A Child of Our Time is now widely recognised as a significant musical and extra-musical statement, a work that reflects its own historical moment and assumes a position of importance within Tippett's general stylistic and technical development. This was the work through which his own idiosyncratic yet effective relationship to the written word first emerged (a factor that was to become integral to Tippett's subsequent identity as a composer), and, in conjunction with the Concerto for Double String Orchestra (1938–39), it represents a new level of technical confidence and maturity. Yet within this new-found confidence there remains a sense of struggle, with Tippett's efforts to unify his disparate musical and extra-musical sources into a technically and aesthetically integrated whole seeming never quite to succeed. Nevertheless, it is through this apparent failure that the true essence of the work may finally emerge: a paradox that will be clarified through the consideration of the text and its musical representation. The critical and technical issues surrounding Tippett's attempts to impose unity over such a wide range of diverse sources will be illuminated at various points in the subsequent discussion.

Prior to this point in Tippett's career his music seemed to be searching for an appropriate context and direction, in terms of both formal processes and stylistic identity. His protracted apprenticeship has received a certain degree of consideration, with the struggle to construct large-scale musical forms evident in both the first String Quartet (1935, rev. 1943) and the first Piano Sonata (1938).