Alexander Reinagle

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Alexander Reinagle

Alexander Reinagle (baptized April 23, 1756 in Portsmouth , † September 21, 1809 in Baltimore ) was an American composer of English origin.

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The date of birth of Alexander Reinagle is unclear. According to family tradition, he was born in Edinburgh in 1750 , and according to an obituary notice in the United States Gazette in Philadelphia, he died in 1809 at the age of 62, which would result in the year of birth 1747. His father was the Austro-Hungarian trumpeter Joseph Reinagle . He had his first lessons with his father and with Raynor Taylor , the director of the Royal Theater of Edinburgh. There he had his first appearance as a harpsichordist in 1770.

From 1778 Reinagle lived as a harpsichord teacher in Glasgow, where his first compositions appeared in print. In 1784 he met Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Hamburg , with whom he was in contact by letters for some time. In the same year he traveled to Portugal with his brother, the cellist Hugh Reinagle , and performed there before the royal family. In 1785 he became a member of the Royal Society of Musicians in London.

In 1786 Reinagle first settled in New York as a pianist, violin and piano teacher and gave his first concert there that same year. In the fall of that year he moved to Philadelphia. There he renewed the tradition of city concerts with a twelve-part concert series with the cellist Henri Capron in the 1786/87 season. Until 1794 he continued the concert series together with Capron, William Brown and Alexander Juhan . In addition, he taught a. a. Nellie Custis , George Washington's adopted daughter .

In 1791 he founded a theater company with the British actor Thomas Wignell . This New Company built the New Theater ( Chestnut Street Theater ) in Philadelphia , which opened in 1792, and the Theater on Holliday Street in Baltimore , which opened the following year. Drama and music theater were offered at both houses. Reinagle acted as musical director in Philadelphia. At the Chestnut Street Theater he hired the English violinist George Gillingham as a conductor. Almost sixty pieces were performed here by 1800. Reinagle himself contributed two ballets to the repertoire and composed, arranged and orchestrated the music for all performances. When the theater burned on April 2, 1820, all of these materials were lost. After the death of his partner Wignell, Reinagle moved to Baltimore, where he was the musical director of the New Company's productions until his death.

Reinagle's five siblings were all active artists. His brother Joseph Reinagle was also known as a composer, his son Alexander Robert Reinagle as an organist and composer. His brother Philip Reinagle was a portrait, animal and landscape painter, whose son Ramsay Richard Reinagle and grandson George Philip Reinagle were also painters.

Works

  • Variations on Famous Scots Tunes , 1782
  • The Volunteers , comic opera (libretto by Susanna Haswell Rowson ), 1795
  • Sicilian Romance , ballet, 1795
  • The Black Castle or The Specter of the Forest , melodrama (libretto by Matthew Gregory Lewis , composition with James Hewitt ), 1807

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Reinagle, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1750
PLACE OF BIRTH Edinburgh
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 1809
Place of death Baltimore