Where can I see sheet music by Augusta Browne? How can I hear music by Augusta Browne? These are the questions people ask most frequently about the composer. On the Music Editions page of this website, you will find links to open-access databases that include nineteenth-century imprints of music by Browne. The Music Editions page lists more than eighty music titles available online. The entries are arranged by genre (piano pieces; songs; hymns), then alphabetically by title.
Look for “Listen to the Music” links on the Music Editions page for online performances of music by Augusta Browne. Some renditions are recorded performances, others are audio files generated from Finale music notation software.
By request, here’s the recipe! I call them “Conference Cookies” because the recipe makes a big batch, enough to last through the SCMTA (South Carolina Music Teachers Association) conference.
No cookie from the grocery store had ever tasted as good as these soft raisin cookies when I made them for the first time when I was in seventh grade. The original recipe came from General Foods Kitchens’ All About Home Baking (6th edition, 1963; note dog-eared cover and stained pages), a booklet we used in my Home Economics class. These days I substitute instant oatmeal in place of nuts to steer clear of nut allergies.
Who was J. W. B. Garrett, whom Augusta Browne married in September 1855, within weeks of first meeting him?
J. W. B. (John Walter Benjamin) Garrett was an artist who specialized in portraits, especially paintings made from small daguerreotypes, just as families today can commission a portrait to be painted from a photograph. Augusta Browne never revealed how they became acquainted. The connection might have occurred through an introduction at an art gallery, at church, a concert, or through mutual acquaintances at the Home Journal, in which Augusta published stories and Garrett advertised his services as a portraitist. Garrett exhibited a portrait of William Henry Browne, the composer’s younger brother, at New York City’s National Academy of Design in 1857. It seems plausible Garrett would have made a portrait of his bride, Augusta, but no evidence proves its existence.
“Irish Curiosity” is the name of a short story published by Augusta Browne in 1848, one hundred seventy-five years ago. The theme of the humorous story is curiosity, which is considered a commendable thirst for knowledge in a man, but in a woman, curiosity is regarded as inappropriate interference in the affairs of others. Further, as Browne expressed in deliberately misspelled language that gave the flavor of an Irish brogue, a woman “of coorse can’t kape a saycret.”
Thank you to the South Carolina Music Teachers Association (SCMTA) for hosting my Zoom presentation, “Schumann’s Hand and Musicians’ Wellness,” on February 18, 2023.
SCMTA received the recognition “2023 State Affiliate of the Year” from the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA).
Schumann’s Hand and Musicians’ Wellness
The cause of Robert Schumann’s debilitating hand injury has long been debated. The explanation of focal dystonia (or overuse, as Schumann himself suggested in 1839) has often been dismissed in preference for a physical malady or a mechanical gadget. During the twentieth century, Schumann’s hand injury was frequently alleged to have resulted from using some kind of device to make the fingers stronger and more independent; in the twenty-first century, the cause is usually understood as an overuse injury, such as repetitive strain or focal dystonia. His case illustrates the evolution in our understanding of musicians’ injuries and wellness.
I use Schumann’s hand as a steppingstone to talk about the greater field of musicians’ wellness, which embraces topics of injury prevention, performance-related musculoskeletal disorders, practice strategies, mental health, holistic health approaches, and auditory issues. Education through open-access online resources includes wellness resources on websites for MTNA (mtna.org; see wellness and webinars topics on pulldown menu under “Learn”), College Music Society (music.org; see musicians health pulldown menu under “CMS Library”), Performing Arts Medicine Association (artsmed.org), and Athletes and the Arts (athletesandthearts.com; see podcasts and broad array of “Topics” in pulldown menu).
I conclude with suggestions for “best practices” for practicing collected from online webinars and resources. I also incorporate my roundup of hand strengthening gadgets, plus my theory on the nature of Schumann’s Cigarrenmechanik.
