Samuel Arnold (composer)

Samuel Arnold

Samuel Arnold (10 August 1740 – 22 October 1802) was an English composer and organist.

Arnold was born in London (his mother is said to have been Princess Amelia; his father was Thomas Arnold), and began writing music for the theatre in about 1764. A few years later he became director of music at the Marylebone Gardens, for which much of his popular music was written. 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.

Works

Arnold's best-known works include:

"O Give Thanks" in the hand of Thomas Barrow

• The Maid of the Mill (1765)
• Abimelech (1768)
• The Prodigal Son (1773)
• The Baron Kinkvervankotsdorsprakingatchdern (1781)
• The Castle of Andalusia (1782)
• Two to One (1784), libretto George Colman. Includes the song "Pensive I Mourn".^[1]
• Turk and No Turk (1785)
• Inkle and Yarico (1787)

He is also known for producing the first collected edition of the works of George Frideric Handel between 1787 and 1797, published in 180 parts. This was the most comprehensive collection of Handel's music prior to the appearance of the Händel-Gesellschaft edition in the next century.^[2]

References

1. The European Magazine (1784) p.8
2. Winton Dean, The New Grove Handel. NY: Norton, 1982, p. 116. ISBN 0-393-30086-2; "Composers: Samuel Arnold (1740 - 1802)" article at naxos.com. Archived 14 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine.

External links

• Free scores by Samuel Arnold (composer) at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Samuel Arnold in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)