Samuel Arnold (composer)

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For the U.S. Senator, see Samuel G. Arnold

For the Lincoln conspirator, see Samuel Arnold (Lincoln conspirator).

Samuel Arnold (1740 - October 22, 1802) was an English composer.

Arnold was born in London (his mother is thought to have been Princess Amelia: his father was Thomas Arnold), and began writing music for the theatre in about 1764. A few years later, in partnership with Thomas Pinto, he became proprietor of the Marylebone pleasure gardens, for which much of his popular music was written. The business failed, and in 1777 he went to work for George Colman the Elder at the Little Theatre, Haymarket. In 1783 he became organist at the Chapel Royal, and in 1793 he became organist at Westminster Abbey, where he was eventually buried.

Arnold's best-known works include:

• The Maid of the Mill (1765)
• The Prodigal Son (1773)
• The Castle of Andalusia (1782)
• Turk and No Turk (1785)