(7 pages includes brief biography of composer)
7 pages includes brief biography of composer
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Rayner Taylor was born in Soho, in Westminster, England between August and November, 1747. Data concerning his early life are meager, and the year of his birth must be conjectured from the fact that he was twelve years old when he attended Handel's funeral as a choir boy of the Chapel Royal in 1759, and from his tombstone at St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, Pa. , which states that he died in his seventy-eighth year.
He was educated at the King's Singing School in London.
In 1765 he became organist of a church at Chelmsford. In 1765 he became music director at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London and achieved some success as a composer of ballads.
Some of his time was spent in teaching, and among his pupils was Alexander Reinagle. Taylor followed Reinagle to America in 1792, making his first appearance in Baltimore, Md. , at a musical entertainment in October. He then settled in Annapolis where he had been appointed organist of St. Anne's Church, but left after a few months to become organist at St. Peter's Church in Philadelphia. He held this position until the closing years of his life.
Taylor is most interesting for the type of entertainment he offered. His "olios, " as he called them, were burlesques and parodies. In January 1793 he presented a "Dramatic proverb being a burletta, in one act, called The Gray Mare's The Best Horse"; this consisted of such episodes as "A Breakfast scene a month after marriage, " "Mock wife in a violent passion, " "A Father's advice to his son in law, " "Dame Pliant's obedience to her husband, " etc. In Philadelphia Taylor gave more of his entertainments, one of them an "olio, " "The Poor female ballad singer, a pathetic song; . Ding, Dong Bell, or the Honeymoon expired; . Character of smart Dolly, a laughing song; Rustic courtship, or the unsuccessful love of poor Thomas, a crying song with duet, " etc.
In April 1796 he gave an orchestral concert at Oeller's Hotel in Philadelphia; his own works on the program were "New Overture, " "Divertimento" for orchestra, and a violin concerto. Of Taylor's compositions published before he came to America, three may be found in the Cathedral Magazine of London: "Hear my Crying O God"; "Hear, O Lord, and Consider my Complaint"; "I Will Give Thanks unto the Lord". A number of his works composed in America are still extant. Several songs and the libretto of a melodrama, The Rose of Arragon (1822), are in the New York Public Library; a manuscript piece for piano, "The Bells" (included in J. T. Howard, A Program of Early American Piano Music, 1931), and printed copies of "The Wounded Sailor" and "The Philadelphia Hymn" are in the Hopkinson collection at Philadelphia; two songs, The Merry piping lad, and The Wand'ring village maid, are in the Yale library. Taylor also composed music for the ballad-operas, La Petite Piedmontesse (1795), The Iron Chest (1797), The Shipwrecked Mariner Preserved (1797), and, with Alexander Reinagle, Pizarro, or The Spaniards in Peru (1800).
(7 pages includes brief biography of composer)
In 1820 he was one of the group that founded the Musical Fund Society in Philadelphia.
