Louise Berta Mosson Hanson-Dyer (19 July 1884 – 9 November 1962) was an Australian-born music publisher and patron of the arts.

She was born Louise Berta Mosson Smith in Melbourne, the daughter of Louis Smith, a medical practitioner and parliamentarian. Her brother (Sir) Harold Gengoult Smith was to become Lord Mayor of Melbourne in 1932.

She was a talented pianist, studying at the Albert Street Conservatorium

Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music

The Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music was a school of music located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. During its early days it was closely associated with opera diva Dame Nellie Melba, after whom it was later named. In 1994 it became affiliated with Victoria University...

 then from 1907–08 in London and Edinburgh.

She married James Dyer, a Scottish businessman 27 years her senior, in 1911.

She had an active social life, being president of the Presbyterial Ladies' Old Scholars in 1919–21 and 1924–26. She was also an active member of the Alliance Française

Alliance française

The Alliance française , or AF, is an international organisation that aims to promote French language and culture around the world. created in Paris on 21 July 1883, its primary concern is teaching French as a second language and is headquartered in Paris -History:The Alliance was created in Paris...

.

She was a generous patron of the arts who organised private concerts of baroque, especially French, music. She was the major force in establishing the British Music Society of Victoria in 1921. In 1924 she helped John Shaw Neilson publish his first major book of poetry and later donated £10,000 to help found the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Melbourne, Australia. It has 100 permanent musicians. Melbourne has the longest continuous history of orchestral music of any Australian city and the MSO is the oldest professional orchestra in Australia...

.

They moved to London 1927, then Paris in 1928. In the latter city they commenced what was to become a remarkable collection of printed music, scores and scholarly material from the 15th to 19th centuries.

She founded Éditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre

Éditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre

Éditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre is a music publishing company financed and established in Paris in 1932 by Louise Dyer , an Australian pianist and philanthropist....

 in 1932, printing impeccable historical editions

Historical editions (music)

Historical editions are a category of published music in print, generally containing Classical music from a past repertory. Although the term can apply to many music publications, it is often applied to scholarly or critical editions, or in other words, music editions in which careful scholarship...

 of the music of Lully, Couperin, Jacopo da Bologna

Jacopo da Bologna

Jacopo da Bologna was an Italian composer of the Trecento, the period sometimes known as the Italian ars nova. He was one of the first composers of this group, making him a contemporary of Gherardello da Firenze and Giovanni da Firenze...

 and Purcell

Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...

, then branching out into recorded performances which became their major focus. She also published works of modern Australian composers, notably Peggy Glanville-Hicks

Peggy Glanville-Hicks

Peggy Glanville-Hicks was an Australian composer.- Biography :Peggy Glanville-Hicks was born Melbourne in 1912. At age 15 she began studying composition with Fritz Hart in Melbourne...

 and Margaret Sutherland

Margaret Sutherland

Margaret Sutherland was an Australian composer, probably the best-known female composer her country has produced....

. She continued to run it until the year she died. She also helped promote modern composers including Georges Auric

Georges Auric

Georges Auric was a French composer, born in Lodève, Hérault. He was a child prodigy and at age 15 he had his first compositions published. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Georges Caussade, and under the composer Vincent d'Indy at the Schola Cantorum...

, Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

, Joseph Canteloube

Joseph Canteloube

Marie-Joseph Canteloube de Malaret was a French composer, musicologist, and author best known for his collections of orchestrated folksongs from the Auvergne region.-Biography:...

, Gustav Holst

Gustav Holst

Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....

, Jacques Ibert

Jacques Ibert

Jacques François Antoine Ibert was a French composer. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his first attempt, despite studies interrupted by his service in World War I.Ibert pursued a successful composing career,...

, Vincent d'Indy

Vincent d'Indy

Vincent d'Indy was a French composer and teacher.-Life:Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine François Marmontel and...

, Charles Koechlin

Charles Koechlin

Charles Louis Eugène Koechlin was a French composer, teacher and writer on music. He was a political radical all his life and a passionate enthusiast for such diverse things as medieval music, The Jungle Book of Rudyard Kipling, Johann Sebastian Bach, film stars , travelling, stereoscopic...

, Darius Milhaud

Darius Milhaud

Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...

, Albert Roussel

Albert Roussel

Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period...

 and Henri Sauguet

Henri Sauguet

Henri Sauguet , was a French composer. Born in Bordeaux as Henri-Pierre Poupard, he adopted his mother's maiden name as his pseudonym. His output includes operas, ballets, four symphonies , concertos, chamber and choral music and numerous songs, as well as film music...

She was appointed chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur

Légion d'honneur

The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...

in 1934 and promoted to officier in 1957.

James Dyer died in 1938. The following year she married 30-year old British literary scholar Joseph Birch "Jeff" Hanson and moved to England, where he was studying at Balliol College, Oxford

Balliol College, Oxford

Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....

. They moved to Monaco

Monaco

Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...

 in 1945 where she died, leaving her Australian assets valued at around £240,000 to the University of Melbourne

University of Melbourne

The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...

. Her European assets were left to her husband.

Hanson remarried; when he died in 1971, his widow Margarita continued running Éditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre till 1996. In 1986 she left the collection of early European music and Classical imprints, manuscripts and scores to Melbourne University.

Recognition

University of Melbourne Music Library was renamed Louise Hanson-Dyer Library in her honour and the University founded Lyrebird Press to continue her work.

Portraits of her by Tom Roberts

Tom Roberts

Thomas William Roberts , usually known simply as Tom, was a prominent Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School.-Life:...

 and W B McInnes hang in the National Gallery of Victoria

National Gallery of Victoria

The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...

 and Presbyterian Ladies College, Melbourne.

Sources

• http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE3773b.htm
• http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080418b.htm
• http://www.collectionsaustralia.net/org/1164/about/