"The Lost Chord" is a song composed by

Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...

in 1877 at the bedside of his brother

Fred Fred may refer to: People * Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name Mononym * Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French * Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Frederico Ro ...

during Fred's last illness. The manuscript is dated 13 January 1877; Fred Sullivan died five days later. The lyric was written as a poem by

Adelaide Anne Procter Adelaide Anne Procter (30 October 1825 – 2 February 1864) was an English poet and philanthropist. Her literary career began when she was a teenager, her poems appearing in Charles Dickens's periodicals ''Household Words'' and '' All the ...

called "A Lost Chord", published in 1860 in ''The English Woman's Journal''. The song was immediately successful and became particularly associated with American

contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typically b ...

Antoinette Sterling Antoinette Sterling (January 23, 1841January 10, 1904) was an American contralto who had a career singing sentimental ballads in Britain and the Empire. Early life Sterling was born in Sterlingville, New York, on January 23, 1841. Her father, ...

, with Sullivan's close friend and mistress,

Fanny Ronalds Mary Frances Ronalds RRC DStJ (née Carter; August 23, 1839 – July 28, 1916) was an American socialite and amateur singer who is best known for her long affair with the composer Arthur Sullivan in London in the last decades of the nineteenth ...

, and with British contralto

Clara Butt Dame Clara Ellen Butt, (1 February 1872 – 23 January 1936) was an English contralto and one of the most popular singers from the 1890s through to the 1920s. She had an exceptionally fine contralto voice and an agile singing technique, and imp ...

. Sullivan was proud of the song and later noted: "I have composed much music since then, but have never written a second Lost Chord.""The Lost Chord"
''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive'', accessed 13 August 2014 Many singers have recorded the song, including

Enrico Caruso Enrico Caruso (, , ; 25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic first lyrical tenor then dramatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles (74) ...

, who sang it at the Metropolitan Opera House on 29 April 1912 at a benefit concert for families of victims of the ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...

'' disaster.1912 Caruso recording
Encyclopedia-titanica.org, 2005, accessed 28 August 2014 The piece has endured as one of Sullivan's best-known songs, and the setting is still performed today.
All Music Guide, ClassicalArchives.net, 2008

Background

In 1877,

was already Britain's foremost composer, having produced such critically praised pieces as his '' Irish Symphony'', his ''

Overture di Ballo The ''Overture di Ballo'' is a concert overture by Arthur Sullivan. Its first performance was in August 1870 at the Birmingham Triennial Festival, conducted by the composer. It predates all his work with W. S. Gilbert, and is his most frequentl ...

'', many hymns and songs, such as "

Onward, Christian Soldiers "Onward, Christian Soldiers" is a 19th-century English hymn. The words were written by Sabine Baring-Gould in 1865, and the music was composed by Arthur Sullivan in 1871. Sullivan named the tune "St Gertrude," after the wife of his friend Erne ...

", and the popular short operas ''

Cox and Box ''Cox and Box; or, The Long-Lost Brothers'', is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by F. C. Burnand and music by Arthur Sullivan, based on the 1847 farce '' Box and Cox'' by John Maddison Morton. It was Sullivan's first successful comic o ...

'' and ''

Trial by Jury A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial in which a judge or panel of judges makes all decisions. Jury trials are used in a significant ...

''.

was an extremely popular poet in Britain, second in fame only to

Alfred Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

. On the early published sheet music for the song, Procter's name is written in larger letters than Sullivan's.Buckley, Jack
"In Search of The Lost Chord"
MusicWeb International, accessed 22 June 2014 Sullivan's father's death had inspired him to write his ''

Overture In C (In Memoriam) Overture (from French ''ouverture'', "opening") in music was originally the instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn composed overt ...

'' over a dozen years earlier. The composer's brother,

Fred Sullivan Frederic Sullivan ( – ) was an English people, English actor and singer. He is best remembered as the creator of the role of the Learned Judge in Gilbert and Sullivan's ''Trial by Jury'', providing a model for the comic roles in the later Sav ...

, was an actor who appeared mostly in

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

s and

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

s. The playwright

F. C. Burnand Sir Francis Cowley Burnand (29 November 1836 – 21 April 1917), usually known as F. C. Burnand, was an English comic writer and prolific playwright, best known today as the librettist of Arthur Sullivan's opera ''Cox and Box''. The son of ...

wrote of Fred: "As he was the most absurd person, so was he the very kindliest. The brothers were devoted to each other, but Arthur went up, and poor little Fred went under." Fred played roles in several of his brother's operas: ''Cox and Box'', ''

Thespis Thespis (; grc-gre, Θέσπις; fl. 6th century BC) was an Ancient Greek poet. He was born in the ancient city of Icarius (present-day Dionysos, Greece). According to certain Ancient Greek sources and especially Aristotle, he was the first pe ...

'', ''

The Contrabandista ''The Contrabandista'', ''or The Law of the Ladrones'', is a two-act comic opera by Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand. It premiered at St. George's Hall, in London, on 18 December 1867 under the management of Thomas German Reed, for a run of 72 ...

'' and ''Trial by Jury''. He fell ill in 1876 and died in January 1877. During Fred's final illness, Arthur visited his brother frequently at his home on

King's Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

in Fulham, London. The composer had tried to set Procter's poem to music five years previously but had not been satisfied by the effort.Scott, Derek B
"The Musical Soirée: Rational Amusement in the Home"
''The Victorian Web'', 2004, accessed 30 September 2009 As he had been inspired by his grief at the death of their father, he was again inspired to compose by his brother's decline. At Fred's bedside, he sketched out the music to ''The Lost Chord'', and the manuscript is dated 13 January 1877, five days before Fred's death. Although not written for sale, the song became the biggest commercial success of any British or American song of the 1870s and 1880s. The American

premiered the piece on 31 January 1877 at a Boosey concert, and she became one of its leading proponents, as did Sullivan's close friend and sometime mistress,

, who often sang it at society functions.Ainger, pp. 128–29. Dame

recorded the song several times, and many famous singers recorded it, including

in 1912. A copy of the music was buried with Ronalds, who bequeathed the manuscript to Butt in 1914. Butt's husband,

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

Kennerley Rumford Robert Henry Kennerley Rumford (2 September 1870 – 9 March 1957) was an English baritone singer of the 20th century. He was first known for his performances of oratorios, but following his marriage to the well-known contralto singer Clara Bu ...

, gave the manuscript to the

Worshipful Company of Musicians The Worshipful Company of Musicians is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. Its history dates back to at least 1350. Originally a specialist guild for musicians, its role became an anachronism in the 18th century, when the centre of ...

in 1950. Musicologist Derek B. Scott offers this analysis of the composition:

1888 recording for Edison

In 1888,

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

sent his "Perfected"

Phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

to Mr.

George Gouraud George Edward Gouraud (30 June 1842 – 20 February 1912) was an American Civil War recipient of the Medal of Honor who later became famous for introducing the new Edison Phonograph cylinder audio recording technology to England in 1888. Civil ...

in London, England, and on 14 August 1888, Gouraud introduced the phonograph to London in a press conference, including the playing of a piano and cornet recording of Sullivan's "The Lost Chord", one of the first recordings of music ever made.Historic Sullivan Recordings
''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive'', accessed 13 August 2014 A series of parties followed, introducing the phonograph to members of society at the so-called "Little Menlo" in London. Sullivan was invited to one of these on 5 October 1888. After dinner, he recorded a speech to be sent to Thomas Edison, saying, in part: These recordings were discovered in the Edison Library in New Jersey in the 1950s.

Text

Seated one day at the organ, I was weary and ill at ease, And my fingers wandered idly Over the noisy keys. I know not what I was playing, Or what I was dreaming then; But I struck one chord of music, Like the sound of a great Amen. It flooded the crimson twilight, Like the close of an angel's psalm, And it lay on my fevered spirit With a touch of infinite calm. It quieted pain and sorrow, Like love overcoming strife; It seemed the harmonious echo From our discordant life. It linked all perplexèd meanings Into one perfect peace, And trembled away into silence As if it were loth to cease. I have sought, but I seek it vainly, That one lost chord divine, Which came from the soul of the organ, And entered into mine. It may be that death's bright angel Will speak in that chord again, It may be that only in Heav'n I shall hear that grand Amen.

Cultural influence

In film and television

There have been at least six films titled ''The Lost Chord'', as well as one titled ''The Trail of the Lost Chord''. In the 1999 film ''

Topsy-Turvy ''Topsy-Turvy'' is a 1999 British musical period drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh, starring Allan Corduner as Sir Arthur Sullivan and Jim Broadbent as W.S. Gilbert, along with Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville and Ron Cook. The story ...

'', a scene depicts Fanny Ronalds (played by

Eleanor David Maria Eleanor David (born 30 November 1955) is an English actress who has worked on projects in the UK, the US and New Zealand. She won positive reviews for her starring role in the biopic '' Sylvia'', in which she played pioneering educational ...

) facetiously introducing it as "a new composition" at an 1884 party at her house; she then sings it with Sullivan (

Allan Corduner Allan Corduner (; born 2 April 1950) is a British actor. Born in Stockholm to a German mother and a Russo-Finnish father, Corduner grew up in a secular Jewish home in London. After earning a BA (Hons) in English and Drama at Bristol Universit ...

) at the piano and Walter Simmonds (Matthew Mills) at the

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

The ''

Strangers A stranger is a person who is unknown to another person or group. Because of this unknown status, a stranger may be perceived as a threat until their identity (social science), identity and Character structure, character can be ascertained. Differ ...

'' TV series had an episode called "The Lost Chord."

Music

Jimmy Durante James Francis Durante ( , ; February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980) was an American comedian, actor, singer, vaudevillian, and pianist. His distinctive gravelly speech, Lower East Side accent, comic language-butchery, jazz-influenced song ...

recorded a humorous song called "I'm the Guy Who Found the Lost Chord", which he also sings in the 1947 film ''

This Time for Keeps ''This Time for Keeps'' is a 1947 American romantic musical film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Esther Williams, Jimmy Durante, Johnnie Johnston and opera singer Lauritz Melchior. Produced by MGM, it is about a soldier, returning home ...

''.

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

and

Ira Gershwin Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 2 ...

wrote a song called "That Lost Barber Shop Chord", which was included in their 1926 revue ''Americana''.

The Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1964, initially consisting of keyboardist Mike Pinder, multi-instrumentalist Ray Thomas, guitarist Denny Laine, drummer Graeme Edge and bassist Clint Warwick. The group came to ...

produced an album called ''

In Search of the Lost Chord ''In Search of the Lost Chord'' is the third album by The Moody Blues, released in July 1968 on the Deram label. Content ''In Search of the Lost Chord'' is a concept album around a broad theme of quest and discovery, including world explorati ...

'' in 1968. According to keyboardist

Mike Pinder Michael Thomas Pinder (born 27 December 1941) is an English rock musician, and is a founding member and original keyboard player of the British rock group the Moody Blues. He left the group following the recording of the band's ninth album ''O ...

, the title was inspired by the Durante song.

Literature and other

The novel ''Bad Wisdom'' by

Bill Drummond William Ernest Drummond (born 29 April 1953) is a Scottish artist, musician, writer, and record producer. He was a co-founder of the late-1980s avant-garde pop group the KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with wh ...

and

Mark Manning Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction are a British hard rock group, which was formed in 1985. Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction play a sleazy style of commercial hard rock featuring big riffs and choruses, as was the trend in the band' ...

concerns their trip to the North Pole with an icon of Elvis to search for the Lost Chord.

Edith Wharton Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...

's novel ''

Ethan Frome ''Ethan Frome'' is a 1911 book by American author Edith Wharton. It is set in the fictitious town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. The novel has been adapted into a '' film of the same name''. Plot The novel is a framed narrative. The framing sto ...

'' contains references to the song. In

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

Black Widowers The Black Widowers is a fictional men-only dining club created by Isaac Asimov for a series of sixty-six mystery stories that he started writing in 1971. Most of the stories were first published in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', though a few ...

story "The Quiet Place" (''

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' is a bi-monthly American digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction, and mystery fiction. Launched in fall 1941 by Mercury Press, ''EQMM'' is named after the fict ...

'', March 1988), the traditional "Guest" of the Black Widowers hums this tune all through a dinner.

Caryl Brahms Doris Caroline Abrahams (8 December 1901 – 5 December 1982), commonly known by the pseudonym Caryl Brahms, was an English critic, novelist, and journalist specialising in the theatre and ballet. She also wrote film, radio and television scripts ...

wrote a 1975 book called ''Gilbert and Sullivan: Lost Chords and Discords''. Brahms, Caryl. ''Gilbert and Sullivan: Lost Chords and Discords'', Boston: Little, Brown and Company (1975)

Notes

References

* * Introduction by

Martyn Green William Martin Green (22 April 1899 – 8 February 1975), known by his stage name, Martyn Green, was an English actor and singer. He is remembered for his performances and recordings as principal comedian of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, in t ...

. *
Information about Procter and the song

External links

History and autographed manuscript
at The Musicians' Company Archive
Vocal score
at IMSLP

at The Cyber Hymnal
"The Lost Chord"
at

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...

Performances
"The Lost Chord"
link to recording of the song being sung by

*
The Lost Chord
' sung by Dame

Derek B. Scott singing Sullivan's setting, and information about it

Richard Holmes singing Sullivan's setting
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lost Chord 1860 poems 1877 songs Art songs Compositions by Arthur Sullivan English poems Songs about music