The Lost Chord

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The opening bars of The Lost Chord, from a facsimile of Sullivan's Original Manuscript.
The opening bars of The Lost Chord, from a facsimile of Sullivan's Original Manuscript.

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, and Fred Sullivan died five days later. The lyric was written as a poem by Adelaide Anne Procter called "A Lost Chord," published in 1858 in The English Woman's Journal.

"The Lost Chord" was immediately successful and became particularly associated with Sullivan's close friend and sometime mistress, Fanny Ronalds, who often sang it at society functions. Sullivan was proud of the song and later noted: "I have composed much music since then, but have never written a second Lost Chord."

Many singers have recorded the song, including Enrico Caruso, who sang it at the Metropolitan Opera House on April 29, 1912 at a benefit concert for families of victims of the Titanic disaster.[1] The song has endured as one of Sullivan's best-known songs, and the setting is still performed today.

Contents

[edit] Background

Fred Sullivan was engaged as an actor in several of the operas that Arthur Sullivan had written, up to that time. In addition, as F. C. Burnand, Arthur Sullivan's collaborator, wrote:

Fred Sullivan... was a first-rate practical musician, and Arthur always found him employment in any orchestra that he had to conduct. 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. (Ayer p. 408)

Fred had created the roles of Apollo in Gilbert and Sullivan's Thespis, and the Learned Judge in their Trial by Jury, and he had also appeared in revivals of Cox and Box and The Contrabandista. Fred most likely would have played a leading role in Gilbert and Sullivan's next work, The Sorcerer, but he fell ill and died during that work's early planning stages.

[edit] 1888 recording for Edison

In 1888, Thomas Edison sent his "Perfected" Phonograph to Mr. George Gouraud in London, England. Recordings made by Gouraud on this equipment in 1888 were discovered at the Edison Library in New Jersey in the 1950s.

On August 14, 1888, Gouraud hosted a press conference at which he introduced the phonograph. He played recordings, and members of the press made a recording which was sent to Edison in America. Edison hoped that the phonograph would become a common method of correspondence.

One of the recordings played that night was a Piano and Coronet recording of "The Lost Chord." This was one of the first music recordings ever made.[2] Arthur Sullivan saw the phonograph two months later at one of the "phonograph parties" and recorded a message to Edison that included the following:

Dear Mr. Edison, ...I can only say that I am astonished and somewhat terrified at the result of this evening's experiments: astonished at the wonderful power you have developed, and terrified at the thought that so much hideous and bad music may be put on record for ever. But all the same I think it is the most wonderful thing that I have ever experienced, and I congratulate you with all my heart on this wonderful discovery.[2]

[edit] Text

The closing bars, with Sullivan's signature and the date "13 Jan. 1877"
The closing bars, with Sullivan's signature and the date "13 Jan. 1877"

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 perplexéd 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.

[edit] Cultural influence

  • There have been at least six films titled The Lost Chord, as well as one titled The Trail of the Lost Chord.[3]
  • Jimmy Durante recorded a song called "The Guy Who Found the Lost Chord," which he also sings in the film This Time for Keeps.
  • Michael Flanders and Donald Swann's song, "The Reluctant Cannibal" has the opening line, "Seated one day at the tom-tom", a reference to the first line of "The Lost Chord."
  • The Moody Blues produced an album called In Search of the Lost Chord.
  • The Strangers TV series had an episode called "The Lost Chord."[4]
  • An organization called The Lost Chord[5] describes itself as "a collaborative effort to nurture young talent from underprivileged communities and to foster a commitment to music and arts education accessibility in the New England community."
  • Caryl Brahms wrote a book called Gilbert and Sullivan: Lost Chords and Discords (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1975).
  • A band from Toronto, Canada, called The Lost Chord[6] fuses all popular musical styles into their sound while filling their lyrics with philosophical and spiritual metaphors drawn from a kaleidoscope of cultures and experiences.
  • Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome contains references to the song.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Caruso recording
  2. ^ a b Background of the 1888 recording, and link to an MP3 file of the recording
  3. ^ The Internet Movie Database listing of films called The Lost Chord
  4. ^ Information abou the TV episode called "The Lost Chord"
  5. ^ Website of a New England organization called The Lost Chord
  6. ^ Toronto band, The Lost Chord, website

[edit] References

[edit] External links