While his therapy proceeded , Tippett was searching for a theme for a major work — an opera or an oratorio — that could reflect both the contemporary turmoil in the world and his own recent catharsis . Having briefly considered the theme of the Dublin Easter Rising of 1916 , he based his work on a more immediate event : the murder in Paris of a German diplomat by a 17-year-old Jewish refugee , Herschel Grynszpan . This murder triggered '' Kristallnacht '' ( Crystal Night ) , a coordinated attack on Jews and their property throughout Nazi Germany on 9 – 10 November 1938 . Tippett hoped that Eliot would provide a libretto for the oratorio , and the poet showed interest . However , when Tippett presented him with a more detailed scenario , Eliot advised him to write his own text , suggesting that the poetic quality of the words might otherwise dominate the music . Tippett called the oratorio '' A Child of Our Time '' , taking the title from '' Ein Kind unserer Zeit '' , a contemporary protest novel by the Austro-Hungarian writer Ödön von Horváth . Within a three-part structure based on Handel 's '' Messiah '' , Tippett took the novel step of using North American spirituals in place of the traditional chorales that punctuate oratorio texts . According to Kenneth Gloag 's commentary , the spirituals provide " moments of focus and repose ... giving shape to both the musical and literary dimensions of the work " . Tippett began composing the oratorio in September 1939 , on the conclusion of his dream therapy and immediately after the outbreak of war
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Michael Tippett