Michael Tippett used musical borrowing in his compositions to create extramusical meanings through the quotation of pre-existent music. Many of his works borrow from external and internal sources. His procedures varied from simple quotation within the context of an original work to complex recomposition of another composer's work. He began through the application of variation technique and quotation, as in the Piano Sonata No. 1 and A Child of Our Time, in which he used spirituals, respectively. Beginning in the Divertimento on Sellinger's Round, Tippett placed the pre-existent material in each of the five movements either complete or transformed. Recomposition was applied to two Corelli works in the Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli. Tippett abandoned such borrowing practices for a substantial period of time, but later returned to them, though tempered by a severe, economic sense, as in The Knot Garden. Tippett then moved into a borrowing practice based on unification in which a web of compositions is thematically connected through self-quotation, beginning with his Symphony No. 4 and continuing into The Mask of Time. Tippett's borrowing techniques consisted of a vast range of dramatic and poetic techniques to create powerful meanings within his compositions.

Works: Tippett: Piano Sonata No. 1 (13), Fantasia on a Theme of Handel (13), A Child of Our Time (13), Suite for the Birthday of Prince Charles (13), The Midsummer Marriage (13), Divertimento on Sellinger's Round (15), The Mask of Time (15, 17-18), Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli (15), The Knot Garden (16), Songs for Dov (16), Symphony No. 3 (16-17), Triple Concerto (17).

Sources: Tippett: Suite for the Birthday of Prince Charles (13); Byrd: Sellinger's Round (15); Gibbons: Fantasia (15); Veni creator spiritus (15); Corelli: Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 2 (15), Trio Sonata Op. 3, No. 4 (15); Schubert: Die liebe Farbe (16); Beethoven: Kennst du das Land? Op. 75, No. 1 (16), Symphony No. 9 in D Minor (16); Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer (16); Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov (16); Tippett: Come Unto the Yellow Sands (16), King Priam (16), String Quartet No. 4 (17), Symphony No. 4 (17-18), Triple Concerto (18); Dowland: I Saw My Lady Weep (18); Monteverdi: Ecco mororar l'onde (18).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes