Introduction

Biography

Benjamin was the son of John and Sal­ly Bak­er, cou­sin of Is­aac Wood­bu­ry, and hus­band of Sab­ra L. Hey­wood (mar­ried 1841).

As a young man, he moved to Sa­lem, Mas­sa­chu­setts, and in 1831 be­gan teach­ing mu­sic. In 1833, he tra­veled Am­eri­ca with a con­cert com­pa­ny.

Afterward, he stu­died with John Pad­don in Bos­ton, where, in 1839, he be­came mu­sic­al di­rect­or of a church run by a Dr. Chan­ning.

In 1841, he be­gan hold­ing what were termed mu­sic­al con­ven­tions, and soon af­ter he was ap­point­ed vice-pr­esi­dent of the Han­del and Haydn Society of Bos­ton, hold­ing the post six years.

From 1841–48, he was su­per­in­ten­dent of mu­sic­al in­struc­tion in the Bos­ton gram­mar schools (suc­ceed­ing Low­ell Ma­son).

He helped found the Bos­ton Mu­sic School in 1857, and by the 1870s, he was ed­it­ing the Bos­ton Mu­sic Jour­nal.

Works

• The Bos­ton Mu­sic­al Edu­ca­tion So­ci­ety’s Col­lect­ion of Church Mu­sic, with Is­aac Wood­bu­ry, 1842
• Baker’s Am­eri­can School Mu­sic Book (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Ot­is & Broad­ers, 1845)
• The Haydn Col­lect­ion of Church Mu­sic, with Lu­ci­en H. South­ard (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Charles H. Pierce, 1850)
• The Un­ion Glee Book (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Rus­sell & Tol­man, 1852)
• Baker’s Church Mu­sic (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: John P. Jew­ett, 1855)
• Baker’s For­ma­tion and Cul­ti­va­tion of the Voice (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Rus­sell & Rich­ard­son, cir­ca 1856)
• Excelsior Song Book (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Chase, Ni­chols & Hill, 1860)
• The New Chor­al Har­mo­ny (New York: S. T. Gor­don, 1864)
• Songs of the Tem­ple, with J. F. Far­go (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Lee & Shep­ard, 1868)