Franklin Taylor

Franklin Taylor (5 February 1843 – 19 March 1919) was an English pianist, organist, music educator, and writer on music. He was a pupil of Clara Schumann.

Early life and education Born in Birmingham, Franklin Taylor showed early promise as a pianist but had his first training as a church musician, becoming a resident pupil of Thomas Bedsmore (1833-1881) at Lichfield Cathedral. Returning to Birmingham he was appointed organist of The Old Meeting House while still a young teenager.

In 1859 he was sent to Leipzig to train as a pianist at the Leipzig Conservatory with Louis Plaidy and Ignaz Moscheles. British musicians he met there at the time included Walter Bache (also from Birmingham), John Francis Barnett and Arthur Sullivan. In the winter of 1861-1862 he went to Paris to study with Clara Schumann, concentrating entirely on the music of Robert Schumann. He become an important exponent of Schumann's methods in piano pedagogy. During this period he shared rooms in London (George Street, Euston Square) with Carl Rosa, then best known as a violinist. He gave up holding church appointments in 1869.

Publications Taylor authored several influential piano pedagogy texts, some of which are still in use. These include Technique and Expression in Pianoforte Playing (London, 1897), Primer of Pianoforte Playing (London, 1877), and Progressive Studies for the Pianoforte (London, 1893–4), the latter spanning fifty-six books and containing 600 examples. He also authored several entries in the early editions of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Franklin Taylor died in London on 19 March 1919, aged 76.