1871‒1877

Abstract

Abstract By now widely recognized as England’s leading composer, Arthur Sullivan devoted the first half of the 1870s to sacred works, including a massive Te Deum to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales from typhoid fever (1872), his most significant oratorio, The Light of the World (1873), forty-two original hymn tunes and seventy-five hymn tune arrangements and numerous sacred songs and ballads. The Light of the World broke significant new ground by dispensing with a narrator and for the first time in English oratorio making Jesus a real character who appeared and sang and interacted with other characters. As well as acting as editor for a major Anglican hymnal, Church Hymns and Tunes (1874), Sullivan wrote numerous hymn tunes, including the ever-popular ST GERTRUDE for ‘Onward, Christian soldiers’ and NOEL for ‘It came upon the midnight clear’. He may also have had a hand in ST CLEMENT for ‘The day, Thou gavest, Lord, is ended’. In 1877, sitting at the bedside of his dying brother, he wrote the tune for his sacred ballad, ‘The Lost Chord’ which became the best-selling song of the last quarter of the nineteenth century.