The critical reputation of the British composer Arthur Sullivan has fluctuated markedly in the 150 years since he came to prominence. At first, critics regarded him as a potentially great composer of serious masterpieces, the long-awaited great English composer.Jacobs, pp. 28 and 42 When Sullivan made a series of popular successes in comic operas with the librettist W.S. Gilbert, Victorian critics generally praised the operettas but reproached Sullivan for not concentrating on composing solemn choral works and grand opera instead. Immediately after Sullivan's death, his reputation was attacked by critics who condemned him for not taking part in what they conceived of as an "English musical renaissance". By the latter part of the 20th century, Sullivan's music was being critically reassessed, beginning with the first book devoted to a study of his music, The Music of Arthur Sullivan by Gervase Hughes (1960).
Early career
When the young Arthur Sullivan returned to England after his studies in Leipzig, critics were struck by his potential as a composer. His incidental music to The Tempest received an acclaimed premiere at the Crystal Palace on 5 April 1862. The Athenaeum wrote:
His Irish Symphony of 1866 won similarly enthusiastic praise: "The symphony...is not only by far the most noticeable composition that has proceeded from Mr. Sullivan's pen, but the best musical work, if judged only by the largeness of its form and the number of beautiful thoughts it contains, for a long time produced by any English composer."The Times, quoted in Jacobs, p. 42 But as Arthur Jacobs notes, "The first rapturous outburst of enthusiasm for Sullivan as an orchestral composer did not last." A comment that may be taken as typical of those that would follow the composer throughout his career was that "Sullivan's unquestionable talent should make him doubly careful not to mistake popular applause for artistic appreciation."Jacobs, p. 49
Sullivan was also occasionally cited for a lack of diligence. For instance, of his early oratorio, The Prodigal Son, his teacher, John Goss, wrote:
Transition to opera By the mid-1870s, Sullivan had turned his attention mainly to works for the theatre, for which he was generally admired. For instance, after the first performance of Trial by Jury (1875), the Times said that "It seems, as in the great Wagnerian operas, as though poem and music had proceeded simultaneously from one and the same brain."Quoted in Allen, p. 30 But serious music critics began to express disapproval. The music critic Peter Gammond writes of "misapprehensions and prejudices, delivered to our door by the Victorian firm Musical Snobs Ltd. ... frivolity and high spirits were sincerely seen as elements that could not be exhibited by anyone who was to be admitted to the sanctified society of Art."Gammond, p. 137 By the time The Sorcerer appeared in 1877, there were charges that Sullivan was wasting his talents in comic opera:
Implicit in these comments was the view that comic opera, no matter how carefully crafted, was an intrinsically lower form of art than oratorio. The Athenaeum's review of The Martyr of Antioch expressed a similar complaint: "It might be wished that in some portions Mr Sullivan had taken a loftier view of his theme, but at any rate he has written some most charming music, and orchestration equal, if not superior, to any that has ever proceeded from the pen of an English musician. And, further, it is an advantage to have the composer of H.M.S. Pinafore occupying himself with a worthier form of art."25 October 1880, quoted in Jacobs, p. 149
The operas with Gilbert themselves, however, garnered Sullivan high praise from the theatre reviewers. For instance, The Daily Telegraph wrote, "The composer has risen to his opportunity, and we are disposed to account Iolanthe his best effort in all the Gilbertian series."Quoted in Allen, p. 176 Similarly, the Theatre would say that "the music of Iolanthe is Dr Sullivan's chef d'oeuvre. The quality throughout is more even, and maintained at a higher standard, than in any of his earlier works.... In every respect Iolanthe sustains Dr Sullivan's reputation as the most spontaneous, fertile, and scholarly composer of comic opera this country has ever produced."Beatty-Kingston, William. The Theatre, 1 January 1883, p. 28 Sullivan received honorary doctorates of music from the University of Cambridge in 1876,"University Intelligence", The Times, 18 May 1876, p. 6 and Oxford in 1879."University Intelligence", The Times, 11 June 1879, p. 10
Knighthood and maturity Cartoon from Punch in 1880. It was premature in declaring Sullivan's knighthood, but was accompanied by a parody version of "When I, good friends" from Trial by Jury that summarised Sullivan's career to that date: "A HUMOROUS KNIGHT."["It is reported that after the Leeds Festival Dr. Sullivan will be knighted." Having read this in a column of gossip, a be-nighted Contributor, who has "the Judge's Song" on the brain, suggests the following verse, adapted to probabilities.]As a boy I had such a musical bump, And its size so struck Mr. HELMORE, That he said, "Though you sing those songs like a trump, You shall write some yourself that will sell more." So I packed off to Leipsic, without looking back, And returned in such classical fury, That I sat down with HANDEL and HAYDN and BACH,— And turned out "Trial by Jury."
But W.S.G. he jumped for joy As he said, "Though the job dismay you, Send Exeter Hall to the deuce, my boy; It's the haul with me that'll pay you." And we hauled so well, mid jeers and taunts, That we've settled, spite all temptations, To stick to our Sisters and our Cousins and our Aunts,— And continue our pleasant relations.
Yet I know a big Duke, and I've written for Leeds, And I think (I don't wish to be snarly), If honour's poured out on a chap for his deeds, I'm as good-—come, as MONCKTON or CHARLEY! So the next "first night" and the Opéra C., Let's hope, if you're able to find him, You'll cry from the pit, "There's W. S. G. In the stalls,—with a KNIGHT behind him!"
After Sullivan was knighted in 1883, serious music critics renewed the charge that the composer was squandering his talent. The Musical Review of that year wrote:
In Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Sir George Grove, who was an old friend of Sullivan's, recognised the artistry in the Savoy Operas while urging the composer to bigger and better things: "Surely the time has come when so able and experienced a master of voice, orchestra, and stage effect—master, too, of so much genuine sentiment—may apply his gifts to a serious opera on some subject of abiding human or natural interest."Grove, George. "Sullivan, Arthur Seymour" Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London 1879–89, p. 762, quoted in Sarema, Meinhard. "In the Purgatory of Tradition: Arthur Sullivan and the English Musical Renaissance", Deutsche Sullivan Gesellschaft, 2000, accessed 10 December 2017
The premiere of The Golden Legend at the Leeds Festival in 1886 finally brought Sullivan the acclaim for a serious work that he had previously lacked.Stanford, pp. 161–63 For instance, the critic of the Daily Telegraph wrote that "a greater, more legitimate and more undoubted triumph than that of the new cantata has not been achieved within my experience."Quoted in Jacobs, p. 247 The Observer hailed it as a "triumph of English art"."Leeds Music Festival", The Observer, 17 October 1886, p. 6 Similarly, Louis Engel in The World called it: "one of the greatest creations we have had for many years. Original, bold, inspired, grand in conception, in execution, in treatment, it is a composition which will make an "epoch" and which will carry the name of its composer higher on the wings of fame and glory. The effect it produced at rehearsal was enormous. The effect of the public performance was unprecedented."Quoted in Harris, p. IV Hopes for a new departure were evident in the Daily Telegraph'''s review of The Yeomen of the Guard, Sullivan's most serious opera to that point:
1890s The advance that the Daily Telegraph was looking for would come with Sullivan's only grand opera, Ivanhoe (1891), which opened to largely favourable reviews,Dailey, pp. 129–33 but attracted some significant negative ones. For instance, J. A. Fuller Maitland wrote in The Times that the opera's "best portions rise so far above anything else that Sir Arthur Sullivan has given to the world, and have such force and dignity, that it is not difficult to forget the drawbacks which may be found in the want of interest in much of the choral writing, and the brevity of the concerted solo parts."Quoted in Jacobs, p. 331 In her 1891 essay "Arthur Seymour Sullivan", Florence A. Marshall reviewed Sullivan's music up to that time, concluding that Sullivan was torn between his interests in comedy and tragedy. She wrote that he was "no dreamy idealist, but thoroughly practical ... apprehending and assimilating all the tendencies in the life of society around him, and knowing how to turn them all to account ... music is, in his hands, a plastic material, into which he can mould anything. His mastery of form and of instrumentation is absolute, and he wields them without the slightest semblance of effort. His taste is ... unerring; his perceptions of the keenest; his sense of humor infectious and irresistible."Marshall, Florence A. "Arthur Seymour Sullivan", Famous Composers and Their Works, vol. 1, Millet Co.,1891
In the 1890s, Sullivan's successes were fewer and farther between than earlier in his career. The ballet Victoria and Merrie England (1898) won praise from most critics:"Sir Arthur Sullivan's New Ballet", The Daily News, 26 May 1897, p. 8; "Alhambra Theatre", The Morning Post, 26 May 1897, p. 7; "Sir Arthur Sullivan's New Ballet 'Victoria'", The Manchester Guardian, 26 May 1897, p. 7; "Music", The Illustrated London News, 29 May 1897, p. 730; and "Victoria And Merrie England", The Era, 29 May 1897, p. 8
After The Rose of Persia (1899), the Daily Telegraph said that "The musician is once again absolutely himself", while the Musical Times opined that "it is music that to hear once is to want to hear again and again."Quoted in Jacobs, p. 397
In 1899, Sullivan composed a popular song, "The Absent-Minded Beggar", to a text by Rudyard Kipling, donating the proceeds of the sale to "the wives and children of soldiers and sailors" on active service in the Boer War. Fuller Maitland disapproved in The Times, but Sullivan himself asked a friend, "Did the idiot expect the words to be set in cantata form, or as a developed composition with symphonic introduction, contrapuntal treatment, etc.?"Quoted in Jacobs, p. 396
Although the more solemn members of the musical establishment could not forgive Sullivan for writing music that was both comic and accessible, he was, nevertheless, "the nation's de facto composer laureate".Maine, Basil. "Elgar, Sir Edward William", 1949, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography archive, accessed 20 April 2010 Sullivan was considered the natural candidate to compose a Te Deum for the end of the Boer War, which he duly completed, despite serious ill-health; it was performed posthumously. Gian Andrea Mazzucato wrote this glowing summary of Sullivan's career in The Musical Standard of 16 December 1899:
Posthumous reputation