W.S Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan

Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan

On May 13, 1842 at #8 Bolwell Terrace, London, England, a child was born to Thomas and Maria Sullivan. He was named Arthur Seymour Sullivan. Thomas Sullivan was Irish, and Maria was Italian. Arthur’s father was a band director. By the age of eight he could play every instrument in his father’s band. Also at the age of eight, Arthur Sullivan composed his first piece. His father decided to send him to a private school.

Sullivan loved school, but he was longing to join the Chapel Royal Choir. He visited the choir organist, Sir George Smart, and got in easily. This was 1854, and Sullivan was twelve years old. On account of Sullivan’s nice treble voice, he earned many solos in the choir.

In 1855, Sullivan became the first winner of the Mendelssohn Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. There he learned the basics of Music Theory, Counterpoint, Harmony, and Ear Training, which are all important talents in composition. In fact, he showed such talent that he was sent to study at Leipzig, Germany.

Sullivan began to like conducting more and more. When Sullivan was eighteen, he wrote music to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. He conducted it at Leipzig. The Tempest was very successful.

Sullivan returned home from Germany hoping to become a composer and conductor. He became both. In the 1860s he composed concerti, piano works, marches, songs, and religious music. He wrote an oratorio called The Prodigal Son, and a ballet L’Ile Enchante (The Enchanted Island). Sullivan also wrote a famous and popular song called “The Lost Chord”, which was on the first phonographic record. Additionally, he wrote a symphony and the music for two comic operas- Cox and Box and The Contranbandista.

Sullivan became a good friend with royalty. He was also good friends with Charles Dickens, Gioachino Rossini (he wrote The Barber of Seville), Lord Tennyson, and Frederic Clay. It was lucky that Sullivan was a friend with Frederic Clay, because Clay was the person who first introduced Sullivan to Gilbert.

Sullivan set the music to 14 of Gilbert's librettos during a 25 year period. Their relationship began to fray after The Yeoman of the Guard and deteriorated completely after their last operetta, The Grand Duke. The last time Gilbert and Sullivan saw each other was a revival of The Gondoliers in 1898, and such was their estrangement that they didn't even speak to each other. Sullivan died in 1900 of mixed ilnesses.