Linley
NAME: Linley, Thomas.
ACHIEVEMENTS: Director of Music, Drury Lane Theatre, London
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None.
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: 17th January 1733, Badminton, Gloucestershire, England.
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: 19th November 1795, London. Aged 62.
DISCIPLINE: Musician.
FIELD: Theatre.
LANGUAGE: English.
PARENTS: Father, William Linley. Mother, Maria (surname unknown).
SIBLINGS: One brother, William and one sister, Isabella.
SPOUSE: Mary Johnson.
CHILDREN: Sons, Thomas, Ozias and William. Daughters, Mary, Elizabeth and Jane.
EDUCATION: Bath Abbey, Paradies.
MAJOR WORK: None.
LIFE AND TIMES:
It is known that Linley studied under Pietro Domenico Paradies either in Naples, or in London where Paradies was based from 1746 to 1751. In 1752, Linley married Mary Johnson, who was some years older than himself. He was employed as a singing master at Bath, where his reputation was extremely high.
He also sang and played at concerts, particularly favouring the music of <a fan of> Handel*, where his talent for the organ and harpsichord was immense. Linley conducted concerts in the Assembly Rooms at Bath and, at the age of eight, his daughter Elizabeth sold tickets for her father's concerts to the fashionable crowd in the Pump Rooms.
By 1797, Elizabeth, aged twelve and an accomplished singer, and her younger brother Thomas, aged eleven, who was a very good violinist, were accompanying their father on to the platform at Bath. Several of his children displayed musical talent and in 1767, Thomas and Elizabeth appeared in a masque at the Covent Garden Theatre, where their father appeared a few weeks later to play a violin solo before the royal family.
That year he composed the music for a comic opera: "The Royal Merchant," staged in December 1767 at Covent Garden. Elizabeth was much in demand as a singer and Linley guarded her appearances carefully, refusing to let her sing at any performance where he was not part of the production, or accompanying her on stage.
The family fortunes prospered and, by 1772, the Linley’s had moved to a house in the Crescent, which was the most fashionable part of Bath. They mixed in popular circles and <painted by> Gainsborough*, who painted Linley and his children, was a good friend of the family.
In 1773, Elizabeth and her sister Mary sang in oratorios at the Covent Garden and the Drury Lane theatres in London, while their father played the violin in the orchestra. Shortly after, Linley became joint manager (with the blind organist John Stanley) of the Drury Lane Oratorios in 1774.
After his daughter married the playwright <son-in-law was> Sheridan* in 1774, Linley became more involved with the London theatre scene and composed a song for the comic opera "The Quaker" and then, together with his son Thomas, composed the music for Sheridan's, "The Duenna" which opened at Covent Garden in November 1775.
In 1776, he became a part-owner of Drury Lane theatre when he bought into the half share of <partner of> Garrick*, the actor manager. He organised himself a good salary as director of music at the theatre, and had his wife appointed as wardrobe mistress. They took a house near the theatre in London and for the next fifteen years Linley directed the music at Drury Lane.
In 1777, Linley wrote the song, "Here's to the Maiden", for the phenomenally-successful play, "School for Scandal, " by Sheridan. The following year Thomas died in a boating accident.
Three years later, Linley was admitted to the Royal College of Musicians, but the following year, in 1781, his son Samuel, who had joined the Navy, contracted a fever. Samuel’s was nursed (he died) by one of the Linley servants, Emma Hart (who later became <employed> Emma Hamilton*, Horatio Nelson's mistress and wife to the antiquarian Sir William Hamilton).
The music Linley wrote during his time at Drury Lane included music for plays and operas, and among his other works are "Elegies for Three Voices, with an Accompaniment for a Harpsichord and Violoncello" (c.1770), "Twelve Ballads" (1780) and various anthems, songs, glees and madrigals. In his later years he spent much time travelling to Bath, Exeter, Brighton, Margate and other resorts.
He died in 1795 in London and was buried in Wells Cathedral.
ASSESSMENT: Thomas Linley's music is characterized by the clarity and simplicity of its composition and was admired by leading music critics of the day.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: He employed <employed> William Herschel*
ONELINER: Thomas Linley, Drury Lane music director in 18th century
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Highfill, P H Jnr, Burnim, Kalman A, Langhans, Edward A, A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and other Stage Personnel in London 1660-1800, Southern Illinois University Press, US, 1973.
Sadie, Stanley ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,
Macmillan, London, 1980.
Black, Clementina, The Linleys of Bath, Frederick Muller Ltd., London, 1971.
Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press.