Franks had a passion for the poetry of both [[William Blake]] and [[Wilfred Owen]]; Tippett claimed that Franks knew Owen's poetry 'almost word for word and draws it out for me, its meanings, its divine pity and so on...'.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schuttenhelm |first1=Thomas |title=Selected Letters of Michael Tippett |date=2005 |publisher=Faber and Faber |isbn=978-0-571-22600-9 |page=233}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Gilgan |first1=Danyel |title=Michael Tippett: love in the age of extremes |url=https://blogs.bl.uk/music/2020/07/michael-tippett-love-in-the-age-of-extremes.html |publisher=The British Library |access-date=15 July 2020}}</ref>