Concerto for Double String Orchestra

Tippett was well into his thirties - at an age when Mozart and Schubert had written a lifetime of music - before he found his distinctive voice as a composer. But, whereas Mozart and Schubert were born into a tradition of such quality that they scarcely had to think about it, Tippett had a long struggle in reconciling the diverse influences he had absorbed up to that point - Beethoven, British folksong and the English madrigalists prominent among them. The first work in which they were not only reconciled but also brought into a mutually enhancing relationship was the Concerto for Double String Orchestra, which he completed in 1939.

Structurally - in that it has a sonata-form first movement, a ternary Adagio and a sonata-rondo finale - it follows Beethoven. Texturally, in its use of one instrumental ensemble to offset another, it is allied to the concerto grosso. But the motivating influence is that of the Elizabethan madrigal, the independence of its rhythms from regular metrical patterns and the individual freedom of the contrapuntal voices. The first subject of the first movement is, in fact, two different themes presented simultaneously, one on each orchestra, and its momentum derives from the friction that is the result of their conflicting rhythmic interests. There is a second subject, a scherzando tune introduced on a trill by the first violins of the first orchestra, but the development section is far more interested in exploring the contrapuntal potential of the first-subject material - which, with the ten parts available in the two orchestra, it most resourcefully does.

The outer sections of the slow movement are concerned not so much with counterpoint as with melody for its own sake. The main theme, introduced by solo violin, is based on the Scottish folk song “Ca’ the yowes” that Tippett had first used in his Piano Sonata No.1 a year earlier. The middle section, on the other hand, is a fugal episode modelled on the corresponding section in Beethoven’s String Quartet in F minor, Op.95. Throughout the movement, not least on the reprise of the folk melody on solo cello, there are gentle reminders of the opening theme of the work.

Impelled by a rhythmic impulse similar to that of the first movement - though it is more playful and less frictional in this case - the Allegro molto rondo includes two delightfully tuneful episodes between the reappearances of its jubilant main theme. There is still one more melodic inspiration to come, however: as a kind of coda, a broad new melody, related in some respects to the folk song of the Adagio, is introduced by the violins and violas of the first orchestra and carried, amid more reminders of the opening theme of the work, to an exultant conclusion.

In a life as long and as productive as Michael Tippett’s it is not particularly significant that he was well into his thirties before he found his own distinctive voice as a composer. It is interesting, however, because it indicates the severity of the struggle he had in reconciling the various influences he had absorbed up to that point - Beethoven, Palestrina, Handel, the English madrigalists, British folk song, the British tradition in general. The first work in which they were all not only reconciled but also brought into a mutually enhancing relationship with each other was the Concerto for Double String Orchestra. Completed in 1939, it fell naturally into place in a distinguished lineage of English music for string orchestra, beginning with Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro and including Vaughan William’s Tallis Fantasia, Bliss’s Music for Strings and Britten’s Frank Bridge Variations.

Structurally - in that it has a sonata-form first movement, a ternary Adagio and a sonata-rondo finale - it is allied to Beethoven. Texturally - in that it is a kind of concerto grosso in which one group of instruments offsets another - it is allied to Handel, Elgar and Vaughan Williams. But these are superficial influences in comparison with that of the Elizabethan madrigal, the vitality of rhythms liberated from regular metrical patterns and the individual freedom of the contrapuntal voices. The first subject of the first movement is, in fact, two different themes presented simultaneously, one on each orchestra, and its momentum derives from the friction that is the result of their conflicting rhythmic interests. There is a second subject, a scherzando tune introduced on a trill by the first violins of the first orchestra, but the development section is far more interested in exploring the contrapuntal potential of the first-subject material - which, with the ten parts available in the two orchestra, it most resourcefully does.

The outer sections of the slow movement are concerned not so much with counterpoint as in melody for its own sake. The main theme, introduced after a short introduction by solo violin, is based on the (Scottish) folk song “Ca’ the yowes” that Tippett had first used in his Piano Sonata No.1 a year earlier. The middle section, on the other hand, is a fugal episode modelled on the corresponding section in Beethoven’s String Quartet in F minor, Op.95. Throughout the movement, not least on the reprise of the folk melody on solo cello, there are gentle reminders of the opening theme of the work.

There is a reminder also of the Adagio fugue subject just after the beginning of the Allegro molto and just before the jubilant entry of its main theme on the violins of both orchestras. Impelled by a rhythmic impulse similar to that of the first movement, though it is more playful and less frictional in this case, the rondo includes two delightfully tuneful episodes between the reappearances of its main theme. There is still one more melodic inspiration to come, however: as a kind of coda, a broad new melody, related in some respects to the folk song of the Adagio, is introduced by the violins and violas of the first orchestra and carried, amid more reminders of the opening theme of the work, to an exultant conclusion.