Laura Wilson Barker

She was born in Thirkleby, North Yorkshire, third daughter of a clergyman, the Rev. Thomas Barker.[https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/laura-wilson-barker "Laura Wilson Barker (1819–1905)"], Royal Academy of Arts, accessed 19 February 2023 She studied privately with Cipriani Potter and became an accomplished pianist and violinist. As a young girl Barker performed with both Louis Spohr and Paganini.[https://books.google.com/books?id=BwBzEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Mrs+Tom+Taylor%22+%22composer%22&pg=PT182 "Nicolo Paganini: His Life and Work"] (2022) She began composing in the mid-1830s - her Seven Romances for voice and guitar were published in 1837. From around 1843 until 1855 she taught music at York School for the Blind.Aaron C Cohen. International Encyclopedia of Women Composers (1981), p. 33 During this period some of her compositions - including a symphony in manuscript, on 19 April 1845 - were performed at York Choral Society concerts.David Griffiths. [https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/9777/1/280406.pdf A History of Institutional Music-Making in York], University of York thesis (1990) p. 231

On 19 June 1855 she married the English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of Punch magazine Tom Taylor.Howes, Craig. [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/27090 "Taylor, Tom"], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 3 January 2008 {{ODNBsub}} Barker contributed music to at least one of her husband's plays, an overture and entr'acte to Joan of Arc (1871),[https://books.google.com/books?id=JDFGAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Mrs+Tom+Taylor%22+%22composer%22&pg=PA68 "Tom Taylor"], The Magazine of Art, Vol. 4 (1881), p. 68 and provided harmonisations as an appendix to his translation of Ballads and Songs of Brittany (1865).Taylor, Tom (translator). [https://archive.org/details/balladssongsofbr00lavi_0 Ballads and Songs of Brittany] (1865), Internet Archive

Barker wrote several sonatas and a great many other pieces for the piano - including the Four Studies (1846) and Revolution Waltzes (1849) - which are now in the collection of her great great grandson, Rupert Stutchbury. There are also some variations for organ and other music.[https://www.youtube.com/@rupertstutchbury3693 Rupert Stutchbury, YouTube channel]

Other pieces include the cantata Enone (1850), the violin sonata A Country Walk (1860), theatre music for As You Like It, (April 1880), Songs of Youth (1884),'Songs of Youth', in The Musical Times, Vol. 25, No. 499 (September 1884), p. 533 string quartets, madrigals and solo songs. Her choral setting of Keats's A Prophecy, composed in 1850, was performed for the first time 49 years later at the Hovingham Festival in 1899.The Academy, Vol. 57, p. 90 The composer was present.'Hovingham Festival', in The Musical Times Vol. 40, No. 678 (August 1899), pp. 545-546

Several of Barker's paintings hang at Smallhythe Place in Kent, Ellen Terry's house.[https://artuk.org/discover/artists/barker-laura-wilson-18191905"'Laura Wilson Barker"], ArtUK, accessed 19 February 2023

Barker lived with her husband and family at 84 Lavender Sweep, Battersea. There were two children: the artist John Wycliffe Taylor (1859–1925), and Laura Lucy Arnold Taylor (1863–1940). The Sunday musical soirees at the house attracted many well-known attendees, including the Prince of Wales, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, Henry Irving, Charles Reade, Alfred Tennyson, Clara Schuman, Ellen and Kate Terry and William Makepeace Thackeray.Rathbone, Jeanne. [https://damesnet.com/?p=6293 "Laura Wilson Barker"], Damesnet, accessed 18 February 2019

Tom Taylor died suddenly at his home in 1880 at the age of 62. After his death, his widow retired to Porch House, Coleshill in Buckinghamshire, where she died on 22 May 1905, aged 86.[https://www.coleshill.org/history/buildings/houses/167-porch-house.html 'Porch House', Coleshill.org]

• Seven Romances for voice and guitar (1836)
• The Sprite Polka (1844) for piano
• Morceau Characteristique (1845), piano four hands
• Four Studies (1846) for piano
• Ode to the Passions (text William Collins 1846)
• Six Songs (1847)
• Dungeon Ghyll Force (1848), piano four hands
• Piano Sonata No. 1 (1849)
• Proteus: Fantasia (1849) for piano
• Revolution Waltzes (1849) for piano
• Enone, cantata (1850)
• A Prophesy, choir and orchestra (text Keats, 1850, fp. 1899)
• Six Songs (1852)
• Violin Sonata A Country Walk (1860)
• Music to Shakespeare's As You Like It (fp. 14 April 1880)
• Songs of Youth (1883)

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• [https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/results?Subject=Laura+Wilson+Barker%2C+Mrs+Tom+Taylor+(d.1905) 'Laura Wilson Barker, Mrs Tom Taylor and her son John Wycliffe Taylor', National Trust Collection]
• [https://sheelanagigcomedienne.wordpress.com/tag/mr-and-mrs-tom-taylors-sunday-musiccal-soirees/ Jeanne Rathbone. Laura Barker 1819-1905 composer]
• [https://www.victorianvoices.net/ARTICLES/GOP/Music/1882-TieofGoldenThread.pdf 'The Tie of Golden Thread'], music supplement from The Girl's Own Paper (1882)

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Category:1819 births

Category:English classical pianists

Category:Women classical pianists

Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music

Category:English women classical composers

Category:19th-century English classical composers

Category:Women of the Victorian era

Category:19th-century English women artists

Category:19th-century English women composers

Category:English women composers

Category:1905 deaths

Category:19th-century British women classical pianists

Category:19th-century British classical pianists