Hamilton Clarke
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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 Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...
, for whom he arranged music and compiled overtures for some of the
Savoy Operas Savoy opera was a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which imp ...
, including Gilbert and Sullivan's ''
The Mikado ''The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan, operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, whe ...
''. Clarke began as an organist, pianist and theatre conductor, becoming a musical director for
Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen com ...
, among others. While conducting at London theatres, he also composed a tremendous volume of church music, organ solos, songs, operettas and orchestral works. Beginning in the late 1870s, he composed
incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as th ...
as musical director for many of
Henry Irving Sir Henry Irving (6 February 1838 – 13 October 1905), christened John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility ( ...
's spectacular productions at the Lyceum Theatre. He also composed music for many of the
German Reed Entertainments The German Reed Entertainments were founded in 1855 and operated by Thomas German Reed (1817–1888) together with his wife, Priscilla German Reed (née Horton) (1818–1895). At a time when the theatre in London was seen as a disreput ...
and conducted at many other London theatres in the 1870s and 1880s. Clark published a ''Manual of Orchestration'' and music criticism, as well as some fiction. In 1889, he took charge of the Victorian National Orchestra in Australia, returning to England in 1892 and soon becoming conductor of the
Carl Rosa Opera Company The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, and his wife, British operatic soprano Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company premiere ...
for several years.


Biography

Clarke was born in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
, the son of an amateur organist."Death of Mr. Hamilton Clarke", ''The Musical Herald,'' 1 August 1912, p. 237 He began playing the piano at age four, and by six had improvised a tune that he reused in one of his mature works forty years later. He took up the violin when he was eight and played in an orchestra at twelve. In the same year, he became the organist at his church and was composing music by age 19.Moratti, Mel
Clarke's profile from ''Argus'', 20 May 1889
, reprinted at the Gilbert and Sullivan Australia site
His parents did not approve of his taking music up as a profession, and he was sent to work first with an analytical chemist and then with a land surveyor. According to ''
The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' was an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer's Musical Times and Singing Circular'', but in 1844 he sold it to Alfr ...
'', he did not take up music as a profession until he was in his twenties.''
The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' was an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer's Musical Times and Singing Circular'', but in 1844 he sold it to Alfr ...
'', 1 August 1912, p. 521
In 1864 he was awarded the first prize for anthems by the College of Organists.


Early career

Clarke held posts as organist in IrelandMackerness, E. D
"Clarke, Hamilton"
''Grove Music Online'', accessed 10 January 2009
and was conductor of the
Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
Anacreontic Society. From 1866 he was organist at
Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...
, where he also conducted the Queen's College Musical Society.Stone, David
"Hamilton Clarke"
''Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company'', 15 October 2001
After travelling for several years, he returned to London in 1871 and became the organist of Kensington Parish Church, London, and in 1872 he succeeded
Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...
as organist of St. Peter's,
South Kensington South Kensington is a district at the West End of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with the advent of the ra ...
. He left that post soon, however, to become a theatrical conductor. Clarke was
Richard D'Oyly Carte Richard D'Oyly Carte (; 3 May 1844 – 3 April 1901) was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer, and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era. He built two of London's theatres and a hotel empire, while also establi ...
's musical director and conductor at the
Opera Comique The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, located between Wych Street, Holywell Street and the Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and K ...
in 1874 for ''The Broken Branch'' adapted from ''La Branche Cassée''. Clarke interpolated into the
operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...
a ballet of his own composition, "Les Prètresses de l'Amour". In October 1875, Sullivan hired Clarke as a replacement musical director of ''
Trial by Jury A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial, in which a judge or panel of judges makes all decisions. Jury trials are increasingly used ...
'' at the Royalty Theatre, London, when Charles Morton succeeded Carte as general manager of the opera's original production. Clarke then moved with the production to the Opera Comique in January 1876, where it ran until May. In 1876 Clarke was reported to be suffering from "a long and painful illness", and Carte organised a benefit concert for him at the Langham Hall. By December of that year, Clarke was working again, adapting the score and providing new choruses and ballet music for the first English performances of ''Die Fledermaus'' at the Alhambra Theatre. The reviewer of ''The Observer'' found Johann Strauss II, Strauss's music "thin and commonplace" and thought Clarke's additional music much superior: "in remarkable contrast to that with which it is associated, being full of bright, characteristic melody, well harmonised and enriched by masterly orchestration." In 1877, Clarke participated in a very early experiment with telephone, telephony, with his organ playing being sent a distance of four miles down a wire. Clarke performed on the piano as an accompanist at the The Proms, promenade concerts at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden that year, and in 1878, encouraged by Sullivan, who was then in charge of the concerts, he conducted a major orchestral work of his own, a symphony in F major. ''The Times'' reported this concert thus:


Theatre work

Clarke conducted at ten or more London theatres, including the Lyceum Theatre, where he composed music for a number of
Henry Irving Sir Henry Irving (6 February 1838 – 13 October 1905), christened John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility ( ...
's productions, including ''Hamlet'' and ''The Merchant of Venice''. Irving's co-star, Ellen Terry, wrote in her memoir, ''The Story of My Life'', "No one was cleverer than Hamilton Clarke, Henry's first musical director, and a most gifted composer, at carrying out [Irving's] instructions. Hamilton Clarke often grew angry and flung out of the theatre, saying that it was quite impossible to do what Mr. Irving wanted. 'Patch it together, indeed!' he used to say to me indignantly.... 'Mr. Irving knows nothing about music, or he couldn't ask me to do such a thing.' But the next day he would return with the score altered on the lines suggested by Henry, and would confess that the music was improved. 'Upon my soul, it's better! The 'Guv'nor' was perfectly right.'"Marshall, Christabel.
reprinted in ''Ellen Terry's Memoirs''
pp. 121–22
He was one of the many composers recruited to write
German Reed Entertainments The German Reed Entertainments were founded in 1855 and operated by Thomas German Reed (1817–1888) together with his wife, Priscilla German Reed (née Horton) (1818–1895). At a time when the theatre in London was seen as a disreput ...
at St. George's Hall (London), St. George's Hall. These included ''Castle Botherem: or An Irish Stew'' (1880), ''Cherry Tree Farm'' (1881), and ''Nobody's Fault'' (1882) to texts by Arthur Law (playwright), Arthur Law, and ''Fairly Puzzled'' (text by Oliver Brand) in 1884 and ''A Pretty Bequest'' (text by T. Malcolm Watson) in 1885. Reviews both for Clarke's music and the performances of Corney Grain and the rest of the company were excellent. Clarke was a close associate of Arthur Sullivan. In 1878, at Sullivan's instance, he was engaged by Carte as musical director of his touring Comedy-Opera Company from March to November 1878, while the Company presented a revival of ''Trial'', the first provincial production of ''The Sorcerer'', and, from September 1878, the first provincial production of ''H.M.S. Pinafore''. He assisted Sullivan by arranging musical selections from ''H.M.S. Pinafore'' for the promenade concerts at Covent Garden in 1878 that stimulated audience interest in that opera. Sullivan described Clarke's arrangement as "most spirited" and conducted it at several of the promenade concerts in late August. Clarke also made an arrangement from ''The Pirates of Penzance'' for the promenade concerts in 1880. Clarke later arranged the overtures for
Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen com ...
's operas ''The Sorcerer'' (for its 1884 revival), ''
The Mikado ''The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan, operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, whe ...
'' (1885) and ''Ruddigore'' (1887). He also assisted in the piano arrangement of Sullivan's 1886 cantata, ''The Golden Legend (cantata), The Golden Legend'' and helped prepare the score for printing. Sullivan biographer Gervase Hughes later strongly criticised Clarke's work, finding the ''Mikado'' overture carelessly constructed and his ''Ruddigore'' overture a "jumble" and "a crude selection, hardly redeemed by its spirited ending". Hughes also criticised Clarke's overture to ''The Sorcerer'', though misattributing it to Alfred Cellier. Sullivan considered rewriting the ''Mikado'' overture and was thought to have sketched out a new overture on more symphonic lines, but no trace of it survives. Clarke's ''Ruddigore'' overture was dropped by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1919 in favour of a wholly rewritten overture by Geoffrey Toye. In 1882 Clarke provided the music for Alfred Tennyson, Lord Tennyson's play ''The Promise of May'', which was "a miserable fiasco", though Clarke's music was praised. He provided additional music, in 1883, for the English adaptation of Edmond Audran's ''Gillette de Narbonne''. He also contributed to the music of the successful 1885 Victorian burlesque, burlesque ''Little Jack Sheppard''. In 1887, he accepted the post of musical director at the Comedy Theatre under the management of Herbert Beerbohm Tree.


Publications and compositions

Clarke composed over 600 musical works, of which some 400 were published. His second symphony, in G minor, premiered in 1879, and he composed the music for some half dozen ballets and at least eleven operas. Compositions by Clarke mentioned over the years in ''The Musical Times'' showed the breadth of his interests, from part-songs, to organ works, to comedy: "Love and Gold": Four-Part Song; "Original Compositions for the Organ": No. 110; ''Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in B Flat''; "Sonatina for the Pianoforte"; "God so Loved the World"; "To the Audience'': Humorous Four-Part Song; "They That Go down to the Sea in Ships"; Romance for Violin and Pianoforte; and "To a Red Rose". In 1894, Clarke published ''The Daisy-Chain'' (Op. 352), an operetta for children in two acts, for which he wrote both words and music. He also wrote both the libretto and the score for ''Hornpipe Harry'', in 1897, a well-reviewed show depicting the adventures of sailors cast ashore on a remote island. One of his last compositions was the one-act operetta ''The Outpost (opera), The Outpost'', first produced by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre in July 1900. It was produced as a curtain raiser (drama), curtain raiser to ''The Pirates of Penzance'' and ''Patience (opera), Patience'' until December 1900 and also ran on tour in 1901–02. In 1888 Clarke published his ''Manual of Orchestration'' described by ''The Musical Times'' as an excellent little book. "As far as can be gathered, either from direct statements or implied directions, Charles Gounod, Gounod would be the model suggested for imitation, Richard Wagner, Wagner for avoidance." Clarke's conservatism caused comment from other reviewers; ''The Musical Standard'' mocked him for denying that Wagner was a master of orchestration: "Mr. Clarke should re-edit his work, cutting out all this nonsense. It might then form an admirable book for the beginner". Clarke also wrote several other books and articles about orchestration, as well as some fiction and song lyrics.


Later life

In 1889, Clarke went to Australia, where he succeeded Frederick Hymen Cowen, Frederick Cowen as conductor of the Victorian National Orchestra in Melbourne. He was also made inspector of Australian army bands, and given the honorary rank of captain. He did not enjoy Melbourne; after returning to England in 1892, he gave a talk describing his experiences, giving "many valuable hints … to those who might think of accepting appointments in the Australian Colonies". His comments drew a rejoinder from an Australian writer who accused him of "incompetence and lack of interest" while in Melbourne. Clarke was appointed conductor of the
Carl Rosa Opera Company The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, and his wife, British operatic soprano Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company premiere ...
in 1893. In 1899 he composed and conducted the
incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as th ...
for John Martin Harvey's adaptation of ''A Tale of Two Cities''."'The Only Way'", ''The Bury and Horwich Post'', 23 May 1899, p. 6 Clarke was forced to retire around 1901 because of failing eyesight. In later life, Clarke suffered from health problems that affected his mind. According to Ellen Terry, Clarke's "brilliant gifts... 'o'er-leaped' themselves, and he ended his days in a lunatic asylum." Clarke died at Banstead Asylum in Surrey in 1912, aged 72.


Notes


References

* * * *Scowcroft, Philip. "Hamilton Clarke," ''Sir Arthur Sullivan Society Magazine'', No. 22 (Spring 1986) *Scowcroft, Philip. "Hamilton Clarke: Composer, Organist, Conductor and Assistant to Sir Arthur Sullivan", ''The Gaiety'', Issue 1: Spring 2003


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Hamilton 1840 births 1912 deaths English Romantic composers English organists English male organists English conductors (music) English male conductors (music) People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan 19th-century English musicians 19th-century English male musicians