Frederic Emes Clay (3 August 1838 – 24 November 1889) was an English composer known principally for his music written for the stage. Clay, a great friend of Arthur Sullivan's, wrote four comic operas with W. S. Gilbert and introduced the two men.
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Clay was born in Paris to English parents, James Clay (1804–1873), a Member of Parliament, and his wife, Eliza Camilla Woolrych. Clay was the fourth of six brothers and sisters. His father was celebrated as a player of whist and the author of a treatise on that subject, as well as an amateur composer. His mother also had a musical background, as her mother had been an opera singer.[1] Clay was educated at home by private tutors in London, studying piano and violin, and then music composition under Bernhard Molique and, in 1863, with Moritz Hauptmann in Leipzig, Germany.[2] He then worked as a civil servant in the Treasury department while also pursuing composing. After the death of his father in 1873, his inheritance enabled him to become a full time composer.[3] With the exception of some songs, hymns, instrumental pieces and two cantatas, his compositions were nearly all written for the stage. In the mid-1860s, Clay and his friend Arthur Sullivan became frequent guests at the home of John Scott Russell. By about 1865, Clay became engaged to Scott Russell's youngest daughter Alice, and Sullivan wooed the middle daughter Rachel. The Scott Russells welcomed the engagement of Alice to Clay, but he broke it off.[4]
Clay's first professionally-produced piece was an opera entitled Court and Cottage, with a libretto by Tom Taylor, which was produced at Covent Garden in 1862. In 1865, he composed another opera, the unsuccessful Constance (1865), with a libretto by Thomas William Robertson. With B. C. Stephenson, he wrote three pieces played by amateurs: The Pirate's Isle, Out of Sight and The Bold Recruit (1868), and with W. S. Gilbert he wrote Ages Ago (1869) for Thomas German Reed's Gallery of Illustration.[2] This piece ran for 350 performances and was revived several times.[3] Clay introduced Gilbert to Arthur Sullivan during a rehearsal for Ages Ago.[5] The Bold Recruit was revived at a benefit by German Reed at the Gallery of Illustration in 1870 as a companion piece to Ages Ago.[6]
These were followed by The Gentleman in Black (1870, also with Gilbert), In Possession (1871, also for German Reed), Happy Arcadia (1872, with Gilbert), Oriana (1873, with a libretto by James Albery), Green Old Age and Cattarina (both 1874, with libretti by Robert Reece), Princess Toto (1875, the last collaboration between Clay and Gilbert), and Don Quixote (1876).[3] Ages Ago (a one-act piece) and Princess Toto (a three-act comic opera) are considered to be among Clay's most tuneful and attractive works. The Times wrote that the music of Princess Toto "is probably surpassed by no modern English work of the kind for gaiety and melodious charm."[7]
Clay also composed part of the score for the spectacle Babil and Bijou (1872, also for German Reed)[7] and the successful opera-bouffe version of The Black Crook (1873 based on the same source material as the earlier American musical of the same name and starring Kate Santley), both of which were produced with success at the Alhambra Theatre. He also furnished incidental music for a revival of Twelfth Night.
Clay's two cantatas were The Knights of the Cross (1866) and Lalla Rookh (containing perhaps Clay's best-known song, "I'll sing thee songs of Araby" and also "Still This Golden Lull"), which was produced successfully at the Brighton Festival in 1877.[2] Clay had difficulty finding work in London and moved to America. There he met with only mixed success and returned to England in 1881.[1] His last works were The Merry Duchess (1883 at the Royalty Theatre, starring Kate Santley and in which Louie Henri also appeared)[8] and The Golden Ring (starring Marion Hood) (1883), with words by G. R. Sims. The latter was written for the reopening of the Alhambra, which had been burned to the ground the year before. These last works were both successful and showed an artistic advance upon Clay's previous work.
Clay's friend, Sir Arthur Sullivan, wrote: "In all his works Clay showed a natural gift of graceful melody and a feeling for rich harmonic colouring. [Some of his most popular songs included] 'She wandered down the mountain side,' 'Long ago' and 'The Sands of Dee'".[2] Other songs that achieved popularity are "Gipsy John", "Who Knows"[3] and "She Wandered Down the Mountain Side".[7]
After conducting the second performance of The Golden Ring, Clay suffered a stroke that paralyzed him and cut short his productive life. In 1889 at the age of 51, he was found drowned in his bath at the home of his sisters in Great Marlow, England, presumably a suicide. He was buried in Brompton cemetery.[1]