A great musical figure

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32880, 1 April 1972, Page 10

A great musical figure

Sir Arthur Sullivan. By Percy M. Young. Dent. 267 pp. Appendix, Bibliography and Index. Arthur Seymour Sullivan was born in 1842 and when he died at the turn of the century “The Times” wrote “The death of Sir Arthur Sullivan . . . may be said without hyperbole to have plunged the whole of the Empire in gloom; for many years he has ranked with the most distinguished personages, rather than with ordinary musicians . . .” Sullivan’s career as a serious composer, as a conductor and as a Festival Director was so outstanding, and his collaboration with W. S. Gilbert resulted in such fame, that it comes as a surprise to realise that this work by Dr Percy Young is the first serious and lengthy biography of Sullivan. Probably the main reason for this is the very fame Sullivan won as part of the team of Gilbert and Sullivan; he is thought of sb constantly as half of a partnership that his individual talents and achievements have been largely ignored. Dr Young was the obvious man to remedy this situation. A distinguished scholar of musical history, he has already to his credit a number of works which will be familiar to students of music. Several of these are mainly biographical as, for example, his works on Handel, Schumann and Elgar. To his life of Sullivan Dr Young brings the same careful research and

historical feeling that distinguished the earlier works. He spends little time in actual detailed description of the Victorian society in which Sullivan lived but the book conveys solidly the manners and conventions of the age. Partly this is done through describing Sullivan’s friendships with the Royal Family and with such eminent Victorians as Dickens, Browning and Sir John Millais. It is in the story of these relationships, and, of course in the careful unbiased retelling of the often stormy collaboration with W. S. Gilbert that the general reader of this biography will find most to interest him. For though Dr Young writes consistently well and interestingly it must be acknowledged that much of this volume will be of interest mainly to the serious student of music. The author not only gives lengthy critical commentaries on Sullivan s major works but also elaborates with numerous music examples. This book is a serious and necessary study of a composer whose work, apart from the well-known Savoy Operas, has been largely neglected. Dr Young shows he was the greatest musical figure (composer, conductor and director) in the Victorian age. “Sir Arthur Sullivan” is well produced, with two sets of gloriously solid Victorian illustrations, ample notes to each chapter and a comprehensive bibliography and index.