Editing The Pirates of Penzance (section)

==Musical analysis==
The overture to ''The Pirates of Penzance'' was composed by Sullivan and his musical assistant [[Alfred Cellier]]. It follows the pattern of most [[Savoy opera]] overtures: a lively opening (the melody of "With cat-like tread"), a slow middle section ("Ah, leave me not to pine alone"), and a concluding [[Tempo#Italian tempo markings|allegro]] in a compressed [[sonata form]], in which the themes of "How beautifully blue the sky" and "A paradox, a paradox" are combined.<ref>Hughes, p. 134</ref>

===Parody===
The score parodies several composers, most conspicuously [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]]. "Come, friends, who plough the sea" and "You triumph now" are burlesques of ''[[Il trovatore]]'',<ref name=hulme>Hulme, David Russell. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O005334 "The Pirates of Penzance"]. ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, accessed 30 June 2010 {{subscription required}}</ref> and one of the best-known choral passages from the finale to Act&nbsp;I, "Hail Poetry", is, according to the Sullivan scholar, [[Arthur Jacobs]], a burlesque of the prayer scene, "La Vergine degli Angeli", in Verdi's ''[[La forza del destino]]''.<ref>Jacobs, p. 135</ref> However, another musicologist, Nicholas Temperley, writes, "The choral outburst 'Hail, Poetry' in ''The Pirates of Penzance'' would need very little alteration to turn it into a [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] string quartet."<ref>Temperley, Nicholas. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/732768 "Mozart's Influence on English Music"]. ''Music & Letters'', vol. 42, issue 4, October 1961, pp. 307–318, Oxford University Press, accessed 1 July 2010 {{subscription required}}</ref> Another well-known parody number from the work is the song for [[coloratura]], "Poor wand'ring one", which is generally thought to burlesque [[Charles Gounod|Gounod]]'s waltz-songs,<ref>Hughes, p. 151</ref> though the music critic of ''The Times'' called it "mock-[[Gaetano Donizetti|Donizetti]]".<ref>"Guthrie's Irreverent Pirates", ''The Times'', 16 February 1962, p. 15</ref> <!-- I'VE SEEN IT COMPARED WITH "SEMPRE LIBERA". IS THERE ANY MENTION OF THAT? --> In a scene in Act&nbsp;II, Mabel addresses the police, who chant their response in the manner of an [[Anglican]] church service.<ref>Maddocks, Fiona. [https://archive.today/20120912003426/http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/review-23440103-these-pirates-have-real-swagger.do "These pirates have real swagger"]. ''[[Evening Standard]]'', 20 February 2008, accessed 2 July 2010</ref>

Sullivan even managed to parody two composers at once. The critic [[Rodney Milnes]] describes the Major-General's Act&nbsp;II song, "Sighing softly to the river", "as plainly inspired by – and indeed worthy of – Sullivan's hero [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]]",<ref name=rodders>"Putting the Jolly in Roger", ''The Times'', 26 April 2001</ref> and [[Amanda Holden (writer)|Amanda Holden]] speaks of the song's "Schubertian water-rippling accompaniment", but adds that it simultaneously spoofs Verdi's ''Il trovatore'', with the soloist unaware of a concealed male chorus singing behind him.<ref>Holden, p. 402</ref>

===Patter, counterpoint, and vocal writing===
{{listen
| type         = music
| filename     = Sullivan - The Pirates of Penzance - I am the very model of a modern Major-General (Baker, 1921).mp3
| title        = Major-General's Song
| description  = [[George Baker (baritone)|George Baker]] sings the "I am the very model of a modern Major-General", conducted by [[George W. Byng]] (1920)
}}

Writing about [[patter song]]s, Shaw, in his capacity as a music critic, praised "the time-honored lilt which Sir Arthur Sullivan, following the example of Mozart and [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]], chose for the lists of accomplishments of the Major-General in ''The Pirates'' or the Colonel in ''[[Patience (opera)|Patience]]''."<!--SPELLING IS AS GBS WROTE IT. GBS WAS A FERVENT ADVOCATE OF SPELLING REFORM AND HIS OWN WRITING REFLECTED THAT. --><ref>Shaw (Vol. 2) p. 492</ref>

This opera contains two well-known examples of Sullivan's characteristic combination of two seemingly disparate melodies. Jacobs suggests that [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]]'s ''[[La damnation de Faust]]'', a great favourite in Sullivan's formative years, may have been the model for Sullivan's trademark contrapuntal mingling of the rapid prattle of the women's chorus in Act I ("How beautifully blue the sky") in 2/4 time with the lovers' duet in waltz time. Jacobs writes that "the whole number [shifts] with Schubertian ease from B to G and back again."<ref name=grove>Jacobs, Arthur. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/27100 "Sullivan, Sir Arthur."] Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, accessed 30 June 2010 {{subscription required}}</ref> In Act II, a double chorus combines the policemen's dogged tune, "When the foeman bares his steel" and the soaring line for the women, "Go, ye heroes, go to glory".<ref>Hughes, p. 80</ref> In adapting the four-part chorus "Climbing over rocky mountain" from ''Thespis'' for re-use in ''Pirates'', Sullivan took less trouble: he wrote only a single vocal line, suitable for soprano voices.<ref>Hughes, p. 88</ref> Despite this, the number ends with another example of Sullivan's counterpoint, with the chorus singing the second melody of the piece ("Let us gaily tread the measure") while the orchestra plays the first ("Climbing over rocky mountain").<ref>Rees, pp. 62–63 suggested that in the original ''Thespis'' version, for male as well as female voices, the men would have sung the first theme while the women sang the second.</ref>

Sullivan set a particular vocal challenge for the soprano who portrays Mabel. The Sullivan scholar [[Gervase Hughes]] wrote, "Mabel ... ''must'' be a coloratura because of 'Poor wand'ring one!', yet 'Dear father, why leave your bed' demands steady beauty of tone throughout the octave F to F, and 'Ah, leave me not to pine' goes a third lower still."<ref>Hughes, pp. 92–93</ref> In ''The Music of Arthur Sullivan'' (1959), Hughes quoted four extracts from ''Pirates'', saying that if hearing each out of context one might attribute it to Schubert, [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]], Gounod or [[Georges Bizet|Bizet]] respectively, "yet on learning the truth one would kick oneself for not having recognised Sullivan's touch in all four." Hughes concluded by quoting the introductory bars of "When a felon's not engaged in his employment", adding, "There could never be any doubt as to who wrote ''that'', and it is as English as our wonderful police themselves."<ref>Hughes, pp. 50–51</ref>