Raynor Taylor

Raynor Taylor was born in London, England in 1747 and died in Philadelphia, United States in 1825. He emigrated to the United States in 1792. [ http://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/rbm/keffer/taylor.html Philadelphia Composers: Raynor Taylor (1747-1825)] Taylor was a composer, actor, teacher, organist and musical director. He was one of the first notable American composers. [ http://www.voxnovus.com/resources/American_Composer_Timeline.htm American Composer Timeline] The scholar, Victor Fell Yellin, wrote about about Raynor Taylor's theatrical work, “His overture to The Ethiop is perhaps the finest theatrical overture that has survived from the Federal period.” [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=NTpD63-MfvEC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=Victor+Fell+Yellin+Taylor&source=web&ots=h0hNJJOUVV&sig=HtoMGwAaF4T7OS7je4e3RJ_SNcA&hl=en#PPA1,M1 Chamber music By Rayner Taylor, John Metz, Published 2001, A-R Editions, Inc.] ] Another historian wrote, “As a specialty he cultivated burlesque olios or ‘extravaganzas’ which came dangerously near being music hall skits.” [ [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1612-0124(190504)6%3A3%3C428%3AEAO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1 Early American Operas, O. G. Sonneck, Sammelbände der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft, 6. Jahrg., H. 3. (Apr., 1905)] ] Taylor was one of the founding members of the Musical Fund Society. He died in 1825 and was buried at St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia.

List of Works

*Capocchio and Dorinna, (1793)
*Old Woman of Eighty Three (1793)
*The Ethiop; or, The Child of the Desert (1814).
*The American Captives Emancipation (1806)
*Amyntor : a pastoral song (1795) None None
*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)

References