Wikipedia:Today's featured article/January 2, 2015

Sir Michael Tippett (1905–1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during the Second World War. He was considered to rank 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 withdrew or destroyed his earliest compositions, and was 30 before any of his works were published. Initial difficulties in accepting his homosexuality led him in 1939 to Jungian psychoanalysis. Until the mid-1950s his music was broadly lyrical in character, before changing to a more astringent and experimental style, open to new influences including jazz and blues. He was much honoured in his lifetime, but uneven critical judgement reserved praise generally for his earlier works. Having briefly embraced communism in the 1930s, Tippett avoided identifying with any political party. A pacifist after 1940, he was imprisoned in 1943 for refusing to carry out war-related duties. He was a strong advocate of music education, a radio broadcaster and a writer on music. (Full article...)

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