Thomas Augustine Arne
Encyclopedia
Thomas Augustine Arne was a British composer
, best known for the patriotic song Rule, Britannia!
. He also wrote a version of God Save the King, which was to become the British national anthem, and the song A-Hunting We Will Go
. Arne was the leading British theatre composer of the eighteenth century working at Drury Lane
and Covent Garden
.
and both became officials of the City Company of Upholsterers. His grandfather fell upon hard times and died in the Marshalsea Prison for debtors. Arne's father earned enough money not only to rent a large house in Covent Garden but also to have Arne educated at Eton College
. But later in life, he also managed to lose most of his wealth and had to earn extra cash by acting as a numberer of the boxes at Drury Lane Theatre
.
Arne was so keen on music that he smuggled a spinet
into his room and, dampening the sounds with his handkerchief, would secretly practice during the night while the rest of the family slept. He also dressed up as a liveryman in order to gain access to the gallery of the Italian Opera
. It was at the opera that Arne first met the musician and composer Michael Festing
, who was a major influence on Arne. He not only taught him to play the violin, but also took him to various musical events, including going to hear Thomas Roseingrave
compete for the post of organist at Hanover Square
and a visit to Oxford in 1733 to hear Handel
's oratorio Athalia.
Upon leaving school, Arne was articled to a solicitor
for three years. However, Arne's father discovered his son leading a group of musicians at what was probably one of Festing's musical gatherings. Following this disclosure of his son's real interest and talent, he was persuaded (again probably by Festing) to allow the young Arne to give up his legal career and to pursue music as a living.
He was baptised in the Roman Catholic faith, his mother's religion.
, was a famous contralto
, who performed in some of his works, including his first opera, Rosamund. (She would later become known professionally as "Mrs Cibber".) They and their brother Richard would often perform Arne's works together. Between 1733 and 1776, Arne wrote music for about 90 stage works, including plays
, masques, pantomimes, and opera. Many of his dramatic scores are now lost, probably in the disastrous fire at Covent Garden
in 1808.
Arne was a Freemason
and active in the organisation, which has long been centred around the Covent Garden area of London, of which Arne was a native.
Arne's Catholicism meant that he never composed music for the Church of England
, unlike most other great English composers of his time.
On 15 March 1737 http://www.ihgs.ac.uk/familyhistory/arne.php, Arne married singer Cecilia Young
, whose sister, Isabella was the wife of John Frederick Lampe
. Arne's operas and masques became very popular, and he received the patronage of Frederick, Prince of Wales
, at whose country home, Cliveden
, the Masque of Alfred, featuring "Rule Britannia", was debuted.
In 1741, Arne filed a complaint in Chancery
pertaining to a breach of musical copyright and claimed that some of his theatrical songs had been printed and sold by Henry Roberts and John Johnson, the London booksellers and music distributors. The matter was settled out of court. Arne was certainly one of the very first composers to have appealed to the law over copyright issues.
In 1750, after an argument with David Garrick
, Susannah left Drury Lane
for Covent Garden Theatre, and Thomas followed. In 1755 during a period spent in Dublin, he separated from Cecilia, who, he alleged, was mentally ill. He began a relationship with one of his pupils, Charlotte Brent
, a soprano and former child prodigy. Brent performed in several of Arne's works, including the role of Sally in his 1760 opera Thomas and Sally
and Mandane in his 1762 opera Artaxerxes
. Eventually Brent and Arne went their separate ways and she married a violinist Thomas Pinto in 1766.
During the 1760s Arne frequently collaborated with the Irish writer Isaac Bickerstaff
. Thomas and Sally was the first English comic opera to be sung throughout (it contained no dialogue). Artaxerxes
was one of the most successful and influential English operas of the eighteenth century and is the only known attempt to write an Italianate, Metastasian
opera seria
, in the English language. It was frequently performed in London into the 1830s. On 1791 visit to London Joseph Haydn
was impressed by a performance of Artaxerxes he attended and admitted that he had no idea such an opera existed in the English-language.
In 1769 Arne composed the song Soft Flowing Avon
, with lyrics by David Garrick
, for the Shakespeare Jubilee
held by Garrick in Stratford-upon-Avon
to commemorate the life of William Shakespeare
.
In 1777, shortly before his death, Arne and his wife were reconciled. They had one son, Michael Arne
. Arne is buried at St Paul's, Covent Garden
, London
.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, best known for the patriotic song Rule, Britannia!
Rule, Britannia!
"Rule, Britannia!" is a British patriotic song, originating from the poem "Rule, Britannia" by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740...
. He also wrote a version of God Save the King, which was to become the British national anthem, and the song A-Hunting We Will Go
A-Hunting We Will Go
A-Hunting We Will Go is a British song written by Thomas Arne. It was written by Arne for 1777 production of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera at Covent Garden. It was originally performed by Margaret Kennedy who was playing the role of MacHeath in the production...
. Arne was the leading British theatre composer of the eighteenth century working at Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
and Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
.
Early life
Arne's father and grandfather were both upholsterersUpholstery
Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word upholstery comes from the Middle English word upholder, which referred to a tradesman who held up his goods. The term is equally applicable to domestic,...
and both became officials of the City Company of Upholsterers. His grandfather fell upon hard times and died in the Marshalsea Prison for debtors. Arne's father earned enough money not only to rent a large house in Covent Garden but also to have Arne educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
. But later in life, he also managed to lose most of his wealth and had to earn extra cash by acting as a numberer of the boxes at Drury Lane Theatre
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
.
Arne was so keen on music that he smuggled a spinet
Spinet
A spinet is a smaller type of harpsichord or other keyboard instrument, such as a piano or organ.-Spinets as harpsichords:While the term spinet is used to designate a harpsichord, typically what is meant is the bentside spinet, described in this section...
into his room and, dampening the sounds with his handkerchief, would secretly practice during the night while the rest of the family slept. He also dressed up as a liveryman in order to gain access to the gallery of the Italian Opera
Italian opera
Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous operas in Italian were written by foreign composers,...
. It was at the opera that Arne first met the musician and composer Michael Festing
Michael Christian Festing
Michael Christian Festing was an English violinist and composer. His reputation lies mostly on his work as a violin virtuoso.-Biography:...
, who was a major influence on Arne. He not only taught him to play the violin, but also took him to various musical events, including going to hear Thomas Roseingrave
Thomas Roseingrave
Thomas Roseingrave was an Irish musician and organist.-Early years:He was born at Winchester but spent his early years in Dublin, studying music with his father, Daniel Roseingrave. In 1707 he entered Trinity College but failed to complete his degree...
compete for the post of organist at Hanover Square
Hanover Square, London
Hanover Square, London, is a square in Mayfair, London W1, England, situated to the south west of Oxford Circus, the major junction where Oxford Street meets Regent Street....
and a visit to Oxford in 1733 to hear Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's oratorio Athalia.
Upon leaving school, Arne was articled to a solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
for three years. However, Arne's father discovered his son leading a group of musicians at what was probably one of Festing's musical gatherings. Following this disclosure of his son's real interest and talent, he was persuaded (again probably by Festing) to allow the young Arne to give up his legal career and to pursue music as a living.
He was baptised in the Roman Catholic faith, his mother's religion.
Musical career
Arne's sister, Susannah Maria ArneSusannah Maria Arne
Susannah Maria Cibber , also known as Susannah Maria Arne, was a celebrated English singer and actress and the sister of the composer Thomas Arne. Although she began her career as a soprano, her voice lowered in the early part of her career to that of a true contralto...
, was a famous contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
, who performed in some of his works, including his first opera, Rosamund. (She would later become known professionally as "Mrs Cibber".) They and their brother Richard would often perform Arne's works together. Between 1733 and 1776, Arne wrote music for about 90 stage works, including plays
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
, masques, pantomimes, and opera. Many of his dramatic scores are now lost, probably in the disastrous fire 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...
in 1808.
Arne was a Freemason
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
and active in the organisation, which has long been centred around the Covent Garden area of London, of which Arne was a native.
Arne's Catholicism meant that he never composed music for the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, unlike most other great English composers of his time.
On 15 March 1737 http://www.ihgs.ac.uk/familyhistory/arne.php, Arne married singer Cecilia Young
Cecilia Young
Cecilia Young was one of the greatest English sopranos of the eighteenth century, the wife of composer Thomas Arne, and the mother of composer Michael Arne...
, whose sister, Isabella was the wife of John Frederick Lampe
John Frederick Lampe
John Frederick Lampe was a musician.He was born in Saxony, but came to England in 1724 and played the bassoon in opera houses. His wife, Isabella Lampe, was sister-in-law to the composer Thomas Arne with whom Lampe collaborated on a number of concert seasons...
. Arne's operas and masques became very popular, and he received the patronage of Frederick, Prince of Wales
Frederick, Prince of Wales
Frederick, Prince of Wales was a member of the House of Hanover and therefore of the Hanoverian and later British Royal Family, the eldest son of George II and father of George III, as well as the great-grandfather of Queen Victoria...
, at whose country home, Cliveden
Cliveden
Cliveden is an Italianate mansion and estate at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England. Set on banks above the River Thames, its grounds slope down to the river. The site has been home to an Earl, two Dukes, a Prince of Wales and the Viscounts Astor....
, the Masque of Alfred, featuring "Rule Britannia", was debuted.
In 1741, Arne filed a complaint in Chancery
Court of equity
A chancery court, equity court or court of equity is a court that is authorized to apply principles of equity, as opposed to law, to cases brought before it.These courts began with petitions to the Lord Chancellor of England...
pertaining to a breach of musical copyright and claimed that some of his theatrical songs had been printed and sold by Henry Roberts and John Johnson, the London booksellers and music distributors. The matter was settled out of court. Arne was certainly one of the very first composers to have appealed to the law over copyright issues.
In 1750, after an argument with David Garrick
David Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
, Susannah left Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
for Covent Garden Theatre, and Thomas followed. In 1755 during a period spent in Dublin, he separated from Cecilia, who, he alleged, was mentally ill. He began a relationship with one of his pupils, Charlotte Brent
Charlotte Brent
Charlotte Brent was a child prodigy and celebrated soprano singer of the 18th century.She was the daughter of Charles Brent , a Handelian counter-tenor, and fencing-master . She was a pupil and mistress of Thomas Arne and later the wife of the violinist Thomas Pinto...
, a soprano and former child prodigy. Brent performed in several of Arne's works, including the role of Sally in his 1760 opera Thomas and Sally
Thomas and Sally
Thomas and Sally is a dramatic pastoral opera in two acts by the composer Thomas Arne with an English libretto by Isaac Bickerstaff...
and Mandane in his 1762 opera Artaxerxes
Artaxerxes (opera)
Artaxerxes is an opera in three acts composed by Thomas Arne set to an English adaptation of Metastasio's 1729 libretto Artaserse. The first English opera seria, Artaxerxes premiered on 2 February 1762 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and continued to be regularly performed until the late 1830s...
. Eventually Brent and Arne went their separate ways and she married a violinist Thomas Pinto in 1766.
During the 1760s Arne frequently collaborated with the Irish writer Isaac Bickerstaff
Isaac Bickerstaffe
Isaac Bickerstaffe or Bickerstaff was an Irish playwright and Librettist.-Early life:Isaac John Bickerstaff was born in Dublin, on 26 September 1733, where his father John Bickerstaff held a government position overseeing the construction and management of sports fields including bowls and tennis...
. Thomas and Sally was the first English comic opera to be sung throughout (it contained no dialogue). Artaxerxes
Artaxerxes (opera)
Artaxerxes is an opera in three acts composed by Thomas Arne set to an English adaptation of Metastasio's 1729 libretto Artaserse. The first English opera seria, Artaxerxes premiered on 2 February 1762 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and continued to be regularly performed until the late 1830s...
was one of the most successful and influential English operas of the eighteenth century and is the only known attempt to write an Italianate, Metastasian
Metastasio
Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known by his pseudonym of Metastasio, was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.-Early life:...
opera seria
Opera seria
Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to c. 1770...
, in the English language. It was frequently performed in London into the 1830s. On 1791 visit to London Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
was impressed by a performance of Artaxerxes he attended and admitted that he had no idea such an opera existed in the English-language.
In 1769 Arne composed the song Soft Flowing Avon
Soft Flowing Avon
Soft Flowing Avon was a 1769 song with music written by Thomas Arne and lyrics by David Garrick. It was composed for and first staged at the Shakespeare Jubilee in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1769. The lyrics refer to the River Avon which flows through the town, the birthplace of William Shakespeare....
, with lyrics by David Garrick
David Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
, for the Shakespeare Jubilee
Shakespeare Jubilee
The Shakespeare Jubilee was staged in Stratford-upon-Avon between 5-7 September 1769. The jubilee was organised by the actor and theatre manager David Garrick to celebrate the jubilee of the birth of William Shakespeare. It had a major impact on the rising tide of bardolatry that led to Shakespeare...
held by Garrick in Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...
to commemorate the life of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
.
In 1777, shortly before his death, Arne and his wife were reconciled. They had one son, Michael Arne
Michael Arne
Michael Arne was an English composer, harpsichordist, organist, singer, and actor. He was the son of composer Thomas Arne and lauded soprano Cecilia Young, the latter of which belonged to the famous Young family of musicians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries...
. Arne is buried at St Paul's, Covent Garden
St Paul's, Covent Garden
St Paul's Church, also commonly known as the Actors' Church, is a church designed by Inigo Jones as part of a commission by Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford in 1631 to create "houses and buildings fitt for the habitacons of Gentlemen and men of ability" in Covent Garden, London, England.As well...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
External links
- Family History Page by a descendant of Arne
- Thomas Augustine Arne on the Classical Composers Database
- Works by Thomas Arne in the University of North Texas Virtual Rare Book Room
- Profile page for Thomas Arne on the Find A GraveFind A GraveFind a Grave is a commercial website providing free access and input to an online database of cemetery records. It was founded in 1998 as a DBA and incorporated in 2000.-History:...
web site