Exploitation Journalism

Thursday's class brought up an interesting idea, especially with the discussion of music hall critic Henry Mayhew.  Mayhew, also a co-founder of Punch magazine, focused much of his writing on the 'penny gaff' crowds at the music hall.  This was the entertainment for the working-class people (named 'panny gaff' because the original price was, in fact, a penny).  One particular quote given in our class reading focused on a group of gaff audience members waiting in line outside the hall.  The majority of these were allegedly kids, ranging in age from 8 - 20, and it was apparently a sexually charged group.  Mayhew reports an inappropriate comfort level shown among both the boys and girls with sexual behavior, and particularly describes dancing of an unacceptable nature among them.

Critics of Mayhew suggest, however, that his calls for the cessation of this crude entertainment are, at best only half the story.  These suggestions state that Mayhew was just as enamored by this culture as offended by it.  What we see with him is a form of exploitation journalism that has maintained popularity to the present day.  Mayhew exposes what he knows will be a controversial situation, and he profits from it.  In class, we compared this to modern 'journalists' such as Jerry Springer or Heraldo.  In these cases, we see a story that's only value is that it will get attention for the wrong reasons, featured in a public venue.  No longer do magazines or newspapers need to feature these stories; we have cable television for that now.  Like Mayhew exposing what high society would consider the utter abasement found among the more socially unrestricted youth of the lower class, these modern exploitation journalists thrust into the public light stories of a highly controversial nature, often focusing on examples of social or moral depravity.  In Mayhew's case, he and all his readers were not at all part of the portion of society getting the focus; they were outsiders making judgments to those whose lives they could never hope to understand.  From their removed soapbox, of course they could find the flaws that, in their minds needed to be eradicated for the 'improvement' of society; in other words, for those of this other culture to conform more to the life of those making the judgments.

The Music Hall - Thoughts on the entertainment

Our readings this week have focused on the British music hall, one of the first distinctly British entertainments that we have come across in our studies this semester.  Entertainment at the music hall included a variety of types of acts, very similar to the American vaudeville that would thrive until the advent of talking motion pictures.  (This is an interesting comparison, as we have identified in class that a current form of entertainment that is comparable to the music hall is, in fact, the cinema.)  These acts included vocal music ranging from classical / operatic arias to more popular music; comic acts including such gimmicks as men dressed as women (and vice versa); dance acts; ventriloquists; trampoline acts; magic acts; and aerial acts, among others.  The study of this for of 'variety entertainment' has lead me to another current analog:  the television talent competition.

Although the venue is drastically different, there is a major similarity to them both:  the vast array of entertainments forms considered appropriate.  However, in typical 21st century mentality, we take something that was once purely for entertainment and thrust it into a competitive atmosphere.  It seems there is very little interest in 'reality' entertainment on television unless people are pitted against one another.  While the entertainment (especially music and theater) world is very competitive, it is a different kind of competition that thrives in the television markets.  And it leads to the question:  how does one compare one type of entertainment with another?  Can a good magician and a good dance team really be placed side-by-side for the determination of which is better?  I believe good is good.

This was not something to be worried with in the Victorian music hall, thankfully.  Here, the entertainment was purer in its intent:  it was simply presented to entertain.  When placed in extensive competition, the true reasons one should perform get overshadowed by the pending rewards for winning (often monetary above all).  Because of this, I fear that much of the more important reasons to entertain are lost today.  A return to the environment of the music hall would be welcomed.

International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival: GETTYSBURG

This summer will see the second International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Gettysburg, PA.  9 of the 13 G&S operas will be performed there, by groups from New Jersey, New York, Maine, Pennsylvania, and several British companies.  Also, there will be a Festival Production of Pirates of Penzance and a Festival Youth Production of The Mikado.  These productions comprise the core matinee  and evening Festival events.  Highlights include the productions by Charles Court Opera, a small professional company out of London known for doing creative small-cast versions of shows (I saw them do a wonderful 9-person production of H.M.S. Pinafore in Buxton last year) and the productions from Trent Opera (Iolanthe and The Yeomen of the Guard).  I saw Trent's Iolanthe at Buxton last year, and it was quite good.  Yeomen, being my favorite of the canon, should be a real treat.

Outside of the core productions, there is an entire Fringe Festival that will be going on with smaller performances, presentations, and much more.  Examples of Fringe events include reviews, such as "We Are All Single Gentlemen" by the group Utopia Unlimited out of New York (of which I am a member);  The Pirettes of Penzance, a switch-gendered version of Pirates; or Di Yam Gazlonim, a Yiddish-language version of Pirates of Penzance, performed by The Gilbert and Sullivan Yiddish Light Opera Company of Long Island, New York.

Beyond the Fringe events, this year will see a first:  A scholarly symposium entitled 'Papers, Presentations, & Patter:  A Savoyards' Symposium'.  This symposium, organized by the top G&S Scholar in the U.S., will feature three sessions with presentations from a wide variety of G&S Scholars.  I was honored to have my own presentation chosen to be among these.  It will be an expanded version of the presentation I am preparing for this class, and will feature not only the project I am working on in regards to Yeomen of the Guard, but also my work last semester on Trial by Jury.  It will also be a venue in which I can introduce my intention to work on my performance guides to a wide range of North America's Savoyards.  Hopefully some assistance will be found in that crowd.

I strongly encourage anyone who will be around for part of the Festival to attend.  The events run from Friday, June 24 - Sunday, July 3.  If there is any interest, please let me know and I can help you find more details.

Alternative Means of Research

Since this week was our Spring Break, with no classes or assigned readings for the week, this week's blogs will be about things going on in my life that are connected to Victorian music.  Of course, being a Savoyard, much of what I do is connected to Victorian music.  As I have mentioned in many of my previous blogs, I have designed a Fulbright project in which I would prepare performance guides for the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.  I have just recently learned that my project proposal has been turned down for the Fulbright Scholarship.  This has lead me to consider what other means of research I can undertake.  I believe that I can at least lay the foundation for the guides doing work here in the U.S.  I can certainly do the libretti analyses here, and I have enough contacts around the world to do some of the research from afar.  It will certainly take longer, and be a more complicated process, but I believe the work is important enough to do nonetheless.

These guides will be a wonderful benefit to both the repertoire, and to university music programs in the U.S. (and abroad, hopefully).  The first installments will focus on the lesser-known operas in the repertoire, with the intent that they can be realized to be accessible to modern audiences.  This will hopefully increase the frequency with which these works are performed.  Emphasis will be placed upon the aspects of the Savoy Operas that make them ideal for students (their own language, singability, witty language use, the ability for both classical and music theater performers to work together on the show, FUN, etc).  With luck, these will help guide university music programs towards choosing a Savoy Opera when looking for a show for their students to perform.  With the other Savoy Operas already being a bit more familiar, and thus more performed, these guides will hopefully increase the overall number of G&S performances at the university level.  By exposing students, it will hopefully create a greater number of the next generation who will continue to perform the works, keeping the Savoy Operas alive and thriving for years to come.

The Window, or the Loves of the Wrens

This past week, I was informed of one of Sullivan's works that, previously, I had not known anything about.  The work is entitled "The Window, or the Loves of the Wrens" and it is a song cycle after the style of Die Schöne Müllerin by Schumann.  This cycle, with the words by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was initially suggested by none other than our old friend George Grove, of later Grove's Dictionary of Music fame.  The project was initially supposed to be a joint effort of Tennyson, Sullivan, and painter Sir John Millais.  Unfortunately, Millais was unable to complete the paintings for the work.  A later publication features a preface by Sullivan, in which he wrote:

"This Song-cycle was written by the late Lord Tennyson at my request and set to music by me in 1869-70. It was to be illustrated by the late Sir John Millais R.A. so that the work might form a combination of Poetry, Painting and Music: but for reasons unnecessary to enter into here, the drawings were never completed, and after various delays the words and music only were published as an Album in 1871."


The song cycle tells a love story of a youth who sees the glint of his love's window pane in the distance, traverses the distance, wins her love, and ends on the day of their wedding.  Songs tell of a letter her writes her, and depict his various moods throughout;  a dirge to tell of his longing for her while she is not there; a challenge to the coming winter, which may bite into the heart of the earth but not into his own heart; and the welcome coming of spring, are just some examples.

I intend to order the score and hopefully prepare the cycle for performance at some future date, perhaps as a Fringe event at either the Gettysburg or Buxton International Gilbert and Sullivan Festivals.  The Fringe events provide the perfect outlet for Gilbert and / or Sullivan works or discussions that are not full performances of the Savoy Operas themselves.  A Fringe event that I am likely participating in at this year's Gettysburg Festival is a Symposium on Gilbert and Sullivan scholarship, headed by America's leading G&S Scholar, Ralph MacPhail.

Suggested Familiarity of Gilbert and Sullivan in 1920

One thing that truly stood out to me from our Vaughan Williams reading about Holst was the implied familiarity his target audience must have had with Gilbert and Sullivan.  This is shown through two quotes he takes from two different Savoy Operas and uses without any explanation.  The first occurs on p. 133, when Vaughan Williams is discussing Holst's ethnic background.  Referring to Holst's last name (from his Swedish ancestory), Vaughan Williams writes:

"...'in spite of all temptations' which his name may suggest, Holst 'remains an Englishman'."

This is a quote from Act 2 of H.M.S. Pinafore, in which it is sung about Ralph Rackstraw:

"Despite of all temptations to belong to other nations, he remains an Englishman."

The fact that this quote is inserted and given no explanation, not even mentioning the show or that it is a reference to Gilbert and Sullivan, suggests rather strongly that whoever this essay about Holst was intended to reach, they would have at least a cursory familiarity with one of the most popular of the Savoy Operas.

The second quote used by Vaughan Williams occurs on p. 146, in his discussion of Holst’s flaws.  This reference is:

“…say ‘nothing in particular and say it very well’.”

While technically a paraphrase, this is a reference to the less-familiar Gilbert and Sullivan show Iolanthe.  Unlike Pinafore, which, according to the G&S Archives "ran for 571 performances and became a huge fad in England," Iolanthe had a still-successful but more modest run of 398 performances.  It refers to a line in the song "When Britain Really Ruled the Waves":

"When Wellington thrashed Bonaparte, as every child can tell, the House of Peers throughout the war did nothing in particular, and did it very well."

To me, the use of this more obscure reference, and especially the paraphrasing of it, without any explanation does, in fact, imply that Vaughan Williams and his intended readership had a more than passing familiarity with these shows.  It would be an interesting experiment to see what other, if any, similar references can be found in other writings of this time period.  Perhaps a project for another time.

Quote Reaction: George Bernard Shaw about Arthur Sullivan

Another interesting quote about Sullivan:

"Goss and Bennett…trained him to make Europe yawn; and he took advantage of their training to make London and New York laugh and whistle."

This quote is from celebrated playwright George Bernard Shaw, who was a regular attendee of G&S shows. He attended many, and was a great admirer of Sullivan's music for the penultimate Savoy Opera, Utopia, Limited, where he expressed that he enjoyed the music more than in any preceding G&S show.  In this quote, Shaw is referring to two of Sullivan's teachers:  John Goss and William Sterndale Bennett.  Bennett in particular should be noted, as not only did his pupils include Sullivan, but also Sir Hubert Parry.  Parry's conservative compositional style could also be said to make Europe yawn.  It certainly can make me yawn.  However, Parry could NOT be said "to make London and New York laugh and whistle".  While Parry was certainly admired by many of his contemporaries, and younger composers such as Elgar, he did not have the ability to entertain the way that Sullivan did.

Throughout musical history, comic themes and works have, by and large, been relegated to lesser artistic value than their serious counterparts.  Parodists are deemed less accomplished than 'serious composers' in many circles.  However, I am a huge fan of parody, and especially admire intelligent parody.  That's one thing that Sullivan was:  an intelligent, tasteful parodist.  He understood bel canto operatic techniques to the degree that he could parody the La Sonnambula sextet with his "A nice dilemma" in Trial by Jury.  However, I do not believe that this is a 'lesser' quality of composition just because it's parody.  For further examples of quality parody, just look at P.D.Q. Bach (one of my all-time favorite parodists).  There is a degree of compositional genius to take an existing work and alter it.  One of my favorite examples is "Eine kleine nichtmusik" (A little not-music).  It can be heard here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enT9oAE0TxM

The insertion of so many other tunes, some by Mozart and many by others, into such a brilliant work as 'Eine kleine nachtmusik' requires an advanced and complex compositional understanding, just like what was possessed by Sullivan.

Quote Reaction: Ralph Vaughan Williams about Sir Arthur Sullivan

While re-reading some of our material from Ralph Vaughan Williams, I came across the following quote mentioning Sullivan:

"We shall never know of the numbers of "mute and inglorious Miltons" who failed because the place and time were not ready for them…Was not Sullivan a jewel in the wrong setting?"


This quote is from National Music, and I have to say that at first it certainly rubbed me the wrong way.  One can hardly look at the career of Sir Arthur Sullivan and reasonably argue that it was the career of a failure.  Thirteen comic operas with Gilbert that are performed today, hymn settings and ensemble numbers that are sung regularly (including an alternate version of "It came upon a midnight clear" that is more popular in England than what we Americans consider the 'standard' version), a grand opera that was nominated for a Grammy award this year, societies around the world dedicated to his music...if only we could all fail so spectacularly in our musical careers.  I for one would LOVE such a failure.


Those were my initial reactions.  However, once that first instinct to defend Sullivan passed, I did recognize that Vaughan Williams was not disparaging Sullivan's compositions or his talent; rather, he was suggesting that Sullivan would have been better appreciated at a later time.  That is likely a true suggestion, as his works did look to the future.  His operettas, especially those with Gilbert, paved the way for the modern musical.  Certainly the audiences that loved Lehár and Romberg in the early 20th century would have been as supportive, or even more so, than the Savoy audiences of the late 19th century.


The concept of a jewel mis-set is interesting image, when you think about it.  He still shone forth, like a well-cut diamond would even in the worst of settings.  But, with a better 'setting', could Sullivan have shone forth all the brighter?  It is an interesting idea.  Certainly, there were points in his career when he felt that he was not realizing his full potential.  However, it is undeniable that he was successful, and used his talents well.  A specific example will be examined in the next post.