ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a detailed account of the events leading up to and throughout the compositional process associated with Michael Tippett's Fifth String Quartet and a comprehensive analysis of the entire quartet. Tippett's creative cycle followed a predictable pattern, and he was keenly aware of when each phase was activated and how to manage its progression. As a creative artist, he designated two general categories of activity that enabled him to capture and express this inner flow of experience: 'one entails spontaneity and accident; the other, a more self-conscious process of testing and measuring'. Tippett claimed to have developed this practice from his mentor TS. 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. Eliot's influence on Tippett's compositional process appeared quite early in his creative development. In his essay, 'The Three Voices of Poetry', Eliot details how an idea evolved into the object.
