Maria Hester Park [née Reynolds]
As a British composer, pianist and singer, Maria Hester Park [née Reynolds] (1760–1813) was born on 29 September 1760. Park showcased her musical talent during the youth. On 5 November 1772, she acted as a singer and performed a concerto as a harpsichord player with clarinetist Mr. Mahone in Holywell Music Room, Oxford, which was declared on the Jackson’s Oxford Journal. In the following year, Maria Park knew Handel and Haydn in a concert of vocal and instrumented music on 11 November 1773, which was demonstrated on the earliest surviving Oxford Music Room programme. Park named ‘Miss Reynolds’ sang a song by Sacchini in Act I and another song with accompaniment in Act II. After that, she organised own benefit concert in Holywell, Oxford on 11 February 1779, from then until March 1784 the concert was held at Willis's Rooms in London. Within the period, her reputation and population spread to Germany. In 1783, she became one of soloists for the series of Wednesday concerts at the Hanover Square Rooms.
The programme of Oxford Music Room was published in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 6 November 1773
Not just as a performer in public, she also committed to compose and music education. The first publication was Six Sonatas for the Harpsichord or Piano Forte and violin in 1785, which was dedicated to Countess of Uxbridge. The dedicatee and some of other subscribers are nobility, which indicated that she has been acquainted with London’s upper social circles. In the meantime, she was also familiar with musicians, such as Charles Burney, who also subscribed the Op.1. According to the cover page, Op.1 was only one composition was published under her maiden name. By contrast, the signatures on her later works are ‘Maria Hester Park’, as she married with Tomas Park, an engraver and man of letters, on 21 April 1787. In 1790, Park published own Three sonatas for the harpsichord or piano forte, Op. II, A Set of Glees, Op. III, Two sonatas for the piano forte or harpsichord, Op. IV. Duchess Elizabeth appreciated Park’s remarkable ability of composition and performance and invited to teach her daughter Lady Harriet in the early 1790s. She composed a divertimento for Lady Harriet and published it in 1802. Around October 1794, the Park family lived in 32 Piccadilly, London. At times, they kept a close friendship with Haydn. Tomas Park presented two engravings to Haydn. It is possible to express gratitude, Haydn dedicated a little sonata to ‘Mistris Park’ as gift. She retained the original manuscript and gave a copy to Haydn.
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The correspondence is from Haydn to Tomas Park on 22 October 1794
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Her compositions were released in succession. In 1795, Park published A Concerto for the Piano Forte or Harpsichord, Op.VI, followed by A Sonata, Op. VII in 1796 and Six Divertimentos, Op. VIII in 1797. On the title page of her Op. XII, it demonstrates that Park composed a Fancy to Prince Adolphus, moreover, it also uncovers titles of other three works, which are Duet Divertimento, Op.IX, Sonata with Berlin Favorite, Op. X and 'A New Waltz'.
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In the married life, she was also wife and mother. Park had a son in 1793 John James Park and the fifth daughter in 1796. Maria Hester continued teaching, which allowed her to contribute for their happy and united home. Teaching music in London until 1807, she had serious rheumatism. For relieving the disease, Park moved to Hampstead and died there on 7 June 1813. After five days, She was buried at St Mary's Church, Acton. The Gentleman’s Magazine released an obituary notice in 1813:
Exemplary in all the duties of the female character,
she has left so tender a memorial in the bosoms of her sorrowing family,
as cannot but be cherished and revered,
so long as memory and gratitude remain.
Sources
Olive Baldwin, and Thelma Wilson, ‘Park [née Reynolds], Maria Hester’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/61880> [accessed 23 January 2025].
Jackson's Oxford Journal (31 Oct 1772)
Jackson's Oxford Journal (6 Nov 1773)
Jackson's Oxford Journal (6 Feb 1779)
Public Advertiser (27 March 1784)
Gentleman’s Magazine, 1813, pt. 1, p. 596.
Jeanice Brooks, ‘Staging the Home: Music in Aristocratic Family Life’, in A Passion for Opera: The Duchess and the Georgian Stage, ed. by Paul Boucher, Jeanice Brooks, Katrina Faulds, Catherine Garry and Wiebke Thormählen (The Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust, 2019), pp. 30-45 (p. 37)
Robert Charles Jenkins, The last gleanings of a Christian life: an outline of the life of Thomas Park (London, 1885), pp. 11.
Thomas Tolley, ‘Haydn, The Engraver Thomas Park, and Maria Hester Park’s ‘Little Sonat’’, Music and Letters, 82.3 (2001), pp. 421–31 (p. 423), org/stable/3526162.
Joseph Haydn, Gesammelte Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, ed. Dénes Bartha (Bärenreiter-Verlag and Corvina-Verlag, 1965), p. 302.
Lise Karin Meling, ‘Maria Hester Park and her subscribers’, in Music by Subscription: Composers and their Networks in the British Music-Publishing Trade, 1676-1820, ed. by Simon D.I. Fleming and Martin Perkins (Routledge, 2022), pp. 57–72 (p. 62).
Simon D. I. Fleming and Martin Perkins, ‘Park, Maria Hester’, Music Subscribers <https://musicsubscribers.co.uk/search/> [accessed 23 January 2025].
Deborah Hayes, ‘Maria Hester Reynolds Park’, Classical Women <https://spot.colorado.edu/~hayesd/18c%20Women/park.html> [accessed 23 January 2025]