For many years now, the refined art of Sir Arthur Sullivan as a composer of serious music has been veiled by his success as a first-rate composer of operetta. His extensive output of works range through oratorios. cantatas, incidental music to several Shakespearean plays, and a symphony. Generally, it is the skill with which Sullivan handles the orchestra that strikes one - the descants, fast dotted rhythms against soaring melodic ariosi, and the alternation in octaves of tonic and dominant in dotted rhythm. Though some of his ballads are of frugal value, his talents as a miniaturist are underlined in his settings of Shakespeare, Shelley, Tennyson and Robert Bums. The same might be said of some of his piano compositions. There is no doubt however, that the theatre gave the 21 year old golden boy of English music a musical freedom by allowing him a detachment - sometimes ironic - to which otherwise he might have been too ready to respond with cliché.
With regard to the songs. Setting aside the banality of 'The Lost Chord' and one or two of the sentimental ballads leaves us free to appreciate and enjoy his genuine vitality of imagination as a songwriter of worth. His setting of 'Orpheus with his Lute' is a case in point. One of Burns' sweethearts has been immortalised in several beautiful Scottish songs. namely 'Afton Water', 'Highland Mary'. Mary of Argyle' and Sullivans impassioned 'Mary Morisson'. The unusual compositional ending of the latter, which ends on the fifth of the minor scale. lends the melody an old world charm of tender pathos.
Coinciding with the publication of 'Orpheus with his lute' came two other songs of differing temper and quality. 'lf Douqhty Deeds' and 'Arabian Love Song'. The Shelley setting hints at Schubert. Following the run of 'Thespis'. the music was lost, although some music has now been found- except for the chorus 'Climbing over Rocky Mountain' and Sparkeon's aria 'Little Maid of Arcadee'. The latter was later published as a separate ballad and became extremely popular, as did 'Sweethearts', which knowledgeable sources state was written within a few hours. His respectable Muse incited him to set the anonymous Wiegenlied 'Little Darling Sleep Again', an elegant song penned in the simplest of forms.
The piano music of Sullivan was as much a means of natural self-expression as if it were part of him. He expressed through it thoughts and feelings that could not have been expressed via any other instrument. His Op. 2 and Op. 14 compositions show two sides of his character, the active and the reflective. It seems to be the fashion to group together the pianoforte writings of Schumann. Mendelssohn and Sullivan. Though their individualities were pronounced, they represent the same general stamp of what we call 'refined romanticism',
In these Albumblijtter, he is at times tender, gay and bold, but whatever his mood, it is not merely a mood expressed in tone by a composer, it is the mood of Sullivan expressed through the piano, Sullivans's other self.
C. Phillip Rodden
SIDE ONE
1. If Doughty Deeds/Graham of Gartmore
2. Mary Morisson/Robert Burns
3. Thoughts 1
4. Thoughts2
5. Arabian Love Song/Percy 8ysshe Shelley
6. Little Darling Sleep Again/Anon
7 Daydreams 1
8. Daydreams 2
9. Sweethearts/W.S. Gilbert
10. The Love That Loves Me Not/ W.S. Gilbert
SIDE TWO
1. Little Maid of Arcadee/W.S. Gilbert
2. Daydreams 3
3. Daydreams 4
4. I want to proclaim it aloud/Mlilhelm August Corrodi
5. Tears, Idle Tears/Alfred Lord Tennyson
6. Daydreams 5
7. Daydreams 6
8. Arion's Song
9. Edward Gray/Alfred, Lord Tennyson
10. Twilight