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158 A CENTURY Of BALLADS |
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Later Sullivan set two other of Tennyson's songs, "O Swallow, Swallow' and ''Tears, Idle Tears," which were not published till after his death. They were produced by Kennerley Rumford at the Butt - Rumford concert at St. James's Hall in October, 1900.
Of Sullivan's method of composing he has himself said that with him rhythm came first and melody second. "The use of the piano would limit me terribly," he remarked once to Arthur Lawrence, who records the conversation in his book; "and as to the inspirational theory, although I admit that sometimes a happy phrase will occur to one quite unexpectedly rather than as the result of any definite reasoning process, musical composition, like everything else, is the outcome of hard work and steady persistence."
No account of Sullivan would be complete without a passing reference to the name of Sir W. S. Gilbert. The story of their long partnerÂship in the production of light operas is, of course, well known, and can hardly be said to come under the scope of this book. But Gilbert wrote the lyrics of many of Sullivan's songs outÂside the Savoy operas, and the words of two of the most popular, "Sweethearts' and "The Distant Shore," are by him.
Talking of the Savoy operas reminds me of another paragraph I came across in an old |
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