Archive item of the month: May 2022

Arthur Sullivan (London, 13 May 1842 – London, 22 November 1900) singer, organist, conductor and composer 

Arthur Sullivan was a boy singer in the Chapel Royal and the first recipient, in 1856, of the then newly established “Mendelssohn Scholarship” given for study at the Royal Academy of Music. He was taught piano by William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875, Member A400), composition by John Goss (1800-1880, Member A324) and spent a year in Leipzig studying with Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870) and Julius Rietz (1812-1877). 

Sullivan was conductor of the Civil Service Music Society and the Glasgow Choral and Orchestral Union, amongst many other posts and positions. The two programmes displayed on this page give a flavour of the programming of the many public and private concerts of the period, and both include extracts from his own compositions. Sullivan is probably primarily known for his operettas and the strong association with the author William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911) alongside the working relationship with the theatre manager and entrepreneur Richard D’Oyly Carte. 

Sullivan’s association with the RSM stems from his time as a child chorister.  Although he never joined the RSM, Sullivan was the President at the anniversary Festival on 13 March 1883. During his speech delivered that evening, Sullivan politely berated the Society for the previous annual concert of Handel’s Messiah, which had failed to make a profit. In the following year, when he was asked to conduct the annual concert he had the good sense to decline the invitation, considering what he had said publicly at the dinner: “I much regret I cannot conduct the annual performance of the “Messiah” …after the opinion I expressed in public about this annual performance I can hardly with consistency take part in it.” 

Further reading: 

Mackie, David, editor, Arthur Sullivan and the Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain: proceedings of the Society’s 145th anniversary festival dinner and other papers relating to Arthur Sullivan and the Society (London: The Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain, 2005).