Thomas Linley the younger

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Thomas Linley, by Gainsborough (c.1771)

Thomas (Tom) Linley the younger (1756-1778) was the eldest son of the composer Thomas Linley the elder and his wife Mary Johnson, and was a remarkable singer, violinist and composer in his own right. He became known as "the English Mozart".

Apprenticed at a young age to Dr William Boyce, the Master of the King's Musick, after which (between 1768 and 1771) he journeyed to Italy to study violin and composition with Nardini in Florence. The music historian Charles Burney wrote of his travels through Italy in 1770 that: "The Tommasino, as he is called, and the little Mozart, are talked of all over Italy, as the most promising geniusses of this age." ^[1] (Thomas and Mozart - both aged 14 in 1770 - had met and become warm friends earlier in 1770.)

On his return to England he performed in the concerts directed by his father in Bath and at the Drury Lane oratorios. He composed violin sonatas and concertos as well as choral works, and provided most of the music for his brother-in-law Richard Brinsley Sheridan's opera The Duenna (1775). His odes included an "Ode on the Spirits of Shakespeare". He assisted his father and their works (mainly madrigals and songs) were published together in two volumes. He died aged 22 in a boating accident at Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire and is buried at Edenham Parish Church.[1]