I first learned of Richard Arnell, born on this date in 1917, from a recording of his ballet “The Great Detective.” But he was also a renowned symphonist, who spent the war years here in the United States, cut off from his home in the U.K. while visiting the 1939 World’s Fair. Here, he cultivated important friendships with Bernard Herrmann, Virgil Thomson, and Sir Thomas Beecham (who, alongside Sir John Barbirolli and Leopold Stokowski, championed his concert works). He also wrote film music for Robert J. Flaherty and ballets for George Balanchine and Frederick Ashton.

“The Great Detective,” commissioned by the Sadlers-Wells Ballet in 1953, is transparently influenced by the exploits of Sherlock Holmes, though not based on any particular book or episode in the Holmes canon. In fact, the inclusion of a gorilla places it more in line with Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” – although the tone of the ballet is certainly more tongue-in-cheek.

The complete ballet includes an “Overture;” “Police and the Doctor;” “The Distracted Ladies;” “Detective’s Mental Arithmetic;” “Pas de Deux: Distressed Ladies and Suspect;” “Pas de Trois: Distressed Ladies and Doctor;” “The Victims;” “The Fiend;” “Villains;” “Villains and Police;” “Dance of Deduction;” “Finale;” “The Fight;” and “Doctor’s Distress – Detective Safe.”

Arnell himself recorded a suite from the work in 1953. Martin Yates recorded it complete with the BBC Concert Orchestra in 2008.

Interestingly, “The Great Detective” would not be the only occasion on which a gorilla would be associated with Arnell’s music. Not so very long ago, I wrote about his Symphony No. 5, which the composer humorously compared to a rude simian he visited at the London Zoo. It has a great tune in the last movement, derived from the music hall, that Arnell’s father used to sing and whistle.

Arnell died in 2009 at the age of 91. We remember him with fondness on his birthday anniversary.

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“The Great Detective” (the composer conducting)

Symphony No. 5 “Gorilla”