View source for Thomas Arne

{{short description|18th-century English composer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Thomas Arne
| image              = Thomas Augustine Arne.png
| image_upright      = 1
| alt                = Thomas Augustine Arne, 1778
| birth_name         = Thomas Augustine Arne
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1710|03|12|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Covent Garden]], London, England
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1778|03|05|1710|03|12|df=y}}
| death_place        = London, England
| nationality        = 
| other_names        = 
| education          = [[Eton College]]
| occupation         = 
| years_active       = 
| known_for          = 
| notable_works      = 
}}

'''Thomas Augustine Arne''' ({{IPAc-en|ɑr|n}}; 12 March 1710{{snd}}5 March 1778) was an English composer of the late [[Baroque music|Baroque]] and the  early [[Classical period (music)|Classical]] periods. He is best known for his patriotic song "[[Rule, Britannia!]]" and the song "[[A-Hunting We Will Go]]", the latter composed for a 1777 production of ''[[The Beggar's Opera]]'', which has since become popular as a folk song and a nursery rhyme.<ref>{{cite book |title=Sexuality in Eighteenth-century Britain |date=1982 |publisher=Manchester University Press |page=250}}</ref> Arne was a leading British theatre composer of the 18th century, working at the [[West End theatre|West End]]'s [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane]] and [[Covent Garden]]. He wrote many operatic entertainments for the London theatres and pleasure gardens, as well as concertos, sinfonias, and sonatas.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Oxford illustrated encyclopedia|date=1985–1993|publisher=Oxford University Press|others=Judge, Harry George., Toyne, Anthony.|isbn=0-19-869129-7|location=Oxford [England]|pages=22|oclc=11814265}}</ref>

==Early life==
Arne was born on 12 March 1710 in [[Covent Garden]] and baptised as a [[Roman Catholic]]. He came from a long line of Catholic [[recusants]]. 

Arne's father and grandfather were both [[upholstery|upholsterers]] and both held office in the [[Worshipful Company of Upholders]] of the [[City of London]].  His grandfather fell on hard times and died in the [[Marshalsea Prison|debtors' prison of Marshalsea]].  His father earned enough money to rent 31 King Street, a large house in Covent Garden,<ref>{{openplaque|233}}</ref> and to have Arne educated at [[Eton College]] but in later life, he too lost most of his money and had to supplement his income by acting as a numberer of the boxes (ticket counter) at the [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane Theatre]].

Arne was so keen on music that he smuggled a [[spinet]] into his room and, damping the sounds with his handkerchief, would secretly practise during the night while the rest of the family slept. He also dressed up as a liveryman to gain access to the gallery of the [[Italian Opera]]. It was at the opera that Arne first met the musician and composer [[Michael Christian Festing|Michael Festing]], who was a major influence on him. Festing not only taught him to play the violin, but also took him to various musical events, including going to compete against [[Thomas Roseingrave]] for the post of organist at [[Hanover Square, London|Hanover Square]], and a visit to Oxford in 1733 to hear [[George Frideric Handel]]'s oratorio ''[[Athalia (Handel)|Athalia]]''.

Upon leaving school, Arne was [[Articled clerk|articled]] to a solicitor for three years. However, Arne's father discovered his son leading a group of musicians at what was probably one of Festing's musical gatherings. Following this disclosure of his son's real interest and talent, he was persuaded (again probably by Festing) to allow the young Arne to give up his legal career and to pursue music as a living.

==Musical career==

Between 1733 and 1776, Arne wrote music for about 90 stage works, including plays, [[masques]], pantomimes, and operas. Many of his dramatic scores are now lost, probably in the disastrous fire at the [[Royal Opera House]], Covent Garden in 1808.<ref name="autogenerated1">[http://www.answers.com/topic/thomas-and-sally-or-the-sailor-s-return-opera-in-1-act?cat=entertainment Thomas and Sally, or The Sailor's Return, opera ...: Information and Much More from Answers.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Arne's sister, [[Susannah Maria Arne]], was a famous [[contralto]], who performed in some of his works, including his first opera, ''[[Rosamond (Arne)|Rosamund]]''. With her marriage to the Drury Lane actor [[Theophilus Cibber]] Susannah became known professionally as "Mrs Cibber". She and their brother Richard would often perform Arne's works together.

[[File:Arne after Bartolozzi.jpg|thumb|A [[caricature]] of Thomas Arne]]
Arne was a [[Freemasonry|Freemason]]<ref>[http://www.ugle.org.uk/masonry/famous-masons.htm Website reference] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070510084204/http://www.ugle.org.uk/masonry/famous-masons.htm |date=10 May 2007 }} at the United Grand Lodge of England.</ref> and active in the organization, which has long been centred in the Covent Garden area of London, where Arne lived for many years. Like [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]], who also lived in the 1700s, Arne lived before the Catholic hierarchy had banned membership in the Lodges in all countries.

On 15 March 1737,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ihgs.ac.uk/familyhistory/arne.php |title=IHGS – Family History: Music, the Arne Family Tradition, 1710–1804 by Gladys Carson |access-date=5 January 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071015152943/http://ihgs.ac.uk/familyhistory/arne.php |archive-date=15 October 2007  }}</ref> Arne married singer [[Cecilia Young]], whose sister, Isabella, was the wife of [[John Frederick Lampe]]. During this period Arne's operas and masques became increasingly popular, and he received the patronage of [[Frederick, Prince of Wales]], at whose country home, [[Cliveden]], the ''[[Masque of Alfred]]'', featuring "Rule Britannia", was debuted in 1740.

In 1741, Arne filed a complaint in [[Court of Chancery|Chancery]] pertaining to a breach of musical copyright and claimed that some of his theatrical songs had been printed and sold by Henry Roberts and John Johnson, the London booksellers and music distributors. The matter was settled out of court. Arne was one of the first composers to have appealed to the law over copyright issues.<ref>''Arne, Handel, Walsh, and Music as Intellectual Property: Two Eighteenth-Century Lawsuits'': Ronald J. Rabin and Steven Zohn, ''Journal of the Royal Musical Association,'' Vol. 120, No. 1 (1995), pp. 112–145</ref>

In 1742 Arne went with his wife to [[Dublin]], where he remained two years and produced his oratorio ''The Death of Abel'', of which only the melody known as the ''Hymn of Eve'' survives, and some stage works; he also gave a number of successful concerts. Audiences of the day were exacting, and composers had to try to maintain their attention with ever more inventive means. An advertisement in a Dublin newspaper for one of Arne's performances read that he "...intend(ed) between the Acts of his Serenatas, Operas, and other Musical Performances, to intermix Comic Interludes... intended to give Relief to that grave Attention, necessary to be kept up in Serious Performances".<ref name=Steen>{{cite book |last=Steen |first=Michael |title=The Lives & Times of The Great Composers |pages=48 |publisher=[[Faber and Faber]] |isbn=1-84046-679-0 |year=2003 |location=London }}</ref> On his return to London in 1744 he was engaged as leader of the band at [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane theatre]], and the following year as composer at [[Vauxhall Gardens]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Arne, Thomas Augustine|volume=2|pages=628–629}}</ref>

In 1750, after an argument with [[David Garrick]], Susannah left [[Drury Lane]] for [[Covent Garden Theatre]], and Arne followed. In 1755 during another period spent in Dublin, he separated from Cecilia, who, he alleged, was mentally ill. He began a relationship with one of his pupils, [[Charlotte Brent]], a soprano and former child prodigy. Brent performed in several of Arne's works, including the role of Sally in his 1760 opera ''[[Thomas and Sally]]'' and Mandane in his 1762 opera ''[[Artaxerxes (opera)|Artaxerxes]]''. Eventually Brent and Arne went their separate ways and she married a violinist named [[Thomas Pinto]] in 1766.

==Later life==

During the 1760s Arne transferred his services to [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden Theatre]],<ref name="EB1911"/> and frequently collaborated with the Irish writer [[Isaac Bickerstaffe]]. ''Thomas and Sally'' was the first English comic opera to be sung throughout (it contained no spoken dialogue).<ref name="autogenerated1" /> ''[[Artaxerxes (opera)|Artaxerxes]]'' was one of the most successful and influential English operas of the 18th century and is the only known attempt to write an Italianate, [[Metastasio|Metastasian]] ''[[opera seria]]'', in the English language, using [[recitative]] instead of spoken [[dialogue]].<ref name="EB1911"/><ref>[http://www.classicalopera.co.uk/Artaxerxes.html Artaxerxes] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607175801/http://www.classicalopera.co.uk/Artaxerxes.html |date=7 June 2007 }}</ref> Mozart almost certainly saw it in 1764 when he visited London<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arne: Artaxerxes |url=https://mozartists.com/product/arne-artaxerxes/ |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=The Mozartists |language=en-GB}}</ref> and said that it influenced his operas. It was frequently performed in London into the 1830s and, other than [[Michael William Balfe]]'s ''[[The Bohemian Girl]]'', it was the most popular full-length English opera before the 20th century.<ref>The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 6th Edition. Edited by Margaret Drabble, Oxford University Press, 2000 Pp 41</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.roh.org.uk/whatson/production.aspx?pid%3D10223 |title=Artaxerxes – Royal Opera House |access-date=1 October 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091007030923/http://www.roh.org.uk/whatson/production.aspx?pid=10223 |archive-date=7 October 2009 }}</ref> In a 1791 visit to London, [[Joseph Haydn]] was impressed by a performance of ″Artaxerxes″ he attended and admitted that he had no idea such an opera existed in the English language.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/oct/22/artaxerxes-thomas-arne-linbury-studios Artaxerxes: the opera that time forgot | Music | The Guardian<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

In 1769 Arne composed the song ''[[Soft Flowing Avon]]'', with lyrics by Garrick, for the [[Shakespeare Jubilee]] held by Garrick in [[Stratford-upon-Avon]] to commemorate the life of [[William Shakespeare]]. In 1773, in a performance of [[Judith (oratorio)|Judith]] Arne introduced women's voices into the choruses for the first time.<ref name="EB1911"/>
[[File:Thomas Arne St Pauls Covent Garden.jpg|thumb|right|Arne's memorial plaque in [[St Paul's, Covent Garden|St Paul's]] in [[Covent Garden]]]]

In 1777, shortly before his death, Arne and his wife were reconciled. They had one son, [[Michael Arne]], who was also a composer. Arne is buried at [[St Paul's, Covent Garden]], London. A [[blue plaque]], unveiled in 1988, commemorates Arne at 31 King Street in Covent Garden.<ref name='EngHet'>{{cite web|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/search/arne-thomas-1710-1778|title=ARNE, THOMAS (1710–1778)|publisher=English Heritage|access-date=18 August 2012}}</ref><ref>[https://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/4890659076/ "THOMAS ARNE, London, England" at flickr.com]</ref>

Arne is considered one of 18th-century Britain's greatest theatrical composers.

==See also==
*[[List of compositions by Thomas Arne]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*McVeigh, Simon. ''Concert Life in London from Mozart to Haydn''. Cambridge University Press, 1993 (2006 reprint).
* Pink, Andrew. 'Thomas Arne (1710–78)' in [https://www.honorechampion.com/fr/9045-book-08532496-9782745324962.html ''Le Monde maçonnique des Lumières (Europe-Amériques) Dictionnaire prosopographique'']. Charles Porset and Cécile Révauger (eds) Paris: Editions Champion, 2013. {{ISBN|978-2-7453-2496-2}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071015152943/http://ihgs.ac.uk/familyhistory/arne.php Family History Page by a descendant of Arne]
*[http://www.classical-composers.org/comp/arne Thomas Augustine Arne on the Classical Composers Database]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051013065214/http://www.library.unt.edu/music/virtual/browse.html#A Works by Thomas Arne] in the University of North Texas Virtual Rare Book Room

'''Sheet music'''
*{{IMSLP|id=Arne%2C_Thomas_Augustine|cname=Thomas Arne}}
*{{MutopiaComposer|ArneT}}
*{{ChoralWiki|Thomas Arne}}

{{Thomas Arne}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Arne, Thomas}}
[[Category:1710 births]]
[[Category:1778 deaths]]
[[Category:English Baroque composers]]
[[Category:English Classical-period composers]]
[[Category:English opera composers]]
[[Category:British male opera composers]]
[[Category:English Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:English male classical composers]]
[[Category:Oratorio composers]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:People from Covent Garden]]
[[Category:Young musical family (England)]]
[[Category:18th-century British classical composers]]
[[Category:18th-century British male musicians]]
[[Category:Freemasons of the Premier Grand Lodge of England]]
[[Category:English Freemasons]]