Augusta Browne

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

Biography Augusta Browne Garrett was born in 1820 in Dublin, Ireland. She was one of nine children. In 1826 her father David moved to Boston, US and opened a music academy. Augusta was known as a child prodigy, playing Dussek at the age of seven, and by age sixteen she was playing her own compositions in public.

Judith Tick notes that Browne was known as one of "the most prolific woman composer in America before 1870." She composed over 200 works for piano and voice, along with numerous hymns and secular pieces. Browne often collaborated with lyricists, creating musical settings to accompany the text.

In addition to her musical works, Browne published two books; The Precious Stones of the Heavenly Foundations and Hamilton, the Young Artist (written about her younger brother after his death). She also wrote numerous essays, religious tracts, poetry, and short stories. Rather than writing on issues such as home or family life, she wrote on the subjects most important to her; music, literature, the fine arts and the Christian faith. As such, she joined a small band of women writers such as Margaret Fuller.

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 met and married John Walter Benjamin Garrett, a portrait painter from North Carolina, in 1855. He died in 1858 and the couple had no surviving children.

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

The first full length biography of Browne, by Bonny H. Miller, was published in 2020 by University of Rochester Press.