Rosemary Brown (spiritualist)
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Rosemary Brown (1916 - November 16, 2001) was a spirit medium who claimed that dead composers dictated new musical works to her. She created a small media sensation in the 1970s by claiming to produce works dictated to her by Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Johann Sebastian Bach, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Franz Schubert, Edvard Grieg, Claude Debussy, Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann and Ludwig van Beethoven.
Mrs Brown had no musical training when she was a child aside from a few piano lessons. It was suggested that she may have had advanced musical training but then forgotten it in a bad case of amnesia. This claim was said to be preposterous by the Browns' family doctor. Rosemary claimed that those few piano lessons were the only musical training she has had.
Mrs Brown claimed that famous composers dictated work to her. In 1969 she was put to a test. She was put in front of a piano by the British Broadcasting Corporation and waited for Liszt to appear. He came and dictated to her a piece that was too hard for her to play. Someone else who could play the piece was sent to play it. The piece was later investigated by a Franz Liszt expert, who said it had definite similarities to the great composer's work.
A recording of the music (The Rosemary Brown Piano Album) and various books by Mrs. Brown (Unfinished Symphony) were published.