ABSTRACT
On several occasions the English composer Michael Tippett has provided an account of the circumstances of his first meeting with T. S. Eliot. Tippett may have been dismissive of Eliot's Christian and Catholic orthodoxy, but he was enlightened by his example nonetheless. Despite his radical political leanings and the skepticism of friends, Tippett was intrinsically catholic in his intellectual tastes. In his second essay on Shakespeare, Eliot turned to an analysis of the opening scene of Hamlet and to the musical sound of poetry. Eliot later adapted this analysis for "Poetry and Drama," a version that was seen and analyzed in turn by Tippett. The purpose of the Tern-pest charades is to effect a spiritual as well as a psychological healing, by emulating the pattern of Shakespeare's late plays. Nonetheless, Tippett has demonstrated the application of Eliot's musical pattern to opera and restored music to its place as religious metaphor.
