Rosemary Brown (1916-2001) is certainly a highly unusual case in music history. In the 1960s, she... more Rosemary Brown (1916-2001) is certainly a highly unusual case in music history. In the 1960s, she started to notate hundreds of musical pieces that she attributed to the spirits of several great concert music composers with whom she claimed to be in touch as a spirit medium. Brown also furnishes a promising persona case study. In order to convince the public that her music had a spiritual origin, she described herself (and was described) as a simple housewife and mother with no profound musical knowledge, therefore hardly capable of writing original musical pieces in the styles of acclaimed composers. The purpose of this paper is first, to provide an examination of Rosemary Brown's public persona; second, to relate it to the spiritualist tradition, in order to demonstrate that the constituent elements of Rosemary Brown's persona were available in the spiritualist cultural repertoire; and third, to relate this same persona to the implications of gender in the understanding of mediumship among spiritualists.
Rosemary Brown was an English psychic-composer responsible for a major controversy in the decades... more Rosemary Brown was an English psychic-composer responsible for a major controversy in the decades of 1960-70. The psychic claimed to be in touch with spirits of great composers and wrote musical pieces claimed to be transmitted by them. The skeptics defended the psychic's oeuvre was incapable of reproducing deeper and structural aspects of the music of those composers. In order to test the skeptical perspective, this article investigates a sonata first movement ascribed to Schubert; the objective is to evaluate if important characteristics of the schubertian sonata-form are reproduced by the psychic.
Resumo. Rosemary Brown foi uma médium-compositora inglesa responsável por uma grande polêmica nas décadas de 1960-70. A médium alegava estar em contato com espíritos de grandes compositores e escrevia peças musicais que alegava serem transmitidas por eles. Os céticos defendiam que a obra da médium fosse incapaz de reproduzir aspectos mais profundos e estruturais da música daqueles compositores. A fim de testar a perspectiva cética, este trabalho investiga um primeiro movimento de sonata atribuído a Schubert, para avaliar se características importantes da forma-sonata schubertiana são reproduzidas pela médium.
Rosemary Brown (1916-2001) is the most important case of musical mediumship. Since the decade of ... more Rosemary Brown (1916-2001) is the most important case of musical mediumship. Since the decade of 1960, the psychic started to ascribe lots of musical works to spirits of various great composers. Many musical experts of considerable reputation were impressed by her pieces. Others remained skeptics, judging Brown was not capable of doing more than a super cial and intuitive imitation. In spite of all the controversy and certain fame obtained by the psychic, the case has never received a profound study. This work has the aim to investigate correlations of style in the F minor Sonata ascribed to Schubert’s spirit by the British psychic. After all, if Brown was capable of doing more than a super cial and intuitive imitation, it should be veri able in a work of importance such as a sonata. In order to analyse the psychic so- nata, this work employs the Sonata Theory, of Hepokoski and Darcy, as well as many concepts more familiar to musical analysis. In order to evaluate the proximity of the psychic sonata with Schubert’s style, I discuss many authors which studied the Viennese composer, as Felix Salzer, James Webster, Xavier Hascher, David Beach, Suzannah Clark and Susan Wollenberg, among many others. Although the psychic sonata shows some very unusual characteristics – which do not nd even a single precedent in Schubert’s oeuvre –, it shows some notable and profound correlations with the style of Viennese composer as well, which defy the skeptical understand- ing in regard to the music produced by Rosemary Brown.
Rosemary Brown (1916-2001) is certainly a highly unusual case in music history. In the 1960s, she... more Rosemary Brown (1916-2001) is certainly a highly unusual case in music history. In the 1960s, she started to notate hundreds of musical pieces that she attributed to the spirits of several great concert music composers with whom she claimed to be in touch as a spirit medium. Brown also furnishes a promising persona case study. In order to convince the public that her music had a spiritual origin, she described herself (and was described) as a simple housewife and mother with no profound musical knowledge, therefore hardly capable of writing original musical pieces in the styles of acclaimed composers. The purpose of this paper is first, to provide an examination of Rosemary Brown's public persona; second, to relate it to the spiritualist tradition, in order to demonstrate that the constituent elements of Rosemary Brown's persona were available in the spiritualist cultural repertoire; and third, to relate this same persona to the implications of gender in the understanding of mediumship among spiritualists.
Rosemary Brown was an English psychic-composer responsible for a major controversy in the decades... more Rosemary Brown was an English psychic-composer responsible for a major controversy in the decades of 1960-70. The psychic claimed to be in touch with spirits of great composers and wrote musical pieces claimed to be transmitted by them. The skeptics defended the psychic's oeuvre was incapable of reproducing deeper and structural aspects of the music of those composers. In order to test the skeptical perspective, this article investigates a sonata first movement ascribed to Schubert; the objective is to evaluate if important characteristics of the schubertian sonata-form are reproduced by the psychic.
Resumo. Rosemary Brown foi uma médium-compositora inglesa responsável por uma grande polêmica nas décadas de 1960-70. A médium alegava estar em contato com espíritos de grandes compositores e escrevia peças musicais que alegava serem transmitidas por eles. Os céticos defendiam que a obra da médium fosse incapaz de reproduzir aspectos mais profundos e estruturais da música daqueles compositores. A fim de testar a perspectiva cética, este trabalho investiga um primeiro movimento de sonata atribuído a Schubert, para avaliar se características importantes da forma-sonata schubertiana são reproduzidas pela médium.
Rosemary Brown (1916-2001) is the most important case of musical mediumship. Since the decade of ... more Rosemary Brown (1916-2001) is the most important case of musical mediumship. Since the decade of 1960, the psychic started to ascribe lots of musical works to spirits of various great composers. Many musical experts of considerable reputation were impressed by her pieces. Others remained skeptics, judging Brown was not capable of doing more than a super cial and intuitive imitation. In spite of all the controversy and certain fame obtained by the psychic, the case has never received a profound study. This work has the aim to investigate correlations of style in the F minor Sonata ascribed to Schubert’s spirit by the British psychic. After all, if Brown was capable of doing more than a super cial and intuitive imitation, it should be veri able in a work of importance such as a sonata. In order to analyse the psychic so- nata, this work employs the Sonata Theory, of Hepokoski and Darcy, as well as many concepts more familiar to musical analysis. In order to evaluate the proximity of the psychic sonata with Schubert’s style, I discuss many authors which studied the Viennese composer, as Felix Salzer, James Webster, Xavier Hascher, David Beach, Suzannah Clark and Susan Wollenberg, among many others. Although the psychic sonata shows some very unusual characteristics – which do not nd even a single precedent in Schubert’s oeuvre –, it shows some notable and profound correlations with the style of Viennese composer as well, which defy the skeptical understand- ing in regard to the music produced by Rosemary Brown.
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Papers by Erico Bomfim
Resumo. Rosemary Brown foi uma médium-compositora inglesa responsável por uma grande polêmica nas décadas de 1960-70. A médium alegava estar em contato com espíritos de grandes compositores e escrevia peças musicais que alegava serem transmitidas por eles. Os céticos defendiam que a obra da médium fosse incapaz de reproduzir aspectos mais profundos e estruturais da música daqueles compositores. A fim de testar a perspectiva cética, este trabalho investiga um primeiro movimento de sonata atribuído a Schubert, para avaliar se características importantes da forma-sonata schubertiana são reproduzidas pela médium.
Books by Erico Bomfim
Resumo. Rosemary Brown foi uma médium-compositora inglesa responsável por uma grande polêmica nas décadas de 1960-70. A médium alegava estar em contato com espíritos de grandes compositores e escrevia peças musicais que alegava serem transmitidas por eles. Os céticos defendiam que a obra da médium fosse incapaz de reproduzir aspectos mais profundos e estruturais da música daqueles compositores. A fim de testar a perspectiva cética, este trabalho investiga um primeiro movimento de sonata atribuído a Schubert, para avaliar se características importantes da forma-sonata schubertiana são reproduzidas pela médium.