Frederic Clay

Frederic Emes Clay (3 August 1838 – 24 November 1889) was an English composer known principally for his music written for the stage. Clay, a great friend of Arthur Sullivan's, wrote four comic operas with W. S. Gilbert and introduced the two men.

While working as a civil servant in the Treasury department, Clay began composing seriously in the early 1860s. His first big success was Ages Ago (1869), a short comic opera with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert, for the small Gallery of Illustration. Other pieces with Gilbert and others followed, and Clay turned to composing full-time after his father died in 1873. That year, he composed a successful opera-bouffe version of The Black Crook for the Alhambra Theatre. Clay's last piece with Gilbert was Princess Toto (1875). He also composed two cantatas. His last two works were both successful operas composed in 1883, The Merry Duchess and The Golden Ring. He then suffered a stroke that paralysed him at age 44.

Clay was born in Paris to English parents, James Clay (1804–1873), a member of parliament, and his wife, Eliza Camilla Woolrych. Clay was the fourth of six brothers and sisters. His father was celebrated as a player of whist and the author of a treatise on that subject, as well as an amateur composer. His mother also had a musical background, as her mother had been an opera singer. Clay was educated at home by private tutors in London, studying piano and violin, and then music composition under Bernhard Molique and, in 1863, with Moritz Hauptmann in Leipzig, Germany. He then worked as a civil servant in the Treasury department while also pursuing composing.

After the death of his father in 1873, his inheritance enabled him to become a full-time composer. With the exception of some songs, hymns, instrumental pieces and two cantatas, his compositions were nearly all written for the stage. In the mid-1860s, Clay and his friend Arthur Sullivan became frequent guests at the home of John Scott Russell. By about 1865, Clay became engaged to Scott Russell's youngest daughter Alice, and Sullivan wooed the middle daughter Rachel. The Scott Russells welcomed the engagement of Alice to Clay, but he broke it off.

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