Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842 - 1900)

Born 13 May 1842 in Lambeth, London, England

Died 22 Nov 1900 at age 58 in London, England, United Kingdom

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Biography

Arthur Sullivan is Notable.

Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, MVO was an English composer. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. His works comprise 23 operas, 13 major orchestral works, eight choral works and oratorios, two ballets, incidental music to several plays, and numerous hymns and other church pieces, songs, and piano and chamber pieces. The best known of his hymns and songs include "Onward Christian Soldiers" and "The Lost Chord".^[1]

He was principal of the National Training School for Music which later was known as the Royal College of Music, a post he held for five years. He was also an active conductor, notably at the Leeds Musical Festivals from 1880 to 1898. Sullivan was knighted on May 22, 1883, for his contributions to British Music ^[2]

He was born in Lambeth in Q2 of 1842 ^[3]

He was baptised on 31 July 1842 and was the son of Thomas Sullivan and Mary Clementina Coghlan. ^[4]

His father was a theatre musician who became an army bandmaster with the result that Arthur could play every instrument in the military band by the age of eight. In 1854 April 1854 he was accepted, though at nearly twelve he was well over the customary age, as one of the Children (choristers) of the Chapel Royal. Here he came under the tutelage of the Revd. Thomas Helmore (1811–1890), a formidable teacher and scholar, and quickly became a favourite choice when solos were required. He also took his first steps as a composer, most notably in 1855 with the publication of a sacred song, O Israel. In the summer of 1856 Sullivan, despite being the youngest entrant, won the competition for the first Mendelssohn Scholarship. This enabled him to study at the Royal Academy of Music, where his tutors included Sir William Sterndale Bennett (1816–75) and Sir John Goss (1800–80), and then from 1858 at the Conservatory in Leipzig, at that time the finest musical training school in the world. Here he learned from the best teachers in Europe, including Ignaz Moscheles (1794–1870), Moritz Hauptmann (1792–1868), Julius Rietz (1812– 77) and Louis Plaidy (1810–74). ^[5]

Sullivan left Leipzig in April 1861 after a successful performance of his final examination piece, a set of incidental music to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Returning to London he took work as a church organist (initially at the fashionable St. Michael’s, Chester Square, not far from Victoria station) and taught to earn his living. In April 1862 The Tempest was performed at one of the celebrated Crystal Palace Saturday concerts conducted by August Manns (1825–1907). It was an immediate and enormous success, and a repeat performance had to be given the following week. This second performance was highly praised by Charles Dickens. It is no exaggeration to say that Sullivan became famous overnight.

Despite having become famous overnight he needed to earn his living He played the organ, conducted and taught, eventually becoming the first Principal of the National Training School for Music (now the Royal College of Music). He composed many songs and hymns, the royalties from which provided him with a steady income in the 1860s and 70s. He was appointed Organist at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and it was there that his second major composition, a ballet entitled L’Ile Enchantée, was produced in May 1864. Also in 1864, his first concert work for chorus and orchestra, the masque Kenilworth, had its première at the Birmingham Festival. 1866 saw the first performances of his ’cello concerto and symphony in E (later known as “the Irish”) as well as the overture In Memoriam, the composer’s outpouring of grief at the sudden death of his father. Also in 1866, Sullivan accepted an invitation to write the music for an operatic adaptation by Francis Cowley Burnand (1836–1917) of John Maddison Morton’s (1811– 91) well known farce Box and Cox. In 1869, Sullivan produced his first large-scale sacred work, the hour-long oratorio The Prodigal Son, for the Three Choirs Festival at Worcester. The peace cantata On Shore and Sea (1871) and a massive Festival Te Deum (1872) to commemorate the recovery of the Prince of Wales from typhoid, pointed the way to The Light of the World, a full-length oratorio telling the story of the life of Christ. This was first performed at the Birmingham Festival in 1873. The previous Birmingham Festival (1870) had commissioned the Overture di Ballo. 1871 saw the composition of the best-known of Sullivan’s seventy-odd hymn tunes, “St. Gertrude”, for the Revd. Sabine Baring-Gould’s (1834 –1924) verses beginning “Onward, Christian soldiers”. Sullivan did not forget the stage during this period in his career, providing incidental music for productions of The Merchant of Venice (1871) and The Merry Wives of Windsor (1874) and, also in 1871, collaborating with William Schwenck Gilbert (1836 –1911) on a Christmas novelty, Thespis, for John Hollingshead’s (1827–1904) Gaiety Theatre. ^[6]

In 1871 he was living with his widowed mother in St Margaret, Westminster, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom He was 28 and described as Artist Composer Of Music Seller ^[7]

He worked with WS Gilbert and the D'Oyly Carte company for many successful and productive years from 1875 - 1889 He did however continue his work in other fields at the same time . In 1880 he was appointed conductor of the Leeds Triennial Musical Festival, which he raised to the highest artistic standards For Leeds he wrote his two most famous and successful choral works: the sacred musical drama The Martyr of Antioch (1880; adapted as an opera 1898) and the cantata The Golden Legend (1886). The success of the Legend was so great in Sullivan’s lifetime that it was second in popularity only to Handel’s Messiah and the composer actually took steps to suppress performances to prevent the piece from becoming too hackneyed. The composer himself arranged a concert suite from Macbeth for the Leeds Festival of 1889. The best-known and most frequently performed of all Sullivan’s compositions, the song “The Lost Chord ”, belongs to this period. Sullivan’s setting of words by Adelaide Anne Procter (1825 – 64) was composed during the throes of his elder brother Frederic’s final illness in January 1877. Having already received honorary doctorates from both Oxford and Cambridge universities, Sullivan was knighted in 1883 for his services to music.

Gilbert, Sullivan and D'Oyly Carte had become very wealthy men. Richard D'Oyly Carte had an opera school and new theatre built and Sullivan composed Ivanhoe based on Walter Scott's novel for the inaugural opera which was a great success, running for 155 consecutive performances, an unprecedented number for a serious opera. Unfortunately, Carte had not provided any other British operas for his school and, after running a French piece and briefly reviving Ivanhoe, was forced to lease, and eventually sell, his opera house. It survives as the Palace Theatre.

Sullivan was frequently called upon to compose music for royal or state occasions. When Queen Victoria celebrated her diamond jubilee in 1897 he received a royal command to set the Jubilee Hymn to music. He also composed a ballet, Victoria and Merrie England, which told the story of Britain’s greatness in a series of tableaux. The ballet was one of the great successes of jubilee year, running for six months at the Alhambra Theatre. His last great popular success was his setting of Rudyard Kipling’s (1865–1936) poem “The Absentminded Beggar ” in November 1899 for the Daily Mail’s fund for the wives and families of those serving in the Boer War. His final completed work was a commission in 1900 from the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s Cathedral for a setting of the Te Deum Laudamus to commemorate the expected British victory in the war.

His own wish to be buried with his beloved parents and brother in Brompton Cemetery was over-ridden by the Queen, who commanded that he be laid to rest in St. Paul’s after what amounted to a state funeral.

He died in Q4 of 1900 on St Cecelia's day ( the patron saint of music) His death was registered in St. George Hanover Square, London^[8] Burial in Saint Paul's Cathedral , London, City of London, Greater London, England

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia for Arthur SULLIVAN
2. ↑ https://www.gsarchive.net/whowaswho/S/SullivanArthur.htm
3. ↑ "England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2NQV-F6S : 1 October 2014), Arthur Seymour Sullivan, 1842; from "England & Wales Births, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Birth Registration, Lambeth, London, England, citing General Register Office, Southport, England.
4. ↑ London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms for Arthur Seymour Sullivan baptism=31 Jul 1842 (father=Thomas Sullivan & mother=Mary Clementina Sullivan) parish-register=St.Mary borough=Lambeth repository=ancestry.com
5. ↑ https://sullivansociety.org.uk/arthur-sullivan/?v=79cba1185463
6. ↑ https://sullivansociety.org.uk/arthur-sullivan/?v=79cba1185463
7. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VBF7-89D : 25 April 2019), Arthur Sey Sullivan, 1871.
8. ↑ "England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2JRZ-TQ5 : 31 December 2014), Arthur Seymour Sullivan, 1900; from "England & Wales Deaths, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Death, St. George Hanover Square, London, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.

Wikidata: Item Q212692

• Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842-1900) on Find A Grave: Memorial #8157 retrieved 17 June 2018

* England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) for Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan d=22 Nov 1900, Middlesex, England probate=15 Jan 1901, London, England repository=ancestry.com

See also:

• Arthur is mentioned in the book 'BOOSEY & HAWKES: THE PUBLISHING STORY' written by Helen Wallace.'Boosey & Hawkes, the Publishing Story' by Helen Wallace-1