This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com SirArthurSullivan ArthurLawrence,BenjaminWilliamFindon,WilfredBendall \ SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN: Life-Story, Letters, and Reminiscences. From the Portrait Pruntfd w 1888 hv Sir John Millais. !\i;tn;;;i*(.vnce$. i-\ !i. W. i ind- i a. 1 V/:!f ;d B'-:.!.i;:. SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN : Life-Story, Letters, and Reminiscences. By Arthur Lawrence. With Critique by B. W. Findon, and Bibliography by Wilfrid Bendall. London James Bowden 10 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, W.C. 1899 /^HARVARD^ UNIVERSITY LIBRARY NOV 5 1956 PREFACE It is of importance to Sir Arthur Sullivan and myself that I should explain how this book came to be written. Averse as Sir Arthur is to the " interview " in journalism, I could not resist the temptation to ask him to let me do something of the sort when I first had the pleasure of meeting ^ him — not in regard to journalistic matters — some years ago. That permission was most genially , granted, and the little chat which I had with J him then, in regard to the opera which he was writing, appeared in The World. Subsequent conversations which I was privileged to have with Sir Arthur, and the fact that there was nothing procurable in book form concerning our greatest and most popular composer — save an interesting little monograph which formed part of a small volume published some years ago on English viii PREFACE Musicians by Mr. Charles Willeby — gave me the notion of writing this book. Sir Arthur's only objection to my proposition was one which did credit to his modesty : that he hardly thought a record of his life and recollec tions would be of interest to the public ; but as an item of the vast number, all the world over, who know Sir Arthur Sullivan's work, and who may therefore desire, so to speak, to have better personal acquaintance with the composer, I excused myself from sharing this modest opinion, nor have I any fear that the music-loving public will fail to justify me in regard to my attitude upon this particular point. So much by way of explaining that the respon sibility of writing and publishing this book is entirely my own. On the other hand, having, I hope, made this reservation clear, I must add that, throughout a work which has been, in the doing of it, so pleasant to me, I have had Sir Arthur's heartiest co-operation, and the book is published with his goodwill and sanction. Indeed, I have been given every facility. Sir Arthur has placed in my hands the letters which PREFACE ix he wrote home over a period of some thirty years, as well as letters which have been written to him and the like. Throughout the book — and more especially in Chapter XIII. — will be found my transcription of notes made during the many conversations which I have had with Sir Arthur Sullivan for this special purpose, including anec dotes and so forth which he has given me on the understanding that I could make use of them or not, as I saw fit. Moreover, Sir Arthur has revised and passed the proofs of those chapters dealing with incidents in his life, thus enabling me to claim accuracy and authenticity for this work, and, I need hardly add, leaving me with a debt of gratitude which, if I had the ability, this is not the place to express. I shall not be guilty of any immodesty in suggesting that much utility and interest apper tains to this book by reason of the complete and accurate appendix compiled by Mr. Wilfrid Bendall, and by the three chapters on " Sullivan as a Musician " contributed by a musical critic of Mr. B. W. Findon's ability and experience. If the reader, unhampered by any shortcomings X PREFACE of my own as biographer, shall find the life-story of the composer as interesting and refreshing as I have found it, I trust I need make no apology for having written the biography of a man during his lifetime, whilst there is an obvious and not to be over-estimated advantage in having it added to — and revised — by no less an authority than the subject of it. THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS PAGe PREFACE vii BOYHOOD (1842-1857) Chapel Royal — Mendelssohn Scholarship — Leaves Chapel Royal for Leipzig II. AT LEIPZIG (1858-1861) 23 Musical Stagnation in England — Catholicity at Leipzig — Hard Work and Holidays — Writes ' ' Tempest ' ' Music III. FIRST PUBLIC SUCCESS (1861-1866) ... 48 Charles Dickens — First Visit to Paris — Rossini — Organist of St. Michael's and at Covent Garden Opera — Visits Ireland— Germ of English Comic Opera IV. SECOND VISIT TO PARIS (1867-1871) ... 67 Tennyson— Paris in the time of the Commune — " The Prodigal Son " — Emperor and Empress Napoleon — Prophetic words from Prince Henry of Battenburg xii CONTENTS CHAP PAGE V. SULLIVAN MEETS GILBERT (1872-1875) . 83 Musician Laureate — Meeting with W. S. Gilbert — " Thespis " — " The Light of the World " — Sims Reeves — "Trial by Jury" — Lord Chief Justice Cockburn — Desbarrolles VI. IDLING IN ITALY (1875-1877) 109 Conductorship— Visits Italy— Death of Fred Sullivan —"The Lost Chord "— " Henry VIII."— " The Sor cerer " — Sir Coutts and Lady Lindsay— Princess Louise VII. AMERICAN REMINISCENCES (1878-1880) . 124 " H.M.S. Pinafore" — Promenade Concerts — "The Pinafore" Fever in America — First Visit to America — American Reminiscences— American Piracy and the " Pirates of Penzance " VIII.- THE MOST POPULAR OPERA (1878-1885) . 151 " Iolanthe " — " Princess Ida " — " Patience " — " The Mikado"— His Mother Dies — Knighthood — " The Golden Legend " — Visits Salt Lake City IX. SIR ARTHUR'S FAVOURITE OPERA (1886-1889) . 174 "Ruddigore" — "Yeoman of the Guard" — Emperor and Empress of Germany — " The Gondoliers " X. DISSOLUTION OF PARTNERSHIP (1889-1898) . 192 Sullivan and Gilbert Part Company—" Haddon Hall " — " Utopia " — " The Foresters " — " The Chieftain " — "The Beauty Stone" CONTENTS xiii BAP. ,.AGe XI. OUR LACK OF PATRIOTISM IN MUSIC . 202 The Jubilee Procession— Letter to the Times— Con sensus of Opinion on the Subject — Apathy of the Press XII. PERSONALITY AND METHODS OF WORK . Preferences and Recreations— Hard Work before " In spiration" — Rhythm before Melody — How the Operas have been Produced XIII. ANECDOTAL In the Auction-room— Thirty years afterwards — Old Church at Sandhurst — Rev. Thomas Helmore and the Boys — Battle of the Alma — Early Composition — Stern- dale Bennett — Bach's room at Leipzig — Amateur Choral Societies — Gladstone and Disraeli — Burnand and his book — Byron and Palgrave — With the Duke of Edin burgh on the Hercules — The German Emperor — Peter- hof— In the Baltic— Buffalo etiquette—" The Mikado " plagiarised in real life — Water and Good Society — The Gentlemanly Guide — Earthquake at Monte Carlo — Coincidences — Tennyson— Sullivan's Grandfather and Napoleon I. at St. Helena XIV. "ABOUT MUSIC" 261 An Address Delivered at the Town Hall, Birmingham, on October 19, 1888, by Sir Arthur Sullivan SULLIVAN AS A COMPOSER 288 His Place among Contemporaries— Sacred Music — Secular and Dramatic Music. By B. W. Findon xiv CONTENTS PAGE APPENDIX 327 Comprising a Complete List of Sir Arthur Sullivan's Work. Compiled by Wilfrid Bendall INDEX 340 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Photogravure Portrait from the Painting by Sir J. E. Millais, l888 ......... Frontispiece Page Arthur Sullivan, atat. 12, as a Chapel Royal Chorister. From a Photograph 10 Arthur Sullivan, atat. 15. Leipzig Portrait . ... 46 The Green-room Group of the Bennett Fund Amateur Perform ances of " A Sheep in Wolfs Clothing" and " Box and Cox " 62 Arthur Sullivan, atat. 25 69 Facsimile reproduction of Letter from Lord Tennyson . 72-3 Frederic Sullivan as the Judge in " Trial by Jury " (1875) . 105 Blanche Roosevelt . 131 Facsimile reproduction of Letter from Mr. Gladstone, Decem ber 6, 1 882 1 56-7 Facsimile reproduction of Letter from Mr. Gladstone, May 3. 1883 1 60-1 Sir Arthur Sullivan, atat. 44 178 Facsimile reproduction of Letter from Miss Ellen Terry, March 17, 1889 182-3 xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS rafe Sir Arthur Sullivan, atat. 52 196 Facsimile reproduction of Letter from Mr. Rudyard Kipling. May 14, 1898 199 Sir Arthur Sullivan, Present Day ...... 220 Facsimile reproduction of " Essays in Rhythm " . 226 Facsimile reproduction of Original Sketch of passage in " The Mikado " "Three Little Maids from School" .... 228 Facsimile reproduction of Full Orchestral Score of same passage in " The Mikado " 230 Group including Sir Arthur Sullivan, B. W. Findon, Lionel Monckton, and Wilfrid Bendall 234 CHAPTER I BOYHOOD (i 842- 1 857) Chapel Royal — Mendelssohn Scholarship — Leaves Chapel Koyal for Leipzig. RTHUR SULLIVAN was fortunate in regard to two circumstances which I deem to be the best incentives to hard work and achievement — he had the best of good parents, to whom he was devotedly attached, and, although there was no unpleasant straitment of means, he knew that he would have to earn his own living. The word "prodigy" is an unpleasant one. The infant phenomenon may prove interesting, but whatever may be the feelings induced in the observer by the spectacle, one cannot always claim that the prodigy shall be congratulated as A 2 SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN such. Too often exceptional ability at a tender age implies an abnormal and unhealthy development of powers which, by reason of the hot-house processes which have attended their growth, are subject to premature arrest and decay. Innumer able instances will come to mind of great men in every profession, artists in every sense of the word, who have been dunces at school and whose powers, to say the least of it, have not been apparent during the time of their earlier develop ment.