Augusta Browne Archives

See and Hear Music by Augusta Browne

On November 20, 2023

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.

Irish Curiosity (in Honor of St. Patrick’s Day)

By Bonny Miller

On March 17, 2023

In Augusta Browne, Posts

“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.”

Augusta Browne Was a Cat Lover

By Bonny Miller

On February 28, 2022

In Augusta Browne

Augusta Browne loved cats, as her prose writing demonstrates.

Does not a fluffy cat, of stately demeanor, confer a positive dignity on the family hearth?
Augusta Browne Garrett, “All Good Persons Love Dumb Animals,” Episcopal Recorder, February 7, 1877.

“The Favorite Cat,” hand-colored lithograph published by Nathaniel Currier, 1838–48, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Adele S. Colgate, 1962, Accession Number: 63.550.159

In her 1877 article from the Episcopal Recorder, shown in full below, Browne tells anecdotes about memorable cats from her family home. Some knew clever tricks. Others, like Rubin (named for the Russian pianist Anton Rubinstein), had musical tendencies. She extols the usefulness of cats to control rodents, in addition their innate “beauty, talent, amiability, and industry.” The lesson of the essay is a universal message to treat animals humanely. Browne concludes:

It is impossible to love God and be cruel to the creatures that he has committed to our care.

Augusta Browne’s Gift Book Gem

By Bonny Miller

On February 24, 2022

In Augusta Browne, Posts

The opening pages of the Iris Souvenir for 1851 glow with golds, reds, and greens. The hues of the new gift book competed with the flower that gave the volume its name, asserted the editor, John S. Hart, in the preface to the volume. Gift books were anthologies of light fiction, poems, and essays for the Victorian-era home. Elegant illustrations and bindings made these gift books the equivalent of modern coffee table books. The Iris made a splash by including scenes produced with an early color printing process: chromolithography.

Title page of The Iris: An Illuminated Souvenir for MDCCCLI (Philadelphia: Lipincott, Grambo, 1851)

Eight of the Iris illustrations were line engravings in black and white, but Hart declared, “the four illuminated pages are printed each with ten different colors, and with a degree of brilliancy and finish certainly not heretofore surpassed.” The title page of the volume (ab0ve) is a riot of colors, flowers, and cherubs at play beneath a rainbow. Deep purple-blue is reserved for the sprigs of iris on the title page and again adorning the music for “The Iris Waltz Composed by Miss Augusta Browne” (below).

Music, History, Women, and Heritage

Category: Augusta Browne Page 1 of 2

See and Hear Music by Augusta Browne

Irish Curiosity (in Honor of St. Patrick’s Day)

Augusta Browne Was a Cat Lover

Augusta Browne’s Gift Book Gem