Augusta Browne

Augusta Browne (1820–1882) was an American composer, publisher, and author. She started the first wave of female composers in the country.[1] Wake, Lady Mine, written in 1845, is one of her best known works.[2]

Lady Augusta Browne, 1860s

Biography

Augusta Browne Garrett was born in 1820 in Dublin, Ireland. Browne was known as "the most prolific woman composer in America before 1870."[3] Browne composed over 200 works[3] for piano and voice, along with numerous hymns and secular pieces.[4] Browne often collaborated with lyricists, creating musical settings to accompany lyrics written by said lyricists.

Music by Augusta Browne

In addition to her musical works, Browne published two books – one of which was about her brother entitled Hamilton, the Young Artist — and numerous essays, religious tracts, poetry, and short stories.

One of Browne's most famous articles criticized the popular "minstrel music" of the mid-1800s, calling it "melodic trash." Though the opinion was controversial, her article was reprinted in several music journals.

Browne died on January 11, 1882,[5] and was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, New York.

Notes
  1. Neuls-Bates 1978, pp. 269–283.
  2. Chase 1992, p. 161.
  3. Tick 1983, p. 150.
  4. Chase 1992, p. 160.
  5. "Browne, Augusta (1820–1882) | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2022-06-08.

References
  • Chase, Gilbert (1992). America's Music, from the Pilgrims to the Present (illustrated, revised ed.). University of Illinois Press. pp. 160–161. ISBN 9780252062759.
  • Neuls-Bates, Carol (December 1978). "Sources and Resources for Women's Studies in American Music: A Report". Notes. Second Series. Music Library Association. 35 (2): 269–283. doi:10.2307/939679. JSTOR 939679.
  • Tick, Judith (1983). American women composers before 1870. Issue 57 of Studies in musicolog (illustrated ed.). UMI Research Press. p. 150.

Further reading
  • Moore, John Weeks (1880) [1854]. "Browne, Augusta". Complete Encyclopaedia of Music. New York: C. H. Ditson & Company.
  • Browne, A. H. C. (1857). Hamilton, the Young Artist: With an Essay on Sculpture & Painting. Lippincott.
  • Moore, John W. (1973). Complete Encyclopaedia of Music: Elementary, Technical, Historical, Biographical, Vocal, and Instrumental. New York: AMS.
  • Pendle, Karin (1991). Women & Music a History. Bloomington: Indiana UP.
  • Tawa, Nicholas E. (1980). Sweet Songs for Gentle Americans: The Parlor Song in America, 1790-1860. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green U Popular.


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