A Child of Our Time is a secular oratorio by the British composer Michael Tippett, who also wrote the libretto. Composed between 1939 and 1941, it was first performed at the Adelphi Theatre, London, on 19 March 1944. The work was inspired by events that profoundly affected Tippett: the assassination of a German diplomat by a young Jewish refugee in 1938, and the Nazi government's reaction to the assassination which was in the form of a violent pogrom against Germany's Jewish population: Kristallnacht. Tippett's oratorio deals with these incidents in the context of the experiences of all oppressed people, and it carries a strongly pacifistic message of ultimate understanding and reconciliation. The text's recurrent themes of shadow and light reflect the Jungian psychoanalysis which Tippett underwent in the years immediately before he wrote the work.
Passers-by observe a wrecked Jewish business in Magdeburg, Germany, after the Kristallnacht pogrom of 9 November 1938. Events surrounding the pogrom inspired Tippett to write A Child of Our Time.
Stamford School (photographed in 2006), where Tippett's musical abilities first became apparent
Herschel Grynszpan, whose actions formed the basis of A Child of Our Time
"Deep River, my home is over Jordan" The final spiritual in the oratorio, sheet music version 1917
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten as one of the leading British composers of the 20th century. Among his best-known works are the oratorio A Child of Our Time, the orchestral Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli, and the opera The Midsummer Marriage.
Tippett late in life. He was active into his 90s.
Stamford School, which Tippett attended between 1920 and 1923
The Royal College of Music, where Tippett studied between 1923 and 1928
Herschel Grynszpan