already mentioned, were: Messrs. Gatti's promenade concerts at Covent Garden Theatre during the seasons of 1878 and 1879; the Glasgow Choral Union orchestral concerts for two seasons, 1875–7; the Leeds musical festival (triennial) from 1880 to 1898; and the Philharmonic Society (London) from 1885 to 1887.
Sullivan was appointed the first principal of the National Training School of Music (South Kensington) in 1876, which office he held till 1881, when he was succeeded by Dr. (afterwards Sir John) Stainer. On 1 June 1876, in company with his old master, John Goss, he received the degree of Doctor in Music (honoris causa) at the university of Cambridge. A similar distinction was bestowed upon him at Oxford three years later, the occasion being the first time that honorary degrees in music were conferred by the university. In 1878 he acted as British Commissioner for Music at the International Exhibition at Paris, when he was decorated with the Order of the Légion d'honneur of France. A visit to America in November 1879, in company with Mr. W. S. Gilbert and D'Oyly Carte, was in the nature of a triumphal reception.
To inaugurate his conductorship of the Leeds festival—in succession to Michael Costa [q.v.]—he composed his sacred music drama 'The Martyr of Antioch' (the words selected from Dean Milman's poem), performed 15 Oct. 1880. At the festival of 1886 (16 Oct.) his setting of Longfellow's 'Golden Legend' was first produced with a success that has ever since been accorded to this his finest as well as his most popular choral work. The Leeds festival of 1886 was made additionally memorable by a very remarkable performance under Sullivan of Bach's Mass in B minor. Apart from the succession of his comic operas, the outstanding event in the latter years of Sullivan's life was his serious (or 'grand') opera 'Ivanhoe,' produced at the Royal English Opera House (now the Palace Theatre), Shaftesbury Avenue, 31 Jan. 1891.
Delicate as a child, Sullivan suffered much ill-health during the greater part of his life. He died, somewhat suddenly, at his residence, 1 Queen's Mansions, Victoria Street, Westminster, on 22 Nov. 1900. His funeral partook of the nature of a public ceremony, and, after a service in the Chapel Royal, St. James's, where he had so often sung as a boy, his remains were interred in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral. Shortly before his death he returned to his early love, church music, by composing, at the request of the authorities of St. Paul's Cathedral, a 'Te Deum ' for chorus and orchestra to celebrate the cessation of hostilities in South Africa when that happy consummation should take place (Sir George Martin's letter to the Times, 29 Nov. 1900).
Sullivan, who was unmarried, received the following distinctions: fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (his alma mater); Mus.Doc. Cantabr. (1876) and Mus.Doc. Oxon. (1879), both honoris causa; Order of the Légion d'honneur of France, 1878; Order of the Medjidieh from the sultan of Turkey, 1888; Order of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; the Royal Victorian Order. He was knighted on 22 May 1883.
A portrait of Sullivan by Sir J. E. Millais, painted in 1888, is destined for the National Portrait Gallery. It is proposed (1901) to place a mural tablet above his grave in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral. A memorial tablet placed on the house where he was born was unveiled on 20 July 1901 (Times, 22 July).
As a composer Sullivan was typically British (see his letter, signed 'A British Musician,' to the Times, 20 July 1897, on the subject of neglect of native music by British military bands). Melody, that rare gift, he possessed in a degree that may be classed as genius. The influence of his early training in the choir of the Chapel Royal is traceable in all his vocal music, solo and concerted, which is always grateful to sing and interesting to the singer. He was a master of orchestration, his treatment of the wood-wind being in many instances worthy of Schubert. Here again the seed sown in the band-room at Sandhurst bore rich fruit. Moreover, not a little of the humour of the comic operas is due to his masterfulness in extracting fun from his lifelong friends, the instruments. His creative achievements may be summarised in the words of his friend and early encourager, Sir George Grove: 'Form and symmetry he seems to possess by instinct; rhythm and melody clothe everything he touches; the music shows not only sympathetic genius, but sense, judgment, proportion, and a complete absence of pedantry and pretension; while the orchestration is distinguished by a happy and original beauty hardly surpassed by the great masters' (Grove, Dict. of Music and Musicians, iii. 763 ).
The following is an attempt at a complete list of Sullivan's compositions:
Oratorios and Cantatas.—'Kenilworth' (H. F. Chorley), Birmingham festival, 8 Sept. 1864; 'The Prodigal Son,' Worcester festival, 8 Sept. 1869; 'On Shore and Sea'
