Arne, Thomas Augustine

Related Category: Music: History, Composers, and Performers: Biographies

(ärn), 1710–78, English composer. Arne composed the song Rule, Britannia, based on an ode by James Thomson. He composed new music for an adaptation of Milton's masque Comus (1738) and for some of the songs in Shakespeare's plays. He also wrote operas, oratorios, including Judith (1761), instrumental music, and incidental music for plays.