Amy Beach

This week’s composer is Amy Beach, née Cheney. She was a leading American composer in the late 1800s and early 1900s and wrote some incredible music.

Amy Cheney was born in New Hampshire in 1867 to an upper-class New England family. From an early age, it was clear she was a musical prodigy – she could supposedly sing 40 songs by age 1 and composed her own piano pieces by age four. Her mother, an amateur singer, encouraged her in her musical education. When she was 7, she gave her first piano concerts, including her own works.

After the family moved to Boston when she was 8, her parents were told she was good enough to study at a European conservatory. Perhaps if she had been born a man, she would have been sent to Europe, as many other American composers of the time were. However, she was a young woman, and her parents felt it was inappropriate for her to travel abroad. Her education was continued, but with private teachers. She continued to excel as a pianist and had her concert hall debut in Boston when she was only 16. At age 18, she debuted with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which should have kickstarted her career as a solo pianist.

Marriage

Unfortunately, Amy wasn’t allowed to continue her career as a performer. As a young upper-class woman, she was expected to marry early and well. Her parents married her off to Henry Harris Aubrey Beach, a doctor 24 years her senior and well-known in the Boston upper-class circles. He declared that no wife of his would work for money and limited her to performing for charity only once or twice per year.

Although Amy had always considered herself a pianist first and foremost, she changed her focus to composition after marriage. Because she couldn’t study at a traditional conservatory, she had one year of study with a private teacher. After that, as her husband wasn’t comfortable with her studying with a man, she taught herself composition by reading books and studying the works of other composers.

Despite all of the obstacles in her path, Amy went on to become a leading composer of her day – and a prolific one. In 1896, she became the first American woman to have a symphony published. Her ‘Gaelic’ Symphony received widespread praise after its premiere by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Traveling The World

In 1910, Amy’s husband died. Her mother followed him soon after. She decided to finally travel to Europe, where she spent the next few years performing her works. She performed in Italy and Germany, where she also attended several performances of her symphony. European critics were impressed with her music, calling her a “leading American composer.” She had to return to the United States in 1914 after the outbreak of WWI but continued her performance tour across the country. She eventually settled at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, a haven for composers and artists, where she continued composing, eventually writing nearly 300 works, half of which were art songs.

Amy’s Impact

Why am I talking about Amy Beach so early in my blog? There are many other fantastic women composers to choose from who, unlike Beach, received little to no recognition in their lifetime. I think she is important because not only did she continue to pursue music in spite of the roadblocks in her path, including her lack of musical education and her husband’s restrictions on her musical activities, she eventually became a strong and vocal proponent of women learning composition. Although her husband stopped her from teaching piano, Amy wrote many articles, including “To the girl who wants to compose.”

Amy became president and co-founder of the Society of American Women Composers, along with Ruth Crawford Seeger and 17 others, and served as president of several other national music education organizations. In addition, she actively worked to have her music performed, sending off new pieces to performers as soon as she finished them.

Aside from the fact that I absolutely love her music, I believe that her support of other young women composers is incredibly important. Even though she was quite popular in her own time, her popularity diminished as soon as she was no longer promoting herself. I had not heard of her until I started my journey into learning more about women composers. About 1/3 of her works have not yet been recorded, although that will hopefully change as more groups begin promoting and performing her music. There are no recent or widely available commercial recordings of her song “Ye banks and braes,” which you can hear below.

Beach was very interested in folk music, and many of her songs and larger works are based around that theme. One of my favorites is her reworking of the Scottish folk song “Ye Banks and Braes o’ bonnie doon” by Robert Burns. Unlike many who set folk tunes, she didn’t just write a new accompaniment to the traditional tune – she wrote an entirely new piece. I hope you all enjoy this recording of it, recorded live by David Wishart and me during our first-ever Livestream Mini-Concert. (Yes, we’re going a little stir-crazy in Quarantine – who isn’t?).

Looking for more information about Amy Beach? Check out the Amy Beach Foundation. I also found information from Oxford Music Online and an article from ClassicFM and Wikipedia. Emma Kirby has recorded many of her songs, which are available on Spotify.

Looking to perform some of her music? Many of her works are available on IMSLP. Furore Verlag and Hildegard Publishing also have selected works available for purchase.