1 Introduction
Michael Tippettâs Fifth String Quartet (1990â1) is a strikingly translucent work. It is filled with spectral resonances that are constructed from fragile webs of heterophony and infused with inter-opus allusions that shimmer within a conceptual framework. The quartet was produced near the completion of a significant period in Tippettâs creative development, and it represented a near fulfillment of the mandate, set by his mentor T.S. Eliot, for a âcontinual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.â1 Paradoxically, it remains one of Tippettâs most deeply personal compositions, in which his desire to invent increasingly original material struggled against his memory of music from the recent and distant past.
The Fifth String Quartet warrants special attention because of the unusual circumstances in which it was conceived and composed. By recounting both the circumstances that led to the quartetâs inception and the conditions under which it was created, it is possible to gain a greater appreciation for the effort it took to produce and to measure more accurately its significance in the composerâs creative development. Using supporting documentation and evidence from Tippettâs sketches and pencil manuscripts, this book will detail the entire compositional process associated with the Fifth String Quartet: from the pre-conditional experiences that influenced its conception; through the visions and revisions that he experienced during the image-accretion and transformational-notation phases; through the subsequent rehearsal session with the Lindsay String Quartet, during which some additional revisions were made; and finally, to a study of the quartetâs reception.2
The Lindsay String Quartet is a common link between Tippettâs Fourth and Fifth Quartets. The collaborations between the Lindsay Quartet and the composer (in advance of the premiere of the Fifth String Quartet), some of which were captured on film, constitute part of the critical pre-history of the subsequent performances and their interpretive strategies, including suggestions about articulation and voicing, which have been thoroughly integrated into the published score. Together with his amanuensis, Michael Tillett; his companion, Meirion Bowen; and the staff from both the Tippett Office and his publisher, Schott, most especially, Sally Grovesâthe dedicatee of the quartet, the Lindsay String Quartet served as the essential support network that enabled the composer to persevere and flourish at precisely this period of his creative development.
The Fifth Quartet is exceptional in Tippettâs oeuvre because it was one of the few pieces that demanded further revision to complete. Typically in his compositional process, Tippett preferred to contemplate and design his pieces far in advance and only began writing down the notes when he was confident that the basic planning had been done. As a result, he rarely revised works after he had completed them. Some notable exceptions include the First String Quartet (1934â5), Piano Sonata No. 1 (1936â8), and the finale to the Third String Quartet (1945â6).3 Unlike the First and Third String Quartets, which were revised long after their creative cycles were complete, the Fifth Quartet underwent a critical reevaluation during the compositional process and immediately after it was complete, while it was still being rehearsed by the Lindsay Quartet in advance of its premiere. These revisionary acts had a profound effect on the shaping of the quartet and resulted in an entirely new beginning and ending for the quartet. The original and revised beginning and ending will be treated separately below in a manner that only increases our appreciation for this exceptional work.
Notes
1 See T.S. Eliot, âTradition and the Individual Talentâ, in Selected Essays: 1917â1932 (New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1932), 7.
2 The Lindsay String Quartet programmed Tippettâs Fifth String Quartet on its tour. The program also included Haydnâs Quartet in C, Opus 20, No. 2 and Schubertâs Quartet in D minor, D.810 âDeath and the Maiden.â For more information on Tippettâs compositional process, see Thomas Schuttenhelm, âBetween Image and the Imagination: Tippettâs Creative Processâ, in The Cambridge Companion to Michael Tippett, eds. Kenneth Gloag and Nicholas Jones (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 103â18.
3 See Michael Tippett, âThe Scoreâ, in Tippett on Music, ed. Meirion Bowen (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), 266.
2 Pre-conditions
The Fifth String Quartet embodies the culmination of Tippettâs long-standing interest in the genre. Tippett was âinvincibly drawn to the medium,â and each of his five quartets represents a singular achievement.1 His First String Quartet was the work through which he found his own individual voice and the first composition to enter his permanent catalogue.2 The Second String Quartet (1941â2) was created from music of decidedly mixed traditions, what Tippett described as a âcombination and contrast of movementsâbringing 4 equal types of movement to birth by procuration of 4 (or less or more) techniques which will be able to handle 4 sensibilities.â3 Combining formal elegance with freedom of invention, the Third String Quartet (1945â6) demonstrated the ways in which disciplined counterpoint could be used to reach new heights of personal expression.4 In the Fourth String Quartet (1977â8) Tippett allowed conceptual dimensions to surpass conventional determinants. Such an approach required him to reconfigure the traditional hierarchies commonly found in the genre of the string quartet, and by doing so he produced a work of post-historical proportions.
The Fourth String Quartet was premiered by the Lindsay String Quartet on 20 May 1979, at the Bath Festival in South West England.5 In fact, the pre-conditional phase of the creative cycle associated with the Fifth Quartet can be traced back to that same evening when, after the performance, Tippett turned to first violinist in the Lindsay Quartet, Peter Cropper, and confessed: âI think I might write a fifth quartet.â6 This was not an uncommon experience for the composer: listening to Walter Gieseking perform Beethovenâs Piano Concerto No. 4 initiated the creative cycle for the Piano Concerto (1953â5); hearing a performance of a Vivaldi concerto provided him with the inspiration to begin his Second Symphony (1956â7); attending a performance at the Edinburgh Festival that included Pli selon pli by Pierre Boulez suggested the conceptual polarities used in his Third Symphony (1970â2); and listening to Georg Solti rehearse Byzantium (1988â90) was the einfall-experience that started the creative process that resulted in The Rose Lake (1991â3). Cropper knew Tippett was going to be occupied with various commissions and commitments that had been scheduled in advance and thus did not immediately press the composer about the matter. But when Tippett decided to begin work on his Fifth Quartet, he contacted Cropper again and said to him: âNow Peter, donât be disappointed, you know Iâm getting on now. Iâm over 85. Iâm not sure I can carry on the same tenet of the other quartets. But Iâll have a go.â7
Shortly before beginning work on the quartet, Tippett had entered into one of his most productive periods, and in the span of five years he produced three major works: Byzantium, the Fifth Quartet, and The Rose Lake. This was a remarkably short period of time, especially for a composer who typically required long periods of contemplation and planning before executing new works. The style, structure, and accelerated creative cycles associated with this trilogy of late-period compositions also demand further study.
Notes
1 Meirion Bowen, âString Quartet No. 5â, CD liner notes to Tippett: The 5 String Quartets, Lindsay Quartet (ASV, DC DCS 231, 1993).
2 Prior to the First String Quartet Tippett composed a Quartet in F major (1928, rev. 1930) and a Quartet in F minor (1929). See Ian Kemp, Tippett: The Composer and His Music (London: Eulenburg and New York: Da Capo Press, 1984), 498.
3 Michael Tippett, The Selected Letters of Michael Tippett, ed. Thomas Schuttenhelm (London: Faber & Faber, 2005), 248.
4 String Quartet No. 3 benefited from a minor revisionary process: the fourth and fifth movements are now performed attacca. See Tippett, âThe Scoreâ, in Tippett on Music, 266â7.
5 The premiere performance was originally scheduled for 1978, but Tippett was unable to complete the piece in time. See Tippett, The Selected Letters of Michael Tippett, 269.
6 Tony Scull (dir.), Tippettâs New Quartet (Clarion Call Productions, Yorkshire Television, 1992).
3 Creative cycles
Examining Tippettâs creative cycle is to observe his cognitive process, and a close inspection of his manuscripts reveals how creativity and cognition were intimately connected. Tippettâs creative cycle followed a predictable pattern, and he was keenly aware of when each phase was activated and how to manage its progression.1 As a creative artist, he designated two general categories of activity that enabled him to capture and express this inner flow of experience: âone entails spontaneity and accident; the other, a more self-conscious process of testing and measuring.â2 Initiating the creative cycle was spontaneous and sudden, but the âlong and protractedâ act of âtesting and measuringâ took considerable effort and time. Quite often Tippett required a period of contemplation in which he would determine the specific parameters of the composition before he could begin to notate its details into a manuscript score. He would only proceed to the notational phaseââfinding the notesââonce he was clear about the structure and character of the work.3
Tippett claimed to have developed this practice from his mentor T.S. Eliot:
One has to make the concept extraordinarily clear and the measurements extraordinarily clear before searching for the solidarity and actual expressions of the concept. I talked a lot about this with T.S. Eliot because he was fascinated by this division. And he said once, in his rather funny way, âOf course, the words come last,â and it was literally so. [âŠ] Iâm on that line. Therefore, I know already what the accident is that Iâm hoping for; that the spontaneous I want tomorrow is going to fit into that place which Iâve put there today. The trust I have by now, in my own process, is that I have within reason never been let down.4
Tippett insisted: âThere is no invocation, no act of will. The projection or propositions [âŠ] I can invent them by the yard but only certain ones will do [âŠ] by accretion [âŠ] they have to be seminal in some way and then Iâm very gradual.â5
Tippettâs desire for a âgradualâ process resulted in the extended periods he required for his creative cycles, and his sketchbooks and manuscripts often detail the accretive process. But the Fifth Quartet was a curious exception to this practice, and evidence suggests that he commenced with its creative cycle almost immediately after he completed Byzantium, in November or December of 1989. It is unclear whether he began the compositional process for the quartet too hastily and did not allow for the customary period of contemplation or whether, after further consideration, the material that he âfit into that place,â specifically the original draft of the opening measures, did not measure up to the standard or character of the work he had in mind.
Eliotâs influence on Tippettâs compositional process appeared quite early in his creative development. The di...