Rosemary Brown (1916-2001) was a spiritualist, medium, and pianist who claimed to channel dead composers to write music. All who visited Brown were famed classical European composers, such as Beethoven, Brahms, Liszt, Debussy, and Schubert.
Brown described that all of these composers would deliver their transcripts in different manners unique to them, and all communicated in English, several apparently having learned the language post-mortem.
“[Chopin] works far more quickly than any of the other composers. And I’ve also found that he’s very considerate. If he’s been working with me […] and then he finds my concentration is waning because I’m getting tired, he winds the piece of music off quickly so it isn’t left incomplete […]
“I think Schubert is the only one of the composers who sometimes alters music just after he’s given it to me. We’ll be working away and suddenly he’ll say, ‘Stop. I don’t like those last two bars. Cross them out and I’ll give you something else.’ All the other composers seem to have the music prepared before they bring it to me, but it’s as if Schubert is still composing the music because he actually gives it to me.”
Though the wider media landscape was skeptical of Brown’s channelings, the medium defended her sincerity during her lifetime, claiming to have little technical training nor talent to write the compositions herself. Despite doubts towards the validity of each composition is to this day, many musicians have added the works Brown penned to their own repertoire by the merits of the pieces themselves.
Click on the cassette tape to take a closer look
Below is an excerpt from a piece titled “Ballade,” in which Chopin was reportedly channeled. The full piece along with a commentary on the composing process (found on the B side of the cassette) can be listened to on YouTube.