Arthur Sullivan

This is, as Sir Charles Mackerras writes in his foreword, not only the first book on Sullivan in German but the first in any other language than English.

Foreword by Sir Charles Mackerras

The following excerpt is quoted from Sir Charles' original text which appears in German translation in the book.

"It is a special pleasure to welcome this biography of Sir Arthur Sullivan, as it is a landmark in Sullivan Literature, being the first study of the composer in a language other than English. (...) Meinhard Saremba gives us not only a fascinating description of Sullivan's life in philistine mid-Victorian England, but also a splendid evaluation and analysis of the many aspects of his music. He makes a special plea for Sullivan to be considered as an international musical figure, rather than simply the musical half of that most British of Siamese twins, Gilberandsullivan. (...)

I hope that the book will encourage a new interest in Sullivan in German-speaking lands. He certainly merits his renaissance."

Excerpts from reviews

• Stephen Turnbull (Sir Arthur Sullivan Society, Chairman)
  in: SASS Magazine, No. 39 (Summer 1994); also quoted in The British Music Society News 63 (Sept. 1994).

  'In this country we are apt to make jokes about German thoroughness as if it were somehow a virtue to produce slipshod, ill thought out work. We must abandon all thought of such jibes in the case of Meinhard Saremba, who has written a life of Sullivan which surpasses all previous efforts save that of Professor Jacobs.

  (...) Works of scholarship in the German language can be overpoweringly dense and off-putting to the English reader, but Mr. Saremba's style, though scholarly, is readable. Anyone with a reasonably decent German A-level should have no difficulty: those with rusty schoolboy German will be surprised by how much they understand thanks to a familiar context. (...)'

• Heiko Geier in Darmstädter Echo (01 August 1994)

  'Now a young author has appeared to establish Sullivan into his just place in (not only Britain's) music history and in theatre programmes. (...) In spite of his intentions and all his obvious admiration for Sullivan the author remains objective, precise and never loses the overview for large contexts on the one hand and details on the other. In one particular case he writes that Sullivan manages to express an atmosphere in his tunes. He, Saremba, manages to express the tunes in words. Where other music-biographers answer questions concerning the background of well-known music, Saremba stimulates the curiosity of the reader for music only too unknown so far - and this may be his greatest achievement.'

• More reviews (in German) on the German version of this page.

Bibliographical Data

Saremba, Meinhard: Arthur Sullivan - Ein Komponistenleben im viktorianischen England.
Verlag Florian Noetzel, Wilhemshaven 1993.
ISBN 3-7959-0640-7. Price: DM 88,--

438 pages, Hardcover. 58 illustrations, 76 music examples (i.a. The Lost Chord in full score).
In addition:

• Map of "Sullivan's London"

• Table of Sullivan's original orchestrations

• Full contents of all operas

• Detailed synchronology in tabular form

• Annotated bibliography

• Discography, Videography etc.

• Sullivan's speech 'About Music' (in German translation)

• Sullivan's family tree

• Contemporary composers' life spans (chart)

By the same author

In his follow-up title, Elgar, Britten & Co. Meinhard Saremba presents Arthur Sullivan as one of the founders of the forthcoming breakthrough of British music in the twentieth century. The large chapter on Sullivan (pp. 13-53) is the first of twelve portraits of prominent British composers of the 19th and 20th century.

Order: www.amazon.de

See also: www.sullivan-forschung.de