7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7Cornish pirates (The Pirates of Penzance); the long theatrical
vogue of the “jolly jack tar” (H.M.S. Pinafore); bombastic
melodrama (Ruddigore)—but Gilbert’s burlesque is so good
that it creates its own truth. As a librettist, Gilbert is
outstanding not only because of his gift for handling
words and casting them in musical shapes but also because
through his words he offered the composer opportunities
for burlesquing musical conventions.
Gilbert’s early ambition was for a legal career, and a
legacy in 1861 enabled him to leave the civil service to
pursue it. He was called to the bar in November 1863. In
1861, however, he had begun to contribute comic verse to
Fun, illustrated by himself and signed “Bab.” These pieces
were later collected as The Bab Ballads (1869), followed by
More Bab Ballads (1873); the two collections, containing
the germ of many of the later operas, were united in a
volume with Songs of a Savoyard (1898).
Sullivan was the son of an Irish musician who became
bandmaster at the Royal Military College; his mother was of
Italian descent. He joined the choir of the Chapel Royal and
later held the Mendelssohn Scholarship at the Royal
Academy of Music, London, where he studied under Sir
W. Sterndale Bennett and Sir John Goss. He continued his
studies at the Leipzig Conservatory.
In 1861 he became organist of St. Michael’s, London,
and in the following year his music to The Tempest achieved
great success at the Crystal Palace. Then followed his
Kenilworth cantata (1864); a ballet, L’Île enchantée, produced
at Covent Garden (where Sullivan was organist for a time);
a symphony and a cello concerto; the In Memoriam and the
Overtura di Ballo overtures; and numerous songs.
Gilbert’s dramatic career began when a playwright,
Thomas William Robertson, recommended him as some-
one who could produce a bright Christmas piece in only
two weeks. Gilbert promptly wrote Dulcamara, or the Little