# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Arnold, Samuel

From volume 1 of the work.
​ARNOLD, Samuel, Mus. Doc. Born in London, Aug. 10, 1740, and educated in the Chapel Royal under Bernard Gates and Dr. Nares. His progress was so great that before he had attained his twenty-third year Beard engaged him as composer to Covent Garden Theatre, where in 1765 he brought out the opera of 'The Maid of the Mill.' Many of the songs were selected from the works of Bach, Galuppi, Jomelli, and other Italian writers. This opera was one of the first, since the time of Purcell, in which concerted music was employed to carry on the business of the stage, and it was used by Arnold with great cleverness. The success of the work decided the composer's future connection ​with the stage, which he cultivated with such diligence and success, that from 1765 to 1802 he produced no less than forty-three operas, musical afterpieces, and pantomimes. His attention was early directed to sacred music, and his first production of this kind was an oratorio called 'The Cure of Saul,' performed in 1767. In the following year he produced 'Abimelech,' and afterwards 'The Resurrection,' and 'The Prodigal Son,' which were performed during several successive seasons under his own direction.
In 1769 Arnold purchased [App. p.523 "took a lease of"] Marylebone Gardens, then a place of fashionable resort, which he rendered more attractive by composing and producing several burlettas, performed by the principal singers of the time. Ultimately, however, he retired from the speculation with considerable loss. (See Marylebone Gardens.) In 1773 Arnold's oratorio of 'The Prodigal Son' was performed at the installation of Lord North as Chancellor of the University of Oxford. On this occasion Arnold was offered the honorary degree of Doctor in Music, but he preferred taking it in the prescribed mode. It is said that Dr. Hayes, the Professor, returned the candidate's exercise unopened, remarking, 'Sir, it is quite unnecessary to scrutinise an exercise written by the composer of The Prodigal Son.'
Dr. Arnold succeeded Dr. Nares in 1783 as Organist and Composer to the Chapel Royal, for which establishment he wrote several services and anthems. Shortly afterwards he published a continuation of Boyce's 'Cathedral Music,' in four volumes, a new edition of which was issued in 1847 by the writer of the present article. In 1791, in conjunction with Dr. Callcott, he published a work entitled, 'The Psalms of David,' etc. He also published ' An Ode for the Anniversary of the London Hospital.'
In 1786 Dr. Arnold issued proposals for a uniform edition of Handel's works, and the list was headed by George III as a subscriber for twenty-five copies. He met with sufficient encouragement to carry it on to 168 numbers, or about forty volumes, but not enough to enable him to complete his plan, for the edition contains only five out of Handel's forty-three operas. It was about this time that, in conjunction with his friend Callcott, he established the Glee Club; and on the death of Stanley he joined Linley as conductor of the oratorios at Drury Lane, for some time a profitable speculation, but at length opposed by Ashley at Covent Garden, who by converting the so-called oratorio into a medley of light compositions, stimulated the public appetite for novelty, and the more classical performance at the rival theatre was deserted. His last oratorio, 'Elijah,' was produced in 1810, but it met with little success, and was not repeated.
In 1789 Dr. Arnold was appointed Conductor of the Academy of Ancient Music, a noble institution then in its decline [App. p.523 "he retained the post until the termination of the Academy's existence in 1792."]; in 1793 he succeeded Dr. Cooke as Organist of Westminster Abbey, and three [App. p.523 "four"] years later, on the death of Dr. P. Hayes, was requested to conduct the yearly performance at St. Paul's for the benefit of the Sons of the Clergy. About two years afterwards a fall from the steps of his library occasioned a tedious confinement, and probably hastened his death. He died October 22, 1802. His remains were deposited near those of his great predecessors, Purcell, Blow, and Croft, in Westminster Abbey.
Dr. Arnold wrote with great facility and correctness, but the demand upon his powers was too varied and too incessant to allow of his attaining great excellence in any department of his art.
The following is a list of his dramatic compositions:—
Maid of the Mill, 1765. Rosamond, 1767. Portrait, 1770. Mother Shipton, 1770. Son-in-Law, 1779, Summer Amusement, 1779. Fire and Water, 1780. Wedding Night, 1780. Silver Tankard, 1780. Dead Alive, 1781. Cartel of Andalusia, 1782. Harlequin Teague, 1782. Gretna Green, 1783. Hunt the Slipper, 1784. Two to One, 1784. Here, There, and Everywhere, 1784. Turk and No Turk, 1785. Siege of Cuzzola, 1785. Inkle and Yarico, 1787. Enraged Musician, 1788. Battle of Hexham, 1789. New Spain, 1790. Basket Maker, 1790. Surrender of Calais, 1791. Harlequin and Faustus, 1793. Children in the Wood, 1793. Auld Robin Gray, 1794. Zorinski, 1795. Mountaineers, 1795. Who Pays the Reckoning, 1795. Love and Money, 1795. Bannian Day, 1796. Shipwreck, 1796. Italian Monk, 1797. False and True, 1798. Throw Physic to the Dogs, 1798. Cambro-Britons, 1798. Obi, or Three-fingered Jack, 1800. Review, 1801. Corsair, 1801. Veteran Tar, 1801. Sixty-Third Letter, 1802. Fairies' Revels, 1802. [App. p.523 adds "'The Gipsies,' 'The Agreeable Surprise,' 'Cambro Britons' (1798), and the oratorio 'The Widow of Shunam,' 1801."]
The work by which Arnold will be longest remembered is entitled 'Cathedral Music, being a collection in score of the most valuable and useful compositions for that service by the several English masters of the last 200 years; selected and revised by Dr. Samuel Arnold, Organist and Composer to His Majesty's Royal Chapels.' The Preface is dated 480, Strand, Nov. 1, 1790. The contents are as follows:—
[ E. F. R. ]