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Top 10 Sensational Facts about Louise Hanson-Dyer

Louise Dyer ca by Spencer Shier/

Australian-born arts patron and music publisher of the mid-20th century, she founded the British Music Society of Melbourne (1921).

Moved to Â鶹APP and founded a music-publishing house in early 1930, she traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland, for further musical study.

She pursued her music career in London at the Royal College of Music, A portrait of Louise as a child by Tom Roberts hangs in the National Gallery of Victoria.

Hanson-Dyer was an innovator who helped generate interest in early music. During World War II.

She used her affluence, from both her father and her husband, in a range of philanthropic causes, both in Australia and in Europe.

1. Louise Hanson remarkably established the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra 

Anthony inglis conducting Melbourne symphony orchestra by Unknown Arthur/

Louise helped establish the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and arranged performances of early music and French baroque music.

This was at a time when it was little known in Australia or Europe, she was very active in the Alliance Francaise.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an Australian orchestra based in Melbourne; the MSO is resident at Hamer Hall.

The MSO has its choir, the MSO Chorus, following integration with the Melbourne Chorale in 2008.

Each year the MSO engages with more than 5 million people through live concerts, TV, radio, and online broadcasts, international tours, and education programs.

The MSO regularly attracts great artists from around the globe including Anne-Sophie Mutter, Lang Lang, Renee Fleming, and Thomas Hampson.

While bringing Melbourne’s finest musicians to the world through tours to China, Europe, and the United States.

2. Hanson Dyer amazingly founded the publishing house l’Oiseau Lyre Press in Â鶹APP

Hanson-Dyer founded the publishing house l’Oiseau-Lyre Press in Â鶹APP, affectionately named after a bird from her homeland.

Her pioneering work included the production of scholarly publications of contemporary music, such as an early biography of the composer Béla Bartók.

Louise B. M. Dyer, an Australian patron of music from Melbourne who had already built up a remarkable personal collection of early music prints and manuscripts

The manuscripts are sometimes referred to as the Oiseau-Lyre Collection and today part of the Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library at the University of Melbourne.

As the result of donations to the University of Melbourne given by both Louise Hanson-Dyer and J.B.

Hanson, all the company’s publications from 1979 were produced with the financial assistance of the University of Melbourne.

3. Louise Dyer interestingly claimed a place in the Melbourne artist circle 

Louise Dyer swiftly claimed a place in Melbourne’s artistic circles, at Kinnoull, her grand mansion in Toorak.

She played munificent host to the city’s elite. She engaged the best available musical talent to entertain her guests.

She commissioned leading artists to design the souvenir programs. She was always center-stage, always gorgeously and flamboyantly dressed.

The Howitt’s belonged to those circles in pre-gold-rush Melbourne where learning and intellectual achievements were prized.

Their presence guaranteed the continuation of European culture in the colony within the private sphere before its enshrinement in public institutions.

4. Louise Dyer famously established the British Music Society of Victoria 

Louise Dyer established the British Music Society of Victoria as an autonomous local chapter of a parent society in the United Kingdom, 

This parent body dissolved in 1933. Since then, Society has been completely independent.

The society continues to be supported by an annual endowment from her trust It has branches throughout the British Empire.

In 2008 the Society chose to be known as the Lyrebird Music Society Inc to properly reflect the diversity of music presented at its concerts.

The Society also encourages composers by annually awarding the Lyrebird Commission for Composition to a Melbourne-based composer.

5. Unbelievably Louise had a keen interest in literature providing support to poet John Shaw

poetry by Thought Catalog/

Louise also had a keen interest in literature, providing substantial support to the Australian poet, John Shaw Neilson.

Louise also maintained a strong association with PLC. She was secretary, then president of P.L.C.

Old Collegians’ Association, from 1919-21 and again in 1924-26. After establishing herself in Europe.

She visited the school on her occasional trips back to Melbourne, with the visit being of such significance that the school canceled classes to enable their students to see and hear Louise.

6. Amazingly Louise Dyer was a key figure in the revival performance of Baroque Music

Inégalités Musique Baroque by Claude Valette/

Louise Dyer, along with the musicians Nadia Boulanger and Wanda Landowska, was a key figure in the revival of the serious performance of Baroque music in recent times.

Baroque music refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from approximately 1600 to 1750.

This era followed the Renaissance music era and was followed in turn by the Classical era, with the gallant style marking the transition between the Baroque and Classical eras.

The Baroque period is divided into three major phases: early, middle, and late, comparing some of music history’s greatest masterpieces.

7. Interestingly the French Government appointed Louse Chevalier De La Legion d’Honneur

The French government appointed her a chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 1934, with promotion to an officer of that order in 1957.

The National Order of the Legion of Honor, formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honor.

It is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, it has been retained by all later French governments and régimes.

8. Remarkably Louise was born into a wealthy family daughter of Louis smith

Louise Hanson-Dyer was born Louise Smith into a wealthy family. She was the daughter of Louis Lawrence Smith, a prominent medical practitioner and politician in Melbourne.

Her mother, Marion Jane Higgins, was Louis’ 2nd wife. Louise married James Dyer at the age of 27.

She traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland, for further musical study, which she pursued in London at the Royal College of Music.

9. The astonishing Hanson was married to James Dyer and after his death remarried Hanson

Louise Hanson married James Dyer and was active among Melbourne’s music-loving set for several years.

She and her husband moved to London in 1927, and later to Â鶹APP where she founded Éditions du Oiseau-Lyre, a music publishing house.

She remarried in 1939 to a man named Joseph Hanson, she began using a hyphenated name. Hanson-Dyer was an innovator who helped generate interest in early music.

10. The famous Louise Hanson died in Monaco 

Louise Dyer by Tom Roberts/

Louise Hanson-Dyer died in Monaco on November 1962. Most of her Australian estate, valued for probate at £241,380, was bequeathed to the University of Melbourne.

The principal beneficiary of her European estate was her husband. He continued Louise’s work, commissioning a new edition of the complete works.

Works of Clément Janequin, adding to the catalog of rare and otherwise unrecorded works, and supporting young musicians.