On today’s date in 1980, at a Proms concert at Royal Albert Hall in London, the British conductor Colin Davis led the London Symphony in the premiere of a new work by the British composer Michael Tippett. This was a Triple Concerto for violin, viola and cello with orchestra, showcasing the talents of three virtuoso string players: violinist Gyorgy Pauk, violist Nobuko Imai, and cellist Ralph Kirshbaum.

The central slow movement of the new Triple Concerto, marked “very slow—calmer still,” proved to be one of Tippett's most lyrical and colorful moments, and with it, Tippett joined a long line of Western composers, including Claude Debussy, Benjamin Britten, and Lou Harrison, who have been inspired by Asian music: specifically the traditional bronze gong orchestras of the islands of Indonesia, known as “gamelan.”

Shortly before he composed his Triple Concerto, Tippet had visited Java and Bali, and had experienced first-hand performances of gamelan music in the palaces, temples and gardens of Indonesia.

In describing the role of the artist as he saw it, Tippett suggested that it was, “the creation of images of vigour for a decadent period, images of calm for one too violent, images of reconciliation for a world torn by divisions, and in an age of mediocrity and shattered dreams, images of abounding, generous, exuberant beauty.”