Product Description

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944), the most widely performed composer of her generation, was the first American woman to succeed as a creator of large-scale art music. Her "Gaelic" Symphony, given its premiere by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896, was the first work of its kind by an American woman to be performed by an American orchestra. Almost all of her more than 300 works were published soon after they were composed and performed, and today her music is finding new advocates and audiences for its energy, intensity, and sheer beauty. Yet, until now, no full-length critical biography of Beach's life or comprehensive critical overview of her music existed. This biography admirably fills that gap, fully examining the connections between Beach's life and work in light of social currents and dominant ideologies.

Born into a musical family in Victorian times, Amy Beach started composing as a child of four and was equally gifted as a pianist. Her talent was recognized early by Boston's leading musicians, who gave her unqualified support. Although Beach believed that the life of a professional musician was the only life for her, her parents had raised her for marriage and a career of amateur music-making. Her response to this parental (and later spousal) opposition was to find creative ways of reaching her goal without direct confrontation. Discouraged from a full-scale concert career, she instead found her metier in composition.

Success as a composer of art songs came early for Beach: indeed, her songs outsold those of her contemporaries. Nevertheless, she was determined to separate her work from the genteel parlor music women were writing in her day by creating large-scale works--a Mass, a symphony, and chamber music--that challenged the accepted notion that women were incapable of creating high art. She won the respect of colleagues and the allegiance of audiences. Many who praised her work, however, considered her an exception among women. Beach's reaction to this was to join with other women composers of serious music by promoting their works along with her own.

Adrienne Fried Block has written a biography that takes full account of issues of gender and musical modernism, considering Beach in the contexts of her time and of her composer contemporaries, both male and female. Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian will be of great interest to students and scholars of American music, and to music lovers in general.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1038633 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 448 pages

Amazon.com
The question one inevitably asks when considering the life of composer Amy Beach is this: How much greater might she have been if she'd had the same opportunities given male prodigies such as Mozart or Beethoven? As it was, Beach's talent was prodigious and widely recognized in her own time. Born in 1867 to a musical family, the young Amy was playing the piano by ear by the time she was four. Had she been a boy, no doubt a brilliant career as a concert pianist would have followed; instead, Amy married a much older man and mostly confined her musical genius to once-yearly concerts and to composing. Beach was prolific and eclectic, writing a Mass, a symphony (her "Gaelic" Symphony was the first work by an American woman composer to be performed by an American orchestra) and chamber music. In later years, after her husband's death, Beach toured the world as a performer.

In her extensive biography of Amy Beach, Adrienne Fried Block examines both the composer's life and work. Excerpts from various pieces are included in the book, giving readers an opportunity to study her music. Block does an admirable job of explaining to those less musically knowledgeable just what Beach was attempting to accomplish in each piece. Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian is an excellent biography for anyone interested in the life of a remarkable woman; for those who are also interested in music and composition, it's a real treat.

From Library Journal
Beach (1867-1944), who published her works under the name Mrs. H.H.A. Beach, was the most widely performed composer of her generation and the first major American woman composer. A musicologist and codirector of the Project for the Study of Women in Music, Block has done a great service by providing the first full-length critical biography of this talented, underappreciated composer. Beach's unwillingness to embrace the techniques of the European avant-garde endeared her to her fellow Boston Brahmins but, regrettably, guaranteed her only peripheral status in textbooks on 20th-century music. Block's thorough and clear-eyed account nicely places Beach's life and work in the context of turn-of-the-century New England arts and society. Pitched to the lay reader, her book includes 22 music examples accompanied by simple, illuminating analyses. An important work not only for general collections and music libraries but also for women's studies collections; highly recommended.?Larry A. Lipkis, Moravian Coll., Bethlehem, PA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The New York Times Book Review, Lawson Taitte
...[a] consistently interesting biography of America's first notable female composer.... a fascinating and useful book...

Customer Reviews

Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian
At last, a full-length biography of the "Dean of American Women Composers." Engaging and thorougly researched. The only thing lacking is a discography of Beach's music. Highly recommended.