Thomas German Reed (27 June 1817 – 21 March 1888), known after 1844 as simply German Reed was an English composer, musical director, actor, singer and theatrical manager of the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

. He was best known for creating the German Reed Entertainments, together with his actress wife, a genre of musical plays that made theatre-going respectable at a time when the stage was considered disreputable. While acting as organist and chapel-master at chapels in London, and also as musical director and performer at

West End theatre West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London.Christopher Innes, "West End" in ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 1194–1 ...

s in the 1830s and 1840s, Reed tried his hand at producing opera. He married

Priscilla Horton Priscilla Horton, later Priscilla German Reed (2 January 1818 – 18 March 1895), was an English singer and actress, known for her role as Ariel in W. C. Macready's production of '' The Tempest'' in 1838 and "fairy" burlesques at Covent Garden ...

, a noted singer, actress and dancer, in 1844. By 1851, he was managing opera productions at various theatres in London and on tour. In 1855, Reed and his wife began to present and perform in "Mr. and Mrs. German Reed's Entertainments", consisting of brief, small-scale, family-friendly

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

s. In the early and mid-Victorian era, the respectable middle classes regarded the theatre in general as sinful. Therefore, the Reeds shrewdly called their establishment the "Gallery of Illustration" and their productions "entertainments" to emphasize their refined propriety. In addition to comic classics like ''

The Beggar's Opera ''The Beggar's Opera'' is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satiri ...

'', the Reeds usually presented new works by English writers such as F. C. Burnand,

W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most fam ...

, William Brough and Gilbert à Beckett. His composers included

Frederic Clay Frederic Emes Clay (3 August 1838 – 24 November 1889) was an English composer known principally for songs and his music written for the stage. Although from a musical family, for 16 years Clay made his living as a civil servant in HM Treasury ...

, Arthur Sullivan,

George Macfarren George Macfarren (1788–1843) was a playwright and the father of composer George Alexander Macfarren. Life He was born in London 5 September 1788. He was the son of George Macfarren. He was educated chiefly at Archbishop Tenison's school in Cast ...

and

Alfred Cellier Alfred Cellier (1 December 184428 December 1891) was an English composer, orchestrator and conductor. In addition to conducting and music directing the original productions of several of the most famous Gilbert and Sullivan works and writing t ...

, as well as himself. Reed retired in 1871 after an injury, and his son Alfred took over the entertainments with his mother.

Life and career

Reed was born in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, the son of Thomas Reed (1795–1871), a musician, and his wife, Frances, ''née'' German (1796–1839). He studied music with his father and made his debut at the age of ten as a pianist and singer at the Bath Theatre.Stedman, Jane W
"Reed, (Thomas) German (1817–1888)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, Jan 2008, accessed 1 February 2013 The family moved to London where Thomas Reed was appointed conductor at the Haymarket Theatre.Woodbridge Wilson, Frederic
"Reed, Thomas German"
Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, accessed 31 January 2013 The young Reed played, sang and acted at the theatre. In 1832, German Reed became an organist at the Roman Catholic Chapel in

Sloane Street Sloane Street is a major London street in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea which runs north to south, from Knightsbridge to Sloane Square, crossing Pont Street about halfway along. History Sloane Street takes its name from Sir H ...

and assistant to his father, who moved to be conductor at the

Garrick Theatre The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, named after the stage actor David Garrick. It opened in 1889 with ''The Profligate'', a play by Arthur Wing Pinero, and another Pinero play, ' ...

. His work at the theatre included scoring and adapting new operas, including ''

Fra Diavolo Fra Diavolo (lit. Brother Devil; 7 April 1771–11 November 1806), is the popular name given to Michele Pezza, a famous guerrilla leader who resisted the French occupation of Naples, proving an "inspirational practitioner of popular insurrect ...

'' in 1837. He also gave private music lessons. Robert Jacob Hamerton - Poster for A Sensation Novel

In 1838, Reed was appointed chapel-master at the Royal Bavarian Chapel and also became musical director at his father's former employer, the Haymarket Theatre, where he continued to work until 1851 with the exception of a temporary closure in 1843, during which he produced Pacini's opera '' Sappho'' at the

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dr ...

. During these years, he met Priscilla Horton, a successful and popular

contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typica ...

and actress who had been performing on the stage in London since the age of ten. They married in 1844. By that year he had dropped his first name. In 1851, Reed was engaged to assist in the production of opera at the Surrey Theatre and later managed Sadler's Wells Opera for a season and also conducted the music at the

Olympic Theatre The Olympic Theatre, sometimes known as the Royal Olympic Theatre, was a 19th-century London theatre, opened in 1806 and located at the junction of Drury Lane, Wych Street and Newcastle Street. The theatre specialised in comedies throughout ...

, as well as touring extensively in the British provinces. In the spring of 1855, at St. Martin's Hall, Reed and his wife presented the first performance of "Miss P. Horton's Illustrative Gatherings," musical theatre. These performances usually consisted of one or two brief

s designed for a minimal number of characters and performed with either the piano and

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. Th ...

or a small ensemble of musicians. They eventually became "Mr. and Mrs. German Reed's Entertainments", presented at the Royal Gallery of Illustration in Regent Street, beginning in 1856, and later at St. George's Hall. At a time when the respectable middle classes regarded the theatre in general as sinful and even dangerous places of naughty humour, alcohol and prostitution, the Reeds called their establishment the "Gallery" of Illustration, rather than a "theatre", and their productions "entertainments" or "illustrative gatherings", rather than plays,

extravaganza An extravaganza is a literary or musical work (often musical theatre) usually containing elements of burlesque, pantomime, music hall and parody in a spectacular production and characterized by freedom of style and structure. It sometimes also ...

s, or burlesques. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' characterised the works as "extravaganza of the more refined order.""Obituary" ''The Times'', 26 March 1888, p. 9 Reed and his wife almost always appeared in these pieces, and on the few occasions when they did not, the box-office receipts suffered. Reed became the lessee of St. George's Hall in 1867, and there he initially produced and conducted ''

The Contrabandista ''The Contrabandista'', ''or The Law of the Ladrones'', is a two-act comic opera by Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand. It premiered at St. George's Hall, in London, on 18 December 1867 under the management of Thomas German Reed, for a run of 72 ...

'' by Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand, ''

'' and other English operas in small-scale productions, as well as non-musical plays. Around the same time, at the Gallery of Illustration, he presented works with libretti by, among others,

, William Brough, Gilbert à Beckett,

Robert Reece Robert Reece (2 May 1838 – 8 July 1891) was a British comic playwright and librettist active in the Victorian era. He wrote many successful musical burlesques, comic operas, farces and adaptations from the French, including the English-lang ...

and Arthur Law. His composers included

and

Hamilton Clarke James Hamilton Siree Clarke (25 January 1840 – 9 July 1912), better known as Hamilton Clarke, was an English conductor, composer and organist. Although Clarke was a prolific composer, he is best remembered as an associate of Arthur Sullivan, ...

as well as Sullivan and Reed himself. He wrote the scores for more than a dozen of the entertainments, and is described by the museum curator Fredric Woodbridge Wilson as "an imaginative and effective writer of music for the stage". Little of Reed's music survives. A few individual songs were published, but the scores of the entertainments were not. The autograph of the music for ''Our Island Home'' is preserved in

The Morgan Library & Museum The Morgan Library & Museum, formerly the Pierpont Morgan Library, is a museum and research library in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is situated at 225 Madison Avenue, between 36th Street to the south and 37th ...

, New York, but no other scores are known to be extant. When the lease on the Gallery of Illustration ended in 1873, the German Reed entertainments moved to St. George's Hall. After falling from his horse when hunting, Reed had retired in 1871; his son Alfred (1847–1895) took over the entertainments with his mother, continuing with the entertainments after her retirement in 1879, until 1895. Reed died at St. Croix, Upper

East Sheen East Sheen, also known as Sheen, is a suburb in south-west London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its long high street has shops, offices, restaurants, cafés, pubs and suburban supermarkets and is also the economic hub for Mortl ...

, Surrey at the age of 70. He was buried in

Old Mortlake Burial Ground Old Mortlake Burial Ground, also known as Old Mortlake Cemetery, is a cemetery in Mortlake in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, at Avenue Gardens, London SW14 8BP. Established in 1854, and enlarged in 1877, it is now managed by Richmon ...

Works composed by German Reed

*''The Drama at Home, or An Evening with Puff'' (1844) *''A Match for the King'' (1844) *''The Golden Fleece, or Jason in Colchis and Medea in Corinth'' (1845) *''Who's the Composer?'' (1845) *''The Wonderful Water Cure'' (1846) *'' No Cards'' (1869, libretto by W. S. Gilbert) *''

Our Island Home ''Our Island Home'' is a one-act musical entertainment with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Thomas German Reed that premiered on 20 June 1870 at the Royal Gallery of Illustration. The piece has five characters and is "biographical", i ...

'' (1870, libretto by W. S. Gilbert) *''

A Sensation Novel ''A Sensation Novel'' is a comic musical play in three acts (or volumes) written by the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, with music composed by Thomas German Reed. It was first performed on 31 January 1871 at the Royal Gallery of Illustration. Only f ...

'' (1871, libretto by W. S. Gilbert) *''Mildred's Well, a Romance of the Middle Ages'' (1873) *''He's Coming (Via Slumborough, Snoozleton & Snoreham)'' (1874) *''The Three Tenants'' (1874) *''The Ancient Britons'' (1875) *'' Eyes and No Eyes; or, The Art of Seeing'' (1875, libretto by W. S. Gilbert) *''Enchantment'' (libretto by Arthur Law) *''A Spanish Bond'' (1875) *''An Indian Puzzle'' (1876) *''The Wicked Duke'' (1876) *''Matched and Mated'' (1876) *''A Night's Surprise'' (1877) *''No. 204'' (1877, libretto by F. C. Burnand)

Notes

References

* * * Obituary: Thomas German Reed in ''The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular'', Vol. 29, No. 542 (1 April 1888), p. 234

External links

Information and links about Gilbert's works for the German ReedsDescription of an "Illustrative Gathering"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reed, Thomas German 1817 births 1888 deaths Actor-managers English male stage actors English male classical composers English classical composers 19th-century British male singers English theatre managers and producers English opera composers Male opera composers People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan 19th-century English male actors 19th-century classical composers 19th-century British composers 19th-century theatre managers 19th-century English businesspeople