Boer War Te Deum

Arthur Sullivan's Te Deum Laudamus—A Thanksgiving for Victory, usually known as the Boer War Te Deum, is a choral work composed by Sullivan in the last few months of his life. It was commissioned on behalf of Dean and Chapter of London's St. Paul's Cathedral by the cathedral's organist, Sir George Martin, as part of a grand service to celebrate the expected British victory in the Boer War.

The Boer War Te Deum was first performed at St. Paul's Cathedral on June 8, 1902, eight days after the official ending of the war, and 18 months after the deaths of both Sullivan and Queen Victoria. The piece was composed for chorus, brass, strings and organ, and features as a recurring theme the melody of Sullivan's hymn tune "St. Gertrude", his setting for "Onward Christian Soldiers."

Arthur Sullivan became Britain's most famous composer during the late Victorian era, and so he was an obvious choice to compose a piece to celebrate the coming end of the Boer War. George Martin and Colonel Arthur Collins visited Sullivan in his home on May 26, 1900 to ask him to write the Te Deum. Sullivan wrote in his diary that he consented to try and see what he could do.

Sullivan encountered some delays in the course of composing the Te Deum, including a difficult trip to Germany in June 1900. Despite Sullivan's fame and popularity in Germany, the country's attitude toward the Boer War dampened Sullivan's reception. In addition, Sullivan had already committed to working on the comic opera The Emerald Isle for the Savoy Theatre and was forced to put it aside to work on the Te Deum. Sullivan noted in his diary in July 1900 that he was essentially finished with the Te Deum. Soon afterwards, he grew ill, and in October he gave Martin final instructions about staging the work. Sullivan died in November, before he could complete The Emerald Isle, leaving that opera to be finished by his friend Edward German.

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