Another Beauty That Fell Through The Cracks

Thomas Arne was an English composer, primarily of music for the theatre, who lived from 1710 to 1778.  Those dates put him squarely across the evolution from the late Baroque of Bach to the Viennese classical of Haydn and Mozart, by way of what came to be known as the galant style.  Like his older contemporary William Boyce (I blogged about him a little while back), Arne composed in a style that was plainly evolutionary. 

Arne composed music for dozens of operas, masques, and the like during his lifetime.  Much of his most popular theatre music has been lost, perhaps due to a disastrous fire at Covent Garden in 1808.  In any case, the kind of English opera which Arne produced passed decisively out of fashion in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and so did Arne.  However, he did compose one imperishable popular song -- Rule, Britannia, which is a regular yearly feature at the Last Night of the Proms!  He also had a hand in evolving the definitive version of the tune of God Save the King (today, of course, that would be God Save the Queen).  Since he was a Roman Catholic, he composed relatively little sacred music.

With so much emphasis on the voice and the stage, it's not surprising that he wrote relatively little free-standing music for instruments.  The recording I've just acquired is a lovely set of seven Trio Sonatas, composed for 2 violins and continuo and published in 1757. 

Complex or revolutionary this music is not, but then who says a piece of music has to be on the cutting edge to have any intrinsic worth?  Arne's sonatas are melodious and lyrical, in a way that makes it easy to appreciate his success in writing for the human voice.  There are a few brief dashes at fugal style, but nothing too intensely worked out.  Likewise, there are anticipations of the music of Mozart in a few touches, but again nothing that weighs too heavily.  The entire set (lasting for 70 minutes) makes for some ideally soothing, gentle background music for a quiet evening of reading. 

This recording on Chandos Records' Chaconne early music label is expertly performed by musicians of the Collegium Musicum 90 led by Simon Standage, a foremost exponent of authentic performance in Britain.  Standage and company have plainly learned a thing or three about keeping music involving and this record never commits the sin of becoming boring or tedious.