''The Tempest''

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 ...

, Op. 1, is a set of movements for

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

composed by

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 ...

in 1861 and expanded in 1862. This was Sullivan's first major composition, and its success quickly brought him to the attention of the musical establishment in England.

Background and first performances

Sullivan wrote his incidental music to Shakespeare's play as his graduation piece while a conservatory student at

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions inc ...

was much admired by the tutors at the Leipzig Conservatory, and Sullivan's music, following the pattern of Mendelssohn's famous score for ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...

'', was chosen for inclusion in the Conservatory’s end-of-year concert at the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 6 April 1861, while Sullivan was still eighteen years old. At that concert, six items from the score were played, conducted by the composer: "Introduction", "Ariel’s Song", "Entr’acte", "Grotesque Dance", "Entr’acte and Epilogue", "Dance of Nymphs and Reapers".Shepherd, Marc
"The Tempest, incidental music (1861)"
''A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography'' (2005) After Sullivan's return to England, early in 1862, music critic Henry F. Chorley hosted a private performance of ''The Tempest'' in his home, where George Grove, at that time Secretary to the Crystal Palace, heard the piece. Grove was sufficiently impressed to arrange for a performance the work by the unknown composer at the Crystal Palace, where it was taken up by August Manns, conductor of the Crystal Palace concerts.''See'' Preface to the score of '' The Masque at Kenilworth'' by Robin Gordon-Powell, Archivist & Music Librarian of the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society, published by The Amber Ring in 2002 Sullivan revised and extended the music to twelve movements, which were given in full at a concert on 5 April 1862 at the Crystal Palace, with a linking narration written by Chorley and spoken by Arthur Matthison. The solo singers were May Banks and Robertina Henderson. The work was an immediate success, with five numbers being encored. The score was favourably reviewed by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' and even more favourably by ''The Athenaeum'', which was the publication for which Chorley was critic. So great was the success of the concert that it was repeated the following week, and Sullivan's reputation as an extremely promising composer was made overnight.

Musical analysis and subsequent performances

As might be expected in the work of such a young composer, the influence of earlier composers is marked. Gervase Hughes detects the influence of

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

in the Introduction,

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber ...

in the Act IV Overture. Percy Young suggests

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

(an acquaintance of Sullivan's) and

Hector Berlioz Louis-Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer and conductor. His output includes orchestral works such as the ''Symphonie fantastique'' and ''Harold en Italie, Harold in Italy'' ...

as influences. Hughes, Young and Arthur Jacobs agree that the most conspicuous influence is

. In early 1863, Charles Hallé included the work in two concerts with his

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

orchestra, which also included Mendelssohn's ''

'' music, where Sullivan's piece was received enthusiastically. The ''

Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' was strong in its praise for Sullivan's work. In October 1864 it was used in a production of the play at the

Prince's Theatre The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden. It opened in 1911 as the New Prince's Theatre, with a capacity of 2,500. The current capacity is 1,416. The title "Shaftesbury Theatr ...

in Manchester. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Mendelssohn's music for ''A Midsummer Night’s Dream'' was regularly used in theatrical productions. The same is not true of Sullivan's ''The Tempest'' music, although he later was commissioned to write incidental music for productions of other Shakespeare plays staged by

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 ( ...

and others. In his review of the 2008 recording by the Kansas City Symphony, Rob Barnett writes, "This music is smooth, full of lissom invention and generally in the style of Schumann and Mendelssohn ... Truly charming is the skipping flute figuration in 'Banquet Dance'. The orchestra is just as successful in the ... 'Dance of Nymphs and Reapers'. Mendelssohn is certainly engaged in the Act IV overture. The Act V Prelude with its shivering-plodding string pizzicato and epic lassitude is another magnificent effort."Barnett, Rob
Review of the 2008 recording
''Music Web International'' (July 2008)

Musical numbers

*Introduction Act I *Song: Come unto these yellow sands (Ariel to Ferdinand) *Song: Full fathom five thy father lies (Ariel to Ferdinand) Act II *Ariel's Music *Melodrama and Song: While you here do snoring lie (Ariel to Gonzalo) Act III *Prelude *Banquet Dance Act IV *Overture *Masque of Iris, Ceres, Juno *Duet: Honour, riches, marriage blessings (Juno and Ceres to Ferdinand and Miranda) *Dance of nymphs and reapers Act V *Prelude *Song: Where the bee sucks (Ariel to Prospero) *Epilogue

Recordings

The full score of ''The Tempest'' (except for a few passages surrounding the dialogue) was first recorded in 1955 by the Vienna Orchestral Society conducted by F. Charles Adler, better known for his performances of the works of Anton Bruckner and

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic music, Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and ...

. The recording was well regarded and was reissued on CD in 1999 on the "Sounds on CD" label. A suite comprising about half the music was recorded in 1972 by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Vivian Dunn, and in 2000, by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Richard Hickox. In 2008, a recording of most of the music was issued by the Kansas City Symphony, with Michael Stern conducting, on the Reference Recordings label (RR-115CD). Rob Barnett calls the recording excellent, but Marc Shepherd judges it "not as good as the 1955 reading utnevertheless enjoyable". A complete recording was issued in 2016 on the Dutton Epoch label, together with Sullivan's incidental music for ''Macbeth'' and his "Marmion Overture". Soloists are the

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

s Mary Bevan and Fflur Wyn, with Simon Callow speaking some of Shakespeare's dialogue surrounding the music, and the BBC Singers and BBC Concert Orchestra. The conductor is John Andrews.Hugill, Robert
"Mendelssohnian charm: Sir Arthur Sullivan's ''Macbeth'' and ''The Tempest''"
PlanetHugill.com, 15 August 2016

Notes

References

*Hughes, Gervase:
The Music of Arthur Sullivan
', Macmillan, London 1960 *Jacobs, Arthur: ''Arthur Sullivan'', OUP, Oxford, 1986 * Rowse, A. L. (ed): ''The Annotated Shakespeare'', Orbis, London, 1978 *Young, Percy M.: Note to EMI recording CSD 3713 of numbers from ''The Tempest'', 1972 *Young, Percy M.: ''Sir Arthur Sullivan'', J M Dent & Sons, London 1971

External links

*
''The Tempest''
at the G&S Archive, including Midi files and the score

at the G&S Discography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tempest (Sullivan) 1862 compositions Compositions by Arthur Sullivan Incidental music Music based on The Tempest