Arthur Sullivan - A Musical Reappraisal

Arthur Sullivan was Victorian Britain's most celebrated composer, whose music still reaches a wider audience than that of any of his contemporaries. Yet the comic operas on which Sullivan's reputation is chiefly based have been consistently belittled or ignored, while his serious works have until recently remained virtually unknown. This book offers a new appraisal of the music of this most notable 19th-century British composer. Focusing on key pieces in all the major genres in which he composed, it includes accounts of his most important serious works alongside examination of the celebrated operas created with W.S. Gilbert to present a balanced portrayal of Sullivan's musical achievement.

List of contents

1. Incidental Music, Re-enchanted Isle: Sullivan’s music to The Tempest 2. Orchestral Music, Sullivan as Instrumental Composer: The Symphony & Orchestral Music 3. Song, Sullivan, The Window, and the English Song Cycle 4. Chamber Music, Domestic Day-Dreams: Sullivan’s Piano & Instrumental Music 5. Comic Opera, Musical Design and Dramaturgy in the Savoy Operas 6. Cantata, Shining through the Ages: Scenes from The Golden Legend 7. Grand Opera, On History and National Identity: Sullivan, Scott, and Ivanhoe 8. Choral & Liturgical Music, Aspects of Sullivan’s religious style in the Te Deums

About the author

Benedict Taylor is Lecturer in Music and Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of Mendelssohn, Time and Memory: The Romantic Conception of Cyclic Form (2011) and The Melody of Time: Music and Temporality in the Romantic Era (2016).

Product details

• Authors: Benedict Taylor, Taylor Benedict
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 14.08.2017
• EAN: 9781409469100
• ISBN: 978-1-4094-6910-0
• No. of pages: 244
• Series: Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Music > General, dictionaries; Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups, MUSIC / Individual Composer & Musician, MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Classical, MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Opera, Opera, Romanticism, Composers and songwriters, Romantic Music (C 1830 To C 1900), Art music, orchestral and formal music