Arthur Goring Thomas

[mikehopf]

Like a surprising number of composers, Arthur Goring Thomas met his untimely end under a train.

Does anyone have a recording of his cantata: The Swan & the Skylark.

It was recorded from a concert given in New York several years ago along with some songs and duets.

I had contacted Richard Slade, the tenor who organised the concert, in the hope of obtaining a recording, but (alas) to no avail

[albion]

Like a surprising number of composers, Arthur Goring Thomas met his untimely end under a train.

Great opening to a thread!

Then there was poor old Eric Fogg ....

Back on topic, I know of no currently-available or even broadcast recordings of anything substantial by Goring Thomas, beyond a semi-professional live 1983 recording by Opera Viva of an aria from his opera Esmeralda.

I sincerely hope that Victorian Opera Northwest will get round to recording either Esmeralda (1883) or Nadeshda (1885), but in the meantime, their recording of the Overture to his posthumously-produced comedy opera The Golden Web (1893) is due next year.

[albion]

a semi-professional live 1983 recording by Opera Viva

I will put some of the other extracts from this 2-LP set into the archive this afternoon.

[Dundonnell]

...and Ernest Pingoud

[albion]

a semi-professional live 1983 recording by Opera Viva

I will put some of the other extracts from this 2-LP set into the archive this afternoon.

Duly done, along with excerpts from operas by Corder, Cowen, Stanford, Smyth, Naylor, d'Erlanger and Holst. Please see the post in the British music broadcasts thread if this material is of interest!

[eschiss1]

I have a- I need to check the zip file- vocal score from archive.org of Swan and the Skylark, I think, but not a recording, sorry. (Stanford orchestrated the work according to Wikipedia- hrm..!) (LoC has the same, and some material for three other vocal works, operas I think- I think New York Public may have full scores of some of them. Ah. RAM does have the full parts of Swan & Skylark as orch. by Stanford  "from the Henry Wood orchestral collection" ("Woodwind0000, brass0000, timps0+perc0, strings(8-8-6-6-4)")- my mistake...)

[albion]

As some members may not have access to the information, here is Grove's entry for Goring Thomas -

Thomas, Arthur Goring (b Ratton Park, Sussex, 20 Nov 1850; d London, 20 March 1892).

English composer. His parents initially opposed a musical career, but in 1873 he went to Paris to study with Émile Duran for two years. In 1877 he entered the RAM and studied with Sullivan and Prout, twice gaining the Lucas medal for composition. Later he also studied orchestration with Max Bruch. From his early unfinished opera Don Braggadocio, he showed a strong inclination towards dramatic music and the theatre, confirmed with a second opera, The Light of the Harem, written while at the RAM and in part performed there in 1879. Its success along with performances of his anthem Out of the Deep (1878), his concert-scenas (including Hero and Leander, 1880) and the romantic cantata The Sun-Worshippers (1881) brought his name to prominence. He was commissioned by Carl Rosa to write an opera, and the resulting Esmeralda, after Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris, was produced in 1883 to great acclaim. It was later given in German in Cologne, Hamburg and Berlin, and was revived in 1890 in French at Covent Garden before being given again in its original English version by the Royal Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1908. Driven by its success, Rosa commissioned a second opera, Nadeshda, which was performed in April 1885 and afterwards, in a German version, at Breslau in 1890. Although it was recognized as a stronger and more robust work, Esmeralda nevertheless remained far more enduringly popular. Both works, however, established Thomas at the forefront of British opera.

Thomas's incentive to compose subsequently declined. He wrote the Suite de ballet (1887) and several songs, and in the early 1890s was commissioned by Richard D'Oyly Carte for an operetta and from the Leeds Festival for a short choral work. Neither revived his creative interest. Poor health and a series of accidents gave rise to depression and his eventual suicide. A scholarship was established at the RAM in his memory, and his operetta The Golden Web was finished by S.P. Waddington and produced in Liverpool and London in 1893. The Swan and the Skylark, his cantata for Leeds, was completed and orchestrated from a piano score by Stanford for the Birmingham Festival in 1894.

Thomas's training in France was intensely formative, and he was drawn to the works of Bizet, Ambroise Thomas, Delibes, Gounod and Massenet. This is evident from songs such as S'il est un charmant gazon, Le jeune pâtre and Les papillons which adopt the lyric manner of Gounod, while the charming orchestral miniatures of the Suite de ballet and the stylish ballet music of Esmeralda betray the influence of Bizet and Delibes. In his operatic works he had to reconcile his flair for poise and elegance to large-scale drama: Randegger's bowdlerized libretto for Esmeralda, which deprived Hugo's original story of its intrigue and ardour and replaced the tragic ending with a happy one, was consequently appropriate to Thomas's powers of invention. For numbers such as Esmeralda's 'Swallow song' and Phoebus's aria 'O vision entrancing' he was able to achieve a degree of individuality, and his flexible recitatives were considered advanced for their realism. In the more complex and protracted scenes the pressure on his dramatic abilities invariably gave rise to his weakest music. Nadeshda was superior in orchestral colour and thematic material, but the traits of his French mentors remain; moreover, its scale and length far outweighed Thomas's lyrical instincts. In spite of their common flaws, both operas are important for the part they played in Carl Rosa's attempt to establish a vernacular opera by native British composers in the 1870s and 80s. Furthermore, the polish and refinement of Thomas's work provides a compelling example of French influence in British music at a time when so much indigenous composition was dominated by Germany.

Jeremy Dibble


Works (selective list)
MSS in GB-Lbl, Lcm; all printed works published in London; see list in programme of memorial concert, St James's Hall, 13 July 1892

Operas
Don Braggadocio (3, C.I. Thomas), unfinished
The Light of the Harem (3, C. Harrison, after T. Moore), London, RAM, 7 Nov 1879 (1913)
Esmeralda (4, T. Marzials and A. Randegger, after V. Hugo: Notre-Dame de Paris), London, Drury Lane, 26 March 1883 (1883), rev. Covent Garden, 12 July 1890
Nadeshda (4, J. Sturgis), London, Drury Lane, 16 April 1885 (1885)
The Golden Web (3, F. Corder and B.C. Stephenson), Liverpool, Royal Court, 15 Feb 1893 (1893), completed by S.P. Waddington

Choral and orchestral
Out of the Deep (anthem, Waddington, after Ps cxxx), S, 4vv, orch, London, 1878 (1878)
Hero and Leander (scena, G. Macfarren), London, 1880
The Sun-Worshippers (choral ode, C. Delavigne and C. Newton-Scott), Norwich Festival, 1881 (1881)
Suite de ballet, orch, Cambridge, University Musical Society, 10 March 1887 (1892)
The Swan and the Skylark (cant., Keats, Shelley and F. Hemans), Birmingham Festival, 1894 (1894), completed and orchd C.V. Stanford
3 other concert scenas

Songs and other works
Mélodies, 1v, pf acc. (c1885)
12 Lyrics (H. Boulton) (1889)
Album of 10 Songs, 1v, pf acc. (1893)
6 romances et 2 duos (C. Bingham) (1894)
Many separate songs and duets

Works for vn, pf, and for vc, pf

[albion]

the polish and refinement of Thomas's work provides a compelling example of French influence in British music at a time when so much indigenous composition was dominated by Germany.

This is an interesting and quite accurate point. Perhaps the only other major figure who appeared to take anything of consequence from his French contemporaries was Arthur Sullivan, and then only intermittently and primarily Gounod - vide much of L'Ile Enchantée (1864), the duet How sweet the moonlight sleeps from Kenilworth (1864), the incidental music to The Merchant of Venice (1871) and parts of The Martyr of Antioch (1880), particularly Olybius' Come Margarita, Come and Margarita's recitative and aria Yet once again I touch thy golden strings, My silent and forgotten lyre!

In the more complex and protracted scenes the pressure on his dramatic abilities invariably gave rise to his weakest music. Nadeshda was superior in orchestral colour and thematic material, but the traits of his French mentors remain; moreover, its scale and length far outweighed Thomas's lyrical instincts.

Judging solely from the vocal scores, this is possibly a little harsh. The comment about orchestral colour is interesting though, as I've not been able to trace the autograph full scores for either opera - is the comment reliant upon contemporary reviews?

[albion]

The comment about orchestral colour is interesting though, as I've not been able to trace the autograph full scores for either opera - is the comment reliant upon contemporary reviews?

The only items which appear to be at the British Library are -

36739-36742. COLLECTION of rough drafts, sketches, and autograph fragments, chiefly in full score, of compositions mostly published
only in pianoforte score, by Arthur Goring Thomas. Included are portions of the French and Italian versions of " Esmeralda," short
pieces intended for a new edition of " Nadeshda," the MSS. from which the " Album of Ten Songs" published posthumously in
1894 was engraved, " Sous les étoiles " and other duets, and the solo with chorus " Out of the Deep."
Paper; ff. 196, 138, 58, 51. Circ. 1877-1894. Folio and Oblong Folio. Presented by Charles I. Thomas, Esg., of the Admiralty, brother of the composer.

and there is apparently nothing in the RCM library (despite Grove's reference), but I've just seen that the RAM has -

MS2621

Esmeralda
Manuscript full score
Publication info    [S.l.], [1900]
Physical desc    1 score (2vols) ; 36cm
General note    Partly litograph, partly manuscript, black ink on 24-stave paper. Manuscript sections are inserted at end of Act 2, after the first 52 pages of Act 3, and between pp.46 and 47 of Act 4. The printed sections have words in German, the manuscript sections in Italian and French. At end of vol2 are enclosed 6 pages with an excerpt in English. With several paste down, blue crayon and pencil corrections and performance markings in the hand of Henry Wood. Dated '1900' on label on front board.

One down, one to go.

[eschiss1]

Hrm. How many pages are the vocal scores of these? The Library of Congress has Boosey&Hawkes published scores of Nadezhda and Esmerelda listed in the 300+ pages each (or is that normal? I forget now.)

[albion]

Hrm. How many pages are the vocal scores of these? The Library of Congress has Boosey&Hawkes published scores of Nadezhda and Esmerelda listed in the 300+ pages each (or is that normal? I forget now.)

Yes, these are pretty hefty vocal scores - Esmeralda (335 pp, plus large appendix of revisions in second and subsequent editions) and Nadeshda (345 pp, later editions at least 352 pp).

One down, one to go.

Even better news on Nadeshda: I've located a lithographed full score published in Germany in 1890 under the title Nadeschda and held at the British Library under the shelfmark K.10.d.7. Julian Sturgis' libretto is, of course, translated, but at least the work could be revived in a form recognisable to the composer (who has annotated the score by hand).

[mikehopf]

Thanks to those members who have replied to my post re:AGT.

Here are details of the NY Concert:

www.richardthetenor.com/Concerts/GoringThomas/index.htm

BTW, for you trainspotters here are a few more "kareninas":
Emils Darzins ( 1910)
Jorge Liderman ( 2008)
Isaac Nathan ( 1864)... O.K. it was a tram, not a train

[albion]

Apropos of close vehicular encounters, Sir Alexander Mackenzie was very nearly done in by a taxi in 1928 -

a little more than 9 months ago a very serious accident happened to me. I was going to my club one afternoon and had only proceeded 4 or 5 doors from my house when a taxi-cab mounted the pavement and got me underneath it before I could get out of its way. Only by a perfect miracle did I escape instant death, because another inch further would have crushed my head. The driver was going at 25 miles per hour, but just managed to pull up in time to be saved from murder! Letter to Angel Eisner-Eisendorf, 6th May 1929 (Music Lib, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois)

Although formerly still remarkably active for an octogenarian, the accident left Mackenzie an invalid for his remaining seven years.

[mikehopf]

You could write a book about the great number of composers killed in transport accidents.

Chausson & Granados immediately spring to mind.

Or you could buy " What Killed the Great and Not So Great Composers? " by Joseph Lewis who devotes a whole chapter to                       "  Transportation Accidents and the Composers"