women composers Archives

The American composer Augusta Browne was not Lady Augusta Browne (1838–1909), ninth child and sixth daughter of Howe Peter [Browne], 2^nd Marquess of Sligo (1788–1845). A photograph of Lady Augusta Browne is frequently displayed and misidentified as an image of the composer. The two unrelated women were born in Ireland almost twenty years apart. Lady Augusta Browne sat for portraits and photographs because she was a member of the minor British peerage in Ireland. Her carte-de-visite from the 1860s belongs to the National Portrait Gallery in London. Lady Augusta Browne never married and led a quiet life in Westport, County Mayo.

Lady Augusta Browne
by Numa Blanc & Cie
albumen carte-de-visite, 1860s
NPG Ax46406

The image of Lady Augusta Browne in the Victorian-era photo does not depict the American composer.

See and Hear Music by Augusta Browne

By Bonny Miller

On November 20, 2023

In Augusta Browne

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.

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).

“Tracing Augusta Browne” Guest Blog

By Bonny Miller

On July 13, 2020

In Posts

During May 2020, I had the honor to write a guest blog for the Music Division of the Library of Congress to coincide with the publication of Augusta Browne: Composer and Woman of Letters in Nineteenth-Century America. In “Tracing Augusta Browne in the Library of Congress,” I recall my journey across two decades as I investigated different leads within the largest library collection in the world: https://blogs.loc.gov/music/2020/05/tracing-augusta-browne-in-the-library-of-congress/

Music, History, Women, and Heritage

Tag: women composers Page 1 of 2

Who was Lady Augusta Browne? Not the American Composer.

See and Hear Music by Augusta Browne

Augusta Browne’s Gift Book Gem

“Tracing Augusta Browne” Guest Blog