The Lost Chord
"The Lost Chord" is a song composed by Arthur Sullivan in 1877 at the bedside of his brother Fred 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 called "A Lost Chord", published in 1860 in The English Woman's Journal.[1]
The song was immediately successful[2] and became particularly associated with American contralto Antoinette Sterling, with Sullivan's close friend and mistress, Fanny Ronalds, and with British contralto Clara Butt. Sullivan was proud of the song and later noted: "I have composed much music since then, but have never written a second Lost Chord."[3]
Many singers have recorded the song, including Enrico Caruso, who sang it at the Metropolitan Opera House on 29 April 1912 at a benefit concert for families of victims of the Titanic disaster.[4] The piece has endured as one of Sullivan's best-known songs, and the setting is still performed today.[5]
In 1877, Arthur Sullivan was already Britain's foremost composer, having produced such critically praised pieces as his Irish Symphony, his Overture di Ballo, many hymns and songs, such as "Onward, Christian Soldiers", and the popular short operas Cox and Box and Trial by Jury. Adelaide Anne Procter was an extremely popular poet in Britain, second in fame only to Alfred Lord Tennyson.[5] On the early published sheet music for the song, Procter's name is written in larger letters than Sullivan's.[6] Sullivan's father's death had inspired him to write his Overture In C (In Memoriam) over a dozen years earlier.[7]
The composer's brother, Fred Sullivan, was an actor who appeared mostly in operettas and comic operas. The playwright F. C. Burnand 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."[8] Fred played roles in several of his brother's operas: Cox and Box, Thespis, The Contrabandista and Trial by Jury. He fell ill in 1876 and died in January 1877.[9]
During Fred's final illness, Arthur visited his brother frequently at his home on King's Road 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.[10] 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.[11][3]
