Samuel Arnold (1740-1802) was a dominating figure of his time whose works. enjoyed critical acclaim and popular success. In the twentieth century he has remained known as the editor of Handel’s works but his reputation as a composer, strong in his own time, has suffered a critical eclipse. The intention of the present thesis is to provide the first specialized study of Samuel Arnold. In so doing the author aims to examine his accomplishments as a prominent musician, to re-establish his critical reputation as a composer, and at the same time to offer a thematic bibliographic catalogue of his works. The first volume gives a detailed account of Arnold's life and works. Though biographical articles on the composer have appeared in Grove’s Dictionary and the New Grove, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Dictionary of National Biography, and in A Biographical Dictionary of Actors and ... Musicians (ed. Philip H. Highfill), much has been left unsaid. The author has synthesized information in secondary sources and verified these sources whenever possible by reference to the documents treated; in addition he has, by personal consultation of contemporary documents in English archives, discovered a mass of material hitherto unrecorded. Chapter one, therefore, summarizes all the known facts about the composer and his activities as a leading figure in London’s musical life, while chapter two is devoted to a complete survey of Arnold's non-dramatic works, ranging from nine oratorios, through instrumental music to settings of English poetry and other intimate or occasional pieces. The selective approach in discussing Arnold’s non-dramatic works has not been followed, however, for chapters three to six, which deal with his stage music. Arnold’s sixty-nine operas, seven pantomimes, three ballets, and seven scores of incidental music are so significant, both musically and historically, that the author has considered it essential to deal with each one individually. Besides presenting new material on the genesis and reception of each work, the author analyses all the surviving music. Chapter three, therefore, is devoted to Arnold’s all-sung operas, chapter four to the full-length operas with spoken dialogue, chapter five to the afterpiece operas with spoken dialogue, and chapter six to the pantomimes, ballets and incidental music; more than one hundred music examples illustrate the study. To complete volume one there is an extensive bibliography, as well as a transcription of Arnold’s unpublished additional music to John Gay's Polly (1777). The second volume is devoted to the compilation of a thematic catalogue of Arnold’s complete works. The aim of this catalogue is to provide a guide to the identification of his compositions and to add a comprehensive descriptive bibliography both of his manuscripts and of the early editions of his printed works. The catalogue is, therefore, meant to tell what Arnold wrote, when and (often) why he wrote and published a certain work, who printed and sold it, and where copies are to be found. In collating the works, information on their internal make-up has been given in each case, and, in addition, a full description of the title-page of each of the first editions is set out. For the bibliographical detail it has been necessary to examine contemporary newspaper advertisements, all the appropriate publishers’ catalogues, the muniment books at stationers Hall and, where possible, a copy or several copies of every item listed. The holdings of the appropriate public and private libraries were consulted and a large number of changes and additions made to the information collected in such works of reference as the British Union-Catalogue of Early Music and the volume of Repertoire International des Sources Musicales devoted to the eighteenth century. The present bibliographical and musicological account sheds new light on samuel Arnold’s life and works, and, equally important, on the world in which he lived. It is concluded that not only was he a cultivated man, prominent in the musical life of his time, but also a skilful composer, whose diverse productions have their own merits. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:AUCKLAND/oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/3411 |
| Date | January 1982 |
| Creators | Hoskins, Robert H. B. |
| Publisher | ResearchSpace@Auckland |
| Source Sets | University of Auckland |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Whole document restricted but available by request. Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated., https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm, Copyright: The author |
| Relation | PhD Thesis - University of Auckland, UoA219532 |
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