Augusta Browne - (Eastman Studies in Music) by Bonny H Miller (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The first comprehensive biography of any American woman musician born before the Civil War brings to life a composer whose story is both old-fashioned and strikingly modern"--

Book Synopsis

Augusta Browne's five-decade career in music and letters reveals a gifted composer and author. Hailed as "one of the most prolific women composers in the USA before 1870," Augusta Browne Garrett (c. 1820-1882) was also a dedicated music educator and music journalist. The Americanness of her story resounds across the decades: an earnest little girl growing up amidst a troubled family business; a young professor of music who burst onto the New York City musical scene; and an entrepreneur who resolutely sought publication of her music and prose to her final day. In Augusta Browne: Composer and Woman of Letters in Nineteenth-Century America, author Bonny Miller presents Browne's unfamiliar story, assesses her musical works, and describes her literary publications.

Browne's outsider status and self-agency offer a potent narrative that transcends antebellum and Victorian-era norms. She used the public arena of newspapers and magazines as conduits for her work during an era when women were ridiculed for public speaking. And yet in many ways her persona as a tenacious entrepreneur conflicted with her adherence to strict Christian precepts, despite her assertion of woman's equality with man.

Making use of recently digitized sheet music as well as archives of newspapers and books of the period, Miller's narrative provides the first-ever comprehensive, nuanced account of this notable life in American music.

BONNY H. MILLER is a pianist and independent scholar who has taught at universities in Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Virginia.

Review Quotes

Engagingly written [and] richly contextualized. Deftly sets up the forces in Browne's life...that allowed her talents to come to fruition...[The musical] analyses are particularly insightful.-- "Journal of Musicological Research"

Astute observations and analyses of Browne's piano compositions and performances. Miller provides a road map for future scholars in a digitally expansive age on how to unpack histories lying just a little deeper within the pages of periodicals and other newly digitized sources to herald less-researched musical women. This biography is an inspiration and should be included in any graduate-level research methods class for future scholars to learn from Miller's methodologies.-- "NOTES, QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION"

Browne's multi-faceted career, which included composition, music publishing, teaching, and essays for journals and magazines, was indeed an extraordinary accomplishment. A superb piece of musicological scholarship. Every chapter reveals methodological mastery, nuanced analysis, engaging writing, and contagious enthusiasm. The work makes a significant contribution not only for its examination of a creative nineteenth-century woman but also for what it tells us about the musical culture of that time in America.--Laura Pita "IAWM NEWSLETTER"

Drawing on an extensive body of contemporaneous documents and Browne's creative works, Miller (pianist and independent scholar) develops a detailed portrait of Augusta Browne (Garrett) (c. 1820-82) as a performer, a composer, an entrepreneur, a writer, and a Christian humanist. The book provides a rich social history of the 19th-century music marketplace. . . . Extensive appendixes include an integrated chronology of compositions and prose and a detailed catalog of musical works (both digital and archival). Recommended.--J. M. Edwards "CHOICE"

This book was a delight to read. Bonny Miller offers a new window into nineteenth-century American life, especially the life of a gifted and accomplished female musician.-- "editor of The Music of the Moravian Church in America"