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But there are even other ways to contact deceased musicians. . . .

In the late 1960s, a British housewife named Rosemary Brown made worldwide headlines by announcing that composers including Liszt, Bach, and Mozart were speaking to her from the afterlife, and dictating their new compositions to her.

A number of factors lent credence to Brown's claims. She had very little musical training or ability of her own, yet the pieces were professionally crafted. And far from seeking publicity, she was afraid that people would be skeptical or contemptuous about her claims, and she had to be coaxed to tell her story to the world.

Brown not only knew these composers as creative figures, but got to have a sense of their personalities as well. Liszt was apparently her favorite, with enormous reserves of patience and kindness. On another occasion, when her daughter left the water running in the bathtub, it was Chopin who alerted her, just in time to keep the tub from overflowing.

Rosemary Brown/Liszt:
Swan at Twilight

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