Hamilton Clarke
Encyclopedia
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
, for whom he arranged music and compiled overtures for some of the Savoy Operas, including Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado
.
Clarke began as an organist, pianist and theatre conductor, becoming a musical director for Gilbert and Sullivan
, 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
as musical director for many of Henry Irving
's spectacular productions at the Lyceum Theatre. He also composed music for many of the German Reed Entertainments 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
for several years.
, the son of an amateur organist. 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. 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
, he did not take up music as a profession until he was in his twenties. In 1864 he was awarded the first prize for anthems by the College of Organists.
Anacreontic Society. From 1866 he was organist at Queen's College, Oxford, where he also conducted the Queen's College Musical Society. 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
as organist of St. Peter's, South Kensington
. He left that post soon, however, to become a theatrical conductor.
Clarke was Richard D'Oyly Carte
's musical director and conductor at the Opera Comique
in 1874 for The Broken Branch adapted from La Branche Cassée. Clarke interpolated into the operetta
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
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 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 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 promenade concerts
at 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:
'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.'" He was one of the many composers recruited to write German Reed Entertainments at 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
, 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
's operas The Sorcerer
(for its 1884 revival), The Mikado
(1885) and Ruddigore
(1887). He also assisted in the piano arrangement of Sullivan's 1886 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 Lord Tennyson's play The Promise of May, which was "a miserable fiasco", though Clarke's music was praised. He also contributed to the music of the successful 1885 burlesque Little Jack Sheppard
. In 1887, he accepted the post of musical director at the Comedy Theatre under the management of Herbert Beerbohm Tree
.
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
, first produced by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre
in July 1900. It was produced as a curtain raiser
to The Pirates of Penzance and 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, Gounod
would be the model suggested for imitation, 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.
. 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
in 1893. In 1899 he composed and conducted the incidental music
for John Martin Harvey's adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities
. 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.
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
, for whom he arranged music and compiled overtures for some of the Savoy Operas, including Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado
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 operatic collaborations...
.
Clarke began as an organist, pianist and theatre conductor, becoming a musical director for Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
, 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
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....
as musical director for many of Henry Irving
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
's spectacular productions at the Lyceum Theatre. He also composed music for many of the German Reed Entertainments 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
Carl Rosa Opera Company
The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl August Nicholas Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company survived Rosa's death in 1889, and continued to present opera in English on tour until 1960, when it was...
for several years.
Biography
Clarke was born in BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, the son of an amateur organist. 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. 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
The Musical Times is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It is currently the oldest such journal that is still publishing in the UK, having been published continuously since 1844. It was published as The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular until...
, he did not take up music as a profession until he was in his twenties. In 1864 he was awarded the first prize for anthems by the College of Organists.
Early career
Clarke held posts as organist in Ireland and was conductor of the BelfastBelfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
Anacreontic Society. From 1866 he was organist at Queen's College, Oxford, where he also conducted the Queen's College Musical Society. 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
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
as organist of St. Peter's, South Kensington
South Kensington
South Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. It is a built-up area located 2.4 miles west south-west of Charing Cross....
. He left that post soon, however, to become a theatrical conductor.
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...
's musical director and conductor at the Opera Comique
Opera Comique
The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street and Holywell Street with entrances on the East Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway...
in 1874 for The Broken Branch adapted from La Branche Cassée. Clarke interpolated into the operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
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
Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its...
at the Royalty Theatre
Royalty Theatre
The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho and opened on 25 May 1840 as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938. The architect was Samuel Beazley, a resident in Soho Square, who also designed St James's Theatre, among...
, 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
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
at the Alhambra Theatre
Alhambra Theatre
The Alhambra was a popular theatre and music hall located on the east side of Leicester Square, in the West End of London. It was built originally as The Royal Panopticon of Science and Arts opening on 18 March 1854. It was closed after two years and reopened as the Alhambra. The building was...
. The reviewer of The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
found Strauss's
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
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 telephony
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
, with his organ playing being sent a distance of four miles down a wire.
Clarke performed on the piano as an accompanist at the promenade concerts
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
at Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
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
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
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 IrvingHenry Irving
Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
's productions, including Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
and The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
. Irving's co-star, Ellen Terry
Ellen Terry
Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud....
, 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.'" He was one of the many composers recruited to write German Reed Entertainments at St. George's Hall
St. George's Hall (London)
St. George's Hall was a theatre located in Langham Place, Regent Street in London, built in 1867, which closed in 1966. The hall could accommodate between 800 and 900 persons, or up to 1,500 persons including the galleries...
. These included Castle Botherem: or An Irish Stew (1880), Cherry Tree Farm (1881), and Nobody's Fault (1882) to texts by Arthur Law
Arthur Law
William Arthur Law , better known as Arthur Law, was an English playwright, actor and scenic designer.-Life and career:...
, 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.
The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of The Sorcerer is based on a Christmas story, An Elixir of Love, that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876...
, and, from September 1878, the first provincial production of H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
. 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
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
for the promenade concerts in 1880.
Clarke later arranged the overtures for Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
's operas The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of The Sorcerer is based on a Christmas story, An Elixir of Love, that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876...
(for its 1884 revival), The Mikado
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 operatic collaborations...
(1885) and Ruddigore
Ruddigore
Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan...
(1887). He also assisted in the piano arrangement of Sullivan's 1886 cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
, 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
Alfred Cellier
Alfred Cellier 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 the overtures to some of them, Cellier conducted at many theatres in London, New York and...
. 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
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
in 1919 in favour of a wholly rewritten overture by Geoffrey Toye
Geoffrey Toye
Edward Geoffrey Toye , better known as Geoffrey Toye, was an English conductor, composer and opera producer....
.
In 1882 Clarke provided the music for Lord Tennyson's play The Promise of May, which was "a miserable fiasco", though Clarke's music was praised. He also contributed to the music of the successful 1885 burlesque Little Jack Sheppard
Little Jack Sheppard
Little Jack Sheppard is a burlesque melodrama written by Henry Pottinger Stephens and William Yardley, with music by Meyer Lutz, with songs contributed by Florian Pascal, Corney Grain, Arthur Cecil, Michael Watson, Henry J. Leslie, Alfred Cellier and Hamilton Clarke...
. In 1887, he accepted the post of musical director at the Comedy Theatre under the management of Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager.Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions. In 1899, he helped fund the...
.
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
The Outpost (opera)
The Outpost is an opera or operetta by composer Hamilton Clarke with a libretto by A. O'D. Bartholeyns. The story is an adaptation of the Singspiel Der vierjährige Posten by Theodor Körner with music by Franz Schubert....
, first produced by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
in July 1900. It was produced as a curtain raiser
Curtain raiser (drama)
A curtain raiser is a performance, stage act, show, actor or performer that opens a show for the main attraction. The term is derived from the act of raising the stage curtain...
to The Pirates of Penzance and Patience
Patience (opera)
Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. First performed at the Opera Comique, London, on 23 April 1881, it moved to the 1,292-seat Savoy Theatre on 10 October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the...
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, Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
would be the model suggested for imitation, Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
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 Cowen as conductor of the Victorian National Orchestra in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. 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
Carl Rosa Opera Company
The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl August Nicholas Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company survived Rosa's death in 1889, and continued to present opera in English on tour until 1960, when it was...
in 1893. In 1899 he composed and conducted the incidental music
Incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....
for John Martin Harvey's adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature....
. 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
Ellen Terry
Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud....
, Clarke's "brilliant gifts... 'o'er-leaped' themselves, and he ended his days in a lunatic asylum."
Clarke died at Banstead
Banstead
Banstead is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in the county of Surrey, England, on the border with Greater London. It lies south of London, west of Croydon and of the county town of Kingston-Upon-Thames. Banstead is on the North Downs and is protected by the Metropolitan Green Belt;...
Asylum in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
in 1912, aged 72.