Editing Arthur Sullivan (section)

===1870s: first collaborations with Gilbert===
[[File:Sorc-Pin-Trial.jpg|thumb|left|Poster: scenes from ''[[The Sorcerer]]'', ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]'' and ''[[Trial by Jury]]''|alt=Poster showing scenes from all three operas featuring principal characters; the productions, by an American opera company around 1879, seem lavish. Black and white.]]
Sullivan's most enduring orchestral work,<ref name=Hughes14/> the ''[[Overture di Ballo]]'', was composed for the Birmingham Festival in 1870.{{refn|The work received an enthusiastic public reception, but ''[[The Musical Times]]'' printed an early example of critical censure of Sullivan for his accessibility: "The applause which it received was general and spontaneous [but] it may be a question whether, if Mr. Sullivan could not be requested to furnish a higher class of work, he should not have been passed over altogether until a more fitting opportunity presented itself."<ref>Lunn, Henry C. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3351568 "The Birmingham Musical Festival"], ''The Musical Times'', 1 October 1870, pp. 615–20 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} The same year, Sullivan first met the poet and dramatist W. S. Gilbert.{{refn|They met at a rehearsal for a second run of Gilbert's ''[[Ages Ago]]'' at the [[Gallery of Illustration]], probably in July 1870.<ref>Crowther (2011), p. 84</ref> Gilbert was then known for his light verse, especially his ''[[Bab Ballads]]''; his theatre reviews; and his two dozen plays, including [[Victorian burlesques|operatic burlesques]] (such as ''[[Robert the Devil (Gilbert)|Robert the Devil]]'', 1868), his [[German Reed Entertainments]], and blank verse comedies such as ''[[The Palace of Truth]]'' (1870) and ''[[Pygmalion and Galatea (play)|Pygmalion and Galatea]]'' (1871).|group= n}} In 1871 Sullivan published his only [[song cycle]], ''[[The Window (song cycle)|The Window]]'', to words by [[Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson|Tennyson]],<ref>Jacobs, pp. 57–58</ref> and he wrote the first of a series of incidental music scores for productions of Shakespeare plays.{{refn|This was for ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester.<ref>Jacobs, p. 68</ref> Sullivan's earlier ''Tempest'' music was composed for the concert hall, rather than theatrical performance, although it was later used for at least one stage production.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 27–28 and 38</ref>|group= n}} He also composed a dramatic [[cantata]], ''[[On Shore and Sea]]'', for the opening of the London International Exhibition,<ref>Jacobs, pp. 65–66</ref> and the [[hymn]] "[[Onward, Christian Soldiers]]", with words by [[Sabine Baring-Gould]].<ref name=hymnssongs/> [[The Salvation Army]] adopted the latter as its favoured [[Processional hymn|processional]],<ref>Branston, John. [http://www.memphisflyer.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A10563 "Christian Soldiers: The Salvation Army brings humility and $48 million to the fairgrounds discussion"], ''Memphis Flyer'', 18 November 2005</ref> and it became Sullivan's best-known hymn.<ref name=hymnssongs/><ref>Young, p. 99</ref>

At the end of 1871 [[John Hollingshead]], proprietor of London's [[Gaiety Theatre, London|Gaiety Theatre]], commissioned Sullivan to work with Gilbert to create the [[Victorian burlesque|burlesque]]-style comic opera ''[[Thespis (opera)|Thespis]]''.<ref>Ainger, p. 93</ref>{{refn|With a classical story and a mixture of political satire and [[grand opera]] parody, ''Thespis'' was reminiscent of ''[[Orpheus in the Underworld]]'' and ''[[La belle Hélène]]'' by [[Jacques Offenbach|Offenbach]], whose [[operetta]]s were extremely popular on the English stage in both French and English.<ref>Jacobs, p. 50</ref> ''La belle Hélène'' entered the Gaiety's repertory eight weeks before the premiere of ''Thespis''.<ref>Rees, p. 72</ref> Sullivan may have been encouraged to write the music for ''Thespis'' by Hollingshead's offer of the role of Apollo to the composer's elder brother, the comic actor and singer [[Fred Sullivan]].<ref>Rees, p. 15</ref> |group= n}} Played as a Christmas entertainment, it ran through to Easter 1872, a good run for such a piece.<ref>Rees, p. 78</ref>{{refn|Its run was extended beyond the length of a normal run at the Gaiety.<ref>Walters, Michael. "Thespis: a reply", ''W. S. Gilbert Society Journal'', Vol. 4, part 3, Issue 29, Summer 2011</ref> The musical score of ''Thespis'' was never published and is now lost, except for one song that was published separately, a chorus that was re-used in ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'', and the Act II ballet.<ref>Rees, pp. 34, 49 and 89</ref>|group= n}} Gilbert and Sullivan then went their separate ways<ref>Stedman, p. 94</ref> until they collaborated on three parlour ballads in late 1874 and early 1875.<ref>Stedman, pp. 126–127</ref>

Sullivan's large-scale works of the early 1870s were the ''[[Festival Te Deum]]'' (Crystal Palace, 1872)<ref name=Jacobs75>Jacobs, pp. 75–76</ref> and the oratorio ''[[The Light of the World (Sullivan)|The Light of the World]]'' (Birmingham Festival, 1873).<ref name=Jacobs75/> He provided incidental music for productions of ''[[The Merry Wives of Windsor]]'' at the Gaiety in 1874<ref>Jacobs, p. 76</ref> and ''[[Henry VIII (play)|Henry VIII]]'' at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, in 1877.<ref>Jacobs, p. 108</ref>  He continued to compose hymns throughout the decade.{{refn| Sullivan composed 72 hymns, including two settings of "[[Nearer, My God, to Thee]]", of which the "Propior Deo" is the better known.<ref>Young, pp. 278–280</ref>|group= n}} In 1873 Sullivan contributed songs to Burnand's Christmas "drawing room extravaganza", ''The Miller and His Man''.<ref>Howarth, Paul. [https://gsarchive.net/sullivan/miller/index.html ''The Miller and His Man''], the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 28 July 2018</ref>

In 1875 the manager of the [[Royalty Theatre]], [[Richard D'Oyly Carte]], needed a short piece to fill out a bill with Offenbach's ''[[La Périchole]]''. Carte had conducted Sullivan's ''Cox and Box''.<ref>Ainger, pp. 107–108</ref>{{refn|Carte conducted ''Cox and Box'' and some operettas on a tour, in 1871, managed by the composer's brother, Fred, who played Cox. ''Cox and Box'', again with Fred as Cox, had been revived in 1874, and Arthur Sullivan may have been considering a return to comic opera.<ref>McElroy, George. "Whose ''Zoo''; or, When Did the ''Trial'' Begin?", ''Nineteenth Century Theatre Research'', 12 December 1984, pp. 39–54</ref>|group= n}} Remembering that Gilbert had suggested a libretto to him, Carte engaged Sullivan to set it, and the result was the one-act [[comic opera]] ''[[Trial by Jury]]''.<ref>Ainger, p. 108</ref>{{refn|The title page of the libretto describes ''Trial'' as "A Dramatic Cantata";<ref>Jacobs, p. 90</ref> Gilbert and Sullivan insisted on calling the rest of their joint works "operas", often with a descriptive adjective, such as a "nautical comic opera" (Jacobs, p. 118), an "aesthetic opera" or a "Japanese opera" (Jacobs, Preface).|group= n}} ''Trial'', starring Sullivan's brother [[Fred Sullivan|Fred]] as the Learned Judge, became a surprise hit, earning glowing praise from the critics and playing for 300 performances over its first few seasons.<ref name=Allen30>Allen, p. 30</ref> ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' commented that the piece illustrated the composer's "great capacity for dramatic writing of the lighter class",<ref name=Allen30/> and other reviews emphasised the felicitous combination of Gilbert's words and Sullivan's music.<ref>''The Daily News'', 27 March 1875, p. 3</ref> One wrote, "it seems, as in the great Wagnerian operas, as though poem and music had proceeded simultaneously from one and the same brain."<ref name=World226>[https://books.google.com/books?id=GZIPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA254 "''Trial by Jury''"], ''The Musical World'', 3 April 1875, p. 226, accessed 17 June 2008</ref> A few months later, another Sullivan one-act comic opera opened: ''[[The Zoo]]'', with a libretto by [[B. C. Stephenson]].<ref>Jacobs, pp. 91–92</ref> It was less successful than ''Trial'', and for the next 15 years Sullivan's sole operatic collaborator was Gilbert; [[Gilbert and Sullivan|the partners]] created a further twelve operas together.<ref>Rollins and Witts, pp. 5–12</ref>

{{Listen|type=music
|filename    = Arthur Sullivan, The Lost Chord, Reed Miller 1913 (restored 1).ogg
|title       = "The Lost Chord"
|description = 1913 recording of "[[The Lost Chord]]" (1877) by Arthur Sullivan and [[Adelaide Anne Procter]], sung by [[Reed Miller]]
}}
Sullivan also turned out more than 80 popular songs and [[parlour ballads]], most of them written before the end of the 1870s.<ref name=songs>Young, pp. 273–278, gives a complete list. For links and descriptions, see Howarth, Paul (ed.) [http://www.gsarchive.net/sullivan/songs/index.html "Sir Arthur Sullivan's Songs and Parlour Ballads"], the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 18 July 2004, accessed 18 December 2017</ref> His first popular song was "Orpheus with his Lute" (1866), and a well-received [[part song]] was "Oh! Hush thee, my Babie" (1867).<ref name=musicaltimes/> The best known of his songs is "[[The Lost Chord]]" (1877, lyrics by [[Adelaide Anne Procter]]), written at the bedside of his brother during Fred's last illness.<ref>Ainger, p. 128</ref> The sheet music for his best-received songs sold in large numbers and was an important part of his income.<ref>Goodman, p. 19</ref>{{refn|Later, songs from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas were adapted and sold as dance pieces.<ref name=DanceArr>Sands, John. [https://gsarchive.net/articles/arrangements/dance_music.html "Dance Arrangements from the Savoy Operas" (Introduction)], the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 4 April 2010, accessed 28 August 2018</ref>|group= n}}

[[File:Arthur Sullivan, conductor, by Lyall.jpg|thumb|left|Caricature of Sullivan as a conductor, c. 1879|alt=Newspaper cartoon of a monocled Sullivan lounging in a chair, his feet propped up on the podium, lazily conducting]]
In this decade, Sullivan's conducting appointments included the [[Glasgow]] Choral Union concerts (1875–77) and the [[Royal Aquarium|Royal Aquarium Theatre]], London (1876).<ref>Ainger, p. 121</ref> In addition to his appointment as Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, of which he was a Fellow, he was appointed as the first Principal of the [[National Training School of Music]] in 1876.<ref name=wright/> He accepted the latter post reluctantly, fearing that discharging the duties thoroughly would leave too little time for composing; in this he was correct.{{refn|His successor [[Hubert Parry]] also discovered this to be true.<ref>Legge, Robin H. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/908703 "Charles Hubert Hastings Parry"], ''The Musical Times'', 1 November 1918, pp. 489–491 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} He was not effective in the post, and resigned in 1881.{{refn|In a study of the School and its successor, the Royal College of Music, David Wright comments on Sullivan: "He lacked any fresh perspective on musical training and any vision of what the NTSM needed to achieve if it was to make a mark.&nbsp;... Neither did Sullivan have real sympathy with the Society of Arts' progressive social ideals of scholarship education regardless of social origin, despite having himself gained his education through scholarship support."<ref name=wright>Wright, David. "The South Kensington Music Schools and the Development of the British Conservatoire in the Late Nineteenth Century", ''Journal of the Royal Musical Association'', Oxford University Press, Vol. 130 No. 2, pp. 236–282</ref>|group= n}}

Sullivan's next collaboration with Gilbert, ''[[The Sorcerer]]'' (1877), ran for 178 performances,<ref>Rollins and Witts, p. 5</ref> a success by the standards of the day,<ref>Crowther (2000), p. 96</ref> but ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]'' (1878), which followed it, turned Gilbert and Sullivan into an international phenomenon.<ref>Crowther (2000), p. 96; and Stedman, p. 169</ref> Sullivan composed the bright and cheerful music of ''Pinafore'' while suffering from excruciating pain from a kidney stone.<ref>Ainger, p. 155</ref> ''Pinafore'' ran for 571 performances in London, then the second-longest theatrical run in history,<ref>Gaye, p. 1532; and Gillan, Don. [http://www.stagebeauty.net/th-frames.html?http&&&www.stagebeauty.net/th-longr.html "Longest Running Plays in London and New York"], StageBeauty.net (2007), accessed 10 March 2009</ref> and more than 150 unauthorised productions were quickly mounted in America alone.<ref>Prestige, Colin. "D'Oyly Carte and the Pirates: The Original New York Productions of Gilbert and Sullivan", pp. 113–148 at p. 118, ''Gilbert and Sullivan [http://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/handle/1808/5875 Papers Presented at the International Conference] held at the [[University of Kansas]] in May 1970'', Edited by James Helyar. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Libraries, 1971.</ref>{{refn|Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte tried for many years to control the American performance copyrights over their operas, but they were unable to do so.<ref>Rosen, Z. S. [https://ssrn.com/abstract=963540 "The Twilight of the Opera Pirates: A Prehistory of the Right of Public Performance for Musical Compositions"], ''Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, Vol. 24, 2007'' {{subscription}}</ref> |group= n}} Among other favourable reviews, ''The Times'' noted that the opera was an early attempt at the establishment of a "national musical stage" free from risqué French "improprieties" and without the "aid" of Italian and German musical models.<ref>"Opera Comique", ''The Times'', 27 May 1878, p. 6</ref> ''The Times'' and several of the other papers agreed that although the piece was entertaining, Sullivan was capable of higher art, and frivolous light opera would hold him back.<ref>Allen, Introduction to chapter on ''H.M.S. Pinafore''</ref> This criticism would follow Sullivan throughout his career.<ref name=MW/>

In 1879 Sullivan suggested to a reporter from ''[[The New York Times]]'' the secret of his success with Gilbert: "His ideas are as suggestive for music as they are quaint and laughable. His numbers&nbsp;... always give me musical ideas."<ref name="MrSullivan">[https://www.nytimes.com/1879/08/01/archives/a-talk-with-mr-sullivan-the-composer-of-pinafore-at-his-home-his.html "A Talk With Mr. Sullivan"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', 1 August 1879, p. 3, {{ProQuest|93754709}}, accessed 22 May 2012</ref> ''Pinafore'' was followed by ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'' in 1879, which opened in New York and then ran in London for 363 performances.<ref>Rollins and Witts, p. 7</ref>