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 music is positively archetypal, a quality it obtained in the creative process, when conception, invention, and expression were provided with form and content and with a title that conveyed the meaningfulness of their union. But Tippett was aware that in the modern era the titles for forms, most especially instrumental forms, had become 'confusing' because, in the present cultural condition, the traditions and practices from which they originated were too remote. Tippett created his earliest compositions using historical archetypes that were typically cast in traditional forms and genres. His Second Symphony was one of his first post-historical creations, and with each succeeding composition he moved further and further away from the conventions that were most closely associated with the historical archetype.
