Born in London, he studied music at the Royal College of Music in London. Summer 1923 was Tippett's first term as a student at the Royal College, and saw his first overwhelming unrequited love affair for an attractive young heterosexual church musician, Herbert Sumsion.

In 1932 he met the young painter Wilfred Franks, and this was, in his words "the deepest, most shattering experience of falling in love; and I am quite certain that it was a major factor underlying the discovery of my own individual musical voice...". However, their relationship was complicated from the first by Frank's reservation about homosexuality (he eventually married).

In 1943 Tippett became a conscentious objector to war service and, despite character testimony in his behalf, was sent to prison for three months. He had a difficult relationsip with John Minchinton, a young bisexual musician, who later married. He first made his name in WWII with his oratorio A Child of Our Time (1944). His music can be at times dissonant and dense in texture, at others lyrical and expansive.

In 1957 Tippett renewed contact with Karl Hawker, a painter he had met before the war. Hawker had since married and had children, but when his marriage broke down, he came back to live with Tippett, acting partly as his secretary and assistant. But also this was, sexually, a difficult relationship, with Hawker even wondering if he was really gay.

From the mid 1960s, Tippett had a new and rewarding relationship with an idealistic young music student, Meirion (Bill) Bowen. Refreshingly, Bowen was not only happily gay, but capable of being a close music confidant, and their companionship - personal and professional - remained central, alongside other sexual relationships for both men, for the rest of Tippett's life.

He was knighted in 1966, made a Companion of Honour in 1979, and received the Order of Merit in 1983. He died in London.