Scan 156
Groves Dictionary Of Music And Musicians,vol.1 Ed.3, 1904
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1ARMSHEIMER, IVAN IVANOVITCH (b. St. Petersburg, Mar. 19, 1860), studied at St. Petersburg Conservatoire under Czerny, Johannsen and Rimsky-Korsakov. He composed 2 cantatas, and orchestral and choral works; about 150 songs; a suite for flute and pf.; pieces for violin and for violoncello; 3 operas, 'Sous la feuillée,' 'Jaegerliv' (Danish words) and 'Der Oberförster'; and 3 ballets; also a book on instrumentation in 10 parts. E. v. d. s.
3ARNE, a 17th-century English composer, four airs by whom are to be found, according to Eitner, in a collective volume of 1676 (Eitner).
5ARNE, (1) THOMAS AUGUSTINE, Mus.D. (b. London, Mar. 12, 1710; d. there, Mar. 5, 1778), was the most eminent English composer of his generation, and one whose work is of special importance in the somewhat attenuated history of English opera.
7He was the son of an upholsterer in King Street, Covent Garden, where he was born. He was educated at Eton, and being intended by his father for the profession of the law, was on leaving college placed in a solicitor's office for three years. But his love for music predominated; he privately conveyed a spinet to his bedroom, and by muffling the strings with a handkerchief contrived to practice during the night undetected. He took lessons on the violin from Festing, and would occasionally borrow a livery in order to gain admission to the servants' gallery at the opera. He made such progress on the violin as to be able to lead a chamber band at the house of an amateur who gave private concerts. There he was one evening accidentally discovered by his father in the act of playing the first violin. After some fruitless efforts to induce his son to devote himself to the profession for which he had designed him, the father gave up the attempt as hopeless, and permitted the youth to follow the bent of his inclination. Being free to practise openly, Arne soon, by his skill on the violin, charmed the whole family, and finding that his sister Susanna Maria (who afterwards as Mrs. Cibber became famous as a tragic actress) had an agreeable voice, he gave her such instructions as enabled her to appear in 1732 in Lampe's opera 'Amelia.' Her success was such as to induce her brother to reset Addison's opera 'Rosamond' (see Clayton), and his composition was produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, Mar. 7, 1733, Miss Arne performing the heroine, and her younger brother the page.
9Soon afterwards Arne got Fielding's 'Tragedy of Tragedies' altered into the 'Opera of Operas,' and, setting it to music 'after the Italian manner,' brought it out at the Haymarket Theatre, his young brother representing the hero, Tom Thumb. On Dec. 19, 1733, he produced at the same theatre a masque called 'Dido and Æneas,' which was performed (as then customary) with a harlequinade intermixed. In 1736 he composed some music for Aaron Hill's tragedy of 'Zara,' in which his sister made 'her first attempt as an actress.' In 1736 Arne married Cecilia, daughter of Anthony Young, organist of St. Catherine-Cree near the Tower (see Young).
11In 1738 Arne was engaged to compose the music for Dr. Dalton's adaptation of Milton's 'Comus,' which was brought out at Drury Lane Theatre. This work fully established his reputation, its graceful and flowing melody making an immediate and lasting impression. In 1740 he reset Congreve's masque 'The Judgment of Paris,' which was performed at Drury Lane. On Aug. 1 in the same year, to celebrate the anniversary of the accession of the House of Hanover, Thomson and Mallet's masque of 'Alfred,' with music by Arne, was performed, for the first time, in a temporary theatre in the garden of Cliveden (or Cliefden) Bucks, then the residence of Frederick, Prince of Wales. The work contains some fine songs, but is more especially distinguished by its finale, the famous patriotic song 'Rule Britannia' (q.v.). On Dec. 20, in the same year, Shakespeare's 'As You Like It' being performed at Drury Lane Theatre, after having been laid aside for forty years, Arne gave to the world those beautiful settings of the songs 'Under the greenwood tree,' 'Blow, blow, thou winter wind' and 'When daisies pied,' which seem to have become indissolubly allied to the poetry.
13After producing some minor pieces, Arne went in June 1742 with his wife to Dublin, where they remained until 1744. Later visits to Dublin followed, 1755-56 and 1758-59. During his stay there he produced, besides his former pieces, his important oratorio 'Abel,' his operas 'Alfred' and 'Eliza' (Nov. 29, 1755), and his 'Comus,' and also gave concerts with great success.
15He was again engaged as composer at Drury Lane, where he produced 'The Temple of Dullness,' a comic opera in 2 acts (1745), and on the death of Gordon he succeeded him as leader of the band there. In 1745 Arne was engaged as composer to Vauxhall Gardens, and wrote for Mrs. Arne and Lowe the pastoral dialogue 'Colin and Phoebe,' which proved so successful that it was performed throughout the entire season. He held that engagement for many years, during which he composed for the Gardens, as well as for Ranelagh and Marylebone Gardens, an immense number of songs. On the revival of Shakespeare's 'Tempest' in 1746 (at Drury Lane), Arne supplied new music for the masque and the song 'Where the Bee sucks,' a composition of
171 See Burney's Hist. iv. 659; also Mus. Antiquary, i. 256.
182 See Mus. Antiquary, i. 215.
193 See Mus. T., 1901, p. 716
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