Introduction

Biography

Isaac was the son of phy­si­cian John Os­trom Flag­ler and Chris­ti­na Van Vleck, and hus­band of Hen­ri­et­ta Flagl­er.

His ear­ly edu­ca­tion was at the Kinderhook and Al­ba­ny academies. He stu­died law for four years at Pough­keepsie, but gave it up for music.

He first stu­died mu­sic with Hen­ry Beale, or­gan­ist of Jo­seph’s Church in Al­ba­ny. He then went to Eur­ope, where he stu­died under Édouard Batiste in Par­is and Gus­tav Mar­tal in Dresden.

Returning from Europe, he be­came or­gan­ist and choir­mas­ter at the Se­cond Re­formed Church in Pough­keep­sie. He lat­er filled the same po­si­tion at Ply­mouth Church, Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, and at the First Pres­by­ter­ian Church, Au­burn, New York.

Flagler dis­ting­uished him­self as a teach­er and lec­tur­er, teach­ing mu­sic and giv­ing lec­tures at Sy­ra­cuse Uni­ver­si­ty, Cor­nell Uni­ver­si­ty, the Uti­ca Con­ser­va­to­ry of Mu­sic, and the Ith­aca Con­ser­va­to­ry of Mu­sic. He was al­so or­gan­ist and mu­sic­al lec­tur­er at Chau­tau­qua for 19 years.

He per­formed as so­lo or­gan­ist at the Chi­ca­go, Buf­fa­lo, and St. Lou­is ex­po­si­tions, and played at the Tro­ca­dé­ro in one of the Par­is ex­po­si­tions.

One of the found­ers of the Ame­ri­can Guild of Or­gan­ists, Flagler had a na­tion­al re­pu­ta­tion as a con­cert or­gan­ist. His re­per­to­ry was ve­ry ex­ten­sive, com­pris­ing all the works of the great mas­ters.

He is a won­der­ful play­er and seems to bring a spell over his au­di­ence, the high­est trib­ute that can be paid to his abi­li­ty. He ne­ver fails to please, ne­ver tires, and al­ways in­structs while de­light­ing his hear­ers.

His play­ing is al­ways bril­liant and re­mark­ably fa­cile. He has not ma­ny eq­uals and no su­per­iors in the Unit­ed States.

Benjamin

In his re­view of Flag­ler’s book The New Era of Song, Al­bert Shaw wrote,

Mr. Flag­ler aims to strike the gold­en mean be­tween Gos­pel hymn trash and the ela­bo­rate clas­si­cism which hin­ders con­gre­ga­tion­al sing­ing.

Works

Flagler was an emi­nent com­pos­er of church mu­sic. His oth­er works, which were wid­ely read and prac­ticed, in­clude:

• New Col­lect­ion of Or­gan Music in Four Vol­umes
• Organists’ Trea­su­ry
• New Col­lect­ion of Church Mu­sic
• Songs of Praise and De­vo­tion
• The New Era of Song