Whitney Eugene Thayer

Background

He was born in Mendon, Massachussets, the son of Perry and Charlotte (Taft) Thayer, and a descendant of Thomas Thayer, an early settler of Braintree, Massachussets.

Education

He began the study of music at an early age, but he did not consider it seriously as a profession until he came under the influence of John Knowles Paine, and was chosen with Paine, Benjamin J. Lang, and others to play at the dedication of the organ in Boston Music Hall on November 2, 1863.

Career

In 1865 he went abroad to study organ and counterpoint with Haupt and composition with Wieprecht. The following year he made a concert tour of Europe and a trip to England where he played at Westminster Abbey and at St. Paul's in London.

When he returned to Boston, he immediately became active as an organist and teacher, and, until he went to New York in 1881, he occupied the organ-lofts successively of the Arlington Street, Hollis Street, Old First Unitarian, and New England Churches in Boston, and the Harvard Church in Brookline. He was also active as a recitalist on the organ, and in 1868 inaugurated a long series of concerts in Boston, the first free organ concerts to be given in the country. He gave many others, in America and abroad. When Ole Bull, the violinist, made his American tour, Thayer was his official pianist. In 1875 he opened a private organ studio in Boston, said to be the first of its kind in the United States. From 1881 to 1886 he was organist of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, and then played for a season at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Harlem, after which he retired to devote the remaining twelve years of his life to teaching and composition.

As a teacher Thayer exerted a strong influence. He was one of the early teachers of George W. Chadwick, and his many pupils numbered such musicians as Edward Fisher, Walter C. Gale, Gerrit Smith, J. Warren Andrews, and Sumner Salter. Throughout his life he sought to bring about an improvement in church music and to raise the standards of taste. In addition to his many lectures, he preached his doctrines in the pages of the two magazines he edited at various times while in Boston, probably between 1870 and 1881 – the Organist's Journal and Review, and the Choir Journal and Review.

He also conducted the Boston Choral Union and the New England Church-Music Association. His talents were recognized in his own time by the award of a Doctor of Music degree from Oxford University, for the composition of his "Festival Cantata" for soli, eight-part chorus and orchestra. Among his other compositions were a Mass in E flat, a Fugue for the organ, five organ sonatas, variations for two performers on the organ on the Russian national hymn, many shorter pieces for the organ, and solo and part songs.

For some time before his death he had been mentally unsound. The family home "Mt. Ida" at Newton provided a place of happy diversion for Thayer, and it was there that he indulged especially his great interest in philosophical speculation and in astronomy.

Achievements

• His most ambitious educational publication was The Art of Organ Playing Complete in Five Parts (1874), and his Vest Pocket Harmony Book (1883).

Connections

On October 8, 1862, Thayer was married to Elizabeth Davis Eaton, of Worcester, Massachussets.

Father:

Perry Thayer

1810–1889

Mother:

Charlotte Taft Thayer

1815–1883

spose:

Elizabeth Davie Eaton Thayer

1842–1935

Daughter:

Louise Thayer Friedel

1871–1937

Son:

Arthur Frederick Thayer

1877–1941