The Lost Chord
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Lost Chord is a poem by Adelaide Anne Procter that was set to music by Arthur Sullivan in 1877. Sullivan composed "The Lost Chord" at the bedside of his brother Fred during Fred's last illness. The manuscript is dated January 13, 1877, and Fred Sullivan died five days later.
Fred Sullivan was engaged as an actor in several of the operas that 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.
"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." The song has endured as one of Sullivan's best-known songs, and the setting is still performed today.
Contents |
[edit] 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 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
- On April 29, 1912, Enrico Caruso sang "The Lost Chord" at the Metropolitan Opera House, at a benefit concert for families of victims of the Titanic disaster. He recorded the song for the Victor Talking Machine Company the same day.[1]
- According to The Internet Movie Database, there have been at least six films titled The Lost Chord, as well as one titled The Trail of the Lost Chord.
- Jimmy Durante recorded a song called "The Guy Who Found 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."[2]
- The Lost Chord is "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 on the partnership called Gilbert and Sullivan: Lost Chords and Discords (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1975).
- The Lost Chord is a band from Toronto, Canada that fuses all popular musical styles into their sound while filling their lyrics with philisophical and spiritual metaphors drawn from a kaleidoscope of cultures and experiences.
[edit] References
- Ayre, Leslie (1972, 1974). The Gilbert & Sullivan Companion. London: W.H. Allen & Co Ltd. Introduction by Martyn Green.
[edit] External links
- "The Lost Chord" a video of the song being sung by English treble Peter Auty, at YouTube
- "The Lost Chord" at The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
- "The Lost Chord" at The Cyber Hymnal
- "The Lost Chord" at Project Gutenberg
