Arthur Sullivan: A Victorian Musician

Book excerpt: Published in 1992. This is a revised, enlarged edition of a book which on its original appearance in 1984 was hailed as a landmark in the study of Victorian musical life. It presents the figure of Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1990) not only as the celebrated co-creator of light operas with W.S Gilbert, but as a composer of all kinds of music from symphony and concerto to ballads such as ‘The Lost Chord’ and hymns such as ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers’. A prominent public life, with a knighthood in 1883, is contrasted with an unconventional private life involving a liaison of almost thirty years with an American living in London, Mary Frances Ronalds. The author’s access to Sullivan’s diary held by Yale University and to letters and other documents at the Pierpont Morgan library in New York gives this book both a unique authority and a deep human understanding. A new chapter updates research to the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, 1992, and incorporates music examples.