Editing Michael Tippett (section)

====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/>