Contents: Introduction; The relation of autobiographical experience to the created work of art, Michael Tippett; Idealism and ideology in Tippett’s writings, Edward Venn; Kinship and commentary: Beethoven and Tippett’s unpublished Quartet in F Minor, Sean Flanagan; From agitprop to parable: a prolegomenon to A Child of our Time, Suzanne Robinson; Forging a relationship and a role: Michael Tippett and the BBC, 1928-51, Lewis Foreman; ‘Musical trail-blazing and general daring’: Michael Tippett, Morley College and early music, Suzanne Cole; Transcending song: Tippett’s play with genre in vocal composition, Arnold Whittall; The Heart’s Assurance: Tippett’s ‘War Requiem’?, Barbara Docherty; Homeric resonance: King Priam and the Iliad, Rowena Harrison; The reception of British music in Germany: the case of Sir Michael Tippett, Meinhard Saremba; Index.