Mary Louisa White

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Mary Louisa White (2 September 1866 – January 1935){{Cite book|last=Stern, Susan, 1953-|title=Women composers : a handbook|date=1978|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=0-8108-1138-3|location=Metuchen, N.J.|oclc=3844725}} was a British composer, pianist, and educator{{Cite book|last=Hixon, Donald L.|title=Women in music : an encyclopedic biobibliography|date=1993|publisher=Scarecrow Press|others=Hennessee, Don A.|isbn=0-8108-2769-7|edition=2nd|location=Metuchen, N.J.|oclc=28889156}} who invented a Letterless Method of musical notation. Her parents were Robert and Louisa Makin White. Mary Louisa, known to her family as "Louie," was the oldest of their four children. She also had a half brother and a half sister from her father's first marriage.{{Cite web|last=Team|first=IOE Archives|title=IOE LibGuides: White Family archive: Context|url=https://libguides.ioe.ac.uk/c.php?g=482411&p=3298548|access-date=2020-09-07|website=libguides.ioe.ac.uk|language=en}}

White studied music with John Farmer in London,{{Cite book|last=Cohen, Aaron I.|title=International encyclopedia of women composers|year=1987|isbn=0-9617485-2-4|edition=Second edition, revised and enlarged|location=New York|oclc=16714846}} and gave frequent concerts in London and Paris, including at the Steinway Hall in London.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LDs6AQAAIAAJ&dq=mary+louisa+white+composer&pg=PA703|title=The Athenæum: A Journal of Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music, and the Drama|date=1904|publisher=J. Francis|language=en}} She taught piano at Kensington High School at the turn of the 20th century, and worked at the Girls' Day School Trust with her sisters Jessie and Winnie from 1902 to 1903. At the time, Kensington High School was administered by the Girls' Day School Trust.

White invented the "Letterless Method" of teaching music to beginners. The Letterless Method used metal clefs, rings, disks, and black and white buttons for notes, which children could manipulate for tactile learning.{{Cite book|last=The Educational Times and Journal of the College of Preceptors|url=http://archive.org/details/educationaltimes53educ|title=The Educational Times and Journal of the College of Preceptors|date=1900|publisher=Francis Hodgson, London|others=The UCL Institute of Education}}

White's papers, including scrapbooks about her musical career created by her mother and sisters, are archived at University College, London. Her compositions were published by Joseph Williams and Alfred Novello, both of London.

White's compositions include: