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Scan 159
Grove's Dictionary of music and musicians, 1927
11 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. Printed page 145. See the scan on archive.org.
1author of The Ten Commandments of Piano-Practice. [R.9]
2BROWN, ALLING. See TUNE-BOOKS, 1823.
3BROWN, BARTHOLOMEW. See Register, 3, and TUNE-BOOKS, 1802.
4BROWN, EDDY (July 15, 1895, Chicago), whose father was an Austrian Pole and his mother a Russian, began violin-study at an early age and continued with Hubay in Budapest, receiving the artists' diploma from the Royal Conservatory when only twelve. He then went to Petrograd and studied with Auer. In 1910 he made a sensational début in Berlin, and appearances with many European orchestras followed, under conductors like Nikisch, Mengelberg, Safonov and Steinbach. Since 1916 he has toured in America, playing with all the large orchestras and appearing in every important city. He has composed much for violin and piano, besides many songs, and has made numerous arrangements for violin. A musical comedy, finished in 1919, is promised an early New York production. [R.10]
5BROWN, WILLIAM. See Register, 2.
6BROWN COLLECTION OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, THE, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, one of the largest in the world, was gathered mainly by Mary E. (Adams) Brown (d. 1917), wife of John Crosby Brown, who for many years was at the head of the banking-firm of Brown Brothers. In 1884 Mrs. Brown, having procured a few Italian instruments for decorative purposes, became interested in their historic and scientific value and became a zealous collector. In 1889 she offered the 275 specimens that she then had to the Metropolitan Museum, retaining the right to increase and supervise the Collection during her lifetime. This offer was accepted, and a small but interesting group of instruments, mostly given by Joseph Drexel, was combined with her donation. The growth of the Collection from that time was rapid and so wisely directed that it soon became one of the remarkable features in the Museum. In 1893 adequate rooms for its display were assigned in the new north wing, the number of items then being about 700. In 1899 this number had increased to over 2000, in 1906 to over 3500, and is now about 3700.
7In its present arrangement, the Collection offers opportunity for study in three ways: (a) ethnographically, by countries or races; (b) historically, by periods or stages; (c) systematically or analytically, by classes and types. In each series, where actual specimens of importance are not available, they are represented by reproductions or photographs. Great pains is taken to facilitate intelligent study by explanatory labels, diagrams and other illustrations, collateral information and book-references. A notable extension of the Collection is the series of engraved, etched or lithographed portraits of composers, performers and writers — numbering nearly 1000 specimens — which has developed from initial gifts by Thatcher M. Adams in 1899 and Mrs. Charles B. Foote soon after. The manufacture of many leading modern instruments is illustrated by analytic models of parts in process of formation. Because of its comprehensiveness and system the Collection is not only valuable for musical history, but also significant for the ethnologist, the student of social manners and implements, and inquirers about matters so diverse as the arts of decoration and the science of acoustics. Because of its size, and especially because displayed with unparalleled clearness and convenience, it has but one or two rivals anywhere.
8Though exceedingly rich in other directions, the Collection is noted for its rare specimens of keyboard-instruments. Chief among these is the Cristofori piano of 1720, the earliest of the two known examples of his own handiwork. The elegant double spinet of Grovellus (1600) is one of but three known instances of this peculiar type. Of harpsichords there are two fine specimens with two banks, from the 17th and the 18th centuries respectively, and one with three banks, made by Sodi in 1779. Curious and historic is the claviorganum (harpsichord and organ combined), originally made in 1712 for the Elector of Hanover, but its harpsichord division remodeled into a piano, which was once in Carl Engel's famous collection. In 1911 the Museum received from Bernardus Boekelman a Ruckers virginal of 1622 and a Pasquino Querci spinet.
9BROWN MUSICAL LIBRARY, THE ALLEN A., in the Boston Public Library, was presented in 1894 by Allen A. Brown, a Boston business-man. It then contained about 7000 volumes. By further gifts from Mr. Brown and others and by purchases it was increased to about 11,000 in 1910, and is now reckoned at about 15,000. It is rich in many different directions — in scores of every sort, instrumental and vocal, in standard critical editions of the complete works of great composers, in historical, theoretical and critical works about music, in unique collections of programs, etc. The collection is located in a separate section of the Library, and is for reference only. See Vol. ii. 717, and paper by H. G. Wadlin, the librarian, in M. T. N. A. Proceedings, 1910, pp. 192-200.
10BROWNE, JOHN LEWIS (May 18, 1866, London), the son of an English organist, was brought to America in 1873 and studied with S. P. Warren and Archer. In 1888-92 he was organist of the Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, in 1892-98 at San Francisco, in 1899-
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