Musician Says Dead, Famous Composers Instructed Her to Create This Music (Listen Here)

A British housewife earned fame as a composer and pianist with music she said was communicated to her by the spirits of dead, famous composers.

Left: Composer Franz Liszt in 1843 (Herman Biow) Center: Composer Frederic Chopin, ca. 1849 (Louis-Auguste Bisson) Right: A portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven, 1820, by Joseph Karl Stieler Background: Autographed music by Frederic Chopin Wikimedia Commons

In the 1970s, a British housewife earned fame as a composer and pianist with music she said was communicated to her by the spirits of dead, famous composers.

Some musical experts of the time were convinced this was true, as Rosemary Brown’s compositions did seem to be of a caliber and style to be expected from these composers. Hungarian composer Franz Liszt (1811–1886) was her chief instructor, but she also purportedly received music from Ludwig van Beethoven, Fryderyk Chopin, Claude Debussy, J.S. Bach (whom she found intimidating), Franz Schubert, and more.

Franz Liszt, a few months before his death in 1886. Gaspard-Felix Tournachon, a.k.a. Nadar