Walter Alfred Slaughter (17 February 1860 – 2 March 1908) was an English conductor and composer of

musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

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 ...

and children's shows. He was engaged in the West End as a composer and musical director from 1883 to 1904.

Life and career

Youth and education

Slaughter was born in

Fitzroy Square Fitzroy Square is a Georgian architecture, Georgian garden square, square in London, England. It is the only one in the central London area known as Fitzrovia. The square is one of the area's main features, this once led to the surrounding di ...

, London.''The Musical Herald'', 1 December 1906, p. 359 He attended the

City of London School The City of London School, also known as CLS and City, is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school for Single-sex education, boys in the City of London, England, on the banks of the River Thames next to the Millennium Bridge, ...

, and sang in the choir of St. Andrew's Church, Wells Street under Joseph Barnby.Obituary, '' The Musical Herald'', 1 April 1908, p. 105 After leaving school, he worked in a wine merchant's office and then for the music publishers Metzler.''

The Strand Magazine ''The Strand Magazine'' was a monthly British magazine founded by George Newnes, composed of short fiction and general interest articles. It was published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950, running to 711 issues, though the ...

'', 4 July 1892, p. 85 While there, he studied music under

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 th ...

, Berthold Tours, and Georges Jacobi, the musical director of the Alhambra Theatre. He was also brought into frequent contact with

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 ...

, who gave him much encouragement and friendly advice. Slaughter once asked Sullivan the best way to study composition; Sullivan replied, "Take off your gloves, go into the orchestra and study it there, as an engineer studies his business in the engine room." Slaughter married Luna Lauri ("Mlle. Luna"), one of the two famous dancing daughters of John Lauri, ballet-master at the Alhambra Theatre. Their daughter, Marjorie Slaughter, also became a composer.

Early career

Slaughter served as the organist at St. Andrew's and as a cellist and pianist in

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the World War I, Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as Varie ...

s prior to becoming a musical director in

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. 1194–1195, ...

productions. Before he was 20, he had composed three ballets for the South London Palace. His early works also included some individual songs, one of which was the popular "The Dear Homeland". He composed the music for the successful all-women one-act '' opera di camera'' ''An Adamless Eden'' (1882 at the Opera Comique), which was produced in Britain and in America (1884) by Lila Clay's ladies' company. He also provided additional music in 1883, for the English adaptation of

Edmond Audran Achille Edmond Audran (12 April 184017 August 1901) was a French composer best known for several internationally successful comic operas and operettas. After beginning his career in Marseille as an organist, Audran composed religious music and b ...

's '' Gillette de Narbonne''. After several one-act works, including ''Sly and Shy'' (1883), ''The Casting Vote'' (1885) and ''Marie's Honeymoon'' (1885), he wrote the score for what became the most successful musical version of ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

'', in 1886, to a book and lyrics by Henry Savile Clarke. He also wrote a work called ''Sappho'' that year for the Opera Comique, which was not as well received because of a weak libretto. Slaughter later wrote the score to the medieval

''Marjorie'' produced by the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1890 (

Prince of Wales's Theatre The Scala Theatre was a theatre in Charlotte Street, London, off Tottenham Court Road. The first theatre on the site opened in 1772; the last was demolished in 1969, after a catastrophic fire. From 1865 to 1882, the theatre was known as th ...

, 193 performances), and contributed to the Gaiety Theatre's ''

Cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

, '' Cinder-Ellen Up-too-Late'' in 1891 and ''King Kodak'' in 1894. In 1893 he composed the score for a musical farce, ''Peggy's Plot'', for the German Reeds. At the same time, Slaughter 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 ...

for plays, including those produced at the

St. James's Theatre The St James's Theatre was in King Street, St James's, King Street, St James's, London. It opened in 1835 and was demolished in 1957. The theatre was conceived by and built for a popular singer, John Braham (tenor), John Braham; it lost mone ...

, while he was employed as the musical director there, including, in 1890, Walter Frith's ''Molierè'' and Quinton and Hamilton's ''Lord Anerley''; in 1891, Haddon Chambers's ''The Idler''; and in 1892,

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

's '' Lady Windermere's Fan'' and ''Donna Luiza'' (with Basil Hood as librettist).

Peak years

Slaughter's breakthrough success came in 1895 in collaboration with Hood with the musical comedy '' Gentleman Joe, The Hansom Cabbie'' as a vehicle for the low comic Arthur Roberts.

Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

dismissed the score in '' The Saturday Review'': "The music, by Mr. Walter Slaughter, does not contain a single novel, or even passably fresh point, either in melody, harmony or orchestration." However, the show ran for 391 performances and enjoyed a New York production the following year. This was followed in 1896 by another collaboration with Hood that produced '' The French Maid'', which debuted at Terry's Theatre and was a long-lived international success (480 performances in London, and a long-running New York production), and the less successful ''Belinda''. He also wrote incidental music to

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

's ''Guy Domville'' (1895) and ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1896) around this time. In 1897, Basil Hood and Slaughter wrote a series of short children's musicals based on fairy tales that received warm reviews."'The Happy Life,' by Louis N. Parker, to be Produced at the Duke of York's Theatre"
''The New York Times'', December 5, 1897 Also with Hood, Slaughter wrote a farcical musical comedy, ''Dandy Dan the Lifeguardsman'' (1897, Lyric Theatre), another successful vehicle for Roberts, and ''Orlando Dando, The Volunteer'' (1898), a similar success for

Dan Leno George Wild Galvin (20 December 1860 – 31 October 1904), better known by the stage name Dan Leno, was a leading English music hall comedian and musical theatre actor during the late Victorian era. He was best known, aside from his music hall a ...

at the Fulham Grand Theatre and then on tour. Next, Slaughter wrote three shows for the Vaudeville Theatre managed by Seymour Hicks. The most successful of these was '' Bluebell in Fairyland'' (1901), produced by

Charles Frohman Charles Frohman (July 15, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American theater manager and producer, who discovered and promoted many stars of the American stage. Frohman produced over 700 shows, and among his biggest hits was '' Peter Pan'', both ...

and starring Hicks and his wife,

Ellaline Terriss Mary Ellaline Terriss, Lady Hicks (born Mary Ellaline Lewin, 13 April 1871 – 16 June 1971), known professionally as Ellaline Terriss, was a popular British actress and singer, best known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies. Sh ...

. This turned out to be the most popular Christmas entertainment of its time and was continually revived for the next four decades. Other 1901 works were ''Little Miss Modesty'' and ''The English Rose''. '' An English Daisy'', written with Hicks, was produced on Broadway with a Kingston run in 1902. Slaughter wrote several more shows, including '' Little Hans Andersen'' with Hood (1903) and ''The Hooligan Band'' with Charles H. Taylor (1906). He also served as the first musical director for

Oswald Stoll Sir Oswald Stoll (né Gray; 20 January 1866 – 9 January 1942) was an Australian-born British theatre manager and the co-founder of the Stoll Moss Group theatre company. He also owned Cricklewood Studios and film production company Stoll Pi ...

at the

London Coliseum The London Coliseum (also known as the Coliseum Theatre) is a theatre in St Martin's Lane, City of Westminster, Westminster, built as one of London's largest and most luxurious "family" variety theatres. Opened on 24 December 1904 as the Lond ...

from 1904 to 1906. He died in London in 1908 at the age of 48.

Notes

References

Biography of SlaughterListing of Slaughter shows from Flyrope.com

External links

* ttp://www.bllearning.co.uk/catalogues/evanion/Record.asp?EvanID=487&source=gallery.asp Poster for and description of "The Sioux" 1892, with music by Slaughterbr>List of library materials on Slaughter's works
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slaughter, Walter English musical theatre composers English male composers 1860 births 1908 deaths 19th-century English musicians 19th-century English male musicians