Percy Reeve (born 21 December 1855; date of death not known) was an English composer and music critic. Reeve wrote several successful operettas, often as companion pieces to longer works, as well as music for other theatrical pieces and serious music during the last two decades of the 19th century. As a music critic, he wrote extensively for ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

'', '' The Saturday Review'' and other publications.

Life and career

He was born in Harley Street, London, the son of a clergyman. He was educated at Eton and the London Academy of Music. In 1877 he was appointed to a civil service post in the

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. Th ...

's office, composing music in his spare time."Mr Percy Reeve", ''Lute'' magazine, December 1899, pp. 849-50 Reeve's operetta '' A Private Wire'' (1883) ran for more than nine months at the

Savoy Theatre The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps for Richard D'Oyly Carte and opened on 10 October 1881 on a site previously occupied by the Savoy P ...

as a

Curtain raiser A curtain raiser is a short performance, stage act, show, actor or performer that opens a show for the main attraction. The term is derived from the act of raising the stage curtain. The first person on stage has "raised the curtain". The fashio ...

to '' Iolanthe''. The same year, he wrote ''Love & Music'', a book of poetry. He later composed the music for "Ruddy George, or Robin Redbreast", at

Toole's Theatre Toole's Theatre, was a 19th-century West End theatre, West End building in William IV Street, near Charing Cross, in the City of Westminster. A succession of auditoria had occupied the site since 1832, serving a variety of functions, including ...

(1887; a burlesque of Gilbert and Sullivan's ''

Ruddigore ''Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse'', originally called ''Ruddygore'', is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written tog ...

'') to a libretto by H. G. F. Taylor. In 1888, Reeve wrote about his old school in "An Eton Half Holiday". His operetta ''The Crusader and the Craven'' (1890), with words by W. Allison, had a long run at the Globe Theatre (opening as an afterpiece to an operatic adaptation of ''The Black Rover'') due to its "bright and taking music", despite a libretto described by a later critic as "almost heroically banal", with lines such as, "I am a fierce crusader, a terror to each foe, to infidel invader, I carry death and woe". He contributed to ''Cupid & Co.'' in 1894. Reeve also wrote music for burlesques at the Gaiety Theatre and incidental music for West End plays, as well as serious

chamber works Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

, and songs to texts by a wide range of authors, from

Théophile Gautier Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic. While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rema ...

E. Nesbit Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English writer and poet, who published her books for children as E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on more than 60 such books. She was also a political activist a ...

Henry Pottinger Stephens Henry Pottinger Stephens, also known as Henry Beauchamp (1851 – 11 February 1903), was an English dramatist and journalist. After beginning his career writing for newspapers, Stephens began writing Victorian burlesques in the 1870s in coll ...

. Reeve was also a prolific musical journalist, contributing to a wide range of publications including ''

'', '' The Saturday Review'' and ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

''. In 1896 he was appointed editor of ''The Lute'', a music magazine. After Reeve's death,

Lord Northcliffe Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July 1865 – 14 August 1922), was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and the ''Daily Mirror'', he was an early developer of popular journal ...

recalled him in ''

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer ...

'': "He was on my staff for a time, as musical critic; sensitive little man, with beautiful hands – irritable!"''The Musical Times'', 1 November 1931, p. 990 As a fluent French speaker, he was responsible for the English translation used by F. C. Burnand, and the lyrics, for

Edmond Audran Achille Edmond Audran (12 April 184017 August 1901) was a French composer best known for several internationally successful comic operas and operettas. After beginning his career in Marseille as an organist, Audran composed religious music and ...

's '' Miss Helyett'' (1890), staged successfully in London as ''Miss Decima'' in 1891.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reeve, Percy People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan English composers People educated at Eton College Alumni of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art 1855 births Year of death missing