rrr
SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN
SIR ARTHUR
SULLIVAN
HIS LIFE AND MUSIC
BY
B. W. FINDON
JAMES NISBET & CO., LIMITED
21 BERNERS STREET
1904
Mi
4/0
Printed by BALLANTYKE, HANSON dr> Co.
At the Ballantyne Press
DEDICATED
TO THE MEMORY OF
MARY CLEMENTINA SULLIVAN
1811-1882
PREFACE
IN this book I have tried to give as
just a view of Sullivan's life and work
as it is possible for one who loved him
as a kinsman and appreciated his ster-
ling qualities as a friend and composer.
Many of these pages reflect the spirit
of numerous conversations, and his
opinions on matters which he would
not openly discuss in his lifetime. I
have touched only on such controversial
subjects as justice demands, and have
avoided as far as possible the personal
note. My chief aim has been to pro-
duce a handy little volume which shall
be useful alike to the student and the
musical amateur.
vii
viii PREFACE
I have to acknowledge with many
expressions of thankfulness my obliga-
tions to Mr. Arthur Lawrence for his
kind permission to make such extracts
as I deemed desirable from his " Life
of Sullivan," and to Sir Alexander Mac-
kenzie for various useful suggestions from
his Lectures on Sullivan delivered at the
Royal Institution.
B. W. FINDON.
SULLIVAN
CHAPTER I
THE GENTLE LIFE
AMONG the composers of the Victorian
era there is none who has achieved more
widespread popularity, or is more genu-
inely entitled to respectful notice than
Arthur Seymour Sullivan. Distinguished
alike for a refined and spontaneous
melodic gift and a complete mastery of
the technical resources of his art, he has
left behind him a number of strongly
contrasted works which sufficiently indi-
cate the versatility of his talent and the
catholicity of his mind.
Sullivan appears to have been singled
2 SULLIVAN
out by fortune for the great position he
was eventually to occupy. By nature he
was endowed with a sensitive musical
organism ; his infancy was passed in
an atmosphere that was saturated with
musical sound ; his youth was lived amid
associations which were specially inclined
to favour his bent ; and he came before
the world at a time when English music
was at its lowest ebb. His course lay
clear before him, and, apart from the
first few years of early manhood, his
career was one of uninterrupted pros-
perity.
We have not to note any of those
stormy vicissitudes which dogged the
footsteps of Mozart, and drove to the
verge of distraction the impetuous Ber-
lioz. We have not to linger regretfully
over days of neglect, as in the case of
Schubert, or sorrowfully recall to mind
the misunderstanding which embittered
A PEACEFUL CAREER 3
the greater part of Wagner's career.
Even as he was in his art, so Sullivan
was in himself. He inspired in all who
came into contact with him or his work
a spirit of tranquil happiness, and an ex-
quisite appreciation of the joy of living.
To follow in the wake of such a life is
a pleasant task for both the biographer
and the reader, although to neither does
it afford that psychological interest which
is provided by those great artists who
have fought their way upward through
successive periods of storm and stress.
It is a very difficult task to interpret the
general voice of an age, even when the
object concerned is removed by the lapse
of years from those who would judge
him, and still more difficult is it to pro-
nounce a definite verdict on a man when
the wreaths that were laid on his tomb
have barely had time to wither and
decay. But sufficient time has elapsed
4 SULLIVAN
to enable us to take a fairly dispassion-
ate view of Sullivan's work, and to put
forward a tolerably accurate narrative of
his life and artistic achievement.
We are not justified as yet in placing
him among that select number who
belong to men for all time ; to endow
him with the reputation of a classic, or
to say with any degree of certainty from
what standpoint he will be regarded by
posterity. It may be that generations
to come will grant him a niche by the
side of Purcell's in the great Temple of
National Fame, and that the musical
historians of the future will realise the
serious aspect of his varied art more
fully and accurately than many of his
contemporary critics.
The miniature beauties of the Isle of
Wight represent Nature's workmanship
as truly as the rugged grandeur of the
mountain which tops the clouds, and the
ORIGINALITY 5
delicate perfection of Sullivan's light
operas is in its way as worthy of admira-
tion as the complex instrumentation of
a Wagner music drama.
We may not be able to read into
his music the emotional meaning which
zealous enthusiasts see in such vivid
colours in the tone poems of Richard
Strauss. We may hesitate to include him
among the instructors of mankind, or
to class him with those hardy pioneers
who fought their way through the Cim-
merian gloom of ignorance and prejudice
to the Elysian fields of progress and
new achievement ; but in his art we
recognise an original personality, a
something racy of the soil, which we
believe will keep him high above the
oblivion that overtakes the mass of man-
kind.
Therefore, we do not propose in these
pages to take upon ourselves the invi-
6 SULLIVAN
dious task of attempting to give a
formal and final estimate of Sullivan's
work. Sufficient will it be for us if we
place in the hands of the reader a suc-
cinct and clear narrative of his life so
far as it affected his art ; satisfy a natural
curiosity concerning the character of the
man, and do something towards assist-
ing the world to appreciate him and his
music.
CHAPTER II
BIRTH AND TRAINING
ARTHUR SEYMOUR SULLIVAN was born
on May 13, 1842, in an unpretentious
two-storied house, No. 8 Boswell Ter-
race, a small thoroughfare near Lambeth
Walk, on the Surrey side of the river
Thames. At that time his father,
Thomas Sullivan, was engaged as first
clarinettist in the orchestra at the Surrey
Theatre, and was adding to his slender
earnings by teaching and copying music.
As in the case of so many men who
have made their mark in literature and
art, Sullivan came of an Irish stock,
which had its social equivalent in the old
yeomanry of England. His grandfather
8 SULLIVAN
was a native of Kerry, and his grand-
mother (whose maiden name was also
Sullivan) was born in Bandon, in the
adjoining county of Cork. Wedded to
the soil, as the Southern Irish were in
those days, it is possible they would
have lived and died in the land of their
birth but for an untoward incident.
One night during the stormy times of
the Peninsular War, young Sullivan was
drinking his country's cause with more
enthusiasm than discretion in the com-
pany of an eloquent recruiting sergeant.
In the morning he had the doleful news
to communicate to his wife that he had
accepted the King's shilling, and was in-
cluded among a batch of recruits intended
to strengthen the army in Spain. He
took part in the great battles of the
Peninsular campaign, and when Napo-
leon was finally crushed, Sullivan was
drafted to St. Helena to assist in guard-
NATIONALITY 9
ing the Man of Destiny. On his return
to England he became a pensioner in
Chelsea Hospital, where his wife acted
as nurse, and in due course he died,
and was interred in the College Burial
Ground. His age was sixty-one, and it is
a curious coincidence that his son Thomas
(Arthur's father) died at the same age.
When his father and mother went to
St. Helena, Thomas Sullivan was ad-
mitted to the Duke of York's School,
where his aptitude for music won him
the good opinion of the bandmaster,
who soon interested himself in the boy's
musical education. From Chelsea he
went to the Military College at Sand-
hurst, where he developed exceptional
powers as a teacher, and was eventually
appointed bandmaster. It was here that
he met Mary Clementina Coghlan, a
young lady descended on the mother's
side from an Italian family of the name
io SULLIVAN
of Righi. She had been educated in a
Catholic convent at Hampstead, and
was assisting her parents by keeping a
school for young ladies at Blackwater.
Thomas Sullivan resigned his appoint-
ment at Sandhurst after their marriage,
and came to London in the hope of im-
proving his position, but three years after
the birth of Arthur he returned to Sand-
hurst, and remained there until he accepted
a professorship at Kneller Hall in 1857.
Nothing could have been more for-
tunate for a boy of Arthur Sullivan's
temperament than the environment in
which he moved during the early years
of childhood. His precocious talent
quickly made itself apparent, and his
presence in the band-room during re-
hearsals was encouraged by his father
and the players. With extraordinary
facility he mastered the rudimentary
principles of the various instruments,
EARLY ASSOCIATIONS u
many of which he learned to play, and
at eight years of age he had a practical
knowledge of military music.
While he was thus being initiated in
the technicalities of music, his general
education was carefully looked after by
his devoted mother. But Thomas Sulli-
van had no wish to force unduly his
son's talent, and thought it better for his
future that he should be removed from
the dominating influence of music. Ac-
cordingly, Arthur was sent to a private
boarding-school at Bayswater, where he
remained until he was nearly twelve years
of age.
But the ruling passion was too strong
in the boy to be kept under, and, follow-
ing an introduction to Sir George Smart,
he was sent to the Rev. Thomas H el-
more, who was responsible for the train-
ing of the Chapel Royal boys, with the
result that, on the Tuesday in Holy
12 SULLIVAN
Week, 1854, he became a chorister at
the Chapel Royal, St. James's, where
the sweetness of his voice and his keen
intelligence soon assured him a prominent
position. Sullivan devoted himself to
study with genuine ardour, although lend-
ing himself freely to the lighter side of
school life, and sharing fully in the amuse-
ments of the playroom. He has put on
record a few of his impressions of the
period :
"When I had composed my anthem
I showed it to Sir George Smart, who
told me it did me great credit, and also
told me to get the parts copied out,
and he would see what he could do
with it. So I copied them out, and he
desired the sub-dean to have it sung, and
it was sung. The dean l was there in the
evening, and he called me up to him in
the vestry, and said it was very clever,
1 This was Dean Bloomfield.
CHAPEL ROYAL 13
and perhaps I should be writing an
oratorio some day. But he said there
was something higher to attend to, and
then Mr. Helmore told him that I was
a very good boy indeed. Whereupon
he shook hands with me, and gave me
half a sovereign which was very satis-
factory, and the first money earned by
composition.
" I always recall my old master, the
Rev. Thomas Helmore, with affection
and respect. I was greatly influenced
by his great idea of relying upon the
boys' sense of honour, and he certainly
did make us very conscientious in the
performance of our work. We had to
practise the music for the Chapel Royal
service every Saturday morning for the
following day. He would say to us,
1 Now, boys, if you get the music
thoroughly well done, you may go as
soon as you like. There will be no
14 SULLIVAN
need for you to stay in during the after-
noon.' I directed the practice of the
music, whilst my schoolfellow, Alfred
Cellier, played the accompaniments. It
was, I think, something to our credit,
and to the credit of Helmore's manner
of dealing with us, that, with the tempta-
tion of an afternoon's holiday in front
of us, we never scamped anything, and
on more than one occasion we stayed
on well into the late afternoon in order
to get the music correct. Nor did we
have any assistance of any kind. Hel-
more relied upon Cellier and myself.
" Helmore was enthusiastic for the
revival of old Church music, and was
at the head of the movement for the
use of Gregorian music in the Church.
He published two works, which are of
permanent value, the 'Hymnal Noted 1
and a Psalter, both of which are really
monuments of research. The words are
A NOTABLE FEAT 15
mostly translations by the Rev. J. M.
Neale, the great hymnologist. I assisted
in the work a good deal in harmonising
tunes during the time that I was a
chorister there. The knowledge and
experience I gained in this way in
regard to hymn tunes assisted me
materially in making my big collection
of hymn tunes for the Society for the
Promotion of Christian Knowledge, en-
titled ' Church Hymns,' and for this
collection I wrote a great many tunes."
An instance of Sullivan's precocious
talent is worth quoting. After having
been a year at the Chapel Royal, he
was sent to Oxford to sing the soprano
solo in Sir Frederick Ouseley's " The
Martyrdom of St. Polycarp," which Sir
Frederick had written as his exercise
for the degree of Doctor of Music.
On returning home he was enthusiastic
in his praise of the work, and of one
16 SULLIVAN
march in particular, which he wanted
his father to get for the band. But
there was an obstacle to this, as the
cantata was not published. Nothing
discouraged, the young enthusiast sat
himself down, and plodding away at his
task the whole day through, wrote out
the march from memory for full military
band, to the great delight of his father,
who quickly had it performed.
It was after Arthur Sullivan had been
two years at the Chapel Royal that a
scheme which had been in course of
development for some years reached the
stage when it was considered ripe for
a practical experiment. The admiration
the musical public of the period had for
Mendelssohn resolved itself into a plan
for honouring his memory by founding a
scholarship which should bear his name.
The Mendelssohn Scholarship was
offered for competition in 1856, but
THE SCHOLARSHIP 17
one of the conditions laid down was
that no student under fourteen years of
age should be allowed to compete. It
was decided to hold the examination in
the middle of June, and that saved the
situation for Sullivan by some five or
six weeks, as his fourteenth birthday
was on May i3th. After due delibera-
tion, it was decided that he should be
allowed to try his luck, and on the last
day of the examination the choice lay
between Arthur Sullivan and Joseph
Barnby, the youngest and oldest of the
seventeen competitors. With anxious
palpitating hearts they were sent to
their respective homes to prepare them-
selves for a further examination on the
morrow. The morrow came, and with
it the strenuous ordeal of intellectual
I
combat. Neither of the boys had rich
relatives who could take upon themselves
the burden of an expensive education,
B
i8 SULLIVAN
and each must have seen in the cherished
prize the means of pursuing his studies
under the most favourable conditions.
In the end the coveted scholarship was
awarded to Sullivan, and so was laid
the solid foundation of his future dis-
tinction. Referring to his Academy days,
where his masters were Sterndale Ben-
nett and Arthur O'Leary for the piano-
forte, and John Goss for harmony and
composition, he says :
" The instruction at the Royal Academy
of Music was, perhaps, somewhat desul-
tory. ... I remember how we would
wait there for Sterndale Bennett from
five o'clock until seven in the evening,
until the message would come to ask
us to kindly go up to his house in
Russell Place ; and then, although he
was weary from teaching all day, he
would give us some interesting lessons,
telling us his experience of intercourse
ROYAL ACADEMY 19
with various great composers. His wife
was a most charming woman, and when
I was there late she invariably made
me stay to supper with him. I must
say that I enjoyed these evenings im-
mensely. There was something very
instructing and fascinating about Ben-
nett's personality. He was, however,
bitterly prejudiced against the new
school, as he called it. He would not
have a note of Schumann ; and as for
Wagner, he was outside the pale of
criticism. Cipriani Potter was converted,
and became a blind worshipper of Schu-
mann, but all my efforts with Sterndale
Bennett were ineffectual. My master
for harmony and composition, Sir John
Goss, was more eclectic in his taste,
and more open to conviction. I am
eternally grateful to him ; he had a
wonderful gift for part-writing, and what-
ever facility I possess in this respect I
20 SULLIVAN
owe entirely to his teaching and in-
fluence."
An interesting side-light is thrown on
Sullivan's character by a fellow-student:
" My chief companion in the Academy
was Arthur Sullivan, now the famous
operatic composer. Six years my junior,
he came fresh from the Chapel Royal,
as merry and as mischievous a boy as
can well be imagined. Although a huge
favourite among the students, he was a
sad thorn in the side of some of the
professors, and to none more than
Charles Lucas, the director of the
Academy orchestra. It was no unusual
thing at the rehearsal to hear at times
the most unearthly noise proceed from
one instrument and then the other, and
the reason therefor was usually summed
up in Lucas's exclamation, ' Now, Sulli-
van, you are at it again/ which might
possibly have been further from the
AN APPRECIATION 21
truth. Sullivan's mastery over orchestral
instruments even then, at fourteen years
of age, was marvellous. He played
them all with apparent ease. In answer
to my inquiry where on earth had he
acquired his skill, he replied that from
his babyhood he had been a regular
attendant at the rehearsals conducted by
his father in the band-room of the regi-
ment of which he was bandmaster, and
that by constant practice and his father's
teaching he had gradually overcome all
difficulties in this direction. As a matter
of fact, he was one of the most gifted
prodigies known to fame, and his facility
in every department was simply stupen-
dous. He could read anything at sight,
play from a formidable score, clearly dis-
tinguish and declare any and all com-
binations of sounds, even at the very
top of the piano, without seeing the
notes struck ; and he accomplished in
22 SULLIVAN
the line of study in five minutes what
others could not succeed in doing in five
months. Let me add one word of testi-
mony to his excellent character as a
man. Although he and I are now
separated by an almost impassable gulf,
both socially and musically, he is one of
the best friends I have in the world,
and amid all the pressure of work, and,
I regret to say, under the burden of
much sickness, he continues to this day
to write me the cheeriest and kindest of
letters, letters which are alike a credit
to his head and his heart. I happen to
know, too, that his goodness of heart
and generosity of disposition extended
to the whole brotherhood of musicians,
and hundreds of the poorer brethren
have good cause to bless the name of
Arthur Seymour Sullivan."
As an instance of the development of
his critical faculty, a quotation from a
A YOUNG CRITIC 23
letter dated May 20, 1857, has some
interest, owing to its very decided ex-
pression of opinion :
" I enjoyed the Philharmonic very
much last Monday, all except Ruben-
stein. He has wonderful strength in
the wrists, and particularly so in octave
passages, but there is a good deal of
clap-trap about him. As for his com-
position, it was a disgrace to the Phil-
harmonic. I never heard such wretched,
nonsensical rubbish ; not two bars of
melody or harmony together throughout,
and yet Mr. E. thinks him wonderful."
His duties at the Chapel Royal and
studies at the Academy were carried on
concurrently ; but a year after gaining
the Mendelssohn Scholarship his voice
"broke," and he then devoted himself
entirely to his musical studies at the
Academy until the time came for him to
leave for Leipzig.
24 SULLIVAN
It is difficult to refrain from specu-
lating as to the position Sullivan would
have attained had he not been successful
in this great trial of youth. Joseph
Barnby had to pursue the routine inti-
mately associated with the hand-to-mouth
existence of a church organist and teacher
of music, and ultimately won a knight-
hood by way of the Royal Choral Society
and Guildhall School of Music. Sullivan
would have had to face the same mono-
tonous drudgery, and probably have worn
himself out with uncongenial work, before
impressing men with his talent. Instead
of which he returned to England with
"The Tempest" music in his portman-
teau, and within a year was greeted as
a young conqueror.
LIFE AT LEIPZIG
SULLIVAN bade farewell to the Royal
Academy and its happy associations in
the autumn of 1858, and went to Leip-
zig well provided with letters of intro-
duction. The mere fact, however, that
he was the first Mendelssohn scholar
was in itself a matter of interest, and
sufficient to secure him a very friendly
welcome, although in musical circles there
was a certain prejudice against Men-
delssohn and his works, even as there
is to-day among those who see with
only one eye.
At Leipzig Sullivan found himself in
a new world of art. Composers prac-
26 SULLIVAN
tically unknown in this country were
attracting to themselves the ardent ad-
miration of the musical enthusiasts of
Germany. The theories of Wagner had
made themselves felt in the land ;
Schumann was influencing the younger
generation as much by his writings as
his compositions ; and the genius of
Schubert was looming large on the
horizon. Such a quick and appreciative
mind as Sullivan possessed would in-
stinctively recognise the great gap that
had to be bridged between the musical
thought he had left behind him and the
new phase of art which confronted him
at the Conservatorium.
It will be seen in the letters which we
reproduce that he quickly identified him-
self with the spirit of the new move-
ment, and that, unconsciously, he adopted
a tone of boyish conceit when speaking
of the position and attitude of musical
MENDELSSOHN SCHOLAR 27
England. But such flights are pardon-
able in the young, and as a rule are
due to enthusiasm rather than priggish-
ness. There is no doubt that musical
thought at Leipzig was much superior
to that of London. The heads of our
one important teaching institution were
insensible to the influences which were
making themselves felt on the Continent.
For half a century we had stood still.
Narrow - mindedness and old - fashioned
prejudices dominated the professors of
the Academy, and held in bondage
cathedral organists. The student moved
in fetters, and it was well for young
Sullivan that he secured his freedom,
and was sent to wander amid the spacious
groves of a new Academia. His masters
at the Conservatorium were Moscheles
and Plaidy for the pianoforte, Haupt-
mann for counterpoint and fugue (to
whose house he frequently went for his
28 SULLIVAN
lessons, and was given them in the very
room where Bach wrote all his great
works when in Leipzig), Julius Rietz
for composition, and Ferdinand David
for orchestral playing and conducting.
Among his fellow-students were John
Francis Barnett, Franklin Taylor, Ernest
Rudolph, Grieg, Carl Rosa, Dannreuter,
and Walter Bache.
Sullivan's life and aspirations during
the two years and a half he was at
Leipzig are best shown by the letters
he wrote home during that period, and
from which we quote :
" I am obliged to work tremendously
hard here. No sooner is one master
despatched than I rush home to prepare
for another. In fact, to tell the truth, the
great fault of this institution is that there
are too many lessons not enough time
given to the student to work at home."
In a letter to his brother he alludes
WORK AND PLAY 29
jocularly to his student importance : "I
was writing a little piece for the violon-
cello in honour of your twenty-second
birthday, but was obliged to give it up on
account of my important public duties (!)
in connection with the Conservatoire
festivities. I have been unanimously
elected President of our Music Com-
mittee. The operetta one of Reinicke's
is only written for pianoforte accom-
paniment, and, as that is not strong
enough, I am obliged to arrange a great
part of it for string instruments, and
besides that I have to conduct the whole
piece. I anticipate great fun at the re-
hearsals ! The dresses have been lent
us by the theatre. My orchestra consists
of three first violins, two second, one
'cello, and one contrabass, with the grand
piano, and perhaps I shall have two or
more violins and another 'cello. We
have eighteen in the chorus and six solo
30 SULLIVAN
singers, so I shall have enough to do to
keep them all together ! "
Writing to his father, he remarks :
" I have written a little romance for four-
stringed instruments, which I will send
you over to play, if you promise to ob-
serve the pianos, fortes, and staccatos in
a marked manner, as the thing loses its
effect without them."
June 4, 1859. "I have been here
eight months, an immense advantage to
me although it is only now that the
improvement is manifesting itself in a
marked degree for of course I had to
work back again to this system, besides
having to struggle against the difficulties
of the language ; for I lost half the
benefit of my former lessons through not
understanding what was said. . . . You
(his father) will be pleased to hear that
I have made my first public appearance
as a player, as the enclosed programme
A PUBLIC DBUT 31
will show you, though I certainly had
not much cause to be nervous, there being
four of us playing together. I do not
much mind playing in public now, as I
have got over my nervousness, and for
which I may thank the Abend Unter-
haltung. My quartette was played in the
Abend Unterhaltung a fortnight or so ago,
and went capitally. I mean it played
well. I was congratulated by the director
and professors afterwards. They wanted
it performed in the Priifung (public ex-
amination), but Mr. Rietz would not have
it, for reasons which were quite proper ;
besides, I have no doubt he thought
I should become idle after it, as is very
often the case with them here.
" This has been a very gay week for
Leipzig in consequence of the great
Tonkustler-Versammlung, or meeting of
musical artists, got up principally by the
' Future Music ' people. Through it I
32 SULLIVAN
have formed the acquaintance of Liszt,
who has been the 'lion.' My first
introduction to him was last Tuesday,
when Mr. David gave a grand musical
matinee, to which he invited me. Liszt,
Von Billow (Prussian Court pianist) . . .
and many other German celebrities, musi-
cal and non-musical, were there. In the
evening, when nearly every one was gone,
Liszt, David, Bronsart and I had a quiet
game of whist together, and I walked
home with Liszt in the evening. . . .
The next evening a grand concert in the
theatre, Liszt conducting . . . Liszt is
a very amiable man despite his eccen-
tricities, which are many. What a
wonderful player he is ! Such power,
and at the same time such delicacy and
lightness."
October 30, 1859. "My quartette was
performed again last Friday in the
Abend Unterhaltung. Herr Veit, an
HIS FIRST OVERTURE 33
amateur of talent and celebrity, having
had a symphony performed in the
Gewandhaus Concert, honoured us the
next evening with his presence in the
Conservatorium ; and the directors, wish-
ing him to hear some pupil's composi-
tion, selected my quartette. When it
was over, Veit called me to him, shook
hands with me, and practically repeated
what Spohr said to me : ' So young,
and yet so far advanced in art' ('So
jung und doch so weit in der Kunst')."
June 5, 1860. " I enclose you a pro-
gramme of our last Prufung. You will
doubtless, on looking over it, recognise
one of the names. Translated, the thing
stands as follows : ' Overture to T.
Moore's poem, "The Feast of Roses,"
from "Lalla Rookh " (E Major), com-
posed by A. S. from London (conducted
by the composer).' 'The Feast of
Roses ' is the German name for ' The
c
34 SULLIVAN
Light of the Harem.' It was such fun
standing up there and conducting that
large orchestra! I can fancy mother
saying, ' Bless his little heart ! how it
must have beaten ! ' But his little heart
did not beat at all. I wasn't in the
least nervous, only in one part where the
drum would come in wrong at the re-
hearsal, but he did it all right in the
evening. I was called forward three
times at the end, and most enthusias-
tically cheered. I shot the bird, as Mr.
Schleinitz said i.e., had the greatest
success in the whole Pruning. The
newspapers have also treated me very
favourably, much better than I expected ;
for the overture being written in Men-
delssohn style, and there being such a
clique against Mendelssohn, I thought
they would have treated me roughly.
The Leipzig Journal says : ' With
respect to the compositions, we were
STUDIES PROLONGED 35
gratified at finding in the youthful
Sullivan a talent which we may venture
to say, by the aid of active and con-
tinued perseverance, gives promise of a
favourable future. His overture was
certainly a little spun out, but neverthe-
less successful, by the aid of well-selected
materials, in mastering the expression of
the one definite aim held in view.'
The General Anzeiger says, speaking of
the applause which followed Fisher's
' Quartette ' : ' Still more was obtained
by Herr Sullivan in the second part of
the overture, which was conducted by
himself, and which, striving towards a
new direction, transported us into the
Persian plains of Moore's lovely poem,
and gives us great hopes for the young
composer."
September 1860. " How shall I thank
you sufficiently, my dearest father, for
the opportunity you have given me of
36 SULLIVAN
continuing my studies here. I am
indeed very grateful, and will work very
hard in order that you may soon see
that all your sacrifices (which I know
you make) have not been to no purpose,
and I will try to make the end of your
days happy and comfortable. I had
given up all idea of studying longer,
and, indeed, was making preparations
for my journey home. Therefore the
surprise was greater for me."
October 28, 1860. "The director has
exempted me from paying for the
Conservatorium during the next six
months I am going to stay here. When
I got up to thank him for it, he said :
' Oh yes, we will let that be entirely.
You are a splendid fellow (parchtiger
Kerl) and very useful. We all like you
so much that we can't let you go.' Is
it not very kind of him ? "
October 31, 1860. "Mother, my great
CONDUCTING 37
hobby is still conducting. I have been
told by many of the masters here that
I was born to be a conductor, and con-
sequently have been educating myself
to a high degree in that branch of the
art. If I can only once obtain an
opportunity to show what I can do in
that way, I feel confident of my success
afterwards. Do not mistake this for
conceit . . . but I am getting of an age
now when I shall be obliged to have
confidence in myself and my own re-
sources. I often try to think what
would have become of me had I never
come to Germany. In England there
was very little more for me to learn.
I had heard and knew well almost all
the small stock of music which is ever
performed in London (and it is very
little compared to what one hears here).
I should have made very little improve-
ment in pianoforte-playing, whereas now,
38 SULLIVAN
thanks to Messrs. Moscheles and Plaidy,
I am a tolerably decent player. . . . Be-
sides increasing and maturing my judg-
ment of music, it has taught me how
good works ought to be done. They
have no idea in England of making the
orchestras play with that degree of light
and shade to which they have attained
here, and that is what I aim at to
bring the English orchestra to the same
perfection as the Continental ones, and
to even still greater, for the power and
tone of ours are much greater than the
foreign."
Writing of the English attitude at
that time towards new work : "If some-
thing does not please them (tickle their
ears) the first time they hear it, they
throw it aside and will not have any-
thing more to do with it, forgetting that
really good music is seldom appreciated
by one the first time of hearing, but that
ENGLISH TASTE 39
it grows on one, and one sees its
beauties gradually. Take Beethoven,
for instance. His fifth symphony was
pooh-poohed and laughed at when it
was first tried at the Philharmonic ; Carl
M. von Weber said of his eighth (or
seventh) that the composer was fit for
the madhouse. The Choral Symphony
is only just now beginning to be under-
stood in England. And yet what do
we think of Beethoven now ? Suppose
they had cast him aside, as they do
Schumann (the most popular German
composer), Schubert, Gade, and other
less distinguished composers. Look at
the programme for to-morrow night's
concert. . . . Fancy seeing Schumann
and Wagner in the same programme in
England ! The time will come yet, I
hope. . . . The fact is, I am letting out
now all the rage which has been con-
centrated in me ever since I began
40 SULLIVAN
reading that wretched Musical World.
It is my opinion that music as an art
in England will go to the devil very
soon if some few enthusiastic, practical,
and capable sound educated musicians
do not take it in hand. I get so
savage sometimes when in company
here, and talking to great artists who
have been to England, at the sneering
way in which they talk of ' England's
art/ English taste . . . and yet I ought
not to be angry with them, for I feel
that they are quite right. However,
'Hope and persevere' is my motto."
November 26, 1860. Writing to his
father on various musical matters, more
particularly with regard to military band
music, he goes on to say: "I have
given up the Symphony. I have finished
the first movement, but did not like it
when it was done, for whatever way I
turned the second subject, it always
SCHUMANN 41
sounded like the quintette of Schumann
a piece you do not know, of course,
being an Englishman. I cannot under-
stand why the critics, and in conse-
quence musicians themselves, should be
so prejudiced against that unfortunate
composer. At the very name of Schu-
mann an English musician draws back
alarmed, shrugs his shoulders, and
mutters a few words about Zukunfts-
musik, Weimar, &c., and doubtless with
fine judgment will point out the
marked difference between Schumann
and Handel ! Yet, if you ask that man
to tell you conscientiously if he ever
heard a note of Schumann's music, he
will probably be obliged to answer, No.
" P.S. Here is a little choice bit.
. . . My friend W., happening to be
writing to the Athenceum newspaper,
also thought he might give a little news
respecting the Gewandhaus concerts this
42 SULLIVAN
year. Amongst other things mentioned
as being performed was Schumann's
music to Lord Byron's ' Manfred/
which, being one of his first works,
and acknowledged as great music by
all musicians, was commented upon by
him in terms of highest praise. They
took the article and printed it with the
exception of the whole paragraph about
Schumann, which the musical editor had
cut out! This is a fact from W.'s own
mouth. Is it not very paltry?"
At the foot of this letter comes a
modest line marked " P.S. Private. I
am writing music to ' The Tempest.' "
February 10, 1861. "Very much
occupied with my ' Tempest,' which
does not proceed as quickly as I could
wish. I have already completed two
entr'actes, two dances, and a song,
besides parts of the melodrama ; but it
is in the overture I have come to grief,
BACK TO ENGLAND 43
for I cannot get it into form to please
me. ... I am very anxious to know
if you will like my music. It is very
different to any you have heard. For
instance [bar quoted]. But of course,
it is not often I go into such extremes
as that. At first it may sound rather
harsh, but you will soon grow accus-
tomed to it, and most probably like it
very much."
Arthur writes, April n, 1861, that his
"Tempest" was performed with great
success in Leipzig the previous Satur-
day, and that he will be in London on
the following Monday or Tuesday.
CHAPTER IV
CAREER IN ENGLAND
SULLIVAN'S last term at the Conservatoire
saw him engaged upon the work which
was to launch him from the dock of
academical life into the swiftly-flowing
current of an active professional career.
The return of the first Mendelssohn
Scholar was naturally a matter of some
concern in musical circles. Was the
choice to be justified ? What had the
prize-winner done with his opportunity ?
The answer was not long in coming.
" The Tempest " music, revised and in
a more elaborate form, was produced at
the famous Crystal Palace Concerts on
April 5, 1862. The general impres-
"THE TEMPEST" 45
sion after the performance was one of
pleased astonishment, and in the first
burst of feeling it was regarded as the
beginning of a new era in English
musical art. The most influential critic
of his day, the late H. F. Chorley,
wrote : " There has been no such first
appearance in England in our time."
Heard by the light of present-day know-
ledge, the work impresses by reason of
its freshness and beauty, and it is not
difficult to understand the enthusiasm it
occasioned in 1862. Its repetition on
the following Saturday, when it attracted
a very large and representative audience,
which included Charles Dickens, con-
firmed the good impression of the week
before. Sullivan forthwith became a
personality in the musical world.
The most characteristic features of
" The Tempest " are those which prevail
in all his writings, and no one would
46 SULLIVAN
mistake the shipwreck music of the third
act, or the prelude to Act V., for the
work of another hand. Most composi-
tions by youthful composers are more
remarkable for the promise they give
of future achievement than for perfect
workmanship or mature invention ; but
in " The Tempest " there are no signs
of inexperience or crudity, and, by the
light of the criticism of the day, it was
justly regarded as a minor masterpiece.
Sullivan was now confronted with the
problem which has faced so many young
composers when standing on the thres-
hold of life. He had to live, and how
should he make his living ? The times
were not very encouraging to one who
would pursue the higher form of art.
He had no independent income, and,
we may assume, no desire to live a life of
self-abnegation and comparative penury
in order to produce symphonic master-
THE ART OF LIVING 47
pieces for the possible appreciation of
another generation. He knew full well
the drudgery of teaching meant death to
his creative powers, and how, then, was he
to turn his talent to good purpose and serve
art and himself as well ? He was prepared
and willing to undertake commissions for
any class of composition, and the first to
hand, and easiest, was song-writing.
As he himself said : " I was ready to
undertake anything that came in my
way. Symphonies, overtures, ballets,
anthems, hymn-tunes, songs, part-songs,
a concerto for the violoncello, and
eventually comic and light operas
nothing came amiss to me, and I gladly
accepted what the publishers offered me,
so long as I could get the things pub-
lished. I composed six Shakespearian
songs for Messrs. Metzler & Co., and
got five guineas a-piece for them.
' Orpheus with his Lute,' ' The Willow
48 SULLIVAN
Song,' * O Mistress Mine,' were amongst
them, the first having been since then
a steady income to the publisher. Then
I did ' If Doughty Deeds ' and ' A
Weary Lot is thine, Fair Maid,' for
Messrs. Chappell."
It was a case of " pot-boiling," but his
mind was too fresh and his nature too
sincere to permit him to put forth the
rubbish which passed muster in the draw-
ing-rooms. The success of his vocal pieces
soon enabled him to assume a more inde-
pendent attitude towards the publishers,
and with Messrs. Boosey he arranged for
the publication of his works on the more
satisfactory basis of the royalty system.
Another modest source of income was
derived from that sheet-anchor to all
musicians, a church organist's position,
and for several years he held the post
at St. Michael's, Chester Square, and also
at St. Peter's, Cranley Gardens. More
ORGANIST 49
important in its ultimate results, how-
ever, was his appointment as organist at
Covent Garden Opera House, which
gave him free access to the stage and
auditorium, and so provided him with
the opportunity of acquiring a practical
knowledge of the stage, to which already
his aspirations were directed. His
attendance at rehearsals gave him an
insight into its technique, and he learned
a still more valuable lesson by the pro-
duction of his ballet " L'lle Enchantee."
His duties at the Opera were not very
laborious, but they carried with them a
fair share of responsibility, as one may
gather from the following anecdote :
In the midst of the Church scene in
" Faust," the wire connecting the pedal
under Costa's foot with the metronome
stick at the organ broke. Costa was the
conductor. In the concerted music this
meant disaster, as the organist could hear
D
50 SULLIVAN
nothing but his own instrument. Quick
as thought, while he was playing the
introductory solo, Sullivan called a stage
hand. " Go," he said, " and tell Mr. Costa
that the wire is broken, and that he has to
keep his ears open and follow me" No
sooner had the man gone to deliver his
message than the full meaning of the
words dawned upon Sullivan. What
would the autocratic Costa say to such a
message, and delivered in such a manner ?
When the scene ended Sullivan went to
tender his apologies, but the maestro was
too much alive to the importance of
the message to take offence, and was
thankful enough that his young assistant
was ready-witted enough to avoid the
otherwise inevitable fiasco.
In the summer of 1865 he paid his first
visit to Paris, and in one of his letters
from Paris he writes : "I am to play ' The
Tempest' (with Rossini) on Friday. . . .
PARIS 51
We called upon Dickens, and then all
dined together (the Lehmanns, Dickens,
and selves) at the Cafe Brebant, and then
went on to the Opera Comique to see
David's new opera, ' Lalla Rookh.' It is
very pretty, but rather monotonous.
"The particular purpose of our visit
was to hear Madame Viardot in Gluck's
' Orfeo.' She was intensely emotional,
and her performance was certainly one of
the greatest things I have ever seen on
the stage. Chorley, Dickens, and I went
together, and I remember that we were
so much moved by the performance, and
it was of so affecting a character that
the tears streamed down our faces. We
vainly tried to restrain ourselves.
" I went about a good deal with Dickens.
He rushed about tremendously all the
time, and I was often with him. His
French was not particularly good. It was
quite an Englishman's French, but he
52 SULLIVAN
managed to make himself understood, and
interviewed everybody. Of course he was
much my senior, but I have never met
any one whom I have liked better. There
was one negative quality which I always
appreciated. There was not the least
suspicion of the poseur about him. His
electric vitality was extreme, but it was
inspiring and not overpowering. He
always gave one the impression of being
immensely interested in everything, listen-
ing with the most charming attention and
keenness to all one might say, however
youthful and inexperienced one's opinion
might be. He was a delightful companion,
but never obtruded himself upon one. In
fact, he was the best of good company.
" It was in December that I called on
Rossini : Madame Viardot introduced me.
Rossini received me with the greatest
kindness, and took great interest in my
composition. I had with me my music to
ROSSINI 53
1 The Tempest,' arranged as a pianoforte
duet, and this we Rossini and I used
to play, or a part of it, nearly every morn-
ing. This was because he had taken such
a fancy to the music in question, and I
must say that I felt greatly pleased, as one
could never accuse Rossini of insincerity,
nor did he ever fear to say what he
thought, however unacceptable his verdict
might be. When I left him, he begged
me to send him a copy of everything I
wrote, and to keep him au courant with
all that I did.
" One morning when I called in to see
him, he was trying over a small piece of
music as I entered. ' Why, what is that ? '
I exclaimed. He answered me very
seriously: 'It's my dog's birthday, and I
write a little piece for him every year ! ' '
Although his output was not large
during the four years which succeeded the
production of " The Tempest," Sullivan
54 SULLIVAN
was by no means idle. He was occupied
with an opera on the subject of " The
Sapphire Necklace," the libretto of which,
by H. F. Chorley, was found to be use-
less for stage purposes, and only the over-
ture remains. Sullivan used up much of
the music in other works.
His next important work was the
" Kenilworth " cantata, which was given
at the Birmingham Festival in 1864.
To this period belongs the composition
of the " Irish Symphony," which was
conceived and sketched out during a visit
to Ireland in 1863. It was eventually
produced at the Crystal Palace in 1866,
and revived there (under the composer's
direction) two years before his death, when
it sounded astonishingly fresh and original,
and was indicative of what Sullivan would
have achieved had he chosen to bend his
creative talent to abstract music. Though
he was but twenty-two years of age at the
IRISH SYMPHONY 55
time of its composition, there is every
internal evidence that Sullivan was a
complete master of classic design, while
the orchestral colouring is rich with
thought and poetic fancy. The language
it speaks is eloquent to a degree, and it
can always be heard with pleasure, except
by those whose partiality for the tubas
and tinkling cymbals of modern symphonic
works has deadened their senses to the
more delicate beauty of a less boisterous
school.
With regard to the title of the sym-
phony, the following extract from a letter
addressed to the present writer has its
points of interest if only as evidence of
the innate modesty of the man :
"It is a mistake to say 'erroneously'
called the Irish Symphony. It is the
Irish Symphony, and was always called so
by myself and all about me when I wrote
it. But my modesty prevented me from
56 SULLIVAN
publicly naming it so, after the ' Scotch
Symphony.' Had I foreseen, however,
that Stanford would name his work an
' Irish Symphony,' I think I should have
knocked my modesty on the head."
Hitherto, Sullivan's life had been as
unclouded as his own nature. He had
tasted the sweetness of an extraordinary
initial success ; his charm of manner had
won him innumerable friends ; he was
eagerly welcomed in artistic circles, and
society held out to him a flattering hand.
But now was to happen an event which
stirred all that was deep and emotional in
his nature. Without a word of warning,
his father, to whom he was deeply attached,
and of whose sacrifices on his behalf he al-
ways spoke with affectionate gratitude, died
suddenly in the night. Overburdened
with grief, the son sat down to pour forth
his sorrow through the medium that was
to him the most eloquent and heart mov-
"IN MEMORIAM" 57
ing. The result was the " In Memoriam "
overture, produced at the Norwich Festival
of 1866, and the pathetic beauty of which
is as potent to-day in its appeal to the
heart as it was when first produced. The
noble simplicity of its diction penetrates
the soul like the thrilling tones of some
great preacher, and its language is of the
kind that never grows old. The overture
is a monument of filial piety in its origin
and masterly musicianship in its execution.
The following anecdote has a pathetic
interest :
About a month before the Festival he
said to his father that he could think of
nothing which satisfied him, and that he
would have to abandon the idea.
" No, my boy," said his father, " some-
thing is sure to occur to put new vigour
and fresh thoughts into you. Don't give
it up." Three days after (September 22,
1866) his father died, and the fresh
58 SULLIVAN
thoughts are to be found in the "In
Memoriam" symphony.
By a singular coincidence, the year
which was remarkable for Sullivan's finest
achievement in the domain of abstract
music saw also the foundation laid for that
wonderful series of comic operas which
was to make his name famous the wide
world through. Arising from an incident
at a private party, he, in association with
Mr. (now Sir Francis) Burnand, produced
a musical version of "Box and Cox," or,
as they named it, " Cox and Box," which,
after a few private representations, was
given publicly at a benefit performance at
the Adelphi Theatre.
We have now come to the period in
Sullivan's life when it will be easier and
more convenient to deal with his works
in their respective sections rather than
in chronological order.
With his private life we need concern
SOCIAL SUCCESS 59
ourselves but little. He had established
himself in the good graces of society ;
and as time went forward he became an
honoured guest of Royalty, the intimate
friend of the Duke of Edinburgh, and was
admitted to every social advantage open
to the man of fashion.
Some may think it a pity that he thus
allowed himself to be taken captive by the
pleasures of life, and may regret that he
did not follow his profession with more
self-denying ardour. With the wealth
that flowed into his coffers from the
golden fount of the Savoy he appears to
have lost the keen desire to follow up
the creations of the first period. During
the last twenty years of his life he, with
one or two exceptions, only varied the
long procession of successful comic operas
by the composition of " The Martyr of
Antioch," " The Golden Legend," and
" Ivanhoe."
60 SULLIVAN
In estimating Sullivan's possibilities
and his creative output, the critic must
not forget to take into consideration the
disease which so grievously tormented
him for twenty-five years, and which
twice brought him to the Gates of Death
amid indescribable pain and suffering.
Only those who were privileged to visit
his bedside on those sorrowful occasions
are aware of the physical torture he
endured, and with what courage he bore
his affliction. His malady was always
with him ; and in later years, to soften
its pangs, he had recourse to anodynes,
which relieved him in one way while they
worked him infinite harm in another.
In these circumstances much might be
forgiven any man, if forgiveness were
necessary.
It is possible that Sullivan might have
written dull symphonies and commonplace
tone poems, whereas he gave the world
AN INCURABLE MALADY 61
the brightest series of operas this or any
other country has ever witnessed. It was
comic opera the world wanted of Sullivan,
and, happily for its people and for him-
self, he was able to supply it. That was
his final mission in life ; although his last
word was spoken, as his first was, on
the religious side of art. And it is as
a composer of sacred music that we will
now consider him.
CHAPTER V
HYMNS AND ORATORIO
IT does not follow that because a boy is
constantly engaged in singing anthems in
church that he must necessarily share the
devotional spirit of the minister of religion.
But Arthur Sullivan was peculiarly sensi-
tive to the subtle and moving influence
of the Christian life. The ecclesiastical
character of so much of his music is as
much a part of the nature of the man as
the outcome of his early training and his
association with the Church in after years.
His first published composition, which
bears the date of 1855, was "O Israel,"
a sacred song, and his contributions to
hymnology consist of fifty-six tunes and
HYMNS 63
twelve arrangements, which have been
collected and published in one volume
by Messrs. Novello & Co.
"It is perhaps a curious fact," Sir
Arthur remarked, "that one of my best
known hymn tunes was written as a result
of a quarrel. The dispute was between
the proprietors of ' Hymns Ancient and
Modern' and the firm of Novello, who
printed it, and who then gave way
to Messrs. Clowes, who still print it.
Novello's then proceeded to compile a
collection of hymns, and for that hymnary
I wrote ' Onward, Christian Soldiers,'
which, you see, was thus the indirect
outcome of a quarrel."
In the hymns his fine knowledge of
four-part harmony is well displayed a
proficiency acquired by patient study of
the ^arly English writers and the instruc-
tions of his teacher, Sir John Goss, him-
self a profound master of harmony. His
64 SULLIVAN
tunes, while never losing their devotional
purport, are instinct with that melody
which was an inalienable part of his
nature, and one among them, " Onward,
Christian Soldiers," may well be described
as the war-song of the English Church
Militant. Nor must his labours as editor
of "Church Hymns" be overlooked, a
task that was undertaken at the request
of the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge.
Of the thirteen anthems which are in-
cluded in his list of compositions, the
two most striking are, " We Have Heard
with Our Ears," in five-part harmony,
which is dated 1865, and "Who is Like
Unto Thee?" published in 1883. His
last work of this description was "Wreaths
for our Graves," published in 1898, and
which two years later was sung at his
funeral service at the Chapel Royal, St.
James's. Two of his Te Deums call for
FESTIVAL TE DEUM 65
special mention ; one was written at the
instigation of the Board of Management
of the Crystal Palace to celebrate the
recovery of the Prince of Wales, 1872.
The work was performed under the con-
ditions which prevailed at the Handel
Festivals, and it achieved something
more than a succes d'estime. Its most
prominent features are the ingenious
manner in which Sullivan has manipu-
lated the well-known hymn tune of St.
Ann, the contrapuntal writing in the
finale, and the use of a military band
for the " Domine salvam fac Reginam,"
The second Te Deum was written
for another national celebration, and was
performed June 8, 1902, when the
King and Queen attended St. Paul's
Cathedral to offer up their song of
thanksgiving for the successful termina-
tion of the war in South Africa. With
his usual keen eye for appropriate effect,
E
66 SULLIVAN
Sullivan scored the work for string or-
chestra and military brass band, the wood
wind being entirely left out owing to the
difficulty which is always experienced in
adjusting its pitch to that of the organ.
As in his former Festival Te Deum,
he worked in the melody of St. Ann's,
so again he has used a familiar hymn
tune, this time choosing his own "On-
ward, Christian Soldiers." After a few
introductory chords, the first two bars of
the hymn are given out by the strings
and trumpets, and then the choir enter
in unison with what is the main theme
of the whole work. There are five
separate movements. The unaccom-
panied double chorus, " Lord, Save Thy
People," is a powerful piece of part-
writing ; with " Vouchsafe, O Lord,"
there is a return to the first theme, but
this time harmonised, and then with a
fanfare of trumpets the hymn tune again
"THE PRODIGAL SON" 67
makes its appearance, and is used as
counterpoint to an independent melody,
until its triumphant strains engulf the
choral section and end the work with a
paean of praise. The Te Deum is note-
worthy as being Sullivan's last com-
pleted work. It shows that he had lost
none of the virile strength of his prime,
and bears every evidence of having been
written with that loving care and full-
hearted sympathy which especially char-
acterised his work for the Church.
We have now to consider his two
most ambitious efforts in sacred writing
"The Prodigal Son," produced at the
Three Choirs Festival at Worcester in
1869, and "The Light of the World,"
first given at the Birmingham Triennial
Festival in 1873.
Naturally, a great deal of interest was
aroused when it became known that
Sullivan had decided to enter the lists
68 SULLIVAN
as a composer of oratorio. Hitherto his
vocal work had been confined to anthems,
songs, and two operettas. He had not
soared into that loftier sphere where
Handel sat as Jove, with Mendelssohn
on his right hand. But he had given
such indisputable proofs of his ability,
he had so inspired his contemporaries
with the belief in his future, that, in an
editorial preface to the " Hymnal," the
late John Hullah spoke of him as "one
of the brightest and last-risen stars of
our English musical hemisphere."
The curious were anxious to see what
measure of success would attend his
flight into the serene empyrean of ora-
torio. Those who had the true interests
of native music at heart were keenly
desirous that he should inaugurate a
new era in a form of art that was ever
peculiarly acceptable to the British people.
His brief record inspired confidence, and
COMPOSERS 69
those of his admirers who were of a
sanguine temperament entertained the
fond hope that he would show himself
to be no unworthy rival to Mendelssohn.
The composers of the earlier Victorian
period had achieved no special greatness
in this sphere of art. George Macfarren
had so far avoided oratorio ; Sterndale
Bennett had but recently shown his power
and his limitations in " The Woman of
Samaria"; John Hatton was best known
by his part-songs, and Jules Benedict
had given a hostage to fortune in " The
Legend of St. Cecilia"; while Michael
Costa had won a temporary reputation
as an oratorio writer with " Eli " and
" Naaman."
Sullivan had given satisfactory proof
that he possessed a style of a distinctly
national type, due, we may take it, to
his intimate knowledge of the works of
the early English composers. With the
70 SULLIVAN
solitary exception of Bennett, no British-
born musician of eminence had elected
to follow in the footsteps of Handel,
and derive his inspiration from the pages
of Holy Writ. Not only, therefore, did
Sullivan break new ground, so far as
he himself was concerned, but he was
entering on a field of operations which
was singularly barren from the native
point of view.
The importance of the event was fully
recognised by the Worcester Festival
Committee, who selected artists of such
prominence as Mesdames Tietjens and
Trebelli, Messrs. Sims Reeves and
Santley, to interpret the young com-
poser's work. Its reception was ex-
tremely favourable, and it did much to
enhance Sullivan's growing reputation.
As we read the score to-day, and by
the light of the modern development of
orchestral methods the more captiously
WORCESTER FESTIVAL 71
inclined may complain of an old-world
air about its writing, while admitting
that certain features in it were then
somewhat daring, for example the chorus,
" Let us eat and drink," in which Sullivan
made his first attempt to break away
from the conventional smoothness of ora-
torio, and introduced the dramatic or
realistic element. In this number there
is the real Oriental colouring, not the
conventional one. A curious circum-
stance in connection with it is that Sulli-
van invented the phrase which runs
without a break through the whole
number, and when in Egypt in 1882,
he found the Dervishes using exactly
the same combination of notes.
That neither the composer nor the
musical world was disappointed with
" The Prodigal Son " may be gathered
from the fact that Sullivan was offered,
and accepted, a commission to write an
72 SULLIVAN
oratorio for the Birmingham Festival of
1873. Inasmuch as his former work
had been comparatively short, he con-
ceived the intention of giving a full-pro-
gramme oratorio, and it is to be feared
that he ran into a length which is made
more noticeable by the monotonous treat-
ment of the baritone music associated
with the protagonist.
To give pointed emphasis to the work,
the Saviour was presented in the first
person, and his utterances are accom-
panied by an inner orchestra, consisting
of violas and violoncellos, in order to
maintain the solemnity of the character.
There is not sufficient distinction be-
tween the tone colour of the voice and
the instruments to prevent a sense of
dulness overcasting the mind of the lis-
tener. The idea is dramatic in theory,
but it was found wanting when put to a
practical test. Apart from this, however,
"LIGHT OF THE WORLD" 73
there is much to admire in " The Light
of the World."
It was heard recently at the Albert
Hall, 1 but the delicate beauty of the
work was lost in that vast arena, and,
to ears tuned to the fulness of modern
orchestration, the fragile sweetness of
much of the instrumentation sounded
ineffective. But if one missed sonority,
the combination of contiguous keys and
the Wagnerian treatment of the chord
of the Diminished Seventh, there is in it
many examples of perfect and powerful
part- writing, a melodious directness of
expression, and a lucidity and graceful-
ness of style, which entitle it to be
regarded as a lineal descendant of the
works of that great family of composers
who did so much to make bright the
annals of musical art during the Tudor
and Stuart dynasties.
1 February 25, 1903.
74 SULLIVAN
The desire to be dramatic, and to
some degree realistic, is to be noticed
also in this oratorio ; for example, in the
chorus in the synagogue, "The Spirit
of the Lord," the people begin their
comments almost in a whisper of aston-
ishment, which gradually increases in
intensity until the climax of indignation
and passionate utterance is reached with
the words, "Away with Him! He hath
a devil, and is mad."
Those who know the oratorio will
appreciate the clearness and harmonic
beauty of the chorus, " I will pour My
Spirit," and it would be difficult to find
in the whole range of our musical lite-
rature more perfect examples of part-
writing than the quintette, " Doubtless
Thou art our Father," and the quartette,
"Yea, though I walk," which was sung
at the funeral service at the Chapel
Royal, and brought tears to many an
BIRMINGHAM FESTIVAL 75
eye by reason of its exquisite mournful-
ness. Again, what a spirit of poignant
pathos is expressed in the contralto solo
and chorus, " Weep ye not for the dead,"
and how charming is his treatment of
the dainty chorus for children, " Hosanna
to the Son of David ! " with its slender
but appropriate accompaniment.
In after years Sullivan himself recog-
nised certain defects in " The Light of
the World," and expressed his intention
of condensing and revising it, but the
task was continually 'postponed, and his
intentions remain unfulfilled.
CHAPTER VI
DRAMATIC CANTATAS
WHETHER the reception accorded " The
Light of the World" fell short of his
expectations, and so discouraged him
from attempting anything further in the
direction of oratorio, or whether it was
that he was beginning to realise that his
talent needed a stronger dramatic form
of expression, and that he saw in the
stage a more remunerative sphere, the
fact remains that he gave no further
attention to sacred or quasi-sacred music
until, in 1878, he was invited by the
Leeds Festival Committee to write an
oratorio for the Festival of 1880. To this
request he replied after the lapse of many
weeks, and it will be seen that he had
INVITATION TO LEEDS 77
no keen desire to do anything on the
ambitious scale of "The Light of the
World." Further, he had just passed
through a crisis in the incurable malady
from which he suffered, and, what per-
haps was even more to the purpose, the
year previous he had, in collaboration
with W. S. Gilbert, delved into the
golden mine of comic opera.
The account of the preliminary nego-
tiations concerning his association with
Leeds is taken from Messrs. Spark and
Joseph Bennett's " History of the Leeds
Musical Festivals " :
"9 ALBERT MANSIONS,
"LONDON, S.W., March 12, 1878.
" MY DEAR SIR, When I received your
first letter at Nice, I was so ill and worn
out that I at once wrote declining the
offer of the Leeds Festival. But, upon
consideration, I thought it would be wise
to keep it back a short time in case I
might get better and stronger.
78 SULLIVAN
" I was constantly ill at Nice, con-
sequently the letter was never sent. On
my arrival home yesterday I found that
you had written to me again, and also
Mr. Law, who, unfortunately has been,
and still is, in Italy.
"I beg, therefore, you will accept the ex-
pressions of my sincere regret at the delay
in answering you. I am much better
now, and feel more disposed to entertain
the proposal which the Committee have
done me the honour to make to me.
" I could not, however, undertake the
composition of an oratorio which should
occupy the whole of a concert. For
that I should have no time. But I
should not be unwilling to write a work
of the same length and character as
' The Prodigal Son ' a work of about
an hour or an hour and a half, and
forming one part of a concert.
" Will you kindly convey this to the
Committee, and let me know their view
AN ABORTIVE EFFORT 79
on the subject ? I am, my dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
" ARTHUR SULLIVAN.
" F. R. SPARK, Esq."
On the receipt of that letter the Com-
mittee passed the following resolution :
" That Mr. Sullivan be commissioned
to write a work of the nature men-
tioned in his letter of March 12, at a
fee of 100 guineas. Such fee to include
all his personal expenses and the pro-
viding the necessary copies for band and
chorus."
Sullivan chose for his subject the story
of David and Jonathan, but the arrange-
ment of the text proved more difficult
than he had anticipated. He remarked
to Mr. Spark : "I search the Scriptures
daily, only to find that the best verses
for filling up in the orthodox fashion
have been used by oratorio writers be-
fore me. If I take these, there will
be always comparisons drawn as to the
8o SULLIVAN
setting. One will say, * Oh, Handel's
music to those words is much better ' ;
or, ' Mendelssohn's ideas are far superior
to Sullivan's." At length he abandoned
the task, and, after a conversation with
Mr. W. S. Gilbert, it was arranged that
the latter should adapt Dean Milman's
poem, " The Martyr of Antioch," which
was done. With the production of the
work he was further associated with the
Festival of 1880 as Sir Michael Costa's
successor to the conductor's chair.
Here it is interesting to note that
Sullivan abandoned the field of oratorio,
and decided that for the future he would
write only to such subjects as would
give his invention free play, and permit
him to indulge the bent of his dramatic
instincts. Milman's poem allowed him
to follow the dictates of fancy, and to
colour his music with the hues which
suggested themselves to his imagination.
The result was highly satisfactory, and
" MARTYR OF ANTIOCH " 81
but for the overwhelming popularity of
its successor we should probably hear a
great deal more of his one sacred music
drama.
There is another reason why, in our
opinion, it is less popular than " The
Golden Legend," and more unequal in
its workmanship, and that is to use
a homely phrase Sullivan was sitting
on two stools. His conception of the
sacred character of the poem stayed his
hand when he felt that he should be
frankly operatic for fear that people
should accuse him of being theatrical
and, with the ever-increasing popularity
of "H.M.S. Pinafore" in mind, his
fears, if he had them, were not ill-
founded.
The work is rich in contrast, and
the greater part of it is of remarkable
excellence. " The Hymn to Apollo,"
which takes up seventy-two pages of the
vocal score, is a fine piece of scholarly
82 SULLIVAN
writing, and the orchestral colouring and
ever-changing harmonies, in combination
with much melodic beauty, make it worthy
of the greatest composer that ever lived.
The tenor song, " Come, Marguerita,
come," is a perfect gem in its way, and
another peculiarly attractive number, due
partly to its quaint accompaniment (a
dance measure in pagan worship), is the
contralto air and chorus, " I Paean."
That extraordinary vein of sadness which
constantly makes itself apparent in Sulli-
van's work found its pathetic vent in the
exquisite unaccompanied chorus, " Bro-
ther, thou art gone before us," which
was so feelingly sung by the chorus of
the Savoy Theatre as the casket that
contained all that was mortal of him
was lowered into the crypt of St. Paul's
Cathedral.
The dramatic quality of " The Martyr
of Antioch " was recognised by the Carl
Rosa Opera Company, who produced an
MAMMON versus ART 83
operatic version of it at Liverpool in
1899.
Sullivan was asked to write a sym-
phony for the next Leeds Festival, and
after giving the matter full considera-
tion, he declined on the ground " that
he had his turn at the previous Festival,
and hoped the Committee would secure
the services of some other English musi-
cian," a reply which was obviously due
to the vogue of his comic operas.
But the Committee was more fortu-
nate in their application for a work for the
Festival of 1886. With the assistance
of Mr. Joseph Bennett, he adapted Long-
fellow's " Golden Legend " to his purpose,
and on August 24, he wrote saying that
the work was finished. It was produced
Saturday, October 16, and was hailed
then, and is recognised now, as the finest
English choral composition of the cen-
tury which saw its birth. It rivals in
popularity the masterpieces of Handel
84 SULLIVAN
and Mendelssohn, and whatever else of
Sullivan's may perish, we feel safe in
assuming that " The Golden Legend "
will remain as a living monument of the
Victorian era of music and as a per-
petual reminder of the genius of its most
popular composer. Its reception at the
Festival was something extraordinary,
and to describe it we cannot do better
than reproduce the words of a well-
known writer, which appeared in the
Leeds Mercury:
" About the overwhelming popularity of
Saturday morning's event there could be
no doubt. It appeared at the ticket-office
in an early run, which, as the appointed
time drew near, became a rush. It was
manifest, also, in an eagerness to be
present that made light of crowding and
discomfort, and brought guineas to the
treasury for the poor privilege of standing-
room.
"There is no mystery about the under-
"/THE GOLDEN LEGEND" 85
lying enthusiasm. Sir Arthur Sullivan
has the ear of the public, whether he write
oratorios, cantatas, comic operas, or songs.
. . . . How can we describe the scene
which followed the last note of the cantata ?
Let the reader imagine an audience
rising to its multitudinous feet in thunder-
ing approval ; a chorus either cheering with
heart and soul, or raining down flowers
upon the lucky composer ; and an orchestra
coming out of their habitual calm to wax
fervid in demonstration. Never was a
more heartfelt ovation. Ovation ! nay, it
was the greater triumph such as once
acclaimed the successful soldiers of Rome.
The Leeds Festival of 1886 will be
remembered, if for nothing else, for the
production of ' The Golden Legend.' "
By the kind permission of Sir Alexander
Mackenzie, I produce the criticism he
pronounced on "The Golden Legend" in
the course of the three lectures on Sullivan
given at the Royal Institute, because it is
86 SULLIVAN
the judgment of one of the ripest musical
scholars of our generation, and of a com-
poser who is in touch with the modern
development of his art.
" In Longfellow's 'Golden Legend 1 a
subject was hit upon containing exactly
that human touch which so well fitted the
genius he has undoubtedly exhibited in
its treatment. From the elaborate, vivid,
and exciting prologue, painted in the
strongest colours of modern instrumenta-
tion, to the touching finale, which brings
tears to the eyes (as I confess it did to
mine at the first performance), the com-
poser has availed himself in a masterly
manner of all the resources at the
musician's command, and the gathered
experience of a lifetime.
" And he does so with restraint, for I
take it that at least one of the helps to
the success of ' The Golden Legend ' is
that nothing is overdone. Everything the
sparing use of the leitmotif > the unwonted
MACKENZIE'S CRITICISM 87
freedom of the harmonic progressions, the
orchestral colour are all reserved for
their appropriate places. And in the
Schubert-like tone of the ' Journey to
Salerno,' leading to the ' Scene by the
Sea,' culminating in the soprano solo and
chorus, ' The night is calm and cloudless,'
he reaches a height which I say it
deliberately touches the sublime. That
one of the scenes but poorly matches its
companions is nothing to the purpose.
" ' The Golden Legend ' remains, after
the wear of some fifteen years, the master-
piece it was justly pronounced to be at
the first performance.
"It has been seriously stated that the
influence of Berlioz is apparent in this
work, and that it is modelled on the
French composer's style ; but I confess
that I fail to discover any trace of that
influence. To be sure, both composers
had to deal, musically, with the Arch-
Fiend (always a popular and interesting
88 SULLIVAN
character) ; but the only similarity between
the Mephisto of Berlioz and the Lucifer
of Sullivan is that they seem both to have
some knowledge of counterpoint. After
the blasphemous, burlesque ' Amen ' is
bellowed in by the tipsy students in
Aubrach's Keller, Mephisto remarks (I
quote from the English translation), ' I'
faith, good sir, but your fugue is astound-
ing : the style is really grand. Art was
never better expressed in more pious
sentiments.'
" Lucifer, in ' The Golden Legend,' is
much more true to Goethe's original con-
ception, and the counterpoint is confined
to an orchestral illustration of the descrip-
tive line in ' Faust,' ' Was hinkt der
Kerlauf einem Fuss.' This line, indicat-
ing the physical consequences of an
accident (very likely a severe fall), was
seized upon by Sullivan, and he invested
his devil with a contrapuntal limp, which
generally accompanies his appearance.
PRODUCED IN BERLIN 89
"The 'humour of it' is born of the
spirit of comic opera, which at the time,
like ' La Belle Dame sans Merci,' had
him 'in thrall.' In connection with this
very point, I remember that he remarked
to me, ' I can't away with it. When I
was writing the " Legend," and Elsie sings
at the most serious moment of the story,
" I come not here to argue, but to die,"
I quite regretted the chance of letting the
chorus respond, after the approved Savoy
fashion, "She doesn't come here to argue,
but to die.""
The production of " The Golden
Legend " during the following year in
Berlin, we may assume was due to Court
influence, for Sir Arthur was a persona
grata with the Imperial Family. The
Germans were by no means favourably
disposed towards English art ; indeed, by
the tone adopted by their musical press,
to them it was non-existent. The critics
went prejudiced to the first performance
90 SULLIVAN
which was a bad one and wrote concern-
ing it with an affected air of superiority
eminently characteristic of that favoured
race with which God, in His bountiful good-
ness, has peopled the banks of the Spree.
The history of the episode is best given
in Sullivan's own words :
"In April, 1887, I went to superintend
and conduct the performance of ' The
Golden Legend ' in Germany. Owing to
various unfortunate circumstances, the
first performance was an execrable one.
They have no well - organised choral
societies in Berlin, such as exist in great
numbers in London. The solo singers
were moderate, and the principal soprano
was a light soubrette from the opera!
She was, of course, utterly unfit to sing
the music in question, and for some cause
or other she could not manage to sing one
note properly at the actual performance.
One might have imagined her to be a bad
amateur trying to read the music at sight.
GERMAN ANTAGONISM 91
" The performance took place at the
Royal Opera- House, where there was a
very small and rackety old organ, which
was also unfortunate, as the organ played
a very important part in ' The Golden
Legend.' I could get no bells for the
prologue, and through the personal efforts
of the Crown Princess we secured some
large Chinese gongs to try and represent
the bells. Altogether the performance
was lamentable. However, I determined
not to be overcome in this way if I could
help it, and as Madame Albani was in
Holland at that time, I telegraphed to her
to know if she could sing the work if I
gave another performance on the follow-
ing Saturday. She very kindly replied
in the affirmative, and, in spite of the
drawbacks that I have mentioned, Madame
Albani sang the music so splendidly that
the entire work created quite a different
impression.
" Both the Crown Prince and the
92 SULLIVAN
Crown Princess were very good, and
extremely kind and sympathetic under the
load of misfortune which I had to contend
with, and they were most helpful in every
possible way. Although I was living at
an hotel, they made me look upon their
palace as my home. I constantly spent
the whole day there, and it was then that
I noted the first symptoms of his terrible
illness. One day I drove out with them
to the races at Charlottenburg. There
was a cold wind blowing, and when the
Crown Prince was standing outside the
royal pavilion, the Princess entreated him
to go inside, and then it was that I
noticed the curious harshness in his voice
which indicated the approaching fatality."
We have now seen the end of this
phase of Sullivan's art. With the excep-
tion of the Te Deum, which has been
discussed, henceforth he devoted his time
to what is known as Savoy Opera. More-
over, in 1892, there was a return of his
PARTING OF THE WAYS 93
malady in its acutest form, and for some
time his life was in extreme danger. He
never overcame the effects of that terrible
illness, and was never after the same in
health. He was repeatedly pressed to
write another work for the Leeds Festival,
but his invariable excuse was that he
could not find a book to please him. It
is to be feared that the slow canker of
worldly prosperity had robbed him of the
desire to create for reputation's sake alone ;
that he was content to concentrate his
diminished physical powers on the pro-
duction of those operas which the public
demanded, and which were needed to
maintain the prestige and well-being of
the Savoy Theatre and those associated
with it.
CHAPTER VII
THE COMIC OPERA PERIOD
WE have now to discuss that phase of
art in which, it is frankly admitted,
Sullivan reigned supreme, and sat upon
a throne of his own making. Before his
coming, a comic opera of native origin
was a thing almost unknown, and such
works of the kind as found favour with
the public were imported from France.
Offenbach had set the town ringing with
the strains of "The Grand Duchess,"
and Lecocq with " La Fille de Madame
Angot " and the works of both com-
posers were eagerly awaited by managers
and public.
In a modest way the German Reeds
opened up an avenue for English oper-
94
"COX AND BOX" 95
ettas in the early sixties, but they made
no distinct appeal to the community at
large. The entertainment at the Gallery
of Illustration, and subsequently at St.
George's Hall, was of the harmless order
which found favour with people who
thought it a sin to visit a theatre.
Musical diversion in the regular places
of amusement was confined to burlesque.
That these French operettas were pro-
fitable speculations was clear to any one
with the least knowledge of theatrical
affairs and business in general.
When Sullivan scored such a marked
success with his initial effort "Cox and
Box," we may fairly assume that visions of
more important triumphs haunted his mind.
" The Contrabandista " and " Thespis "
gave the young composer additional belief
in his powers, and with the production of
"Trial by Jury" at the Royalty in 1875
he must have been convinced that he
could beat the Frenchmen on their own
96 SULLIVAN
ground. With the composition of " Cox
and Box " he sprang, after the manner of
Minerva, fully armed into the arena of
comic opera. Almost every characteristic
that is to be found in his later work is to
be found, in a modified way, in that
delightful little operetta. His individu-
ality of style is as apparent as in "The
Rose of Persia." The essential features
of the one are the essential features of the
other. The same quality of humour is to
be observed in " Hush-a-bye, bacon, on
the coal top" as in "There was once a
small street arab." We even find in the
"Buttercup" duet the suggestion of con-
trasted subjects progressing concurrently,
which stand out more prominently in
" The Sorcerer," and afterwards found
complete expression in the duet in "The
Pirates of Penzance," where the lovers
are singing in valse rhythm, while the
chorus of girls are chattering about the
weather in two-four time. The Police-
INGENIOUS CONTRASTS 97
man's chorus, with the counter theme for
the sopranos, and the trio for the three
men in the first act of " The Mikado,"
with three different themes going at the
same time, are other notable instances
of his facility in this respect. Only a
musician with a complete command of the
scientific and technical branch of his art
could accomplish such unique results.
His comic appreciation of the mock
tragic in music is as clearly indicated in
Box's description of his supposed suicide
as it is in " When the night wind howls "
in " Ruddigore," or the very original
accompaniment to the Lord Chancellor's
Dream Song in " lolanthe."
" Trial by Jury," which is the eldest
born of the Gilbert and Sullivan series
of operas, is essentially Sullivanesque, but
its successor, " The Sorcerer," allowed the
composer wider scope for the display of
his individual bent. The treatment of the
story needed greater light and shade than
G
98 SULLIVAN
Mr. Gilbert's witty parody of legal pro-
cedure in this country. For the first time
we are brought face to face with what
may be roughly termed Sullivan's adapta-
tion of the hymn to comic purposes, and
his facility in imitating the style of the
early English composers. Take, for ex-
ample, the ensemble in the quintette,
" I rejoice that it's decided," and also
such numbers as " Hail Poetry ! " in
" The Pirates of Penzance," and " I
hear the soft notes of an echoing voice "
in " Patience," with their undeniable
ecclesiastical harmonies and cadences.
These are obviously the outcome of
Sullivan's early Church training; and
this element in his music has had not
a little to do with its popularity with the
English people, who for generations heard
scarcely any music in public outside the
walls of the parish church. His use of
the madrigal form is something much
more than an imitation of the old
HUMOUR IN MUSIC 99
masters. Such numbers as " Brightly
dawns our wedding day " in " The
Mikado," and " Joy and sorrow " in
" The Rose of Persia," are of such
original merit that they alone entitle
Sullivan to a place by the side of
William Byrd and Thomas Morley.
Of that wonderful melody which flows
with such crystal purity and charm
through the whole of his work, there is
no need to speak. It has spoken elo-
quently enough for itself throughout the
past generation. Its captivating quality
made gay the drawing-room, and cheered
the man in the street as he unconsciously
hummed one or the other of the many airs
which winged their way through the doors
of the Savoy Theatre to the four corners
of the earth.
We have had humour in music from
many composers. Haydn overflowed with
it, the pages of Mozart offer us many de-
lightful instances, and Auber revelled in
ioo SULLIVAN
it ; but to neither Italian, German, nor
Gaul did it come with greater spontaneity
and freedom than it did to Sullivan. In
his hands it took a new form, and he may
be credited with the distinction of having
invented much that was distinctly original.
His humour appears grimly in the
Lucifer music in "The Golden Legend";
we come across it in " Ivanhoe," in the
ecclesiastical harmonies which accompany
Jolly Friar Tuck ; and in his lighter
works it darts about with the luminous
elusiveness of a firefly. There is the
splendid burlesque of the seventeenth-
century glee in "A British tar is a
soaring soul," in " H.M.S. Pinafore"',
the delightful parody of the Handelian
style in the martial music given to Arac
and the three Knights in " Princess Ida" ;
and the never-to-be-forgotten quartette
in " The Gondoliers," " In a contempla-
tive fashion," which is the most ingenious
and most difficult illustration of this kind
AN UNERRING INSTINCT 101
of work to be found in his light-opera
writing. One has only to give half an
ear to the orchestration to realise his
humorous capacity. His use of the
bassoon and oboe one of the simplest
of his instrumental devices is the index
to his treatment of the other members of
the orchestral family.
It would be tedious to take the operas
seriatim, and discuss their respective
merits in detail, and it will suffice to
deal shortly with a few of the leading
features of the series in its entirety.
In " The Sorcerer," as we have pointed
out, there are to be found all the salient
characteristics of the succeeding operas,
and in it we recognise the perfect work-
manship and appreciation of the value
of words and situations. With regard
to this latter quality, musical training
had no bearing on it, his early associa-
tions did not favour it, and his practical
knowledge of the stage was extremely
102 SULLIVAN
slight. The one and only conclusion to
be come to is that the gift was born
with him, and was part of the rich heri-
tage he owed to Nature.
His consummate musicianship helped
him without doubt. Once an idea had
fixed itself in his mind, he had no diffi-
culty in putting it to paper. He scored
his operas with the readiness and facility
of a man writing a chatty letter to a
friend. His method was to leave the
orchestration until the scene had been
finally fixed at rehearsal. By that time
he had penetrated to the depths of its
humour or sentiment, and with unerring
touch he was able to give exactly the
required colouring to his instrumentation.
He scored quickly, and with what cer-
tainty he worked may be estimated from
the fact that the elaborate overture to
" The Yeomen of the Guard " was com-
posed and scored in twelve hours, while
the splendid epilogue to " The Golden
RHYTHM 103
Legend " was begun and finished in the
space of twenty-four hours.
It will be interesting to pause here
and dwell on Sullivan's method of com-
position.
Referring more particularly to the
famous comic operas, we quote his own
words to Mr. Lawrence :
"The first thing I have to decide
upon is the rhythm, and I arrange the
rhythm before I come to the question
of melody. As an instance, let us take
' Were I thy bride,
Then all the world beside
Were not too wide
To hold my wealth of love,
Were I thy bride !
Upon thy breast
My loving head would rest,
As on her nest
The tender turtle-dove,
Were I thy bride ! '
You will see that, as far as the rhythm
is concerned, and quite apart from the
unlimited possibilities of melody, there
io 4 SULLIVAN
are a good many ways of treating those
words." And, says Mr. Lawrence, " that
I might not be unconvinced, Sir Arthur
sat down at his table and worked out the
little exercise in rhythm, in the form of
dummy bars," reproduced in this chapter.
This essay in rhythm will be of interest to
musicians, and it will be seen that the
rhythm given last, as being that ultimately
selected, is best suited to the sentiment
and construction of the lines.
" You see that five out of six methods
were commonplace, and my first aim has
always been to get as much originality
as possible in the rhythm, approaching
the question of melody afterwards. Of
course, melody may come before rhythm
with other composers, but it is not so
with me. If I feel that I cannot get
the accent right in any other way, I
mark out the metre in dots and dashes,
and it is only after I have decided the
rhythm that I proceed to notation.
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METHOD OF WORK 105
" My first work the jotting down of
the melodies I term 'sketches.' They
are hieroglyphics which, possibly, would
seem undecipherable. It is my musical
shorthand, and of course it means much
to me. When I have finished these
sketches, the creative part of my work
is completed. After that comes the
orchestration, which is, of course, a very
essential part of the whole work, and
entails some severe manual labour.
Apart from getting into the swing of
composition, it is often an hour before
my hand is steady enough to shape the
notes well and with sufficient rapidity.
When I have made a beginning, how-
ever, I work very rapidly.
"You must remember that a piece of
music which will only take two minutes
in actual performance quick time may
necessitate two or three days' hard work
in the mere manual labour of orchestra-
tion, apart from the question of com-
io6 SULLIVAN
position. The literary man can avoid
sheer manual labour in a number of
ways, but you cannot dictate musical
notation to a secretary. Every note
must be written in your own hand
there is no other way of getting it done
and every opera means four or five
hundred folio pages of music, every
crotchet and quaver of which has to
be written out by the composer. Then,
again, your ideas are pages and pages
ahead of your poor overworked fingers.
"When the 'sketch' is completed,
which means writing, re-writing, and
alterations of every description, the work
is drawn out in so-called ' skeleton score '
that is, with all the vocal parts, rests
for symphonies, &c., completed, but with-
out a note of accompaniment or instru-
mental work of any kind, although,
naturally, I have all that in mind.
"Then the voice parts are written out
by the copyist, and the rehearsals begin.
ORCHESTRATION 107
On those occasions I vamp an accom-
paniment, or, in my absence, the accom-
panist of the theatre does so. It is not
until the music has been thoroughly
learnt, and the rehearsals on the stage,
with the necessary action and 'business,'
are well advanced, that I begin orchestra-
tion.
" As soon as the orchestration is
finished, the band parts are copied, two
or three rehearsals of the orchestra only
are held, then the orchestra and the
voices together without any stage busi-
ness or action, and finally, three or four
full rehearsals of the complete work on
the stage are enough to prepare the
work for presentation to the public."
" Of course, the use of the piano," Sir
Arthur remarks, when discussing the
subject, " would limit me terribly ; and
as to the inspiration theory, although I
admit that sometimes a happy phrase
will occur to one quite unexpectedly,
io8 SULLIVAN
rather than the result of any definite
reasoning process, musical composition,
like everything else, is the outcome of
hard work, and there is really nothing
speculative nor spasmodic about it.
Moreover, the happy thoughts which
seem to come to one only occur after
hard work and steady persistence. It
will always happen that one is better
ready for work needing inventiveness
at one time than at another. One day
work is hard, and another day it is
easy ; but if I had waited for inspira-
tion I am afraid I should have done
nothing. The miner does not sit at the
top of the shaft waiting for the coal to
come bubbling up to the surface. One
must go deep down, and work out every
vein carefully."
CHAPTER VIII
SAVOY SUCCESSES
WITH the production of ''The Sorcerer"
people did not realise that a new order
of things had come into existence, which
was entirely to revolutionise the musical
entertainment of the country. The British
public is the slowest in the world to re-
cognise merit in any new departure in art.
When "H.M.S. Pinafore" was produced,
the receipts for the first two weeks were
so poor that the management entertained
serious thoughts of withdrawing the piece.
We are told it was an orchestral selection
played at the Covent Garden Promenade
Concerts which turned people's thoughts
in the direction of the Opera Comique,
and sent them there to see for themselves
what manner of humour it was that was
109
no SULLIVAN
wedded to such melodic strains, with the
result that the opera ran for seven hundred
nights. But its troubles had not finished,
for during her lengthy voyage the gallant
ship found herself being towed into the
Royal Courts of Justice. Mr. D'Oyly
Carte, who had formed the syndicate
which started the venture at the Opera
Comique, was an astute man of business,
and saw in the Gilbert and Sullivan com-
bination a very profitable enterprise. He
had no longer any need for the syndicate's
money nor their counsels in the board-
room, and so he gave them notice to quit.
It occasioned a costly lawsuit, and for a
time a rival company performed the piece
at the Aquarium Theatre, Westminster.
But Mr. Carte won in the end.
"H.M.S. Pinafore" firmly established
the Gilbert and Sullivan vogue. The
production of " The Pirates of Penzance "
began that series of fashionable first-nights
which were the envy of those unable to
"THE MIKADO" TRIUMPH in
gain admission, and the pride of all who
were fortunate enough to have their names
included in Mr. Carte's list. For a year
did we listen to the wail of the policeman,
whose lot, taking one consideration with
another, was not a happy one. Then
was produced that exquisite satire on the
aesthetic craze of the day, and " Patience "
became something akin to a mania. It
was this work which was transferred to the
newly-built Savoy Theatre. "lolanthe"
and "Princess Ida" were less successful,
although they contain much delightful
music. In " The Mikado " the author
and composer touched the high-water
mark of success. That was a never-to-
be-forgotten first-night. At the end of
the first act it was supposed there must
be a drop in the interest in the second,
that it would be impossible to maintain
that wonderful flow of wit and melody ;
but as number succeeded number, the
surprise and delight of the audience in-
ii2 SULLIVAN
creased until the climax was reached, and
with the fall of the curtain the house
became wildly enthusiastic. In 1886 it
was produced in Berlin by one of the
English companies which had been on
tour in America, and it was in that city
that Madame Ilka von Palma, who was
afterwards seen at the Savoy, appeared as
Nanki Poo, the wandering minstrel. As an
instance of the impression made by " The
Mikado" in Germany, we quote the fol-
lowing from the North German Gazette:
" At the very outset we were surprised
by the pretty scenery and the truly blind-
ing splendour of the dresses, as well as
by the easy grace of all who took part in
the play. Not only are the solo singers
excellent performers, but the inferior
members of the choir do their work
artistically. We are conscious of enter-
taining a very pronounced predilection for
all our home products, but we scruple not
to confess that, as a performance, ' The
CONTINENTAL FAME 113
Mikado' surpasses all our operettas. And
were it not for the fact that the English
dialogue, after all, must remain unintel-
ligible to the bulk of the audience, and
thus hamper their appreciation of the
piece, their delight in the treat which is
offered them would be greater still. The
music is effective all through, and even
comprises some delicate masterpieces."
Eighteen years later the following ap-
peared in the columns of the Musical
Courier, from its German correspondence,
under date May 26, 1903 :
" For the benefit of the pension fund
of the members of the Leipzig theatres a
performance of ' The Mikado ' was given
recently at the Neues Theatre of that city.
It was in so far a memorable affair, as all
of the parts in the operetta had been en-
trusted to first-class opera singers only,
that the work had been newly mounted
and finely staged by the director, Privy
Councillor Staegermann, and that no less
H
n 4 SULLIVAN
a conductor than Professor Arthur Nikisch
was the wielder of the baton. Ballet-
master Grundlach, from Vienna, had ar-
ranged and studied with the Leipzig ballet
and chorus the dances and grouping, and
Albert Goldberg had taken care that the
mise- en -scene was a lively and brilliant
one. A more splendid performance of
Sir Arthur Sullivan's justly most popular
operetta is probably not on record, and
all parties concerned in it, especially
Professor Nikisch, were made the objects
of stormy applause and most enthusiastic
ovations on the part of an audience that
filled every seat and all the standing room
in the spacious theatre."
" Fallacy somewhere," was the unfor-
tunate line which one of the ghosts had
to speak in " Ruddygore," and which
drew from an occupant of the gallery the
remark, " You're right, there is." But
the satire of " Ruddigore " as it was
afterwards spelled was never understood.
YEOMEN OF THE GUARD 115
It was a grim parody of lurid melodrama,
a form of entertainment to which the
habitues of the Savoy were little ac-
customed. Musically, it contained work
equal to anything that Sullivan wrote for
the Savoy, and there are one or two
numbers in it which rise almost to the
level of grand opera. It was the least suc-
cessful of the series, and has never been
revived.
To atone for the temporary falling away
from the standard of Savoy excellence, the
next opera mounted was "The Yeomen of
the Guard," which was of a different genre
to all that had gone before, and which still
retains a unique position, not only in the
Gilbert -Sullivan repertory, but in the
operatic art of this country. In this work
topsy-turvydom has no place, and in its
stead there are smiles and tears, comedy
and pathos. It was a deliberate and well-
conceived effort to give the English public
a higher grade of musical art, and to en-
ii6 SULLIVAN
gage the same serious sympathy for the
light opera stage that was given to the
legitimate drama. The ambitious nature
of the work and what its composer in-
tended it to be is clearly shown by the
form and characteristics of the overture,
which is of really serious pretensions. In-
asmuch as the story has no relationship
to any passing phase of contemporary
fashion, it is highly probable that it will
long continue to hold a place in the living
literature of light operatic art.
Its successor, " The Gondoliers," re-
turns to the world of pure fancy and
imagination. The music overflows with
the joy of life, and represents Sullivan
in his most sparkling and vivacious
mood. There is sunshine in every bar,
and the most engaging qualities of ac-
complished musicianship are obvious
throughout. Sullivan never wielded his
magician's wand to better purpose, and
it seems as if fate, foreseeing that "The
THE SAVOY "SPLIT" 117
Gondoliers" was to break the happy
partnership which had existed for so
many years, was determined that the
farewell should be said amidst an unpre-
cedented outburst of mirth and melody.
The story of Mr. W. S. Gilbert's
secession from the Savoy is a regrettable
page in its annals, but it is wrong to
assume that there was any quarrel
between him and Sullivan. The latter
was not in any way concerned in the
original dispute, but it is obvious that
he had to associate himself with one or
the other, and he decided to throw in
his lot with Mr. D'Oyly Carte. No
doubt this was a matter for regret to
Mr. Gilbert, but of actual quarrel there
was none. We say this with the
authority of both Sir Arthur and Mr.
Gilbert. They dissolved partnership,
and there was an end of it.
The Savoy Theatre was now to pass
through various vicissitudes of fortune.
n8 SULLIVAN
Other composers and other librettists
were tried without very satisfactory
results. Then Sullivan collaborated with
Mr. Sydney Grundy in " Haddon Hall," a
work of the romantic drama order, which
achieved only a moderate measure of
success. In the following year it be-
came known that the " Heavenly Twins "
of comic opera had again joined forces,
and there was eager anticipation on the
part of the public as to the result.
" Utopia, Limited," however, proved dis-
appointing, although it met with an
enthusiastic first-night reception. There
was a whisper that certain distinguished
personages were not altogether pleased
with its satire on the Grand - Ducal
Courts, and the faithful imitation of the
procedure at a royal Drawing-room.
Yet once again the old collaborators
were to work together. After a revised
and elaborated version of " The Contra-
bandista," under the title of " The Chief-
THE PARTNERSHIP ENDS 119
tain" had been tried, "The Grand Duke"
was produced on March 7, 1896; but it
did not find Mr. Gilbert in his happiest
vein, although musically it fully main-
tained Sir Arthur's reputation. And
here is to be noticed again the obvious
desire of the composer to attain a
higher degree of lyrical excellence, and
orchestral workmanship more thoroughly
in accordance with the spirit of what is
known in France as opera comique.
Indeed, one is conscious of an upward
tendency in style from the days of
" lolanthe," and this found its highest ex-
pression in "The Beauty Stone." Before,
however, taking leave of " The Grand
Duke," attention must be directed to
the beautiful introduction and Wedding
Chorus which begins the second act.
With this work terminated the partner-
ship which, with the exception of one
break, had existed for twenty-five years.
What its results were, what its effect on
120 SULLIVAN
manners was, only those know who were
in touch with the social life of the
eighties. Our lyrical stage was made
purer, brighter, and more amusing than
it had ever been in all its history.
Gilbert's epigrams and witty sayings
became a part of the vernacular of the
day, and the passion for Sullivan's music
was so general that it seemed as though
the street pianofortes were made for
no other purpose than to reproduce the
merry tunes, whose coming killed the
banalities which for so long had passed
muster with amateurs. But fashion
moves swiftly, and already the gold of
yesterday is passed by for meretricious
ornaments of little value.
At the present time the standard of
public taste is nearly as low as it was a
quarter of a century ago, when the
drawing-room ballad reigned supreme.
American "ragtime" has polluted rhythm.
The lyric theatre has become a glorified
NEW COLLABORATEURS 121
music-hall. Librettists write " books "
without plots and dialogue destitute of wit.
The leading comedian is only one degree
removed from the "character" artist of
the " halls," and the aim of the principal
lady is chiefly directed towards giving
an immodest colouring to verses other-
wise as devoid of humour as they are of
common sense.
With his next Savoy opera Sullivan
was to undergo an experience as dis-
agreeable as it was novel to him.
Hitherto he had been happy in his
associations with his librettists. He and
Gilbert understood each other, and,
although the placid existence of their
artistic relationship may have been
ruffled occasionally during the trying
periods of rehearsals, no serious dif-
ference of opinion ever arose between
them. With the coming of Mr. Arthur
W. Pinero and Mr. J. Comyns Carr
there entered a new element in the
122 SULLIVAN
composition of Savoy opera. They had
been selected by Mr. D'Oyly Carte to
write a libretto, and "The Beauty Stone"
was the result of their joint efforts.
When the book was submitted to
Sullivan, his practised eye quickly saw
certain defects, and these he proceeded
to point out. Neither Mr. Pinero nor
Mr. Carr had any practical knowledge
of the art of writing for the lyric stage,
and it might be supposed they would
have welcomed advice from one whose
knowledge was so far-reaching, and who
had been associated with the finest
librettist of his age. No : what they
had written they had written. They
would not realise that what was suitable
for the dramatic stage might be entirely
out of place when music had to be taken
into consideration. They were deaf to
entreaties and superior to threats. Twice
Sullivan declined to proceed with the
work, and only out of regard for his
"THE BEAUTY STONE" 123
lifelong friends, Mr. and Mrs. D'Oyly
Carte, and in the interests of those
whose daily bread depended on the
successful maintenance of the Savoy
Theatre, did he consent to complete his
task.
It is needless to enter into the de-
tails which were given me during the
course of a long afternoon's conversation,
but Sullivan felt keenly their treatment
of him, and nothing, he said, would have
induced him to collaborate again with two
such autocratic authors. "The Beauty
Stone " contained some most exquisite
music the cripple girl's prayer to the
Virgin, for example but that failed to
insure it a success out of the common.
Those who saw it readily perceived
the source of its weakness, and therein
is Sullivan's justification for his criticism
of the manuscript.
With his next librettist, Captain Basil
Hood, he was much more fortunate in
i2 4 SULLIVAN
every respect. " The Rose of Persia "
was practically his swan-song in comic
opera, and never sang he more sweetly
or with greater refinement of utterance.
As one reads and re-reads the score, its
precise and delicate beauties become more
apparent. The quaint Oriental touch is
not the least of its many charms, and in
none of his operas has he given us more
eloquent proofs of pure musicianship and
perfect technique.
That a partnership so auspiciously be-
gun would continue there was no doubt,
and "The Emerald Isle" was planned.
A few numbers were completed, and
several others sketched out, but the pen
had to be laid aside in obedience to the
summons of the Great Messenger, and
to another was entrusted the pathetic
duty of completing the work of the dead
master. The choice fell upon Mr.
Edward German, who discharged his
delicate mission with such a sympathetic
HIS LAST OPERA 125
appreciation of Sullivan's intentions that
he won the approbation of all, and opened
out for himself another avenue of dis-
tinction. In the work which Sullivan
did, however, he is quite himself in
melodic inspiration, fertility of invention,
and finished workmanship.
Professor Bunn's song, in which he
narrates the legend of the fairies of
Carrig-Cleena to the soldiers, with its
plaintive melodious refrain, represents
Sullivan in his most attractive mood, and
the pity of it is that he did not live to
orchestrate it. In the two numbers he
completed, the opening chorus, and the
tenor air, " Brien Boru," with chorus, there
is no sign of decaying power, no evi-
dence of diminished ability, no suggestion
that he had outlived the freshness of his
ideas, and had to seek inspiration from
bygone works.
Sullivan's contribution to " The Emerald
Isle" consisted in all of the two opening
126 SULLIVAN
numbers, thirteen others, and the whole
of the finale to the first act. We can-
not but sincerely regret that he did not
add the finishing touches to these pieces,
as it was in his orchestration that Sullivan
mainly brought to play that fanciful gift
which was one of his most valuable
qualities. We may take it, therefore,
that we were denied many suggestive
little touches of humour and many quaint
points of expression. It was well, how-
ever, that Mr. German did his work with
such self-restraint, and that he left the
imagination to fill in as best it could
those distinctive traits which were Sulli-
van's own.
CHAPTER IX
THE OFFENBACH FALLACY
" THIS epithet, ' The English Offenbach,'
was first given me in a burst of ill-natured
spleen by G. A. Macfarren, and he used
it in his article on ' Music ' in the ' En-
cyclopaedia Britannica,' lately produced
by the Times. It was never used as a
compliment, and only employed by Mac-
farren and his satellites at the time of
the row about the National Training
School and the Royal Academy."
These words were written by Sir
Arthur in the autumn of 1899, and we
may therefore conclude he smarted under
the injustice of the epithet to the end.
We give Macfarren's judgment on Offen-
bach as it is recorded in the judicial style
127
128 SULLIVAN
imperatively demanded in a work of such
pretensions as the " Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica " a work supposed to be above party
bias and incapable of personal feeling :
"A new species of composition has
sprung into being within these thirty
years. ... It may be described as bur-
lesque, sometimes of stories that have
held mankind's respect for ages, sometimes
of modern social absurdities, but having
the ridiculous for its main quality, and
extravagant in every essential. It con-
sists of an intermingling of lightest and
most frivolous music with spoken dia-
logue, and depends as much on its literary
sprightliness as on its musical tunefulness
for success. He (Offenbach) is represen-
ted in England by Sir Arthur Sullivan."
Was ever a more unjust criticism perpe-
trated on a man's work. Had Macfarren's
depreciation of his successful contempo-
rary's music appeared in an ephemeral
publication, it might have been allowed
UNJUST COMPARISON 129
to pass unnoticed, but as it stands un-
challenged in the representative reference
work of the country, the libel must be
nailed to the counter. Not for the benefit
of those who are well able to make a fair
comparison between the two composers,
but for the sake of the unthinking who
are so easily captured by a catch phrase.
Neither in conception nor treatment is
there any similarity in the works of the
two composers. Let the reader recall any
of the once popular airs of Offenbach and
compare them with Sullivan's. Take one
of Offenbach's latest for example, " I am
an artless thing," the air which used to be
sung with such piquant effect by Miss
Florence St. John in "Madame Favart"
and place it by the side of " The sun
whose rays" in "The Mikado." The
spirit of the melody is entirely different,
and a single glance at the score will show
how infinitely superior is the workmanship
of " The English Offenbach " to that of
130 SULLIVAN
his alleged prototype. It would be unjust
to deny the French composer an extra-
ordinary melodic felicity, and the ready
manner in which the French and English
public received his music may be largely
accountable for the flippancy of his style
and the superficiality of his instrumentation.
The refinement of style which is notice-
able in " The Tempest " music is character-
istic of the whole of Sullivan's compositions.
The year that " The Pirates of Penzance "
was presented at the Opera Comique was
the year of the production of "The Martyr
of Antioch " at the Leeds Festival. " The
Golden Legend " came immediately upon
the heels of " The Mikado," and the Te
Deum for St. Paul's Cathedral Thanks-
giving Service went hand-in-hand with
"The Emerald Isle." Can it be imagined
for a moment that a composer who was
endeavouring to maintain the high quality
of his art in all its integrity, would be
guilty of such inconsistency as to destroy
STYLE AND CONSISTENCY 131
the reputation with the one hand which he
was building up with the other ? A com-
parison of the scores of his comic operas
with those of his cantatas will show any
competent judge that Sullivan took the
same loving care with the one that he did
with the other. His nature was so
eminently refined that he shuddered at a
vulgarism, and his knowledge of music
was so profound that he never strayed
from the direct path of beauty.
Since the date of Macfarren's contribu-
tion to the " Encyclopaedia Britannica,"
there have been several editions of the
work, and there was ample opportunity
for the writer to have reconsidered and
revised his judgment. That such was not
done indicates the mountainous obstacle
which prejudice raises in the mind, and
how it effectively warps the opinion of the
envious man.
Sullivan has his counterpart among
French composers, but he is to be found
i 3 2 SULLIVAN
in a higher sphere than that inhabited by
Offenbach. We have pointed out already
the inartistic quality of the musical enter-
tainment of the Metropolis at the time
when Sullivan came before the public with
" Cox and Box." There was next to
nothing in the form of native art, and
Offenbach and Lecocq were but just
looming on the horizon. London was in
the position of Paris at the beginning of
the nineteenth century, and what Boieldieu
and Auber did for opera comique in France,
Sullivan did for comic opera in England
that is, he elevated it into a refined and
artistic form of amusement. Had Sullivan
been compared to Auber, there would have
been some appropriateness and meaning
in the title. He was as distinctly English
as Auber was French in his methods.
Each poured out his music according to
impulses governed by temperament.
Sullivan's style in the main is a
modernised form of the English music of
CHARACTERISTICS 133
the seventeenth century. The folk-songs
of the country were the direct inspiration
of his ballads, and his concerted music
has its paternity in the motets and madri-
gals of such characteristic composers as
Byrd, Morley, and Gibbons. He picked
up the broken skein of English traditions
and skilfully adapted it to new purposes.
Such operatic composers as we had pro-
duced faithfully followed in the wake of
the Italian masters. Sullivan, either by
design or accident, pressed into the service
of the theatre the style of music most
familiar and best understood by the people.
This, combined with the saving grace of
humour and a marvellous power of adapt-
ing certain means to a given end, gave
the Savoy operas a popularity and native
distinction which have been attained by
no others. It is doubtful if we, or those
who follow us, will witness another such
unique achievement.
Sullivan began with a success, and
134 SULLIVAN
success attended him throughout. Most
satisfactory is it to reflect that he never
succumbed to the temptation to indulge
in careless work. As he began he went
on, and there is to be perceived a con-
sistent striving for a higher ideal, an
obvious desire to lead people on to
appreciate and accept a form of musical
entertainment that should have an affinity
with grand opera and still be racy of the
soil. He was undoubtedly working for the
establishment of a national opera, and had
Mr. R. D'Oyly Carte's venture in that
direction proved a success, we may rest
assured that "Ivanhoe" would have had
its successor.
CHAPTER X
THE ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA
IT is a very suggestive fact that in Mr.
Lawrence's "Life Story" of Sullivan no
mention is made of " Ivanhoe," except in
that section of the work which was en-
trusted to me. It is the more suggestive
because, be it remembered, Mr. Lawrence
produced the book under the personal
supervision of Sullivan himself. That
Sullivan should have been silent on such
an important episode in his career is truly
remarkable. It was his most ambitious
operatic effort, and owing to various cir-
cumstances it attracted more general
attention than any other of his works.
But he explains nothing as to his hopes
or his disappointments. We may conclude,
135
136 SULLIVAN
therefore, that he felt deeply and acutely
the collapse of an undertaking which had
been heralded with such a flourish of
trumpets by every newspaper in the
kingdom.
Sullivan was an extremely reticent man
in connection with his own work, and had
a decided objection to be interviewed or
to give forth dogmatic expressions of
opinion through the medium of the press.
But there is no doubt that he saw in the
building of the Royal Opera- House in
Shaftesbury Avenue a home for the higher
form of lyric drama, and that he believed
in the possibility of its winning for itself a
place in the estimation of all lovers of
music, equal to that of the Savoy Theatre,
which at that time was a household word.
Mention has been made in a preceding
chapter of the upward tendency of
Sullivan's work. A cynical critic might
say that he was trying to make up in
technical excellence for a possible de-
UNMUSICAL ENGLAND 137
preciation in the value of his melodic
ideas, but, happily, up to the last moment
in which he was strong enough to wield a
pen, the fountain of his inspiration was as
profuse and fresh as in the days of the
pristine " Pinafore."
Sullivan had as high an appreciation
of his art as any living composer, and
he never lost sight of the lofty mission
of music. Our public, however, had no
education in grand opera. Only the
more ardent amateurs and their name
was not legion showed any enthusiasm
with regard to chamber and orchestral
music. Middle-class England was as
ignorant of Beethoven as it was of
Balzac. Haydn and Handel were the
gods of such idolatry as it could spare
for music. Its womenkind wallowed in
the shallow puddle of ballad concerts,
and its men-folk were just able to dis-
tinguish between the popular song of the
day and the "Old Hundredth." So un-
138 SULLIVAN
used were they to anything moderately
good or novel in music, that "H.M.S.
Pinafore" would have been a disastrous
failure at the Opera Comique if the
exuberant youth that attended the Pro-
menade Concerts at Covertt Garden had
not caught up its breezy strains and
whistled them into popularity. It was
by a "fluke" the good ship "Pinafore"
was saved from foundering, and we shall
never know with the fate of "Ivanhoe"
in front of us how near we were to
missing that wonderful series of comic
operas which followed it at the Savoy.
With such material to work upon
Sullivan recognised that a taste for
better things was a matter of time, and
that it could be imparted only by a gradual
levelling-up process. With ten years' un-
precedented success behind them, we may
assume that he and Mr. D'Oyly Carte
considered the time ripe for the more
ambitious venture. Paris had its Opera
"IVANHOE" 139
Comique, an institution as distinct from
grand opera as it was from opera- bouffe.
It was not vain, therefore, to imagine that
London, with its multi-million population
and its myriad visitors, could support a
form of opera of more elastic quality than
that heard at Covent Garden, and yet of
more serious import than that to be
witnessed at the Savoy.
Looking back now, with a clear recol-
lection of the production of " Ivanhoe," we
are convinced that the time was not then
out of joint, that everything which could
help forward the enterprise was strongly in
evidence, and that nothing but the most
profound misapprehension of the factors
indispensable for success led to failure.
Whether it did or did not bring Mr.
D'Oyly Carte to the verge of ruin concerns
us not. What is pertinent to the question
is that by his misguided endeavours he
did incalculable harm to the cause of
national opera. What would be thought
140 SULLIVAN
of a Government that sent its soldiers
forth to battle with a bare dozen rounds of
ammunition ? With what sort of face
could it stand at the bar of public opinion ?
And now that more than a decade has
passed since the Royal English Opera-
House degenerated into the Palace Theatre
of Varieties, we may well pause for a
moment on the cause of its collapse and its
influence on Sullivan's work.
In the first place, the gorgeous building
in Cambridge Circus was so constructed
that it was unfit for the purpose for which
it was designed. An imperative essential
in an opera-house is that the stage shall
be sufficiently spacious to accommodate
the choristers and " extras " who are
indispensable in operatic productions. But
the stage of the Royal English Opera-
House was too small for representations
which call for clear elbow-room for the
principal artists. To see them huddled up
in close proximity to the chorus rendered
ILL-DESIGNED STAGE 141
effects indistinct and blurred which should
have stood out with palpable clearness.
Behind the scenes the chorus had to flock
together like sheep in a pen, and so scant
was the space in the " wings " that there
was no room for the scenery, which had to
be lowered from the roof; an excellent
plan in itself, providing the roof is capable
of holding the scenery of more than one
opera. Unfortunately, the Royal English
Opera- House had space only for one opera
at a time. What the changing meant in
the way of inconvenience and labour may
be surmised by those who have the least
acquaintance with stage work. In the case
of an ordinary theatre, where a piece is
mounted for a long run, such an arrange-
ment has no drawbacks, but in a house
that must depend for existence on its re-
pertory it amounts to a fatal inconvenience.
The structural deficiencies of the theatre
would have entailed a severe strain on the
working staff of the stage, but had other
142 SULLIVAN
things been favourable Mr. Carte might
have " muddled on " after the manner of
the War Office during the South African
campaign. Omnia vincit labor. He com-
mitted, however, the almost incredible folly
of trusting to one composer and his one
opera for success. No opera-house in the
world is run on such lines. No master-
piece would stand the test of such an ordeal.
A musical comedy will run hundreds of
nights by virtue of its inanity, but a work
that must be taken seriously and demands
a certain concentration of the intellectual
powers appeals to a much smaller public,
and quickly exhausts its clientele. That
Sullivan was a name to conjure with
was shown by the manner in which the
public hastened to gratify its curiosity.
But strong as he was, he was no Atlas.
He could not support the world of national
opera upon his shoulders. If, after the
first flush of excitement had passed, Mr.
D'Oyly Carte had been ready with his
FAILURE 143
repertory, with new works by leading
British composers and a few old favourite
operas by way of pandering to our love of
the familiar, the seed sown at that pro-
pitious period might have taken root and
given us a golden harvest.
But it was not to be. "Ivanhoe"
struggled on for a hundred nights or so,
and then the house was shut. It re-
opened after a short interval ; but its days
were numbered, and Mr. D'Oyly Carte, to
rid himself of his costly white elephant,
sold the Royal English Opera- House, lock,
stock, and barrel, to a syndicate with the
late Sir Augustus Harris at its head, and
the much-belauded home of English opera
became the Palace Theatre of Varieties.
It is to be feared that " Ivanhoe," as a
musical work, suffered through the ex-
cessive cordiality of friends who were
blind to its faults, and to those captious
critics who, with a brief experience of
Bayreuth, measured its merits by the
144 SULLIVAN
Wagnerian bushel. Neither viewed it
from the plane on which it really rested,
nor from the standpoint of the class to
which it rightfully belonged. "Ivanhoe"
was described on the playbill as " a romantic
opera," but it was discussed and criticised
as grand opera. Had there been less
injudicious admiration on the one side and
more discriminating praise on the other,
the public of to-day would be in a much
better position to estimate fairly the value
of Sullivan's work, and to give it its proper
place in the musical literature of the
country.
"Ivanhoe" is not grand opera. It is
equivalent to the class of piece one sees
at the Paris Opera Comique. This is not
deprecating Sullivan's talent nor belittling
" Ivanhoe." It has been well said that
" what most reasonable judges require of
an artist, especially an imaginative artist,
is not that it that is, his work should
conform to their own standard, but that it
A WEAK LIBRETTO 145
should be good of its kind, and that the
kind should be personal to himself."
Apply that principle to " Ivanhoe," and
it will be admitted that it is good " roman-
tic opera," and personal to the composer.
The chief defects of " Ivanhoe" were not
of the music, but of the drama. It was
overloaded with elaborate and complicated
scenery, and the hero, Wilfred, Knight of
Ivanhoe, instead of maintaining his position
as a commanding and dominating person,
kept too much in the background of
the story. He was not seen during the
whole of the second act. He lay a wounded
man and inactive, "like a palsied monk,"
through the stirring episode of the assault
and burning of Torquilstone Castle, and
he took but an insignificant part in the
remainder of the drama. The centre of
interest was continually shifting, the mind
remained steadfast to nothing long, and
that is almost as fatal to an opera as it is
to a play. Sullivan in after years recog-
K
146 SULLIVAN
nised these drawbacks, and had it in mind
to reconstruct certain scenes and give the
"book" more cohesion.
The music of "Ivanhoe" is as Sulli-
vanesque as any of the Savoy operas.
It is as personal to himself as "The
Golden Legend." His exquisite vein
of melody is well displayed in such
numbers as Rebecca's song in Act III.:
"Ah, would that thou and I might lead
our sheep ! " with its delicate pastoral
accompaniment, and her beautiful prayer,
" Lord of our chosen race." The
Templar's love - song in the second
scene of Act II., "Woo thou thy snow-
flake," is the best example of passionate
utterance that Sullivan has given us, and
for dramatic force and intensity the great
duet which ends the act is unsurpassed
in the whole range of English opera.
The vocal part-writing is comparatively
simple, but that in no way detracts
from its charm, while the instrumenta-
BURIED HOPES 147
tion is at all times as appropriate as it
is scholarly. Some of the lyrics are
heard occasionally in the concert-room,
but "Ivanhoe" seems doomed to be
best remembered by Friar Tuck's ear-
tickling ballad, " Ho, Jolly Jenkin."
Enough has been said concerning
Sullivan's most ambitious operatic work
to show that the collapse of the Eng-
lish Opera- House was due to causes
over which the composer had little or
no control, and the pity of it is that
among the disasters for which it is
responsible is the abandonment by Sulli-
van of his aspirations in the direction of
grand opera. " Ivanhoe" brought him no
pecuniary reward, and only such glory as
belongs to a succes d'estime. He felt deeply
the failure of the enterprise, because he
was keenly patriotic in his instincts, and
his chief desire was to make British music
popular in the eyes of the multitude and
honoured in its own country.
CHAPTER XI
SONGS AND MISCELLANEOUS WORKS
AT the time Sullivan entered the arena
of musical life the country was, as we
have pointed out, singularly destitute of
composers who combined erudition with
the art of successfully appealing to the
popular taste. After the death of Sir
Henry Bishop the output of new songs
showed a marked falling off in quality
and originality. Sickly sentimentalism
and banal melody were the chief char-
acteristics of the mid - century ballad,
and even in circles which had a sincere
or pretended admiration for high-class
instrumental music these puerile com-
positions found ready acceptance. Words
devoid of sense were allied to melodies
ARTISTIC BALLADS 149
lacking every essential of good music ;
nevertheless, they were nightly warbled
in "genteel" drawing-rooms, by mawkish
young ladies to whom the local curate
was a veritable preux chevalier.
The advent of Sullivan did not eradi-
cate the pest, but it did much towards
elevating the taste of the public. We
are a ballad-loving nation, and not a
little unmitigated rubbish still finds its
way into the hands of amateurs to be
regarded by them as genuine material ;
but the standard of taste among the
middle and upper classes showed a
visible improvement during the time
Sullivan was engaged in lyrical composi-
tion. His songs had a genuine English
ring about them, and cmbined the
melodic grace of the old school with the
finish and refinement of modern work-
manship. That they vary in point of
merit is merely to admit that Sullivan
was human. Most of them were written
150 SULLIVAN
at the period of his career when he was
constantly faced with the familiar problem
of making both ends meet. When he
reached the Golconda of comic opera, his
output of detached songs practically
ceased, although during the early part of
the year in which he died he was prepar-
ing a series for publication, but only two
of them have been heard, " O Swallow,
Swallow" and "Tears, Idle Tears."
Among the songs which possess the
most original and musicianly charm are
his setting of Tennyson's " The Window,
or the Loves of the Wren," a cycle of
twelve songs, "O Fair Dove" and
" Orpheus with his Lute." Many of his
songs hold their place on the concert
platform, and " The Lost Chord " is as
popular as when it was first written. It
is the fashion among quidnuncs to decry
this song, and possibly they may be right ;
but the fact remains that it has gone
straight to the heart of a great nation,
"THE LOST CHORD" 151
and this it could not have done unless
it throbbed with the life-blood of living
humanity. "The Lost Chord" was com-
posed while Sullivan was watching by the
bedside of his dying brother. We can
imagine how in the solemn stillness of the
night-watches Adelaide Procter's words
appealed to his sensitive nature, and with
what emotional ardour he gave them their
musical value.
In an entirely different category, but
interesting as showing how Sullivan could
adapt himself to the spirit of the moment,
in his setting of Rudyard Kipling's " The
Absent-Minded Beggar." This was a
song written for "the man in the street,"
and intended to be whistled in the street ;
but certain critics, in whose eyes Sullivan
could do no right, took serious objection
to it on account of what they called its
vulgarity. In the postcript to a letter, he
wrote : "I am glad you appreciate the
spirit in which ' The Absent- Minded
152 SULLIVAN
Beggar' is written. I have no doubt
that the ' Academicals ' turn up their
noses at it. They don't like a tune that
the people can sing."
In his songs there is the same careful
attention to musicianly details, the same
aptitude for arriving at appropriateness of
expression, which are to be observed in
his more ambitious work, and there is not
one among them unworthy of his reputa-
tion. They number more than a hundred,
and they were mostly composed during
the first twenty years of his professional
life. When Sullivan entered upon his
comic opera period, his lyrical fancy found
ample employment in those works, and, as
there was no longer any pecuniary neces-
sity for their composition, he abandoned
the pursuit of royalty song-writing.
Considering that Sullivan made such
a propitious beginning with his " Irish
Symphony," and displayed such uncom-
mon power in the "In Memoriam " over-
"OVERTURE DI BALLO " 153
ture, it is rather surprising, and not a
little disappointing, that his ambition did
not lead him to cultivate with more
assiduity and enthusiasm the symphonic
form of composition. His " Marmion "
overture, composed for the Philharmonic
Society in 1867, is romantic in spirit, after v
the manner of Weber, and should be
better known. For some reason or other,
however, Sullivan appeared to entertain
an objection to publishing his orchestral
works.
The " Overture di Ballo," produced at
the Birmingham Festival in 1870, is his
most popular, as well as being his brightest,
instrumental work. Its vivacity and grace
recall Auber at his best. Less familiar to
the public, but most nobly conceived, is
the prelude to the second part of "The
Light of the World." Its elevation of
thought and dignity of workmanship make
it strictly in keeping with the sublime
theme which it illustrates, and its solemn
154 SULLIVAN
beauty is enhanced by the rich fulness of
the organ, whose eloquent tones ring with
such celestial clearness in its final section.
The "Macbeth" overture, which, with
the incidental music, was composed for
Sir Henry Irving's production of the
Shakesperian tragedy at the Lyceum
Theatre, 1888, is the greatest example
of his powers as a writer for the orchestra.
It touches a resonant dramatic note, it is
fired with the picturesque element sug-
gested by the tragedy, and it is more in
keeping with the spirit of modern tone
colouring than any other of his instru-
mental works.
Excellent incidental music was com-
posed for "Henry VIII." and Augustin
Daly's production of Lord Tennyson's
"The Foresters," and, with the unerring
instinct which characterises all his work,
he succeeded in catching and reproducing
that indefinable quality which is commonly
known as atmosphere. In the very early
THE ALHAMBRA BALLET 155
period of his career, Sullivan wrote a
ballet, "L'lle Enchantee," for Covent
Garden, and he was tempted to essay
that form of composition by the directorate
of the Alhambra Theatre, who wished for
a ballet of a national description in honour
of Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1897.
" Victoria and Merrie England " was a
delightful imitation of old-time music, and
illustrated Sullivan's aptitude for repro-
ducing the form and spirit of our early
composers. It also abounded with char-
acteristic touches, and among the numbers
which will attract the attention of the
musician is a fugue most cleverly and
humorously arranged as a comic dance.
The equally clever manner in which he
combined the representative airs of Eng-
land, Ireland, and Scotland will also have
points of interest for the admirer of contra-
puntal writing.
It is curious to note that, without any
direct official recognition, Sullivan prac-
156 SULLIVAN
tically became the musical laureate of
the nation. Two orchestral works were
specially composed in honour of the
arrival and marriage of the Princess
Alexandra to him who is now King
Edward VII. When the late Queen laid
the foundation-stone of the Imperial Insti-
tute in 1887, he was commissioned to
compose the music for the inaugural ode
to the words of Sir W. Morris ; and when
Her Majesty opened that institution in
1893, it was Sullivan who supplied the
" Imperial March."
There was also the cantata "On Shore
and Sea," produced at the Albert Hall,
and composed for the Exhibition of 1871.
Occasional pieces such as these seldom
reach the high-water mark of achievement,
and are considered sufficient for the day for
which they were written. But Sullivan's
pleasing gift never deserted him, and in
these works he does himself justice with-
out adding to his reputation.
CHAPTER XII
SULLIVAN AS CONDUCTOR
IT will be remembered that, a few months
before leaving Leipzig, Sullivan wrote, in
a letter to his mother : " My great hobby
is still conducting. I have been told by
many of the masters here that I was born
to be a conductor." To the youthful
musician there is ever something pecu-
liarly attractive in controlling an orchestra.
Apart from the feeling of command and
the sense of power it gives, there is the
keen artistic pleasure to be derived from
intimate association with the interpretation
and direction of the works of the great
masters.
Sullivan's first appointment as conductor
was in 1873, at the newly opened West-
158 SULLIVAN
minster Aquarium, which began with some
serious pretensions in the way of art en-
tertainment. The Brothers Gatti engaged
him as conductor-in-chief in 1878 and 1879
for their autumn series of promenade con-
certs at Covent Garden. More important,
however, was his appointment, in 1875, as
conductor of the Choral Union Orchestral
Concerts at Glasgow. It will be a suffi-
cient indication of the success he achieved
in the Scottish centre of commerce, if we
reproduce an extract from an article of the
time in one of the leading papers :
" The committee have acted wisely in
gaining the services of a conductor of
Mr. Sullivan's reputation and position.
England has produced but few musicians
whose names are likely to live. That Mr.
Sullivan belongs to this small number he
has given us strong reason to hope. We
do not know how far a recent statement,
that his name is a universal drawing-room
favourite, may be gratifying to a composer
THE LEEDS FESTIVAL 159
of high and earnest aspirations ; but we
are quite certain that work of another sort
ought to occupy Mr. Sullivan, and that
the accomplishment of really great things
in his art must be to him simply a matter
of choice. The very first essential for a
good orchestral conductor is that of perfect
familiarity with his music, and this Mr.
Sullivan's training and experience have,
of course, insured. The orchestra is, in
the main, the same as that of last season,
yet last night it was often difficult to
believe this. . . . the result was in every
way such a complete expression of the
composer's intentions."
His work in Glasgow proved a good
preparation for the more responsible
position which he was to fill with such
distinction at Leeds.
It was in the December of 1879
that Arthur Sullivan's name came before
the Festival Executive Committee. Sir
Michael Costa, who had conducted the
160 SULLIVAN
two previous Festivals, did not, it appears,
show sufficient appreciation of the know-
ledge and importance of the merchant
musicians of Leeds, and a section of the
committee was desirous of making a
change. Another name before them was
that of the late Sir Charles Halle. Differ-
ences of opinion, however, stood in the
way of either of these gentlemen accept-
ing the position, and accordingly it was
offered to Sullivan, who agreed to under-
take the duties for the sum of 200.
The appointment created a considerable
amount of comment, but the general
opinion was fairly represented by the
subjoined extract from a local paper :
" I am delighted to know that the
Leeds Festival Committee have succeeded
in securing the services of Mr. Arthur
Sullivan as their conductor. Though a
comparatively young man, being only
thirty-eight, Mr. Sullivan has proved him-
self to be a composer of the highest merit
HE SUCCEEDS COSTA 161
in every class of music except ' grand
opera.' Oratorios, symphonies, overtures,
illustrative Shakespeare music, songs,
Church music, and operettas in all these
the name of Sullivan has for some time
been prominent.
" As a conductor he is regarded by those
who have watched his career as possessing
great ability albeit, he is quiet and un-
obtrusive in the orchestra. No gymnastic
exercises, no stamping of the feet, no
loudly expressed directions, will he indulge
in on the orchestra. All necessary in-
structions are given by him at the re-
hearsal. And this is as it should be.
Against Mr. Sullivan, I hear, were pitted
Sir Michael Costa and Mr. Charles Halle,
and many members of the Festival Com-
mittee were dubious as to the wisdom of
the proposed change. There is one point,
however, in the election of Mr. Sullivan
about which I am particularly pleased. It
is the fact that for an English Festival we
1 62 SULLIVAN
are to have an English conductor. Too
long have we in this country bowed down
to foreign talent, even when it has been
far inferior to English talent. On the
selection of an Englishman over Costa
and Hall6 as conductor, an admirer of
' Pinafore ' sends me the following from
that work, slightly altered :
" ' We might have had a Russian, a French, or
Turk, or Prussian,
Or else I-ta-li-an.
But in spite of all temptations to go to other
nations,
We select an Englishman? "
Whoever the writer was, he showed a
keen appreciation and knowledge of Sulli-
van's style and merits as a conductor.
Few men obtained better effects by less
obvious means. The habit he had of
stooping over the score gave the casual
observer the impression that his attention
was wholly engrossed by the music, and
that the instrumentalists succeeded in pro-
ducing good effects more by reason of
HIS PERFECT CONTROL 163
their judgment than through the skill of
the conductor. But that undemonstrative
figure was in reality as alert and watchful
as the proverbial weasel. His sensitive
ear was alive to the faintest sound ; his
eyes were all over the orchestra. The
players knew him, and a single look from
him expressed to them more than all the
contortions of the modern melodramatic
conductor. He understood every instru-
ment in the orchestra, and had such a
lucid method of expressing himself at re-
hearsal that a few words quietly spoken
would always secure him the end he had
in view. His beat was quiet, but firm as a
rock, and clear cut as the polished crystal.
He was never known to lose his head, and
no conductor ever inspired more confidence
or affection in those under him. That he
knew his own powers and the futility of
gymnastic displays is shown by the follow-
ing anecdote :
" It was after the visit of Mr. Barnby to
1 64 SULLIVAN
rehearse a new work of his that some un-
favourable comparisons were made, Barnby
being a very vigorous user of the baton.
These remarks reached Sir Arthur's ears,
and were received with characteristic good
humour. In fact, the conductor declared
that at the next rehearsal he would show
how he could benefit by criticism and
'beat time like a windmill ! ' And this he
certainly did. His arms were upraised,
thrown round in full swing and vigorously
used, while he loudly stamped his feet and
his eyes sparkled with fun. After the first
chorus there were audible expressions of
pleased surprise. ' By gow ! ' one singer
was heard to say, * Sullivan has improved ! '
and never after was a word heard about
1 Sullivan's lethargy.' "
But Sullivan was to encounter a more
formidable and less generous criticism
during the last few years of his associa-
tion with Leeds. There had sprung up a
little clique of newspaper critics who were
CAPTIOUS CRITICISM 165
inimical to him in every way. Nothing
that did not emanate from Kensington
Gore was to their liking. All music
and all methods of interpreting it are
open to criticism. To carp and sneer
are the easiest weapons to handle in
the critic's armoury. They used them
to good effect. Sullivan was the thorn
in their sides, owing to his overwhelm-
ing popularity. By various means they
sought to undermine Sullivan's influence
with the Festival Committee, and pre-
judice his standing with the public. In
the course of time an antipathetic feel-
ing was raised against Sullivan in certain
quarters, and Stanford was freely named
as his possible successor. Sir Charles
Stanford had been appointed conductor of
an important musical organisation in the
West Riding, and his indefatigable atten-
tion to his duties favourably impressed
the businesslike Yorkshiremen.
Sullivan had done so much for Leeds
166 SULLIVAN
(he had made the Festival the first in
importance in the country) that it is ex-
cusable if he felt an extra amount of
consideration was due to him. Probably
there were faults on both sides, but im-
mediately after the Festival of 1898 the
partisans of Sir Charles Stanford made
it clear they were going to do their best
to secure the election of their man for the
next Festival.
In due course the final rupture came,
and Sullivan was allowed to sever his
connection with Leeds, with not the least
public recognition of the work he had
done during the twenty-one years he had
been their musical director. Nor (unless
it was sent at the last moment) did he
even receive an official letter of thanks.
In such circumstances, is it a matter for
surprise that Sullivan felt, and gave for-
cible expression to, the utmost indigna-
tion at the manner in which he had been
treated ?
UNGRATEFUL LEEDS 167
His great social influence had brought
Royalty to the concerts, and given them a
Royal President. The profits of his first
Festival, in 1880, were more than ^1500
in excess of its predecessor, and in
1889 the net profits were nearly half the
sum of the total receipts in 1877. To
Leeds he gave the honour of producing
the finest and most popular cantata ever
composed by an Englishman, and in face
of all this there was not sufficient gratitude
in the county of Yorkshire to honour him
at parting in any manner whatever.
At the Festival the year following his
death the only tribute paid to his memory
was the performance of the "In Me-
moriam " overture. In no other way
did his name figure on the programme.
Verdi's "Requiem" was performed to
commemorate the death of its composer ;
Glazanow's " Memorial Cantata " was
chosen to celebrate the centenary of the
birth of the Russian poet Pushkin ; but
168 SULLIVAN
for the man who had laboured to such
good purpose for Leeds, and who had
done so much for English art, it was
deemed sufficient that he should be re-
presented by one short orchestral work.
At the Norwich Festival the succeeding
year the opening day's programme con-
sisted of the "In Memoriam " and the
" Golden Legend." How appropriate, and
in what good taste, it would have been if,
after the overture, the Leeds Committee
had arranged for the performance of " The
Martyr of Antioch," which was especially
composed for the Festival of 1880! How
intensely pathetic would have sounded the
beautiful unaccompanied chorus, " Brother,
thou art gone before us," and with what
heartfelt devotion the choristers who had
so frequently cheered him to the echo
would have given expression to its mourn-
ful and suggestive strains !
Not a little comment at the time was
made on the conspicuous lack of feeling
PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY 169
shown by the Leeds people. They took
the best of him, and when he was gone he
was of no more account in their eyes than
the factory engine which had outworn its
usefulness. But the reproach remains.
One other appointment Sullivan held as
conductor, and that was for the Philhar-
monic Society, whose concerts he directed
during the seasons of 1885, 1886, and
1887 ; but on these it is unnecessary to
dwell in detail. Enough has been said
concerning his work and ability as a
musical director. He proved himself effi-
cient, if not great, and, after all, his fame
rests on something infinitely finer and
much more enduring.
CHAPTER XIII
DEATH
IT was late in the autumn of 1900 that
rumours concerning Sullivan's ill-health
found their way into the press. Shortly
afterwards he had to take to his bed, and
on November 22 the sweetest singer of
his generation was lost to the world.
The early part of the year Sullivan had
spent at Monte Carlo, where his life was
one of quiet routine and mild enjoyment.
He would work throughout the afternoon,
and, after a late dinner, would go to the
Casino and indulge in a little play for an
hour or so, and then retire to his hotel.
He avoided all gaiety, and was content
with the society of one or two friends.
The summer months he spent at Wal-
170
A FATAL HOLIDAY 171
ton-on-Thames, and there he devoted him-
self to composition with the energy and
concentration for which he was ever re-
markable. It would have been well had
he remained at Walton until the approach
of winter made it desirable for him to re-
turn to his London home. But he had
a fancy to go to Switzerland, and there
the mischief began which had so fatal a
termination.
Grand scenery and Nature's loveliness
possessed an irresistible fascination for
Sullivan, and it was his delight to sit in
the open in the evenings after dinner and
pensively contemplate the wonders around
him. It had been his habit in past years,
and, so far as he saw, there was no
obstacle in the way of his gratifying a
favourite custom. He forgot, however,
that age makes dangerous what youth can
do with impunity. The night air was
sweet and refreshing, but its breath proved
poison to him. A troublesome cold was
1 72 SULLIVAN
followed by bronchitis, and as soon as he
could travel with safety Sullivan returned
home. All then might have been well,
but on October 29 he exposed himself to
a piercing wind in order to see the return
of the City Imperial Volunteers. The
bronchitis reappeared more acutely than
before, and told its worst tale on a heart
which, already weak, gave way under the
strain imposed upon it. Between 6 and
7 A.M. on Thursday morning, November
22, he partook of a light breakfast, and
there was nothing in his condition to
alarm those attending him. At about
half-past eight he partially raised himself
in bed, and complained of a pain in his
heart. His nephew placed his arms
around him, and assistance was promptly
forthcoming, but the Pale Messenger had
arrived, and Sullivan, in obedience to his
inexorable summons, passed peacefully
away on the feast-day of St. Cecilia.
The news of his death came with a
PUBLIC GRIEF 173
shock to the public, and fell cold on many
a heart, not only in the country of his
birth, but in lands divided from it by
wasteless oceans. On every side expres-
sions of sorrow were heard, and, as in-
dicating the depth and breadth of his
popularity, it may be mentioned in passing
that an unkempt child in the street, on
seeing the announcement of his death on
the news bill, was heard to exclaim with
bated breath, " That's him as wrote ' The
Absent-Minded Beggar.'"
The genuineness of the public sorrow
was to be seen on the day of the funeral.
It was Sullivan's desire that he should
be embalmed and laid by the side of his
mother in Brompton Cemetery. Distin-
guished men, however, in his own profes-
sion expressed the wish that his remains
should rest in our national mausoleum,
and to their request the Dean and Chap-
ter of St. Paul's Cathedral acceded.
The funeral procession started from
174 SULLIVAN
Victoria Street at n A.M., on November
27, and all along the line of route stood
the people in their thousands, bareheaded
as the cortege passed, while flags were
flying half-mast high.
The first part of the Burial Service
took place in the chapel where the de-
ceased composer began his career as a
boy. The congregation of mourners con-
sisted of men and women representing
society and art in all its many-sidedness.
As the casket was borne into the chapel,
it was impossible to avoid thinking of
those days when Sullivan himself had
worn the gold and scarlet coat of a Chapel
Royal chorister, and his sweet young
voice had rung through the sacred edifice.
Then the world and its honours lay before
him, but we doubt if even in the most
sanguine moments of impulsive boyhood
he imagined the greatness that one day
would be his, or that his bier would pass
within those honoured walls amid the
A TOUCHING EPISODE 175
silent demonstrations of a mournful peo-
ple. The anthem "Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of
death," from his oratorio " The Light of
the World," was beautifully sung, and the
pathos of the music bathed many a face
in tears and touched a tender spot in
more than one loving heart. Another
of the dead master's exquisite thoughts,
" Wreaths for our graves the Lord has
given," brought the service at the Chapel
Royal to an end, and the procession passed
on its way to St. Paul's Cathedral, which
was crowded with sympathetic spectators.
Clerical etiquette and cathedral dignity
compelled the beginning of the Burial
Service anew, and when the coffin had
been lowered into the crypt there came
the most poignant moment of the long
ceremonial. Close to the open vault sat
the members of the Savoy Opera Com-
pany, and after the benediction had been
given they sang in voices charged with
176 SULLIVAN
emotion the touching chorus, " Brother,
thou art gone before us," from " The
Martyr of Antioch." The effect was
quite remarkable, inasmuch as it was one
of those incidents which come but rarely
in a lifetime.
Sullivan rests near to William Boyce,
and close by are the caskets of Dean
Milman, Canon Liddon, and Sir John
Millais. On one of the side walls of the
cathedral is a memorial of the dead com-
poser. It is a bas-relief in bronze, with a
medallion portrait attached, which was
placed there by the permission of the
Dean and Chapter in November, 1902.
There is a bust in bronze at the Royal
Academy of Music, and one in marble
at the Royal College of Music. The
tribute to the memory of Sullivan most
in the eye of the public stands on the
Thames Embankment, and has the ap-
pearance of having wandered thither from
some suburban cemetery. It is a bust, on
A PALTRY MEMORIAL 177
the pedestal of which stands the figure of
Grief, and on either side are representa-
tions in bronze of the masque of music
and a guitar. The inscription is taken
from " The Yeomen of the Guard " :
" Is life a boon?
If so, it must befall
That Death, whene'er he call,
Must call too soon."
This bust occupies a position in the
gardens immediately in the rear of the
Savoy Theatre, and it was unveiled by
H.R.H. Princess Louise, Duchess of
Argyll, accompanied by His Grace the
Duke of Argyll, in the presence of a large
and distinguished assembly, on Friday,
July 10, 1903.
I have such a profound feeling of dis-
satisfaction with the results achieved by
the Memorial Committee that, although a
member of the Committee, I cannot
refrain from criticising its action and
condemning its work. Mr. Charles W.
M
i;8 SULLIVAN
Matthews' original idea was excellent.
He asked a number of Sullivan's friends
to attend a private meeting at the Savoy
Hotel, for the purpose of raising among
themselves funds for a memorial. But
certain of those present persuaded the
meeting to invite the public to subscribe
to a memorial which should take three
forms, namely, a monument in St. Paul's
Cathedral, the endowment of a scholarship
to be alternately within the gift of the
Royal Academy of Music and the Royal
College of Music, and a statue or bust in
the Embankment Gardens.
In the first list of subscriptions the sum
of ;noo was announced, which included
220 as the result of matinees at the
Savoy and Vaudeville Theatres, and thirty
subscribers of from ten to fifty guineas.
Before the list was closed a further ^200
was added, and the Committee proceeded
to do the best it could with the money.
The busts were duly executed by Mr.
A LOST OPPORTUNITY 179
Goscombe John, A.R.A., but the scholar-
ship fell through. Scarcely any contribu-
tion to the memorial was forthcoming from
the musical profession, with the exception
of the great trading firms, or from the
public, who were his devoted admirers.
Had the Committee shown any enterprise,
had it been composed of men who were
willing to give their time and best en-
deavours to achieve something that would
have been worthy the name and reputation
of the dead composer, the appeal would
not have been made in vain.
A Sullivan Memorial Concert at the
Albert Hall on big lines, and Sullivan
Memorial Concerts given by the numerous
choral societies in the provinces, would
have gone far in bringing in sufficient
money to establish a Fellowship of the
value of ;ioo per annum as a continua-
tion of the Mendelssohn Scholarship, and
this would have enabled a clever young
composer to pursue his art for another
i8o SULLIVAN
three years without being a burden to his
friends, or having to sacrifice his future
for the needs of the immediate present.
In the days, however, when there were
so many calls on the public it was not
sufficient to " invite " subscriptions ; they
should have been " collected," and for that
it was necessary for the undertaking to be
conducted on sound business lines, and
with the determination to overlook no
detail that would contribute to its success.
For some great national calamity which
stirs the heart to instant pity the appeal
through the newspapers is sufficient, but
for the purpose of perpetuating a dead
man's memory individual exertion is in-
dispensable, or failure is inevitable. The
time has passed for anything of the kind
now, and Sullivan's work must tell future
generations what position he occupied in
the estimation of his contemporaries.
Thus lived and died Arthur Seymour
Sullivan, a man on whose life's story those
FAREWELL 181
who knew him love to dwell with interest
and affection. This modest record of his
achievement is drawing to an end, and
yet we would fain linger over a task that
has been eminently grateful. He was but
fifty-eight when he died, and physical
suffering had been associated with all his
best work. If, however, there be music
in the celestial sphere, then should his
soul rest in smiling peacefulness for all
eternity.
CHAPTER XIV
CHARACTER
IT was seldom that any person came into
contact with Arthur Sullivan without being
subject to the magnetic charm of his
personality. His face impressed at once,
because it was the outward indication of
the sweetness of his nature. The wide
but somewhat low forehead and the pallor
of his complexion were relieved by eyes
which were brimful of sensibility and
radiant with quiet humour. They were
of the lustrous depth of Southern dark-
ne&s, and were unmistakably inherited
from his mother, who in her turn owed
them to her Italian forebears. In his
prime there was a certain swarthiness in
his appearance which suggested Oriental
KINDNESS OF HEART 183
extraction, and this was responsible for
the opinion often expressed, that Sullivan
had Jewish blood in his veins. But, soft
and mild as were his eyes, there was a
straightforward look in them which in-
dicated the resolution of the man, and this
trait was enhanced by the strength of the
nose and chin.
Though below the medium height, and
with a figure inclined to corpulence, he
carried with him a suggestion of dignity
and power that were at once recognised.
He had no cause to speak in strident
tones to impress people with his innate
greatness. His voice was musical and
persuading, and he had a pleasing direct-
ness of speech which never failed to reach
its mark. His personal charm was infinite,
but it never verged on the feminine.
Kindness was the keynote of his dis-
position, and he was as ready with useful
advice to the young beginners in his pro-
fession as he was with his purse to those
184 SULLIVAN
who had fought for honours and fallen by
the wayside. His success put him above
professional jealousy, and he had ever a
good word for his friendly rivals. If there
was one topic on which he was at all
disposed to speak with a certain amount
of irritation, it was when discussing the
neglect of British music. Then he would
sometimes lose the placid equanimity of
his tone and bearing, but never on any
question touching his individual interests.
Long conversations we have held on many
subjects closely affecting his career, and
though at times a virtuous show of in-
dignation would have been reasonable, he
never indulged in anything approaching
passionate utterance, and one had to know
him intimately to realise the depth of his
feeling on personal matters.
It is not surprising that a man possess-
ing so many gifts, and with a talent so
generally recognised, should quickly be-
come a welcome personage in the best
ROYAL APPRECIATION 185
society of his day. His friendship with
the Duke of Edinburgh, which began in
his early years and lasted a lifetime,
brought him into close association with
other members of the Royal Family.
Conspicuous among the wonderful display
of floral tributes on the day of the funeral
was the wreath of scarlet and white
chrysanthemums from the Princess Louise,
Duchess of Argyll, with its simple but
eloquent inscription of esteem and sorrow,
" From Louise."
The Queen honoured him with a special
" command " performance of " The Golden
Legend" on May 8, 1888, at the Albert
Hall, and, if we mistake not, it was the
last time Her Majesty attended a public
performance. The late German Emperor
and his Consort, our own Princess Royal,
favoured him with many marks of their
esteem, and the present German Emperor
was not lacking in his appreciation of
Sullivan as a man and a composer.
i86 SULLIVAN
With society at his feet, and surrounded
by the highest in the land, it would not
have been surprising if Sullivan had
affected airs of vulgar superiority ; but, to
his credit, he remained always the same.
He was as courteous and considerate to a
girl in the Savoy chorus as he was to a
patrician dame of Mayfair. As his position
improved, so he rose with it, and took his
place as to the manner born. For many
years he enjoyed the revenue of a Prince,
and he bestowed hospitality with a lavish
hand. His drawing-room at Queen's
Mansions contained valuable souvenirs
from most of the crowned heads of Europe
and people of European distinction.
As one thinks of this, one almost smiles
at the vain mother who thought the
young composer not good enough for her
daughter to take in marriage, and whose
skill in match-making eventually left the
daughter very poor. It was the one
serious love-affair of Sullivan's life.
FILIAL DEVOTION 187
Better, perhaps, for him that he had had
another, and had sacrificed something of
the joys of existence en garfon for the
more tranquil state of matrimony, with its
many duties and weightier responsibilities.
If, however, he had no family obliga-
tions of his own, he took upon himself
those of his dead brother, to whose chil-
dren he stood in the light of a parent,
and whose welfare was his dearest con-
cern. The eldest of them, Herbert,
was his constant companion in his later
years, and to him he bequeathed his
fortune.
Still more beautiful was Sullivan's de-
votion to his mother. In a roomy old
Georgian House Northumberland House
at Fulham his mother resided with her
widowed daughter-in-law and children,
and every Sunday when he was in town
Arthur would drive down and spend a
good part of the day. Very frequently
he was accompanied by friends, such as
i88 SULLIVAN
the late Fred Clay and Alfred Cellier,
and then we would be entertained with
many little humorous pleasantries on the
pianoforte.
His mother was ever in his thoughts,
and his letters were treasured by her with
all the fondness and pride of a loving
parent. She was a delightful raconteur,
and had innumerable good anecdotes ; but
her most prolific topic of conversation was
her boy Arthur, and the listener who
was sympathetic quickly won her regard.
Never had a son a more adoring and
devoted mother, and never had a mother
a more tender and considerate son. He
knew that she and his father had denied
themselves many things during his youth
to further his advancement, and that
sacred debt he tried to discharge with
true filial piety. Happily, she was spared
to witness the public appreciation of his
talent. Mrs. Sullivan was buried in
Brompton Cemetery on June i, 1882,
HIS MOTHER 189
and the Burial Service was beautifully
read by her son's old friend and master,
the Rev. Thomas Helmore. Her death
was a great blow to Sullivan, and her
grave was among the last places he
visited before his illness took its fatal
turn.
CHAPTER XV
CONCLUSION
WE said in the opening chapter that we
did not propose to put forward a dogmatic
assertion as to the position which Sullivan
would occupy in the eyes of posterity.
History has shown us that men of great
popularity in their time have lapsed into
obscurity, and their work fallen into the
abyss of oblivion. Only to the musical
antiquary and student are they of interest
in so far as they influenced the current
musical thought of their day. With pre-
cedents and illustrations without number
in our mind, we lack the assurance of the
author of "English Music of the Nine-
teenth Century," who gave us to under-
stand that his two favourite composers
190
A PREJUDICED CRITIC 191
would eventually be placed side by side
with Bach and Beethoven.
In a book that was supposed to be a
fair and impartial review of the musical
progress of the nation during one of its
most eventful centuries, and to which,
unfortunately, reference may be made in
the future for the British Museum re-
ceives good and bad alike the name of
Sullivan is chiefly associated with his
comic opera music, and but passing
mention is made of his orchestral works
or of that masterpiece of choral composi-
tion, "The Golden Legend." It is such
obvious injustice that drives a writer who
would be impartial into the extremes of
zealous partizanship. If, therefore, I have
crossed the line which divides the advo-
cate from the judge, therein lies the ex-
tenuation of my fault, and I leave it to the
judicious reader to separate the wheat
from the chaff, and determine for himself
where justice ends and favouritism begins.
192 SULLIVAN
Four years have elapsed since the
death of Sullivan, and his work is still
a signal factor in the musical world. All
his good things have in them the breath
of life, and their vitality is unimpaired.
Since they were first heard other men
have produced much, and most of it is
forgotten. There has been ample time
for forgetfulness in his case. But the
present generation is not disposed to
allow his music to fade away into the
mists of the past, and it is not rash to
assume that much of it will come to be
regarded as the representative work of
the Victorian era.
The characteristic features which made
the art peculiarly national in the music
of Purcell reappeared in the work of
Sullivan. For two centuries we had
practically lost our individuality, and such
composers as were native-born were con-
tent to imitate and model their work upon
that of the foreigner. Sullivan picked up
ENGLISH ART RESTORED 193
the broken skein, and brought into artistic
relationship the seventeenth and nineteenth
centuries. He gathered together the tradi-
tions of the past, and made them the
objective of the future, and this alone is
sufficient to give him enduring fame. At
all events it should win him the gratitude
of posterity.
We dare not presume to say he will
speak with the same persuasive voice a
century hence. But no composer ever
more completely captured the affection of
his fellow-countrymen. His music has
the quality which goes straight to the
heart. It requires no connoisseur to ap-
preciate its beauty or estimate its worth.
Truth and purity are virtues which have
appealed to mankind in all ages, and they
are conspicuous in Sullivan's music. The
public were quick to realise that his work
had something in it out of the common,
but which they could not explain. They
knew it differed from the popular tunes
N
i 9 4 SULLIVAN
of the day, that it gave them a unique
measure of enjoyment ; but they could
not analyse the cause of their pleasurable
emotions, nor did they seek for subtle
distinctions. They were content to bathe
in the crystal stream of melody which
flowed from his active brain for more
than a quarter of a century, and in return
they gave him a nation's love.
The captious and pedantic critic has
said that, with his musical endowment,
Sullivan should have devoted himself
more to the abstract side of his art ; that,
instead of comic operas, he should have
given us symphonies and instrumental
quartettes in the place of drawing-room
ballads. Those are objections which can-
not be dismissed with contempt in esti-
mating Sullivan's position among the
great composers. A student of eighteen
who could produce such music as " The
Tempest " might well excite the fondest
hopes of those stern-faced enthusiasts who
HIS MISSION 195
look upon art with the severity the Puritan
of old regarded the Bible.
But man can only control his destiny
to a limited extent. "There's a divinity
that shapes our ends, rough-hew them
how we will"; and it became -Arthur
Sullivan's mission to minister to the happi-
ness of the greatest number, and to give
distinction to a light form of art instead
of gratifying the exacting desires of the
comparative few. He might have gone
on writing symphonies and quartettes his
whole life through, and made his mark
among the academicians ; but would the
final result have compensated us for the
loss of that beautiful series of operas
which are familiar to the whole world ?
It was not so easy to write those operas
as the superficial might think. Many of
the foremost composers of the day have
tried to follow in his footsteps, but we
cannot call to mind one that achieved
exceptional success.
196 SULLIVAN
Sullivan never obscured his point by
unnecessary instrumentation. He had
the aptitude for fitting the right note to
the word, and the instinct for adorning
it with the most appropriate embellish-
ment. He knew the danger of over
elaboration and diffuseness, and always
chose the simpler means to serve his
purpose. There is no superficial work
in his operas ; they are as perfect in
their way as the most delicately cut
diamond. Seldom has an artist ever
more completely succeeded in achieving
the difficult art of making art conceal
art. Besides, there was for him no
necessity to indulge in tumultuous instru-
mentation in order to conceal a paucity
of thought and invention. His resources
were too great. With his profound
knowledge of the capabilities of the or-
chestra, and his intimate acquaintance
with the works of the great masters, it
is absurd to suppose that he could not
MELODIC BEAUTY 197
have produced as much sound and fury
as Richard Strauss himself had he been
so minded. It does not require a genius
to pen palpitating discords or create an
orchestral pandemonium.
Sullivan had a great admiration for
Wagner, but in his imitators he was
quick to detect their lack of inspiration
and their clumsy efforts to make amends
for creative deficiency by mechanical
dexterity. Music is not made by rule
of three, but is produced, as Socrates
said of the poet's work, "under the in-
fluence of enthusiasm, like prophets and
seers." With the ancients beauty in art
was the first essential. To them "it was
the tongue in the balance of expression."
Sullivan realised that balance of expres-
sion in all his work. It is as conspicuous
in his anthems as in his songs, in his
operas as in his oratorios. It is the
musician's and the poet's first duty to
represent beauty. It is not given to us
i 9 8 SULLIVAN
all to recognise it when it confronts us,
and to few is it given to produce it.
Sullivan was the disciple of the Beauti-
ful. By the mysterious lights which
illumine the soul of inspired man he
was able to preach its gospel to the world
in tones that made a pointed appeal to
the human heart. His language was
spontaneous and clear, and, like all great
language, it was easily understood of the
people.
He made himself loved because he is
associated with our happiest hours. He
locked for us the doors of daily trouble,
and took us into a veritable Rosamond's
bower, filled with the sweetness of roses,
where for a few hours the tired mind was
charmed into smiles and cheery laughter.
How, then, can we blame him for giving
so much of his attention to the composi-
tion of comic opera ? Is there one among
us who would wish "The Gondoliers"
unwritten ? He might have followed up
PREDESTINATION 199
his "Irish Symphony" with others of
superior merit. He might have written
a work that would have equalled in popu-
larity Tschaikowsky's " Pathetic Sym-
phony," and he might not. But the
composer of "Cox and Box" was pre-
destined to write "The Mikado," and
we have the consolation of knowing that
he did one thing superlatively well, that
in this particular he is unrivalled among
native composers ; and if we had to judge
Sullivan by his light operas alone, we
should say, "Well done, thou good and
faithful servant ! "
But, as the reader may see for himself,
there is a higher standpoint from which
we may consider Sullivan's merits. Had
he never written a comic opera, he would
still be the greatest musician of his genera-
tion. Where, however, we have some
ground for complaint is that Sullivan
had the opportunity, if he had had the
will, to give us more serious compositions
2OO
SULLIVAN
without interfering with his comic muse.
But his social popularity was ever in his
path and a constant interference with his
work. The extraordinary success of the
operas put him in possession of a magni-
ficent income, and, so far as personal
reputation and popularity went he had
as much of both as the heart of man
could desire.
It is a regrettable fact, however, that
from 1886 onward he made no important
contribution to the more serious side of
his art that is, the art which lies apart
from the theatre. We may dwell sadly
and regretfully on the lost opportunities
of life, but it is idle to pursue them with
a speculative mind. Therefore we must
judge Sullivan by what he did, and not
by what he left undone. His record,
from the point of view of manual labour
alone, is an honourable one. When we
remember the physical suffering which
he endured for over thirty years, with
FINAL ACHIEVEMENT 201
very few intervals of complete absence
from pain, and the two long illnesses
which brought him to the edge of the
grave, we may well forgive what the
austere critic might consider a dereliction
of duty, and be thankful that he accom-
plished so much.
We have tried as far as possible to
represent the form of Sullivan's life and
work as it has impressed itself upon one
who was in intimate touch with him for
more than half a lifetime, who knew the
goodness of his heart, the beauty of his
life, and the nobility of his character.
The man stands revealed in his music,
and those whom it has charmed and
cheered and comforted will be prepared
to endorse the panegyric which we have
passed upon Sullivan. Whether he was
content with his life's work we do not
know, but he never expressed himself
as being discontented, and so therefore
we may assume he was satisfied.
2O2
SULLIVAN
We cannot conclude better than by
quoting from his Presidential Address to
the members of the Birmingham and
Midland Institute, as the passage so
truthfully reflects the spirit and sincerity
of the man : " Music has been my in-
cessant occupation since I was eight years
old. All my energies, all my affections,
have been bestowed upon it ; and it has
for long been to me a second nature.
The interests and triumphs of my art are
dearer to me than other interests and
triumphs can be. Music is to me a
mistress in every sense of the word
a mistress whose commands I obey,
whose smiles I love, whose wrongs move
me as no others do."
APPENDIX
COMPRISING A COMPLETE LIST OF
SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN'S
WORK
204
APPENDIX
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Macbeth.
The Yeomen of
the Guard.
The Gondoliers
Ivanhoe.
The Foresters.
Haddon Hall.
Ill^g | .s
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Ilill 11!
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206
APPENDIX
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Publisher.
Cramer.
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Novello.
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Procession.
Princess of Wales'
Kenilworth.
The Sapphire
Necklace.
Symphony in E.
Concertino for
Violoncello.
In Memoriam.
Marmion.
Di Ballo.
Additional ac-
comps. to Handel'
rt "3
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APPENDIX
207
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in
Crystal Palace
(For the re-
covery of the
Prince of Wales.)
Birmingham.
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Albert Hall.
Imperial Insti-
tute (laying of
foundation-
<D 'S
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tute (at the
opening by the
Queen).
St. Paul's Cathedral
(Thanksgiving Ser-
vice on the Declar-
,ation of Peace.)
. works are also pub
i
2
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Dean
Milman.
Longfellow
(arranged b;
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Festival T
Deum.
The Light of
World.
The Martyr
Antioch.
The Golde
Legend.
Exhibition
Imperial In
tute Ode.
OJ
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1!
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208
APPENDIX
SERVICES, ANTHEMS, CAROLS, AND PART SONGS.
Title.
Description.
Publisher.
Date.
When Love and Beauty.
Madrigal.
Novello.
1863
pub-
lished
1898
O Love the Lord.
Anthem.
M
1864
We have heard with our ears.
f (
"
1865
Te Deum, Jubilate and Kyrie.
Service.
,,
1866 &
1872
The Rainy Day.
Part Song
tl
1867
(S. A. J. B.)
O Hush Thee, My Babie.
(|
O Taste and See.
Anthem.
'
r868
Rejoice in the Lord.
M
Boosey.
Evening.
Part Song
Novello.
(S. A. J. B.)
Joy to the Victor.
M
Parting Gleams.
,,
M
Echoes.
it
Song of Peace (from On Shore
p ,
Boosey.
and Sea).
I Sing the Birth.
Sacred
,,
M
Part Song
(S.A. J. B.)
The Long Day Closes.
Part Song
Novello.
M
(S.A. J. B.)
The Beleaguered.
1(
f t
Sing, O Heavens.
Anthem.
Boosey.
1869
All this Night.
Carol.
Novello.
1870
O God, Thou Art Worthy.
Anthem.
, ,
1871
I Will Worship.
M
Boosey.
M
It came upon the Midnight.
Sacred
,,
,,
Part Song
(S. A J. B.)
Lead, Kindly Light.
Through Sorrow's Path.
( (
Watchman, what of the Night?
( f
The Way is Long and Drear.
( (
Festival Te Deum (see Table B).
'
APPENDIX
209
SERVICES, ANTHEMS, CAROLS, AND PART SONGS Continued.
Title.
Description.
Publisher.
Date.
Choruses
adapted
Turn Thee Again.
from
Boosey.
1874
Mercy and Truth.
Russian
Church
(
Music.
I Will Mention.
Anthem.
, t
1875
Upon the Snowclad Earth.
Carol.
Metzler.
1876
Hearken unto Me.
Anthem.
Novello.
1877
I will Sing of Thy Power. ,,
,,
Turn Thy Face.
,,
1878
Who is Like unto Thee ?
,,
,,
1883
Hark, what Means?
Carol.
Patey
f f
Willis.
Wreaths for our Graves.
Anthem.
Novello.
1898
SONGS, ETC.
Name.
Publisher.
Ds
ite.
O Israel (Sacred) ....
! Novello.
18
55
Bride from the North ....
Cramer.
18
63
I heard the Nightingale
Chappell.
,
Arabian Love Song ....
,,
18
66
Orpheus with his Lute
Metzler.
O Mistress Mine .....
Sigh no more, Ladies ....
The Willow Song ....
Sweet Day, so Cool ....
Rosalind ......
Over the Roof (from The Sapphire Neck
lace)
Cramer.
Thou art Lost to Me ....
Boosey.
Will he Come?
f t
A Weary Lot is Thine
Chappell.
If Doughty Deeds ....
,,
She is not Fair to Outward View
Boosey.
County Guy .....
Ashdown.
18
67
The Maiden's Story ....
Chappell.
O
2IO
APPENDIX
SONGS, ETC. Continued.
Name.
Publisher.
Date.
Give
Boosey.
1867
In the Summers Long Ago . . *
afterwards
Metzler.
tl
My Love beyond the Sea J
What does Little Birdie Say ? .
Ashdown.
f (
The Moon in Silent Brightness .
Metzler.
1868
O Fair Dove, O Fond Dove
Ashdown.
M
O Sweet and Fair .....
Boosey.
-
I Wish to Tune my quiv'ring Lyre
,,
,,
The Snow lies White
The Mother's Dream ....
"
M
The Troubadour
( (
1869
Birds in the Night (from "Cox and Box,"
with different words) ....
,,
,,
Sad Memories
Metzler.
M
Dove Song
Boosey.
,,
A Life that Lives for You ....
lf
1870
The Village Chimes
( ,
,,
Looking Back ......
,,
,,
The Window ; or the Loves of the Wren,
a cycle of twelve songs ....
Strahan.
1871
Once Again ......
Boosey.
1872
Golden Days
None But I can Say
Guinevere
Cramer.
The Sailor's Grave
The Maid of Arcadia (from Thespis) .
There Sits a Bird
1873
Looking Forward
Boosey.
M
The Young Mother (three songs)
The Days are Cold
Cramer.
i)
afterwards
Little Darling, Sleep Again
Metzler.
1876
Ay Di Mi <
Cramer.
Metzler.
1873
1876
The First Departure
Cramer.
1873
afterwards
The Chorister
Metzler.
1878
O Ma Charmante \
O Bella Mia (Italian version) . . /
Cramer.
1873
APPENDIX
211
SONGS, ETC. Continued.
Name.
Publisher.
Date.
Sweet Dreamer
Cramer.
1873
Two songs in " The Miller and his Men " :\
(drawing-room entertainment)
The Marquis de Mincepie j
"
"
Finale J
Nel Ciel Sereno (" Merchant of Venice ") .
l(
Venetian Serenade
Bosworth.
1898
Sleep, my Love, Sleep ....
Boosey.
1874
Mary Morison
,,
,,
The Distant Shore
Chapped.
,,
Thou art Weary ......
,,
,,
My Dear and only Love ....
Boosey.
,,
Living Poems
,,
,,
Tender and True
Chappell.
,,
Christmas Bells at Sea ....
Novello.
i87S
The Love that Loves me not
Love laid his Sleepless Head
Boosey.
,,
Let me Dream Again .....
,,
,,
Thou'rt Passing Hence ....
Chappell.
,,
Sweethearts
((
, t
Boosey.
1876
Sometimes
1877
The Lost Chord
tl
,,
When Thou art Near
M
1877
I Would I Were a King ....
,,
1878
King Henry's Song (from " Henry VIII.").
Metzler.
Morn, Happy Morn (trio) (the play ' ' Olivia")
,,
,,
Old Love Letters
Boosey.
1879
St. Agnes' Eve
, (
Edward Gray ......
S. Lucas.
1880
The Sisters (duet) (originally published in
the Leisure Hour .....
t ,
1881
In the Twilight of our Love (from "Pa-
tience," with different words) .
Chappell.
,,
A Shadow .
Patey
1885
Willis.
Ever
Chappell.
1887
You Sleep ) (in the play of The " Profli-
1889
E tu Nol Sai J gate")
"
Bid me at Least . .....
, ,
1894
The Absent-Minded Beggar
Daily Mail.
1899
212
APPENDIX
HYMN TUNES.
Name.
Where first Published.
Publisher.
Date.
Hymn of the
Good Words.
Strahan
1867
Homeland.
(afterwards
Boosey).
Thou God of
Book of Praise Hymnal.
Macmillan.
I86>
Love.
Of Thy Love.
i i
,,
, ,
Mount Zion.
Psalms and Hymns for
Nisbet.
,,
Divine Worship.
Formosa
Psalms and Hymns for
,,
,,
(Falfield).
Divine Worship.
St. Luke.
Psalms and Hymns for ' ,,
,,
Divine Worship.
The Strain
Brown Borthwick's Novello.
1868
Upraise.
Supplemental Hymn
and Tune Book.
The Son of
Brown Borthwick's
( (
lp
God.
Supplemental Hymn
and Tune Book.
Hymn of the
Boosey.
,,
Homeland.
Gennesareth
Sarum Hymnal.
1869
(Heber).
Lacrymas, 222.
The Hymnary. Novello.
1872
Lux Mundi, 225.
ii >
,,
Saviour, when
f
t (
( p
in Dust, 249.
Welcome,
M
,
Happy Morn-
ing, 284.
St. Revin, 285.
,,
,,
,,
Onward, Chris-
, ,
M
f ,
tian Soldiers
(St. Gertrude),
476.
Safe Home, 507.
ii
,,
,,
Gentle
, ,
,,
, t
Shepherd, 509.
Angel Voices,
,,
i,
,,
532.
Propior Deo,
,,
,,
,,
570.
APPENDIX
213
HYMN TUXES Continued.
Name.
Where first Published.
Publisher.
Date.
Venite (Rest),
The Hymnary.
Novello.
1872
597-
St. Edmund, 646.
H
(l
f ,
Christus, 496.
Church Hymns with Tunes
S.P.C.K.
1874
Coena Domini,
H
,,
207.
Coronao, 354.
H ii
,,
,,
Dulce sonans,
>i
f (
( (
316.
Ever Faithful,
ii ii
,,
,,
414.
Evelyn, 390.
11 ii
,,
,,
Golden
.1
Sheaves, 281.
Hanford, 400.
i ii
,,
M
Holy City, 497.
ii >
r>
f (
Hushed was
ii M
M
f
the Evening
Hymn, 572.
Litany, 585.
M ii
,,
,,
.. 592-
ii ii
,,
,,
Paradise, 473.
i. M
,,
,,
Pilgrimage, 367.
i ii
,,
,,
Resurrexit, 132.
i ii
,,
,,
St. Francis, 220.
ii ,t
t ,
|(
St. Nathaniel,
ii n
^ t
,,
2S7-
Saints of God,
ii ii
,,
,,
191.
Ultor Omni-
n ii
f ,
( ,
potens, 262.
Valete, 30.
II M
,,
,,
Veni, Creator,
II II
1 1
,,
346.
St. Mary
II II
,,
,,
Magdalene, 494.
Lux in Tenebris,
II I!
,,
,,
409.
Lux Eoi, 67.
II II
,,
,,
St. Patrick, 144.
II II
,,
,,
St. Theresa, 566.
I,
"
"
214
APPENDIX
HYMN TUNES Continued.
Name.
Where first Published.
Publisher.
Date.
(Also seven
Church Hymns with Tunes
S.P.C.K.
1874
tunes specially
adapted or
arranged.)
Dominion
Chappell.
1880
Hymn.
Courage,
Good Words.
Strahan.
1882
Brother.
O King of Kings
Written by command for
Eyre and
1897
(Bishopgarth)
the Queen's Jubilee.
Spottis-
woode,
afterwards
Novello.
WORKS FOR PIANO.
Name.
Publisher.
Date.
Thoughts, two pieces for piano solo .
Cramer.
1862
Afterwards published as
Reverie in A )
Phillips
Melody in D . . . . )
and Page.
The same arranged for piano and violin .
Phillips
and Page.
Day Dreams, six pieces for piano solo
Boosey.
1867
Twilight
Chappell.
1868
Duo concertanto for piano and 'cello .
Lamborn
Cock.
POSTHUMOUS SONGS.
Name.
Publisher.
Date.
O Swallow, Swallow . . . . )
John Church
1900
Tears, Idle Tears [
Company.
To One in Paradise .....
Novello.
1904
Longing for Home .....
Novello.
1904
My Heart is Like a Silent Lute .
Novello.
1904
Printed by BAI.LANTVNE, HANSON & Co.
Edinburgh &* London
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
ML Find on, Benjamin William
4LO Sir Arthur Sullivan, his
395F5 life and music
Music
