This list of compositions by Thomas Arne is sorted by genre.
Art songs
Arne composed numerous art songs throughout his career, most of which were written for the stage. Many of his songs were published in anthologies throughout his lifetime, but the exact number of songs he composed is now unknown. The following is a list of publications which included songs by Arne during his lifetime. The number of songs by Arne is in square brackets.
Year(s) printed
Title of publication
Other details
1737
The British Musical Miscellany, vol. vi
[1]
1741
The Songs and Duetto in The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green
A Collection of Poems in Four Volumes by Several Hands
[1]
1756
The Agreeable Musical Choice, vol. vii
[8]
1757
A Favourite Collection of English Songs
[6]
1758
The Agreeable Musical Choice, vol. viii
[6]
1760
The Monthly Melody
[22]
1760
British Melody, vol. xi
[4]
1761
A Choice Collection of Songs, vol. xii
[3]
1761
The Winter’s Amusement, vol. xiii
[6]
1762
British Amusement
[1]
1764
The Royal Magazine, vol. xi
[1]
1764
A Favourite Collection of Songs, vol. xiv
[5]
1765
The New Songs Sung at Vauxhall
[6]
1766
Summer Amusement
[8]
1768
New Favourite Songs
[4]
1774
The Vocal Grove
[7]
1777
The Syren
[7]
Catches, canons, glees
The exact number of catches, canons, and glees composed by Arne is now unknown. He began writing such works for the pleasure gardens in the 1740s but the majority of his output in this area dates from the 1760s and 1770s. Many of his glees were published in anthologies which, aside for 11 glees written for the Noblemen and Gentlemen's Catch Club, are the only surviving compositions of his in this area. This is a list of the published anthologies containing catches, canons, and glees by Arne. The number of songs by Arne is in square brackets.
Year(s) printed
Title of publication
Other details
c.1755
A Collection of Vocal Harmony
Edited by E.T. Warren. [8]
1763–1794
A Collection of Catches, Canons and Glees
Edited by E.T. Warren. Songs by Arne appear in volumes ii [4]; iii [5]; iv [2]; v [7]; vii [3]; viii [4]; xv [1]; xvi [1]; xx [1]
c.1790
Apollonian Harmony, vol. iv
[2]
Instrumental music
Arne showed little interest in writing concert music. The instrumental music he did compose derives mostly from his stage works. This list contains his instrumental works that have been published separately from his stage works. Not listed below are a few solo violin and solo double bass pieces whose composition date is now unknown and whose publication did not occur until 1978.
This is a collection of overtures from various stage works by Arne including the overtures for Henry and Emma, Comus, and The Judgment of Paris. First used for a concert performance in 1751, the collection has been published numerous times, most recently by J. Herbage in 1937.
Another selection of symphonic works mostly from Arne's stage works that were initially put together for a concert performance in 1767. Most recently published by editor R. Platt (London, 1973)
These keyboard concertos were a part of various stage works by Arne and were compiled for publication in 1793. They were most recently published by R. Langley (London, 1981)
Odes and cantatas
A Grand Epithalamium, 1736, lost
Black-Ey’d Susan (cant., R. Leveridge), 1740, lost
God bless our noble king, A, T, B, ATB, 2 hn, 2 ob, str, bc, 1745, GB-Lbl, ed. C. Bartlett (Wyton, 1985)
Fair Celia love pretended (cant., W. Congreve), 1v, vns, bc, Vocal Melody, i (1749)
Chaucer’s Recantation (cant.), 1v, str, bc, Vocal Melody, ii (1750)
Ode to Chearfulness, 1750, lost
Cymon and Iphigenia (cant., J. Dryden), 1v, str, bc, vs (1750), pts Bu
Six Cantatas, fs (1755): Bacchus and Ariadne, 1v, 2 fl, 2 ob, 2 hn, str, bc; Delia, 1v, str, bc; Frolick and Free (G. Granville), 1v, 2 ob, str, bc; Lydia (after Sappho), 1v, 2 bn, str, bc; The Morning, 1v, fl/rec, str, bc; The School of Anacreon, 1v, 2 hn, str, bc; Lydia and The Morning, both ed. R. Hufstader (New York, 1971)
5 odes in Del Canzionere d’Orazio (1757): Delle muse all’almo core, 1v, str, bc; Finche fedele il core, 2vv, 2 fl, str, bc; Finche fedele il core, 2vv, 2 vn, bc; Se vanti in Telefo, 1v, 2 hn, str, bc; Tu mi fuggi schizzinosa, 1v, 2 vn, bc [= Advice to Chloe]
The Spring (cant.), 1v, str, bc, British Melody (1760)
Love and Resentment (cant.), 1v, 2 cl, 2 vn, bc, Summer Amusement (1766)
The Lover’s Recantation (cant.), 1v, 2 fl, 2 ob, str, bc; vs in The Winter’s Amusement (1761), fs, Lbl, ed. P. Young (Leipzig, 1988)
Advice to Chloe (cant.), 1v, vns, bc, New Favourite Songs (1768)
An Ode upon Dedicating a Building to Shakespeare (D. Garrick), 1769, speaker, S, S, S, S, T, Bar, SATB, orch; 9 nos. in vs (1769)
Love and Resolution (musical dialogue), 1770, music lost
Reffley Spring (cant.), 2vv, 2 vn, bc, vs (1772)
Diana (cant.), 1v, 2 fl, 2 ob, 2 cl, 2 hn, 2 vn, bc; vs in The Vocal Grove (1774)
Written for a performance at Lulworth Castle in Dorset. The music is either lost or potentially the same as that of an anonymous composer. Written for three voices and organ sometime before 1770.
Written for a performance at Lulworth Castle in Dorset. Written for four voices and organ sometime before 1770. Score still exists as does a revised version for fewer voices.
Written for the funeral of Francis Pemberton on 28 June 1770. Contains SSATB chorus, organ, soprano, tenor, and baritone soloists. Music exists and was printed by Oxford Publishing in 1950.
Two songs from the work still exist, one in The British Musical Miscellany, vol. iii (1735) and the other in J. Markordt, Tom Thumb (1781). The other 16 songs are now lost.
Arne wrote only one of the songs for this play, which was published in The Agreeable Musical Choice, vol. vi (1754). The other music for the production was composed by W. Boyce.
Originally written as a masque to celebrate the accession of George II in 1740. Was later revised into an all sung oratorio in 1745 and then greatly expanded into its final version as an opera in 1753. A score of the final version still survives.
Contained several songs as well as instrumental music by Arne. A number of the songs still survive in various song collections published during the 1770s. Two songs appear in Nine Shakespeare Songs by Thomas Augustine Arne (London, 1963).
20 December 1740, London, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
William Shakespeare
Contained several songs as well as instrumental music by Arne. A number of the songs still survive in various song collections published during the 1770s. Three songs appear in Nine Shakespeare Songs by Thomas Augustine Arne (London, 1963).
Contained 15 musical numbers of which all but two, the overture and a song also used in The Masque of Alfred (1757), are now lost. Controversy over Authorship.
Only two of the eighteen songs written for the opera still survives; one that was printed in London Magazine (1752) and another that was reused in Masque of Alfred (1757).
1750
Harlequin Mountebank, or The Squire Electrified
pantomime
London, New Wells, Clerkenwell, 16 April 1750
Music now lost.
1750
The Sacrifice of Iphigenia
entertainment
London, New Wells, Clerkenwell, 16 April 1750
One song still survives that was published in London Magazine (1750).
A published score was made in 1762 without the recitatives and final chorus. However, some of the missing music was published in The Syren (1777) and in an 1820 re-publication by J. Addison.
The work contains 42 musical numbers of which only five were newly composed works by Arne. The other music is made up of 13 pieces borrowed from Arne's earlier stage works, a new overture was by C. F. Abel, and 23 songs by other composers, including Geminiani and Galuppi, albeit with new texts. Full score survives.
1763
The Birth of Hercules
masque
Never performed but was rehearsed for performance in London, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1763)
William Shirley (also the author of Electra, a Tragedy)
Nineteen musical numbers were composed for the work but all of the music is now lost.
1764
The Arcadian Nuptials
masque
19 January 1764, London, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Most likely Arne.
Only a dialogue survives which was published in A Favourite Collection of Songs (1764).
1764
The Guardian Out-witted
comic opera
3 acts
12 December 1764, London, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Arne
Only the overture survives which was published in Periodical Overtures, xxvii (1770).
Contained two new songs by Arne and 2 songs from previous works by Arne which were arranged by S. Arnold. The play was later compressed into an afterpiece, Amelia (1768)
Music arranged by Fisher and contained an unknown number of new songs by Arne. Music now lost.
Trick upon Trick
ballad opera
unknown production
R. Fabian
Two songs survive which were published in The Winter’s Amusement (1761). Possibly performed at Covent Garden as a part of The Comical Resentment, or Trick for Trick on 26 March 1759.
Works misattributed to Arne
The Most Celebrated Aires in the Opera of Tom Thumb (London, 1733), by John Frederick Lampe