Laura Wilson Barker (6 March 1819 – 22 May 1905), was a composer, performer and artist, sometimes also referred to as Laura Barker, Laura W Taylor or "Mrs Tom Taylor".

Career

She was born in Thirkleby, North Yorkshire, third daughter of a clergyman, the Rev. Thomas Barker. She studied privately with

Cipriani Potter Philip Cipriani Hambly Potter (3 October 1792 – 26 September 1871) was an English musician. He was a composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. After an early career as a performer and composer, he was a teacher in the Royal Academy of Musi ...

and became an accomplished pianist and violinist. As a young girl Barker performed with both

Louis Spohr Louis Spohr (, 5 April 178422 October 1859), baptized Ludewig Spohr, later often in the modern German form of the name Ludwig was a German composer, violinist and conductor. Highly regarded during his lifetime, Spohr composed ten symphonies, ...

and Paganini. 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 York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

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. On 19 June 1855 she married the English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of Punch magazine

Tom Taylor Tom Taylor (19 October 1817 – 12 July 1880) was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of Punch (magazine), ''Punch'' magazine. Taylor had a brief academic career, holding the professorship of English literatu ...

.Howes, Craig
"Taylor, Tom"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 3 January 2008 Barker contributed music to at least one of her husband's plays, an overture and entr'acte to ''Joan of Arc'' (1871), and provided harmonisations as an appendix to his translation of ''Ballads and Songs of Brittany'' (1865). 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. Other pieces include the cantata ''Enone'' (1850), the violin sonata ''A Country Walk'' (1860), theatre music for ''

As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral Shakespearean comedy, comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wil ...

'', (April 1880), ''Songs of Youth'' (1884), string quartets, madrigals and solo songs. Her choral setting of

Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tub ...

's ''A Prophecy'', composed in 1850, was performed for the first time 49 years later at the Hovingham Festival in 1899. The composer was present. Several of Barker's paintings hang at

Smallhythe Place Smallhythe Place in Small Hythe, near Tenterden in Kent, is a Timber framing, half-timbered house built in the late 15th or early 16th century and since 1947 cared for by the National Trust. It was the home of the Victorian era, Victorian actr ...

in Kent,

Ellen Terry Dame Alice Ellen Terry (27 February 184721 July 1928) was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and toured ...

's house.

Personal life

Barker lived with her husband and family at 84 Lavender Sweep,

Battersea Battersea is a large district in southwest London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and also extends along the south bank of the Thames Tideway. It includes the Battersea Park. Hist ...

. 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 Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

Henry Irving Sir Henry Irving (6 February 1838 – 13 October 1905), christened John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility ( ...

Charles Reade Charles Reade (8 June 1814 – 11 April 1884) was a British novelist and dramatist, best known for the 1861 historical novel '' The Cloister and the Hearth''. Life Charles Reade was born at Ipsden, Oxfordshire, to John Reade and Anne Marie Sco ...

Alfred Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of ...

, Clara Schuman, Ellen and

Kate Terry Kate Terry (21 April 1844 – 6 January 1924) was an English actress. The elder sister of the actress Ellen Terry, she was born into a theatrical family, made her debut when still a child, became a leading lady in her own right, and left the sta ...

and

William Makepeace Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray ( ; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his Satire, satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel ''Vanity Fair (novel), Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portra ...

.Rathbone, Jeanne
"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.'Porch House', ''Coleshill.org''
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Selected works

* ''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 William Collins may refer to: Arts * William Collins (poet) (1721–1759), English poet * William Collins (painter) (1788–1847), English landscape artist * William Lucas Collins (1815–1887), English author and clergyman of the Church of Engla ...

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)

References

External links

'Laura Wilson Barker, Mrs Tom Taylor and her son John Wycliffe Taylor', National Trust Collection

Jeanne Rathbone. ''Laura Barker 1819-1905 composer''

'The Tie of Golden Thread'
music supplement from ''

The Girl's Own Paper ''The Girl's Own Paper'' (''G.O.P.'') was a British story paper catering to girls and young women, published from 1880 until 1956. Publishing history The first weekly number of ''The Girl's Own Paper'' appeared on 3 January 1880. As with its m ...

'' (1882) {{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Laura Wilson 1819 births Women classical pianists Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music English women classical composers 19th-century English classical composers Women of the Victorian era 19th-century English women artists 19th-century English women composers English women composers 1905 deaths 19th-century British women classical pianists 19th-century English classical pianists