Fleta Jan Brown Spencer

Fleta Jan Brown Spencer (March 8, 1882 – September 2, 1938) was an American songwriter, composer, pianist, and singer.

Fleta Jan Brown Spencer
Fleta Jan Brown Spencer, from the cover of 1915 sheet music for her song, "Dandelion"
Born
Fleta Jan Brown

March 8, 1882
Iowa
DiedSeptember 2, 1938
Hackensack, New Jersey
NationalityAmerican
Occupationsongwriter, composer

Early life

Fleta Jan Brown was born near Sioux Rapids, Iowa, the daughter of William Edward Brown and Jennie Etta Watkins Brown. Her father was a barber. She trained as a pianist and composer at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.[1]

Career

Brown moved to St. Louis, Missouri, after her studies in Cincinnati, and published her first three songs in 1905. After she married fellow songwriter Herbert Spencer, the pair moved to New York, and there were prolific songwriters, sharing credit on dozens of songs published by M. Witmark & Sons, and by Jerome H. Remick. They also performed together at times, both as singers and pianists, in concerts and on the vaudeville stage.[1][2]

Songs with music, lyrics, or both by Brown included "Tangle Foot Rag" (1907),[3] "Fancies" (1908), "I Wish I was in Heaven Sittin' Down" (1908),[4] "The Party That Wrote 'Home Sweet Home' Never Was a Married Man" (1908, later covered by Jerry Garcia),[5] "O Wondrous Night in June" (1909), "I Know a Blossom" (1909), "In the Dusk" (1909), "The Birth of Love" (1909), "Tickle Toes" (1910), "Back to the Old Folks At Home" (1913), "Kiss Me Again (I Like it)" (1914), "In the Candle-Light" (1914),[6] "When All The World's at Peace" (1914),[7] "Dandelion" (1915),[8] "Underneath the Stars" (1916), "Somewhere my Love Lies Dreaming" (1916), "Now that the Fighting is Over" (1918),[9] "Kiss Me With Your Eyes" (1923),[10] "Rose of Old Castille" (1924) "I Know a Blossom" (1936), "In a Gipsy Camp" (1936), "Vagabond's Bridal March" (1936), and "The Vagabond's Dream" (1936).[11][12][13][14]

Personal life

Fleta Jan Brown married fellow composer and songwriter Herbert D. Spencer in 1907.[15] She died in 1938, aged 56 years, at a hospital in Hackensack, New Jersey.[2]

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References
  1. Edwards, Bill. "Fleta Jan Brown Spencer" RagPiano.com.
  2. "MRS. HERBERT SPENCER: Composer of 'Underneath the Stars' and 'In the Candle Light'". The New York Times. September 3, 1938. p. 13 – via ProQuest.
  3. "Tangle Foot Rag (piano solo) PDF score + MIDI". Ragtime Dorian Henry. 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-07-21.
  4. "I Wish I was in Heaven Sittin' Down". African American Sheet Music, Brown Digital Repository, Brown Library. Retrieved 2019-07-21.
  5. "Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man". Grateful Dead Family Discography. Retrieved 2019-07-21.
  6. "152.182a - In the Candle-Light (Also Published as "Intermezzo")". Lester S. Levy Music Collection, Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved 2019-07-21.
  7. Grant, Charles N; Brown, Fleta Jan; Westman, Theodore (1914). When all the world's at peace. [Australia?] : Fred. Fisher's Music Publishing.
  8. "Dandelion". Historic Sheet Music Collection, Oregon Digital. Retrieved 2019-07-21.
  9. Tyler, Don (2016-03-21). Music of the First World War. ABC-CLIO. p. 58. ISBN 9781440839979.
  10. Della Baker; Fleta Jan Brown; Herbert Spencer (1923), Kiss Me With Your Eyes, Internet Archive, Victor, retrieved 2019-07-21
  11. Tjaden, Ted. Women Composers of Ragtime.
  12. "New Witmark Music". The Daily News. April 17, 1909. p. 8. Retrieved July 20, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Fleta Jan Brown". The National Jukebox, Library of Congress. Retrieved 2019-07-21.
  14. Catalog of Copyright Entries: Musical compositions. Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 1937. pp. 140, 148, 572, 573, 583.
  15. "Brown-Spencer". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. September 10, 1907. p. 6. Retrieved July 20, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "In Old Brazil" (1916), sheet music for a song by Herbert Spencer and Fleta Jan Brown, in the Vocal Popular Sheet Music Collection, DigitalCommons@UMaine.
  • "Underneath the Stars" (1915), sheet music for a song by Herbert Spencer and Fleta Jan Brown.
  • Fleta Jan Brown (composer) at Discography of American Historical Recordings, UC Santa Barbara Library.
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