Arthur Sullivan - Incidental Music

Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900)

Incidental Music

The Merchant of Venice: Masquerade 

Henry VIII

The Sapphire Necklace: Overture

Overure in C, "In Memoriam"

RTE Concert Orchestra

Andrew Penny

Sir Arthur Sullivan is famous all over the world as the composer who joined with the librettist W.S. Gilbert to create the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Between 1871 and 1896 Sullivan and Gilbert wrote 14 operas, of which the best known internationally are The Mikado (1885) and The Gondoliers (1889). Many of these works were first produced at the Savoy Theatre, London – hence they are also called the ‘Savoy Operas’.

Sullivan was born in London on 13 May 1842, the son of a military musician. He displayed musical gifts at an early age, and in 1854 became a chorister at the Chapel Royal. Awarded the first Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1856, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the Leipzig Conservatoire. He returned to England from Germany in 1862, bringing with him a suite of music to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The performance of The Tempest music at the Crystal Palace, London, created a sensation but did nothing to provide the young composer with an income. Faced with the need to earn a living, Sullivan turned to the production of songs and hymns, which in the time of Queen Victoria could be very profitable. He also accepted commissions from the theatres for incidental music, and from the provincial music festivals for choral and orchestral works. In this way – and quite apart from his collaboration with Gilbert – he composed a considerable body of music. However, his achievements in other directions have been overshadowed by the success of the Savoy Operas and by the hostility of English music critics. As a result some of his works have scarcely been performed since his death, which took place in London on 22 November 1900.

Masquerade from The Merchant of Venice (1871)

Sullivan’s suites of incidental music for Shakespeare’s plays take rank among his most attractive compositions. The Merchant of Venice suite was written for a production (19 September 1871) at the Prince’s Theatre, Manchester. All of the music is concentrated on a single scene – a lavish masque during which Jessica and Lorenzo make good their elopement. The following description was written by Sullivan’s friend George Grove (editor of Grove’s Dictionary of Music) when the suite was performed at the Crystal Palace on 28 October 1871:

‘At the commencement of the scene, when the music begins, the stage is empty and night is approaching. The distant cry of the gondoliers echoing along the canals, and the voices of the masquers as they approach nearer and nearer are all depicted in the music. A lover serenades his mistress, the masquers gradually throng the ground, and the revelry begins. The dances are first a Bourrée, the old-fashioned heavy measure, next a grotesque dance for Pierrots and Harlequins, and thirdly a general dance in modern waltz rhythm. Night has settled down on the scene when Jessica makes her escape; after this the fun waxes furious, and midst the glare of torches, the glitter of coloured lanterns, and the shouts and songs of the revellers, the curtain descends.’

Incidental Music to Shakespeare’s Henry VIII (1877)

In 1877 the Theatre Royal, Manchester, was under the management of Charles Calvert, who in 1871 had commissioned Sullivan to write The Merchant of Venice music for the Prince’s Theatre. Wishing to revive Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, Calvert again asked Sullivan to provide incidental music. As he frequently did, Sullivan delayed work until the last possible moment, even causing the date of production to be postponed from 27 to 29 August 1877. The music, confined to the fifth act, became extremely popular, especially with brass and military bands. The text of the song Youth will needs have dalliance is not by Shakespeare. It is found among the Royal manuscripts in the British Library, associated with a musical setting by King Henry VIII himself. However, the traditional assumption that the King wrote both words and music of the song cannot be proved. Percy M. Young has called Sullivan’s setting ‘as charming as any insouciant and amorous song by Campion or Rosseter or Morley.’

The Sapphire Necklace (1864)

One of the warmest of Sullivan’s admirers was the music critic Henry Chorley (1808–1872). Almost as soon as the composer returned from his studies in Leipzig in 1862 he and Chorley began to collaborate on an opera, apparently with the intention that it should be performed at Covent Garden. The opera, The Sapphire Necklace, was completed in four acts but never performed, perhaps because Chorley was not a good librettist but more likely because the times were then, as always, unpropitious for English opera. The opera was still in existence in 1880 when Sullivan repurchased it from the publishers Metzler, but it has subsequently disappeared. Two vocal numbers were published as separate items, and the overture was published in a military band arrangement by Charles Godfrey, Jr. However, no orchestral material for the overture is known to survive. For the purposes of the present recording Godfrey’s arrangement has been orchestrated in Sullivan’s style by Roderick Spencer. In making his military band version Godfrey may possibly have condensed Sullivan’s original structure. Charles Dickens, an early friend of Sullivan, declared himself ‘perfectly enchanted’ with the minuet theme which opens the overture, even going so far as to declare that it was in itself sufficient to make the opera successful.

David Eden

Overture in C. In Memoriam (1866)

After the successful premiere of his Irish Symphony, Sullivan was approached to provide an orchestral piece for the next Norwich Festival. Ready to abandon the project through lack of inspiration, his father urged him to be patient as something would provide the necessary impetus.

Sadly, for Sullivan that impetus was the sudden death of his father in September 1866. A mighty blow for a man who loved and respected the father who, as a Sandhurst bandmaster, had provided Sullivan with a love for music and a thorough education in all orchestral instruments. As an outlet for his grief Sullivan began to revise and shape what he had done, and within a short time the Overture in C. In Memoriam was completed.

Sullivan responds to the death with a sincerely intuitive musical approach typical of its age. Besides having serious moments, a sense of thanksgiving and joy are also communicated to the listener.

The Overture opens quietly with soft woodwind chords leading to a hymn-like melody featuring Sullivan’s favourite instrument, the oboe. This is repeated with fuller orchestration of woodwind, trumpets and horns, supported by divided cellos and basses. This quiet opening of repeated notes, a Sullivan melodic trait, suggest a calmness perfectly mirroring Victorian piety. The animated section begins with flourishes from the strings, and one of the first gestures heard is a section of octave leaps, indicative of looking towards the heavens. Then, dominating the musical texture, are strong dottednote patterns suggesting the ‘striving’ of an earthly life.

In what is surely an acknowledgement of his father’s main instrument, the animated section concludes with a serene clarinet solo. This leads to an animated development in which low brass are almost ‘sobbing’ their musical notes, and a recapitulation section in which the octave leaps return followed by the dotted note ‘striving’ and finally the interplay of clarinet, flute and oboe. With passages on the strings and a chromatic chordal section, the full orchestra moves into the final apotheosis of the opening hymn-like melody. There is no holding back. Besides the whole majesty of the orchestra, for the first time in a British orchestral piece, Sullivan adds an organ to the texture. The ending is perfection in mirroring the confidence and grandeur of Victorian Britain as well as celebrating a special life.

Martin T. Yates