|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rosemary Brown (1916-2001) was a middle-aged South London widow, making ends meet as a grade school kitchen assistant, who rocketed to international fame in 1968 through a BBC broadcast recounting her purported collaborations with long-dead composers. These included Liszt, J.S. Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Schubert (who of course no longer needs spectacles), Monteverdi, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Brahms, Robert and Clara Schumann, Mozart, Grieg, and Poulenc. And after he died in 1971, Igor Stravinsky joined them.
Though Ms Brown's musical education had consisted of no more than two years of piano lessons and a couple of halfhearted trips to the opera, she went on to turn out over a thousand pieces worthy, in the estimations of a number of musicologists, of many of these legendary giants. Concert pianist Hepzibah Menuhin (Yehudi's sister), observed, "There is no question but that she is a very sincere woman. The music is absolutely in the style of these composers." Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, who studied under Sir Lennox Berkeley and Pierre Boulez and scored the film Murder on the Orient Express, said, "A lot of people can improvise, but you couldn't fake music like this without years of training."
In 1969 the BBC arranged to observe Ms Brown in the act firsthand. They sat her down on a piano bench and waited for Franz Liszt. In due course he appeared, to her anyway, and dictated a piece he called Grubelei that, like much of this material, was far beyond her technical competence to perform. Composer and Lizst specialist Humphrey Searle scrutinized Grubelei and found it to be remarkably characteristic of Lizst's last few years. "It is highly chromatic," he later recalled, "and one hand is written in 5/4 time against 3/2 in the other. The latter is not a thing that Liszt ever did as far as I know, but it is the sort of thing he might have done."
I'm no expert here but from what I've heard of Rosemary Brown's music it certainly sounds convincing. At the very least we have a stupendous volume of splendid musical parodies in front of us, and it remains to be explained how someone of such prosaic means could have produced them non-supernaturally. I am rather surprised that Ms Brown reported no contact with Sir Edward Elgar, her country's most cherished composer, whose unparalleled orchestrations would have been supremely difficult to mimic. Or, similarly, Ralph Vaughn Williams or Sir Charles H.H. Parry or Fritz Delius (who once snarled, "Grieg had more music in his little finger than Stravinsky has in his whole body."). In any case, you the living can contact Romana-Hamburg and judge for yourself. They offer the documentary Music from Beyond on DVD and a corresponding CD compilation of 40 of Brown's piano pieces, 38 of them performed by Gerhard Helzel.
The preceding article comes from the "Curious Thing of the Week" section of my website. http://www.curiousnotions.com
Wind Chimes and more... The idea originated with singer Jon Bon Jovi. Jon kept... Read More Why do you care about stringing your guitar you may... Read More Jealousy ? do you feel it? Do you sense it... Read More Fan support for musicians is a two way street. You... Read More Many piano students spend much time learning how to play... Read More While composers had already begun to write music for the... Read More I can't believe how much of the year has gone... Read More One of the things that makes New Age piano so... Read More Why jazz piano improvisation?Why not gospel piano improvisation?Is it not... Read More Probably the most enigmatic Singer and Guitarist of the twentieth... Read More Facts about MC Big Proof"If I was you, suicide would... Read More Jazz is arguably the most argumentative form of music (even... Read More How many times have you turned to music to uplift... Read More A lot of new age piano music consists of repeating... Read More When Akio Morita came up with the idea of the... Read More Here's a method I use that works. First, sit down... Read More Ideally each page of your website should serve a specific... Read More I have always had a big problem with my addiction... Read More I met New York jazzman Tim Armacost in college almost... Read More So it has come to this... what we see overrides... Read More You don't 'need' to play guitar enough.If you desire to... Read More Back in the 90's we had a local Southern Gospel... Read More A New Breed of Aspiring Songwriters Is In The Making.... Read More Propelled into fame as one of the Beatles, along with... Read More For years, you have been searching for a song lodged... Read More
Windchimes
for great gifts!
An Interview with Jon Bon Jovi ? 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Cant Be Wrong
The Secrets of Correctly Stringing Your Guitar
Jealous Again - Jealousy Among Musicians
Growing and Keeping Loyal Fan Support
Learning the Piano and Playing the Piano
History of the Clarinet From the 19th Century
The Need To Perform
New Age Piano Tricks
Improvising On The Piano: Jazz Musicians Do It -- Why Not Other Styles?
The King of the Delta Blues Singers - Robert Johnson Still Stands at the Crossroads
Facts about MC Big Proof
Jazz Yatra
Music & Emotions: Can Music Really Make You a Happier Person?
How to Create Interesting Textures
Liberate your iPod
How to Create an Original Melody
Structure Of A Successful Music Website
Dont Go Tubthumping
Jazzing Up Your Leadership Style
The Music Industry and Its Lack of Talent
The Top 10 Reasons Why You Suck At Playing Guitar
The Downfall Of The #1 Southern Gospel Station
People are Turning to Meaningful Songs for Emotional and Spiritual Relief:
The Life and Music of Beatle George Harrison
Name That Tune - Tips For When You Can?t Remember The Song Title Or Artist
Ideally each page of your website should serve a specific... Read More
U2s lead singer Bono isn't content with being part of... Read More
Despite the title of this article, the purpose of it... Read More
The violin is a bowed stringed instrument and is the... Read More
I was listening to NPR the other day when they... Read More
Music downloads are highly compressed audio files transferred onto a... Read More
When I first started playing the piano I wanted to... Read More
Buying a guitar is an important decision that my students... Read More
Every once in awhile a guitar student will express a... Read More
Just because you're holding your guitar doesn't mean that you're... Read More
Following, is a list of alternative sources that may be... Read More
With the increased proliferation of online guitar and musical equipment... Read More
Change is good. Just ask the millions of unsigned artists... Read More
While composers had already begun to write music for the... Read More
While Richard Nixon's diplomatic visit to China may have created... Read More
Interested in making money while you're asleep, or making money... Read More
Most people these days would associate singing with the popular... Read More
For years, you have been searching for a song lodged... Read More
Canadian Indie bands are dominating the music scene and it... Read More
Bang! Bam! Bang! Have you always wanted to play the... Read More
Controlling the images of the mind through image projection has... Read More
It may surprise many to find that the hobby of... Read More
Many students ask me a question that goes something like... Read More
Lately, I haven't been using my guitar pick all that... Read More
Now that you've spent hours and days and weeks and... Read More
Music & MP3 |