Saturday 23rd November 2024 7.30 pm
Cirencester Parish Church
Henry Purcell
Hail! Bright Cecilia
Thomas Linley Jr
Let God Arise
Musical and Amicable Society
(Period instrument orchestra)
Carleton Etherington
(Musical Director)
Thomas Hawkes
(Guest Conductor)
Tickets are available online immediately and from other outlets from mid October
Further Information about Thomas Linley
The name of Thomas Linley (1756-1778) would have been as well-known as that of Mozart and Haydn if he hadn’t decided to go boating on a lake with friends one August afternoon in 1778. The boat overturned and Thomas attempted to swim to shore, but unfortunately drowned. He was 22 years old.
From an early age, he showed a precocious musical talent. His father, Thomas Snr, also a composer, moved the family from Gloucestershire to Bath where he became the organiser of musical entertainment for the fashionable visitors. He encouraged Thomas from the age of 6 and his five siblings to sell tickets and give performances, often to full houses.
At 7 years old, Thomas Jnr was sent to study under William Boyce, Master of the King’s Musick and then taken to Italy for further instruction.
He not only met Mozart, his contemporary, but they became firm friends and performed together at 14.
On Thomas’s return to England, he continued to perform and compose. He worked in Bath and London, particularly composing overtures and musical interludes for plays performed in Drury Lane. He also wrote violin concertos and oratorio.
His work ‘Let God Arise’, which will be perfumed by Cirencester Choral Society on November 23rd, was written in 1773 for the Three Choirs Festival. As we hear this beautiful piece, we can only regret what a loss to our musical heritage the death of such a potentially great composer was at the age of just 22 and ponder upon what he might have achieved.
Mozart said that Linley was a true genius and he felt that had he lived, he would have been ‘one of the greatest ornaments of the musical world’.
Of course, being unmarried, Thomas has no direct descendants, but only Anthony Armstrong-Jones was descended from one of his siblings. He married HRH Princess Margaret and their son was given the title Viscount Linley.
This information was researched by Pam Varey one of our Tenors and a big thank you goes to her for this.
The Feast Day of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music and musicians, is 22nd November. Our concert date this year gives us an opportunity to celebrate it with Purcell’s 1692 ode written in honour of the saint and exploring the art of music in its widest sense.
The West-Country musician Thomas Linley Jr deserves to be better known. He was a genius in the making when his life was cut short by drowning at just 22. His youthful success at home and abroad led to his being dubbed ‘The English Mozart’. ‘Let God Arise‘ was first sung at the Three Choirs Festival in 1773.