women composers 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.

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/

Augusta Browne and the Other “Miss Browne”

By Bonny Miller

On July 5, 2020

In Posts

Augusta Browne’s music has long been confused with the work of another composer, sometimes identified as “Miss Browne,” but more often as the sister of Mrs. Hemans. Even during Browne’s lifetime, people muddled the two composers. Who was who, and how can one determine which is the composer when the sheet music asserts “Miss Browne”? The simple answer is that Augusta Browne consistently used her given name, “Miss Augusta Browne” or “Miss A. Browne.” Thus we can identify her works with certainty. By contrast, publishers of songs by “Miss Browne” usually cited her celebrated sister—poet Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans—in a prominent place on the cover or title page of sheet music imprints.

Music, History, Women, and Heritage

Tag: women composers Page 1 of 2

See and Hear Music by Augusta Browne

Augusta Browne’s Gift Book Gem

“Tracing Augusta Browne” Guest Blog

Augusta Browne and the Other “Miss Browne”