#arthur sullivan

[doyouknowthismusical]

[musicianrambles]

Captain from HMS Pinafore v Major General from Pirates Of Penzance fight

[jrkaplonski]

I could vaguely hear an opera or operetta playing in the other room and I thought by the orchestrations I could hear that it was a G&S piece. I couldn’t completely hear it, it just sounded familiar.

Several songs later I heard enough dialogue (that I also couldn’t find in my mind swamp) to Google it. It was H.M.S. Pinafore.

I placed it by the orchestrations that Arthur Sullivan had composed the music. I’m kinda proud of that.

[opera-ghosts]

Clara Butt (contralto) - The Lost Chord (Procter & Sullivan) (1909)

In January, 1877 Sir Arthur Sullivan composed this famous ballad whilst keeping vigil at the bedside of his elder brother Frederic, who lay dying, aged only 39. It is set to words by Adelaide Procter (1825-1864), an author well-known in her own day for her output of sentimental verse. In spite of the circumstances of its composition, The Lost Chord became a great favourite, played and sung in parlours and ballad concerts, the epitome of popular Victorian song. It was dedicated to the memory of Frederic.

One of the first singers to perform it regularly was the beautiful American socialite Mrs Fanny Ronalds (1839-1916), pictured right, who was for many years Sullivan’s close companion. The composer often accompanied her on the piano when she sang the song at fashionable society soirées and her recording of it was one of the earliest phonograph cylinders ever made. King Edward VII remarked on one occasion that he would travel the length of his kingdom to hear her sing The Lost Chord.

He died of heart failure in London on 22 November 1900. In his will, Sullivan left the manuscript of The Lost Chord to Mrs Ronalds. It has been alleged that on her own death the score was buried with her, but the present evidence surely indicates that, if so, that must have been another copy as she, in turn, gave this one to the English contralto Dame Clara Butt (1872-1936) who had received the Musicians’ Company’s Silver Medal while a student at the Royal College of Music in 1894. Miss Butt's nomination for the award (by Sir George Grove, no less), as "...the most distinguished pupil in the College"

Sullivan himself heard Butt singing The Lost Chord early in her career and is quoted as telling her “That is how I always meant it to be sung”. Butt included the song in many recitals and it often featured in her concert performances for Queen Victoria and other European royalty.

She recorded it several times, perhaps most famously on 7 August 1930 in Westminster Central Hall, and for years her richly individual interpretation was the favourite version of her many admirers.

Clara Butt made her first recording - with husband Kennerley Rumford - on 26 January 1899. Ten years were to pass before she recorded again. A session for The Gramophone Company at City Road on 9 July 1909 produced no issued recordings, but her next session a week later (ie on 16 July) resulted in four published discs.

[sequestered-song-skirmish]

Round 2 Poll 27

The Nightmare Song：　「While The Nightmare Song and the operetta it's from (Iolanthe) may not be totally obscure, I think this specific version of it is niche enough to count for this competition. Martyn Green was one of D'Oyly Carte's best comic baritones, and his performances in Gilbert and Sullivan shows are wonderful. However, while his renditions of G&S numbers are not impossible to find, they're also not easy to get ahold of either. The YouTube video I've linked to is actually an almost hour-long collection of Martyn Green singing G&S songs, and the whole thing has only about 1.1K views. (I don't know if it's on Spotify as I don't have a Spotify account) I've sent a timestamped link, to where the song starts at 38:30. The Nightmare Song itself is an entertaining and impressive example of patter, which showcases the talent and diction of its performer.」

The timestamp works for me currently, but I can't promise it will after posting. If it doesn't in the embed, perhaps it will in the link above.

Endbeginendbeginendbeginend：　「(not to be confused with the OTHER song on the Our Eternal Present EP, Beginendbeginendbeginendbegin.) this mf has five whole views on youtube and none of aria bare's songs on spotify have gone over 2k streams. 12 minutes of weird ass chill noise but also kind of noise music that tears into the silence??? idk this is a weird fucking song and i love it. this thing jumpscares me and it's great . it's so bizarre and ominous and i haven't really heard anything like it ever. shoutout to my gender studies teacher for playing this during class for some reason ????? if a song were to ever be trans this would be it i guess」

[bfuhrnerd]

I DID IT BITCHES

[assortedantics]

This puts me at 1 of like 4 people I’m pretty sure, so there’s a good chance I’m the #1 Arthur Sullivan spotify listener

If you have more than me please tell me because I need humbling

[clamarcap]

Eine kleine Nichtmusik

P.D.Q. Bach ovvero Peter Schickele (1935): Eine kleine Nichtmusik (1977). The New York Pick-up Ensemble, dir. Peter Schickele. Ecco un quodlibet alquanto irriverente. Se non riuscite a individuare tutte le compo­si­zioni citate, oltre ovviamente alla serenata quasi omonima (K 525) di Mozart, ne potete trovare qui di seguito i titoli, elencati in ordine di apparizione 😀 I movimento:   – Anonimo:…

[psycheapuleius]

Memorial to Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900).

London England

[countesspetofi]

Five Shakespeare Songs: I. Orpheus with his lute

Orpheus with his lute made trees, And the mountain tops that freeze, Bow themselves when he did sing: To his music plants and flowers Ever sprung; as sun and showers There had made a lasting spring. Every thing that heard him play, Even the billows of the sea, Hung their heads, and then lay by. In sweet music is such art, Killing care and grief of heart Fall asleep, or hearing, die.

[bouquinteim]

Thomas Round and Donald Adams read a short bio of G&S. date: 1972 (?)

[doyouknowthismusical]

[melancholy-lute]

Merry Christmas!

[fuzzysparrow]

The Swedish Nightingale

Jenny Lind, nicknamed the Swedish Nightingale, was a remarkable soprano singer who captivated audiences during the 19th century. Her voice propelled her to stardom at a young age, making her one of the most celebrated opera singers of her time. Born in Klara in Stockholm, Sweden, on 6th October 1820, Johanna Maria Lind was the illegitimate child of Niclas Jonas Lind (1798-1858) and Anne-Marie…

[opera-ghosts]

OTD in Music History: “The Pirates of Penzance,” a “topsy-turvy” comic opera with lyrics by dramatist W.S. Gilbert (1836 – 1911) and music by composer Arthur Sullivan (1842 – 1900), receives its New York premiere in 1879. Gilbert and Sullivan are still widely recognized as one of the all-time-great teams in musical history, churning out more than a dozen classic comic operas (including “H.M.S. Pinafore” and “The Mikado”) between 1871 – 1896, many of which continue to delight audiences nearly a century and a half later. In 1922, conductor Sir Henry Wood (1869 – 1944) explained the enduring success of their remarkable collaboration as follows: “Sullivan has never had an equal for brightness and drollery, for humour without coarseness and without vulgarity, and for charm and grace. His orchestration is delightful: he wrote with full understanding of every orchestral voice. Above all, his music is perfectly appropriate to the words of which it is the setting.... He found the right, the only cadences to fit Gilbert's happy and original rhythms, and to match Gilbert's fun or to throw Gilbert's frequent irony, pointed although not savage, into relief. Sullivan's music is much more than the accompaniment of Gilbert's libretti, just as Gilbert's libretti are far more than words to Sullivan's music. We have two masters who are playing a concerto. Neither is subordinate to the other; each gives what is original, but the two, while neither predominates, are in perfect correspondence. This rare harmony of words and music is what makes these operas entirely unique. They are the work not of a musician and his librettist nor of a poet and one who sets his words to music, but of two geniuses..." PICTURED: Two short autograph letters, handwritten and signed (separately) by Gilbert and Sullivan, respectively.

[sequestered-song-skirmish]

Round 1 Poll 53

Hyper Realistic Eyes：　「it is so ridiculously good. it just sounds so crunchy and it's clear the artist was so passionate about it, plus it's about being a kid and reading creepypastas which is just a great subject matter. just a very good song overall」

The Nightmare Song：　「While The Nightmare Song and the operetta it's from (Iolanthe) may not be totally obscure, I think this specific version of it is niche enough to count for this competition. Martyn Green was one of D'Oyly Carte's best comic baritones, and his performances in Gilbert and Sullivan shows are wonderful. However, while his renditions of G&S numbers are not impossible to find, they're also not easy to get ahold of either. The YouTube video I've linked to is actually an almost hour-long collection of Martyn Green singing G&S songs, and the whole thing has only about 1.1K views. (I don't know if it's on Spotify as I don't have a Spotify account) I've sent a timestamped link, to where the song starts at 38:30. The Nightmare Song itself is an entertaining and impressive example of patter, which showcases the talent and diction of its performer.」

The timestamp works for me currently, but I can't promise it will after posting. If it doesn't in the embed, perhaps it will in the link above.

PaddleOut：　「paddleout (and raven underground's music in general) has just really really solid guitar work. i happened upon this artist a couple years back? i don't remember exactly how, i think it was a chance spotify recommendation of something off of The War for Bohemia album. I ended up liking the Pangolin Bloodbath album more, though. anyway i fell in love with PaddleOut. the main riff is so smooth and the slides on the notes are so masterful. what's awesome is the riff shows up again in another song later on the album, UV Light. i love leitmotifs so bad... the vocalist has sort of an emo-ish lilt to their voice, but somehow it fits in really well with the overall indie rock/alt rock/mild grunge aesthetic of the instrumentals (i'm bad at genre identification don't @ me). PaddleOut has a really great full sound and i used to listen to it to fall asleep when taking naps. good ass song.

i know it has a bit more than the allotted streams/views but ive still not met another person who knows about Raven Underground unless i introduced it to them.」

(In case it's important to anyone, below is the only upload of the song on YouTube, which is unofficial and has <100 views. Their official YT has just under 900 subscribers. On Spotify, about 11K monthly listeners and 20K-ish for this song.)