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SULLIVAN, SIR ARTHUR SEYMOUR (18421900) , English musical composer, was born in London on the 13th of May 1842, being the younger of the two sons of Thomas Sullivan, a cultivated Irish musician who was bandmaster at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from 1845 to 1856, and taught at the Military School of Music at Kneller Hall
Cheyne
Leipzig
Bache , J. F. Barnett and Edward Dannreuther. Instead of the Mendelssohn cultus which represented orthodoxy in London, German musical interest
Leipzig
" Orpheus with his Lute," "Oh Mistress Mine" and "The Willow Song." His attractive personality, combined with his undoubted genius and brilliant promise, brought him many friends. Costa, who was conductor at Covent Garden, gave him the post of organist, and in 1864 he produced there his L'Ile Enchantee ballet. Some of his spare time was spent in Ireland, where in 1863 he began the composition of his (" Irish ") Symphony in E, which was produced at the Crystal Palace in 1866. The most important event, however, at this period, as bearing upon his later successes, was his co-operation with F. C. Burnand in the musical extravaganza Cox and Box, which first showed his capacity for musical drollery. This was acted privately in 1866, and was completed for public performance in 1867, in which year Sullivan again co-operated with Burnand in Contrabandista. Meanwhile he was in request as a conductor, and was made, professor of composition at the Academy. His father's sudden death in 1866 inspired him to write the fine " In Memoriam " overture, which was produced at the Norwich Festival. In 1867, besides producing his " Marmion " overture, he and Grove did a great service to their art by bringing to light at Vienna a number of lost Schubert MSS., including the Rosamunde music. About this time Sullivan induced Tennyson to write his song-cycle" The Window," to be illustrated by Millais, with music by himself. But Millais abandoned the task, and Tennyson was not happy about his share; and the series, published in 1871, never became popular, in spite of Sullivan's dainty setting. In 1869 he brought out his oratorio The Prodigal Son at Worcester, and in 187o his overture " Di Ballo " at Birmingham. In 1871 Sullivan had become acquainted with W. S. Gilbert (q.v.), and in 1872 they collaborated in a piece for the Gaiety Theatre, called Thespis; or, The Gods Grown Old, which was a great success in spite of the limited vocal resources of the per-formers. In 1875 R. D'Oyly Carte, then acting as manager for Selina Dolaro at the Royalty, approached Gilbert with a view to his collaborating with Sullivan in a piece for that theatre. Gilbert had already suggested to Sullivan an operetta with its scene in a law court, and within three weeks of his completing the libretto of Trial by Jury the music was written. The piece succeeded beyond all expectation; and on the strength of its promise of further successes D'Oyly Carte formed his Comedy Opera Company and took the Opera Comique Theatre. There in 1877 The Sorcerer was produced, George Grossmith and Rutland Barrington being in the cast. In 1878 H.M.S. Pinafore was brought out at the Opera Comique. At first it did not attract large audiences, but eventually it became a popular success, and ran for 700 nights. In America it was enthusiastically received, and the two authors, with D'Oyly Carte, went over to the States in 1879, with a company of their own, in order to produce it in New York
York
patter
Hall
Chieftain (1894)largely an adaptation of Contrabandista; The Beauty Stone (1898), with a libretto by A. W. Pinero and J. Comyns Carr; and particularly in The Rose of Persia (1900), with Captain Basil Hood. In the public mind Sir Arthur Sullivan (who was knighted in 1883) had during these years become principally associated with the enormous success of the Savoy operas; but these by no means exhausted his musical energies. In 1872 his Te Deum for the recovery of the prince of Wales was performed at the Crystal Palace. In 1873 he produced at the Birmingham Musical Festival his oratorio The Light of the World, in 1877 he wrote his incidental music to Henry VIII., in 188o his sacred cantata The Martyr
Cambridge (18761 and Oxford (1879). In 1878 he was a member of the royal commission for the Paris Exhibition. He was conductor of the Leeds Festivals from 1879 to 1898, besides being conductor of the Philharmonic Society in 1885. Apart from his broad sympathy and his practical knowledge of instruments, his work as a conductor must always be associated with his efforts to raise the standard of orchestral playing in England and his unwearying exertions on behalf of British music and British musicians. Sullivan liked to be associated in the public mind with patriotic objects, and his setting of Rudyard Kipling's " Absent-minded Beggar" song, at the opening of the Boer War in 1899, was, with the exception of The Rose of Persia, the last of his compositions brought out in his lifetime. He died somewhat suddenly of heart failure on the 22nd of November 1900, and his burial in St Paul's Cathedral was the occasion of a remarkable demonstration of public sorrow. He left unpublished a Te Deum written for performance at the end of the Boer War, and an unfinished Savoy opera for a libretto by Captain Hood, which, completed by Edward German, was produced in 1901 as The Emerald Isle.Sullivan was the one really popular English composer of any artistic standing in his time; and his celebrity as a public man has somewhat interfered with a definite judgment as to his place in the history of English music. In his own time, English musical taste developed in a very remarkable degree; and musical criticism in serious quarters was a little disinclined to do justice to what was " popular." One of the most agreeable companions, broad-minded, and free from all affectation, he was intensely admired and loved in all circles of society; and though his health was not robust, for he suffered during many years at intervals from a painful ailment, he was a man of the world who enjoyed the life which his success opened out to him without being spoilt by it. He was always a devoted and an industrious musician, and from the day he left Leipzig his influence was powerfully exerted in favour of a wider and fuller recognition of musical culture. He was accused in some quarters of being unsympathetic towards Wagner and the post-Wagnerians, yet he had been one of the first to introduce Wagner's music to English audiences. He was keenly appreciative of new talent, but his tastes were too eclectic to satisfy the enthusiasts for any particular school; he certainly had no liking for what he considered uninspired academic writing. Serious critics deplored, with more justification, that he should have devoted so much of his great natural gift not merely to light comic opera, but to the production of a number of songs which, though always musicianly, were really of the nature of " pot-boiling." Sullivan was an extremely rapid worker, and his fertility in melody made it easy for him to produce what would please a large public. Moreover, it must be admitted that his great social success, so early achieved, was not calculated to nourish a rigidly artistic ideal. But when all is said, his genius remains undisputed; and it was a genius essentially English. His church music alone would entitle him to a high place among composers; and The Golden Legend, Ivanhoe, the In Memoriam overture, the " Irish " symphony and the charming " incidental music " to The Tempest and to Henry VIII. form a splendid legacy of creative effort, characterized by the highest scholarly qualities in addition to those beauties which appeal to every ear. Whether his memory will be chiefly associated with these works, or rather with the world-wide popularity of some of his songs and comic operas, time alone can tell. The Savoy operas did not aim at intellectual or emotional grandeur, but at providing innocent and wholesome pleasure; and in giving musical form to Gilbert's witty librettos Sullivan showed once for all what light opera may be when treated by the hand of a master. His scores are as humorous and fanciful qud music as Gilbert's verses are qua dramatic literature. Bubbling melody, consummate orchestration, lovely songs and concerted pieces (notably the famous vocal quintets) flowed from his pen in unexhausted and inimitable profusion. If he had written nothing else, his unique success in this field would have been a solid title to fame. As it was, it is Sir Arthur Sullivan's special distinction not only to have been prolific in music which went straight to the hearts of the people, but to have enriched the English repertoire with acknowledged masterpieces, which are no less remarkable for their technical accomplishment. See also Sir Arthur Sullivan: Life-story, Letters, and Reminiscences, by Arthur Lawrence (London: Bowden, 1899). Besides being largely autobiographical, this volume contains a complete list
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