Rayner Taylor was an English organist

Organist

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

, music teacher, composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, and singer

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

 who lived and worked in the United States after emigrating in 1792. Active in composing music for the theater, outdoor pleasure garden, and the Anglican Church and Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, he was one of the first notable composers active in America.

Biography

Rayner Taylor was born in Soho

Soho

Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...

, in Westminster

Westminster

Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 between August and November, 1747. As a boy he sang in the choir at the Chapel Royal

Chapel Royal

A Chapel Royal is a body of priests and singers who serve the spiritual needs of their sovereign wherever they are called upon to do so.-Austria:...

 for many years, notably singing at the funeral of George Friderich Handel in 1759. Music historian J.R. Parker reported that Taylor's hat accidentally dropped into the composer’s grave during the funeral ceremony. He studied organ, singing, and music composition with Samuel Arnold

Samuel Arnold (composer)

Samuel Arnold was an English composer and organist.Arnold was born in London , and began writing music for the theatre in about 1764. A few years later he became director of music at the Marylebone Gardens, for which much of his popular music was written...

 in London as a teenager, and at the age of eighteen became the organist at Chelmsford. In 1765 he was appointed the resident composer and musical director for the Sadler’s Wells Theatre and the Marylebone Gardens

Marylebone Gardens

Marylebone or Marybone Gardens was a London pleasure garden sited in the grounds of the old manor house of Marylebone and frequented from the mid-17th century, when Marylebone was a village separated from London by fields and market gardens, to the third quarter of the 18th century...

, serving in both positions for more than 25 years.

In 1792 Taylor emigrated to the United States, partially due to the encouragement of his pupil Alexander Reinagle

Alexander Reinagle

Alexander Robert Reinagle was an English-born American composer, organist, and theater musician...

. He initially settled in Baltimore where he taught music and gave musical extravaganzas. Music historian O. G. Sonneck wrote of these concerts, “As a specialty he cultivated burlesque olios or ‘extravaganzas’ which came dangerously near being music hall skits.” Taylor then briefly worked as the organist for St Anne’s Church in Annapolis before moving to Philadelphia in 1795 to become the organist at St. Peter's Church

St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia

St. Peter's Church is a historic church located on the corner of Third and Pine Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It opened for worship on September 4, 1761 and served as a place of worship for many of the United States Founding Fathers during the period of the Continental Congresses. The...

, serving in that capacity until 1813.

Taylor become one of the major figures in the musical life of Philadelphia during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. He was one of the most sought after music teachers in the city and was active both as a performer and composer in the church and the theatre. He moved in the most important musical circles in Philadelphia, counting among his close friends Benjamin Carr

Benjamin Carr

Benjamin Carr was an American composer, singer, teacher, and music publisher. Born in London, he studied organ with Charles Wesley and composition with Samuel Arnold. In 1793 he traveled to Philadelphia with a stage company, and a year later went with the same company to New York, where he...

, J.G. Schetky, and his former pupil Alexander Reinagle. He was one of the founding members of the Musical Fund Society in 1820. As a performer he was particularly admired for his organ improvisations as well as for his renditions of comic theatre songs. He died in Philadelphia on 17 August 1825 and was buried at St. Peter's Church.

Works

Taylor’s extant instrumental works are chiefly pedagogical piano pieces. Of greater interest are his church anthems, glees and particularly the theatrical songs which show a gift for setting comic texts. His one complete extant American theatrical score, The Aethiop, has vocal and instrumental parts of great vitality. The scholar, Victor Fell Yellin, wrote about Raynor Taylor's theatrical work, “His overture to The Aethiop is perhaps the finest theatrical overture that has survived from the Federal period.”

Selected list of works

• Capocchio and Dorinna, (1793)
• Old Woman of Eighty Three (1793)
• The Aethiop; or, The Child of the Desert (1814)
• The American Captives Emancipation (1806)
• Amyntor: a pastoral song (1795)
• The Beech Tree's Petition / the words by Campbell (1810 and 1815)
• Bonny Willy / the words by Mr. C. Harford (1798 and 1804)
• The Camel's Bell (1813 or 1814)
• Hark Hark the Joy Inspiring Horn (1805 and 1809)
• The Lass of the Cot (1795)
• Ma Chere, et Mon Cher (1798 and 1804)
• The Merry Piping Lad: a ballad in the Scots taste (1795)
• Nancy of the Vale: a pastoral ballad (1795)
• The Queen of Flowers: as sung at the Amateurs concert by Mr. Gillingham (1812)
• Rustic Festivity (1807 and 1811)
• Vive la Liberté: a new song (1795)
• The Wand'ring Village Maid (1795)
• When Death's Gloomy Angel Was Bending His Bow (1814)
• While the Morn is Inviting to Love: a favorite song (1797 and 1799)
• The Wounded Soldier (1794)
• The Iron-Chest
• The Shipwreck'd Mariner
• Monody (1799)
• Buxom Joan (1778)
• Pizarro, or the Spaniards in Peru (opera, 1800)
• The Ethiop (opera, 1814)