Sir Arthur Sullivan

Arthur Seymour Sullivan, born on this day in 1842, was one of the most pre-eminent composers of the Victorian era, though his fame was not in the arena he would have preferred. He became best known for his collaboration with W.S. Gilbert on fourteen comic operas, but he wanted to be admired for his more serious output. He was probably wrong about that.

However, Sullivan did produce a good number of anthems and hymn tunes, as well as four major choral works (The Prodigal Son, The Light of the World, The Martyr of Antioch, and The Golden Legend). This church and choral music was hugely popular in its time and for many years after, but has gradually fallen out of favor.

His best-known hymn tune has always been ST. GERTRUDE, but even that is in danger of becoming lost, since the text it is nearly always paired with is Onward, Christian soldiers. Over the last twenty years, most new hymnals have left out that hymn, and now a whole generation of churchgoers haven't learned Sullivan's tune either.

The Unitarians came up with a solution even before the "problem" of OCS's militaristic language became widely expressed in other denominations, by pairing the tune with a different text.

Forward through the ages, in unbroken line,
Move the faithful spirits at the call divine;
Gifts in diff'ring measure, hearts of one accord,
Manifold the service, one the sure reward.

Refrain
Forward through the ages, in unbroken line,
Move the faithful spirits at the call divine.

Wider grows the vision, reign of love and light;
For it we must labor till our faith is sight
Prophets have proclaimed it, martyrs testified,
Poets sung its glory, heroes for it died.
Refrain

Not alone we conquer, not alone we fall;
In each loss or triumph, lose or triumph all.
Bound by God's far purpose in one living whole,
Move we on together to the shining goal.
Refrain

Frederick Lucian Hosmer, 1908; alt.
Tune: ST. GERTRUDE (6.5.6.5.D. with Refrain)
Arthur Seymour Sullivan, 1871

There was, in fact, a real Saint Gertrude, but following Victorian custom, Sullivan really named this after an acquaintance, Gertrude Clay Ker Seymer, at whose country home he composed the tune.

Most of Sullivan's hymn tunes were composed early in his career. He edited a hymnal, Church Hymns With Tunes, published in 1874. I've been looking through it and it's not exactly what might be expected, that is, stuffed full of the high-Victorian tunes of his colleagues in the church music business. While there is certainly some of that (including thirty-eight of his own tunes and even more of his arrangements and harmonizations), the tunes of popular contemporaries like John Bacchus Dykes and Joseph Barnby are really not very prevalent, especially when compared with other hymnals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sullivan uses many German melodies, older English composers such as Gibbons and Tallis, Lowell Mason to represent the Americans, and psalter tunes from the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as some older chant melodies. Yes, some of these things are "arranged," but I was surprised at the breadth of the music offered. Sullivan also included five hymns with tunes by women, a very high percentage for that time. I don't think there are many other hymnals with three tunes by Frances Ridley Havergal.

Toward the end of his life, he was commissioned to write a tune for a hymn written by Bishop William Walsham How to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The tune, BISHOPGARTH, was sung with How's O King of Kings, whose reign of old throughout the churches of England on Sunday, June 20, 1897. Four more tunes were discovered and published after his death in 1900. Critics continue to debate his overall contribution to hymnody, but there aren't many people who have written anything so familiar as ST. GERTRUDE.