Annie Jessy Curwen (1845 – 22 April 1932), born Annie Jessy Gregg, usually known from her books as Mrs. Curwen or Mrs. J. Spencer Curwen, was a writer children's books and books for music teachers, on music theory and performance, and particularly piano playing, which were published by J. Curwen & Sons Ltd. of London in the late 19th century.

Biography

Annie Curwen, née Gregg, was born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, the daughter of a solicitor. She studied the piano with Joseph Robinson,

Fanny Robinson Fanny Arthur Robinson (September 1831 – 31 October 1879) was an English pianist, music educator and composer who spent most of her career in Dublin, Ireland. Biography Fanny Robinson was born in Southampton and studied the piano in London with ...

, and

Robert Prescott Stewart Sir Robert Prescott Stewart (16 December 1825 – 24 March 1894) was an Irish composer, organist, conductor, and teacher – one of the most influential (classical) musicians in 19th-century Ireland. Biography Stewart was born in Dublin; his gr ...

at the

Royal Irish Academy of Music The Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) in Dublin, Ireland, is one of Europe's oldest music conservatoires, specialising in classical music and the Irish harp. It is located in a Georgian building on Westland Row in Dublin. An institution which ...

from 1857 to 1865, then after graduation she taught piano in Dublin until 1876. She then moved to Scotland, where she met the music educator

John Curwen John Curwen (14 November 1816 – 26 May 1880) was an English Congregationalist minister and diffuser of the tonic sol-fa system of music education created by Sarah Ann Glover. He was educated at Wymondley College in Hertfordshire, then Cowa ...

, a great advocate of the tonic sol-fa method for singing, which she adapted for the piano. Curwen married his eldest son, John Spencer Curwen, in 1877, and all her books were published under her married name by her father-in-law's publishing company. She died in Dublin.

Publications

A typical publication that indicates her subject and approach was ''Mrs. Curwen's Pianoforte Method (The Child Pianist) Being a Practical Course of the Elements of Music'', which ran to at least 20 editions with a separate volume ''The Teacher's Guide''. The ''Child Pianist'' series of books was first published in 1886. Curwen first wrote it for her own children. It contained exercises and duets composed by Curwen herself and by composers John Kinross and Felix Swinstead. She wrote in a preface to the 16th edition, published in 1913, that she had based her system on a similar work by her father-in-law, John Curwen, for singing classes. Instructions for lessons were contained in the Teacher's Guide but omitted from the edition for the child student. In 2008, a company called Pomona Press republished the title ''Mrs. Curwen's Pianoforte Method''.''Mrs. Curwen's Pianoforte Method'', , 2008-11-04

Writings

*''Mrs Curwen's Pianoforte Method The Teacher's Guide'' (London, 1913) *''Psychology Applied to Music Teaching'' (London, 1920)

Bibliography

*"Obituary: Mrs John Spencer Curwen", in: ''The Musical Times'', 1 June 1932. *Richard Pine, Charles Acton (eds.): ''To Talent Alone. The Royal Irish Academy of Music 1848–1998'' (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1998). *Jennifer O'Connor: "Curwen, Annie Jessy", in: ''The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland'', ed. H. White & B. Boydell (Dublin: UCD Press, 2013), p. 272–3.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curwen, Annie 1845 births 1932 deaths Irish pianists Irish classical pianists Irish classical musicians Alumni of the Royal Irish Academy of Music