In the four-part seriesComposing Women at the PianoWe consistently spotlight one female composer. This third article focuses on American pianist and composer Amy Beach (1867-1944). At a time when women were deemed too emotionally unstable for the "exact science" of composition, Beach took matters into her own hands. As a self-taught musician, she learned to compose and proved music critics wrong. She could do more than just interpret others' music; she could create her own.
During the Victorian era, the ideology for girls born into wealthy and middle-class families was that they should have knowledge of art, dance, music, and foreign languages. Amy Beach's musical education began at a young age. She immediately showed all the signs of a musical prodigy. In her mother's diaries, it's noted that Amy could sing forty songs accurately at just one year old, that she could play music by ear, and that she (despite lacking a piano) composed small pieces.
Beach began formal piano lessons with her mother at age six and soon gave public recitals featuring works by Händel, Beethoven, and Chopin, as well as her own compositions. Her talent was again recognized, and her parents were advised to enroll her in a European conservatory. This was customary for American musicians and composers showing promise. However, her parents declined and chose local instruction instead.
In 1883, at age sixteen, Beach made her concert debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra performing Beethoven's Concerto No. 3, playing a cadenza of her own composition. But this performing career was short-lived. Two years later, she married, and it was no longer socially acceptable for a married woman to tour, give piano lessons, or even take composition lessons. Each of these activities, it was thought, would have a negative influence on her ability to care for her husband.
Her husband, Dr. Beach, himself an amateur musician, painter, and poet, encouraged his wife to continue making music and to push her compositional boundaries. Not only to continue with smaller genres like piano miniatures, but also to experiment with large-scale orchestral compositions. Dr. Beach called this "pioneering work, at least for this country, for a woman to accomplish."
Despite lacking formal training, Amy Beach continued composing. If no one would teach her, she would teach herself. As a pianist, she was familiar with Beethoven and his piano reductions. Counterpoint was therefore the first subject of her self-study. Manuscripts by J.S. Bach were perfect for this, and she began with Well-Tempered Clavier.
After Beach mastered counterpoint and fugues, she moved on to orchestration. For this, she employed two techniques: the first was an English translation of Berlioz's "Traité de l'instrumentation", the other (which was undoubtedly decisive for her own musical voice) was memorizing pieces by other composers. Beach later compared this in an interview to "the dissection of a medical student". She memorized each instrument's part, reconstructed it on paper, and compared it to the original. She studied the scores beforehand, brought them to concerts, and afterward also checked whether the written version matched what she mentally remembered. This study method made her familiar with various composers and their soundscapes, their structure, and their genres. Although her determination is evident from the effort she put into her studies, building a career as a composer was an uphill battle. Critic George Upton described the prevailing mentality in his influential book "Woman in Music" (1880): women are too emotionally unstable for the "exact science" of composition. About Amy Beach, he wrote: "She will always be the recipient and interpreter, but there is little hope that she will be the creator." Yet she persisted, and her first major work, "Mass in E-flat Major", op. 5, premiered successfully in 1889. Her mass was described as "difficult to associate with a woman's hand".But this won battle did not mean victory. Women's music was still described as follows: "It is good. It is beautiful. But I'm afraid the ladies cannot help us much. They have no creative power." With her "Gaelic" Symphony, op. 32 (1896), she finally gained respect as a legitimate composer when George Whitefield Chadwick wrote that it "has not the slightest trace of effeminacy, but shows clear and thorough masculine workmanship." Chadwick welcomed her into the Boston Group and called her "one of the boys".
Different Soundscapes on Piano Amy Beach gained recognition for her larger works, but her smaller ones are equally ingenious. Her piano works show the evolution in her compositional style as they span her entire oeuvre. From the early "Valse-Caprice", op. 4 for solo piano (1889) to her (1880): women are too emotional and fickle for the "exact science" of composition. About Amy Beach, he wrote: "She will always be the recipient and interpreter, but there is little hope she will become the creator." Yet she persevered, and her first major work Mass in E-flat major, op. 5 premiered successfully in 1889. Her mass was described as "difficult to associate with a woman's hand".
But this won battle did not mean overall victory. Women's music continued to be described as follows: "It is good. It is beautiful. But I'm afraid the ladies cannot help us much. They lack creative power." With her "Gaelic" Symphony, op. 32 (1896), she finally earned respect as a full-fledged composer when George Whitefield Chadwick wrote that it "shows not the slightest trace of effeminacy, but displays clear and thorough masculine execution." Chadwick welcomed her into the Boston Group and called her "one of the boys".
Amy Beach gained recognition for her larger works, but her smaller pieces are equally ingenious. Her piano works show the evolution in her compositional style as they span her complete oeuvre. From the early Valse-Caprice, op. 4 for solo piano (1889) to her Piano Trio, op. 150 (1938).
Four Sketches, op.15 (1892) is an example of her early style. Written in the romantic idiom, lyrical and with a programmatic character, these short pieces align with compositions by Brahms and Schumann that she herself performed as a pianist. In later works such as 5 Improvisations, op.148 (1934) she experimented with a more modernist language.
By learning from the scores of other composers, Beach's oeuvre is imbued with references and quotations. This is also the case in her piano music. In Eskimos, op.64 (1907) Beach goes against Dvořák's idea of American music and integrates Inuit themes from Franz Boas' book The Central Eskimo (1877). Beach integrated these themes in a similar way as American composer Arthur Farwell, whereby the melody flirts with major-minor tonalities. Beach added her own touch by — as she liked to call it — "enriching the melodies with augmented sixth chords".
In addition to literal quotations, Beach also references certain composers and movements in her music. In The Dreams of Columbine: French Suite for Fortepiano, op.65 (1907) she winks at Robert Schumann's (opus 9). Both suites have been recorded countless times. Schumann's work is anyway an extremely popular repertoire piece, but Somei Satoh, Hermit Thrush At Eve, op.92 (1921) she references ideas from French impressionists. She integrates transcriptions of bird songs and experiments with them in these piano miniatures.
Her piano oeuvre is a testament to her flexible character as a composer. Like a chameleon, she knows how to master different styles and genres. They confirm her hard work and the obstacles she faced. They are the result of her perseverance.
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