6 Songs

Gems in their own right, these songs offer tantalizing glimpses of what might have been had Browne been granted time. The life of gifted composer, Organist, musician and teacher W Denis Browne was cut cruelly short when, at age 26, he was mortally wounded at the battle for Gallipoli, just a few weeks after he buried his friend the poet Rupert Brooke on Skyros. In his brief years, he had a particularly active musical life, showing brilliance in his music criticism, and composing a few works, most of which were destroyed, at his request, after his death. These six songs, and in particular To Gratiana Dancing and Singing, demonstrate great gifts proceeding from bud to bloom, andanticipating some of the impressionistic later works of Debussy.