The oratorio 'A Child of Our Time' was Tippett's artistic and emotional response to the events that led to the 'Kristallnacht' pogrom of November 1938. For his oratorio Tippett used as his formal and historical models the Bach Passions and Handel's Messiah which share with this contemporary morality the subject of the death of an individual set against the universal background of human suffering. Tippett's use of the spiritual as a contemporary equivalent for the Lutheran chorale of the Bach settings draws his audience more closely into the drama through the spirituals' 'unique verbal and musical metaphor'.
Part I
1. Chorus
2. The Argument. Alto solo
3. Scena: Chorus and Alto Solo
4. The Narrator. Bass Solo
5. Chorus of the Oppressed
6. Tenor Solo
7. Soprano Solo
8. A Spiritual: Chorus and Soli
Part II
9. Chorus
10. The Narrator. Bass Solo
11. Double Chorus of Persecutors and Persecuted
12. The Narrator. Bass Solo
13. Chorus of the Self-righteous
14. The Narrator. Bass Solo
15. Scena: The Mother, the Uncle and Aunt, and the Boy. Solo Quartet
16. A Spiritual. Chorus and Soli
17. Scena: Duet, Bass and Alto
18. The Narrator. Bass Solo
19. The Terror. Chorus
20. The Narrator. Bass Solo
21. A Spiritual of Anger. Chorus and Bass Solo
22. The boy sings in his Prison. Tenor Solo
23. The Mother. Soprano Solo
24. Alto Solo
25. A Spiritual. Chorus and Soprano Solo
Part III: 26. Chorus
27. Alto Solo
28. Scena: Bass Solo and Chorus
29. General Ensemble. Chorus and Soli
30. A Spiritual. Chorus and Soli
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