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AMY BEACH FOR THE NEW GENERATION: THE EFFECTS OF INCREASED INTEREST
IN BEACH’S WORKS ON THE CURRENT PLACE IN THE PERFORMANCE CANON OF
CONCERTO FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA IN C SHARP MINOR, OP. 45
by
MONICA SCHULTZ BAKER
KEVIN THOMAS CHANCE, CHAIR

JACOB ADAMS
JOANNA BIERMANN
LISA DORR
EDISHER SAVITSKI
AMIR ZAHERI
A DOCUMENT
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts
in the Department of Music
in the Graduate School of
The University of Alabama
TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA
2019
Copyright Monica Schultz Baker 2019
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ABSTRACT
Amy Beach sets an example of musical activism and dedication to her art that has
inspired and illuminated her successors. Beach’s music has particular significance considering
that she is arguably the most notable female American composer-pianist. Thus, her Concerto for
Piano and Orchestra in C sharp minor, Op. 45, a large-scale work that encompasses a wide range
of emotions and musical form, deserves a more established place in the performance canon. At
its premier, Beach’s concerto received a drastically different reaction than the premier of a piano
concerto by her male contemporary, Edward MacDowell. I seek to explore the relative merits of
the two works and to determine if any gender bias influenced their comparative canonization.
The goal for this project is to argue that the Beach concerto should gain more presence in
the modern performance canon based on its compositional merits. In addition, I seek to
disseminate reactions to Beach’s concerto at its premier and those elicited by her works now; to
examine trends in performances within the US, such as the recent performance of the Beach
concerto at the University of Georgia in January 2017; and to motivate further scholarship and
performances of Beach’s concerto.
ii
DEDICATION
This document is dedicated to my husband, Chase Baker, who supported me every step of
the way. Music has been my first love. The dedication and commitment I developed during my
music studies prepared me for you, my new love. Thank you for helping me find a balance
between being a musician and being a human. I have learned so much about myself and about
our marriage in the time that I have been preparing this document. You have been the anchor that
has helped me maintain my sanity, and the warmth and consolation that I needed when I
struggled with sleep deprivation and when I missed deadlines. Thank you for always being there
to celebrate the joys as well as to endure the sorrows we have both encountered these past three
years. In preparing the research for this document I learned much about marriage. May ours be as
enduring and as musical as that of Henry and Amy Beach.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks to my sister, Brigid Doty, and my brother in law, Patrick Doty, for their
timely assistance in transcribing the musical examples in Finale. I was able to meet a tight
deadline because of your help. Thank you to my parents, Ann Schultz and Fr. Gregory Schultz,
for believing in me and for being proud of me. You inspired me and encouraged me when I
encountered obstacles. Thank you to my church family, the members of St. Michael the
Archangel Serbian Orthodox Church, for always expressing interest in my work, for supporting
me, and for making me feel loved and appreciated. Thank you to my dear professor, Dr. Kevin
Chance, for helping me develop my topic and for guiding me through the process of creating this
document. Thank you for never giving up on me as both a teacher and an advisor. Thank you to
my committee members, Dr. Jacob Adams, Dr. Joanna Biermann, Dr. Lisa Dorr, Dr. Jonathan
Noffsinger, Dr. Edisher Savitski, and Dr. Amir Zaheri for being excited about my topic and for
being a positive influence on the editing process. You all made yourselves available at the end of
the semester when time was running out. I greatly appreciate your service on my committee. If it
were not for all your support, this project would not have been possible. Thank you.
iv
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………………....ii
DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………………iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………………………......iv
LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES…………………………………………………………..…...vi
CHAPTER 1. BEACH’S BACKGROUND……………………..………………………………..1
CHAPTER 2. ANALYSIS OF BEACH’S PIANO CONCERTO IN C-SHARP MINOR, OP.45

AND COMPARISON TO THE RECEPTION AT THE TIME OF ITS PREMIER TO
MACDOWELL’S PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 IN D MINOR, OP. 23………………………...13
CHAPTER 3. PERFORMANCE AND RECEPTION HISTORY OF BEACH’S CONCERTO,

OP. 45……………………………………………………………………………………………40
Recent Performance and Reception of Concerto, Op. 45………………………….…………….42
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….........47
REVIEW OF LITERATURE………...………………………………………………………….49
REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………………......71
v
LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES
Example. 1.1. Beach, “The Rainy Day”, mm. 1-9 ……………………………………………..…5
Example. 1.2. Beethoven, Sonata in C minor, Op. 13, Pathetique, Mvt. III, mm. 1-4……………6
Example 2.1. Beach, Concerto in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 45, Mvt. I, mm. 1-6, Theme 1………….19
Example 2.2. Beach, Concerto in C-sharp Minor, Op. 45, Mvt. I, Motive a, mm. 1-2………….20
Example 2.3. Beach, Concerto in C-sharp Minor, Op. 45, Mvt. I, Motive b, mm. 2-5………….20
Example 2.4. Beach, Mvt. I, mm. 407-410. Motive b…………………………………………...20
Example 2.5. Beach, Mvt. I, mm. 407-410. Motive b …………………………………………..20
Example 2.6. Beach, Mvt. I, mm. 223-227, Theme 1 …………………………………………...21

Example 2.7. Beach, Mvt. I, mm. 216-219, Theme 1 …………………………………………...22
Example 2.8. Beach, Mvt. I, mm. 69-74. Theme 2………………………………………………22
Example 2.9. Beach, “Jeune fille et jeune fleur,” Op. 1, No. 3, mm. 39-45. Theme 3 ………….23
Example 2.10. Beach, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Mvt. I, mm. 132-137, Theme 3……..24
Example 2.11. Beach, “Empress of Night,” Op. 2, No. 3, mm. 15-20…………………………..28
Example 2.12. “Empress of Night”, Op. 2, No. 3, mm. 1-5……………………………………..29
Example 2.13. Beach, Mvt. II, mm. 11-17………………………………………………………30

Example 2.14. Beach, “Empress of Night”, mm. 23-24…………………………………………30
Example 2.15. Beach, Mvt. II, mm. 101-108……………………………………………………31
Example 2.16. Beach, “Twilight,” Op. 2, No. 1, mm. 1-7…………………………………….…33
Example 2.17. Beach, Mvt. III, mm. 6-11……………………………………………………….34
Example 2.18. Beach, Mvt. III, mm. 1-2………………………………………………………...34
Example 2.19. Beach, “Twilight,” Op. 2, No. 1, mm. 47-53…………………………………….34

vi
Example 2.20. Beach, Piano Concerto, Mvt. IV, mm. 1-4, Theme A…………………………...35
Example 2.21. Beach, Piano Concerto, Mvt. IV, mm. 46-49, Theme 2…………………………36
Example 2.22. Beach, Piano Concerto, Mvt. IV, mm. 124-128, Theme C……………………...38
Example 2.23. Beach, “Twilight”, Op. 2, No. 1, mm. 53-55………………………………….....39
vii
CHAPTER 1
BEACH’S BACKGROUND
Amy Beach (1867-1944) was born Amy Marcy Cheney to parents Charles Abbott
Cheney (1844-1895)1 and Clara Imogene Marcy (1845-1911)2 on September 5, 1867 in West
Henniker, New Hampshire. Her mother kept her away from the piano until she was four years
old, although she begged to be allowed to play it earlier.3 At two years old she was already
learning and singing complete songs. She had perfect pitch and synesthesia, making her pitch
associations exceptionally vivid.
Beach’s musicality was no coincidence. Her mother’s side of the family was musical as
well. Her grandfather, Chester Marcy (1818-1849)4, played clarinet; her aunt, Mrs. L. H.
Clement (1841-1925),5 was a singer; and her mother, who was her first music teacher, was an
accomplished singer and pianist, who sometimes performed publicly.6
When Beach was four years old she wrote three waltzes. She composed them in her head
with no assistance from a physical piano—a practice she would continue throughout her life. Her
mother, Clara Cheney, was determined to prevent Beach from becoming a child prodigy because
the cultural climate in the years directly after the civil war viewed child prodigies as cheap
entertainment, and Clara was determined that Beach would become a serious musician. Although
1
Block, Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian, 15.
2
Block, Amy Beach, 6.
3
Block, Amy Beach, 5-6.
4
5
Block, Amy Beach, 16, 247.
6
Jenkins, The Remarkable Mrs. Beach, American Composer, 5.
1
Clara could not hide Beach’s talent from friends and family, she did her best to prevent Beach’s
brilliance from making her too precocious by discouraging Beach’s listeners from expressing
their admiration too enthusiastically.7
Finally, when Beach turned six, Clara began giving her three lessons per week but limited
her practice time. A year later, when Beach was seven, Clara reluctantly allowed her to give her
first public performance, a musicale in a private home in Boston to which the public was invited.
The Folio, a Boston arts journal, published a favorable review, stating that she, “played with an
accuracy and style which surprised every listener…the young pianist is exciting much surprise
by the precocity of her musical talent.”8 She performed a Chopin waltz and one of her own
waltzes as an encore. Although the performance attracted the attention of concert managers Clara
resisted their advances, and Beach later stated she was grateful, “I shall always have the deepest
gratitude for my inexperienced young parents that they did not allow me to be exploited by
managers.”9
In 1875, when Beach was eight years old, the Cheneys moved to Boston. Clara searched
for a new piano teacher for Beach since she felt Beach had outgrown her abilities. The Cheneys
settled on Ernst Perabo, who was one of the foremost pianists and teachers in late nineteenth
century Boston. Beach studied with him from 1876–1882. Perabo was trained in Germany and
was so popular that it is estimated that during the course of his teaching he guided over a
thousand students. Although exacting high standards, Perabo was renowned as a warm-hearted
pedagogue with a positive attitude, who deeply cared for and respected his students.10
7
8
9
10
2
The precedents set for female pianists at the time were Clara Schumann (1810–1896);
Teresa Carreño (1853–1917); Julie Rivé (1854–1937), who gave a solo recital in Boston in
October 1876; Amy Fay (1844–1928), who studied for six years in Germany and was one of the
first American-born women to study in Europe; and Annette Essipoff (1851–1914). Essipoff was
favored by the Russian court and was married for a period to the famous pedagogue Theodor
Leschetizky (1830–1915). She came to Boston in March 1877 and performed a program of
American works by composers such as Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Arthur Foote, and William
Mason. She also included a piece by her teacher Ernst Perabo. Beach gave a private performance
of other works for Essipoff, which Essipoff lauded. In 1878, twelve-year-old Beach performed
for the famed pianist, Rafael Joseffy (1852–1915).11
After being schooled at home until 1879, the Cheneys at last enrolled Beach in Professor
William L. Whittemore’s preparatory school. Beach was stimulated by the structure of a child-
centered environment and the accessibility of a wider range of subjects. She excelled in natural
sciences, foreign languages, and mathematics equally. She also became part of a book club for
girls, the Attic Club, which existed from 1879–1953. Beach enjoyed the companionship the club
provided. As she later wrote to Edith B. Brown, one of the founding members of the Attic Club,
she had few other friends her age.
The Attic Club was one of the few relaxing pursuits Beach allowed herself while she was
studying hard in her preparatory school. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lived near the meeting
place of the Attic Club. Without their parents’ knowledge, girls from the Attic Club went to his
house to get his autograph. Beach also had the opportunity to play for Longfellow in his home.
11
3
Longfellow thanked her for her “beautiful music,” and in response, Beach set his poem, “The
Rainy Day” to music, as shown in Example 1.1.12
The day is cold, and dark, and dreary

It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.
My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;

It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;

Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.13
“The Rainy Day,” which is Beach’s first published work, was printed in 1883 by Oliver
Ditson, a well-established publishing company in Boston. Beach took the melody from the third
movement of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata, shown in Examples 1.1 and 1.2. In their search for
a composition teacher, the Beach family contacted Wilhelm Gericke (1845-1925)14, the
conductor of the Boston Symphony. His advice was that Beach teach herself to compose by
studying the masters15, such as Beethoven and Brahms. Beach’s use of the Pathetique Sonata
shows how seriously she took the injunctions of her mentor to learn from the great masters.16
12
13
Longfellow, “The Rainy Day”, 1842.
14
15
16
Block, “Why Amy Beach Succeeded as a Composer: The Early Years”, 1983, 44. After Beach’s debut with the
Boston Symphony in 1885, when she performed Chopin’s Concerto in F Minor, Op. 21, Beach continued to
4
Ex. 1.1, Beach, “The Rainy Day”, mm. 1-9, based on the third movement of Beethoven’s
Sonata in C minor, Pathetique, Op. 13.17
maintain close ties with the Symphony and with Gericke. She observed many rehearsals, working individually with
Gericke and studying the scores of pieces performed by the Boston Symphony.
17
5
Ex. 1.2, Beethoven, Sonata in C minor, Op. 13, Pathetique, Mvt. III, mm. 1-4.
Melody in the right hand used in Beach’s song, “Rainy Day”.
In 1882, Beach left Perabo and began studying with Carl Baermann (1839-1913)18,
possibly because Perabo advocated that funds be raised to send Beach to Europe, which was
against the wishes of Clara Cheney. Baermann had studied with Liszt and taught at the Munich
Conservatory. Shortly before Beach began studying with him, Baermann had performed
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto in G Major No. 4, Op. 58 with the Philharmonic Society to gushing
reviews.19
Under Baermann, Beach was allowed to give her public debut. Perhaps this was a
concession to the disappointment Beach must have had at being denied the chance to study in
Europe. In October 1883, Beach performed Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor by Moscheles, and
Rondo in E flat, Op. 16 by Chopin. Beach received rave reviews, and her presence in the music
scene of Boston was firmly established.20 Beach’s facility at the keyboard was evident when
performing Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40 in March of 1885. During
the last movement, the conductor, Theodore Thomas (1835–1905), began the orchestral
18
Gillespie, John, and Laura Moore Pruett. 2013. “Baermann, Carl.” Grove Music Online. 11 Dec. 2018.
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.libdata.lib.ua.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/om
o-9781561592630-e-1002248208
19
Block, A ‘Veritable Autobiography?,’ 28.
20
Block, Amy Beach, 30-31
6
introduction under tempo thinking Beach would appreciate his consideration of how technically
difficult the piano part was in that movement. Beach, not realizing that he did this intentionally,
felt the tempo dragging and brought the movement back in tempo.21
Also in 1885, Arthur P. Schmidt published Beach’s song, “With Violets.” This was the
first piece of many that Schmidt published; for the next thirty years he would be Beach’s only
publisher. He was responsible for giving many American composers a chance to be performed,
publishing works by John Knowles Paine (1839-1906), Henry Kimball Hadley (1871-1937),
George Whitefield Chadwick (1854-1931), Horatio Parker (1863-1916), Arthur Foote (1853-
1937), Edward MacDowell (1860-1908), and female composers Clara Kathleen Rogers (1844-
1931), Helen Hopekirk (1846-1945), and Margaret Ruthven Lang (1867-1972). Schmidt had
emigrated from Germany in the 1860s and found greater opportunities in the US than he had in
Europe. His gratitude for these opportunities showed in his dedication to American composers,
providing a stage for American art music that had been previously lacking. In addition, Schmidt
showed no gender bias in his policies regarding royalties. He paid the same amount of royalties
to male and female composers alike—ten percent.22
In December 1885, at eighteen years old, Amy Cheney was married to Henry Harris
Aubrey Beach, who was forty-two years old, more than twice her age, and a little older than her
father. Henry was a successful physician who had been married before, but his former wife died
of a stroke five years before his marriage to Amy. It is likely that they met when Amy was ten
years old when Clara Cheney took her to Mr. Beach to treat an injured finger.23
21
Block, Amy Beach, 33
22
23
7
As a boy, Mr. Beach’s musical talent earned him a place with the famed choir of the first
Anglo-Catholic church in America, the Church of the Advent. The Church of the Advent
invested in their liturgical music by paying their choir members and came to be regarded as
having the best church music in Boston. Mr. Beach also studied piano and organ through his
involvement with the Church of the Advent.24
Eventually Mr. Beach chose medicine over a music career, a choice which may have
been influenced by his close personal relationship with the physicians who attended the Church
of the Advent. He was baptized in 1863 and took the name of one of his baptismal sponsors, the
organist Edmund Aubrey Matson, becoming Mr. Beach Harris Aubrey Beach. Three of the
founders of the Church of the Advent were physicians, and one, George C. Shattuck, Jr. (1813–
1893) became the dean of Harvard University in 1864–1869 after having served as a professor in
the Harvard Medical School. Mr. Beach eventually attended the Harvard Medical School during
the time that Shattuck served as Harvard’s dean.
Most likely as a result of the connections Mr. Beach made with the members of the
Church of the Advent who were physicians, Mr. Beach enlisted in the army in 1864 and became
a hospital steward. As a hospital steward in the army, Mr. Beach was able to complete his
medical apprenticeship before entering the Harvard Medical School.25
As a result of Mr. Beach’s equal interest in music and medicine from a young age,
although choosing to pursue medicine professionally, he remained very involved in the musical
life of Boston. He sang with the Handel and Haydn Society for many years beginning in 1863,
was part of the Harvard Musical Association—a group that hosted chamber and orchestral
24
25
8
performances—and was a member of the Euterpe Club, which organized chamber music
events.26
In 1880s Boston, it was considered socially acceptable for Mrs. Amy Beach to perform if
she did not receive payment, but it was not favorable for her to teach since this profession was
only for women of lower class, or old maids. It was not considered respectable for Mrs. Beach to
contribute substantially to her household’s income because the man of the house was expected to
provide exclusively for the household; it was considered shameful if he did not. However, it was
acceptable for Mrs. Beach to receive payment for the publication of her compositions, since
these identified her as a professional and not a mere amateur. As Ednah Dow Cheney (1824-
1904), Boston writer, philanthropist, and activist, stated in 1880, “In literature, the progress of
women has been so rapid that now a woman’s name on the title page of a book hurts neither its
acceptance with the publisher not its sale to the public.”27 Thus it was now acceptable for Mrs.
Beach to be a published composer. Her name began to become famous as her works drew more
and more attention.
Clara Cheney, Mrs. Beach’s mother, lived with the Beach couple and served as an
additional critic to Mrs. Beach’s work. The first thing Mr. Beach would say when he came home
in the evening was, “What did you compose today, dear?”28 Seemingly, Mrs. Beach did not mind
the direction and guidance of her mother and husband. Thankful of her husband’s
encouragement, she wrote to a friend:
It was he more than any one else who encouraged my interest upon the field of
musical composition in the larger forms. It was pioneer work, at least for this
country, for a woman to do, and I was fearful that I had not the skill to carry it on,
26
27
28
9
but his constant assurance that I could do the work, and keen criticism whenever
it seemed to be weak in spots, gave me the courage to go on.29
Mr. Beach, as editor of a medical journal, had experience with publishers and guided
Mrs. Beach in her handling of entrusting her work to Arthur P. Schmidt. Because of Mr. Beach’s
instruction Mrs. Beach kept a close eye on Schmidt’s cover designs and editing of her
compositions. Thus, Mr. Beach assisted Mrs. Beach tremendously in supporting her emotionally,
professionally, and musically.30
Mrs. Beach stopped taking lessons with Carl Baermann during the first year of her
marriage, and Mr. Beach would not allow Mrs. Beach to take composition lessons, reasoning in
the gender prejudice of the day that, because she was a woman and therefore more malleable
than a man, her style would lose its uniqueness. Thus, Mrs. Beach had no objective musicians
from whom she could receive feedback, and was left completely to her own devices. She stated
that the public was her teacher, yet Mr. Beach withheld negative reviews, so Mrs. Beach only
saw favorable critiques of her work. There is no knowing what would have happened had Mrs.
Beach not been kept under such strict control by both her mother and her husband. It is likely she
would have performed and composed equally because she was so facile in both composition and
performance, and likely if she had had a professional composition teacher, her progress in
composing would have been easier and quicker as well. But Mr. Beach may have refused to
allow her to take composition lessons because the only professional teachers available would
have been male and Mr. Beach may not have wanted her to form any close attachments with any
men other than himself.31
29
30
31
10
In 1910 and 1911, Beach lost both her mother and her husband. Mr. Beach fell in April
1910, which led to prescribed bed rest, where he developed an abscess and passed away from the
infection on June 28, 1910 at age 66.32 Beach’s mother was already ill at the time of Mr. Beach’s
death. She passed away at age 64 on February 18, 1911.33 Only a few months later, on
September 5, 1911, Beach traveled to Europe to perform at the age of 44. She began playing solo
piano music and chamber music regularly, giving performances of her concerto in Leipzig and
Hamburg, in 1913, with the Winterstein Orchester and the Orchester des Vereins Hamburgischer
Musikfreunde, respectively. The Hamburg concert was Beach’s most successful. As she stated:
In Germany before the war they were skeptical enough about woman’s creative ability. I
was summarily warned of the fate that probably awaited me when my “Gaelic”
Symphony and my piano concerto were played in Hamburg. The audience would be cold,
the critics hostile . . . . The Symphony was splendidly played but had only a courteous
reception. . . . Immediately thereafter, I was to play the piano part of my Concerto. But I
rejected the invitation to discouragement, “got my mad up,” as we put it in New England,
and determined to force the audience to like it. My resolve won the victory, and a very
considerable one. The critics wrote well, and even the worst bear of all, Dr. Ferdinand
Pfohl, was eulogistic.34
In 1914 Beach returned to the US at the outbreak of World War I. She performed
extensively, primarily with singers and instrumentalists, but also as soloist. Her next documented
performance of the Concerto was in 1917, when she performed in St. Louis and in Boston with
the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to rave reviews. She performed it again the next season, 1917–
1918, in Chicago and Minneapolis.35
Beach performed her own chamber and solo music and that of the standard repertoire far
more than her concerto, but she performed the concerto twelve times with nine different
orchestras between 1913 and 1917: November 22nd, 1913 with the Winterstein Orchester,
32
33
34
35
Jenkins, 81-82.
11
Leipzig; December 2nd, 1913 with the Orchester des Vereins Hamburgischer Musikfreunde;
December 18th, 1913 with the Berlin Philharmonic; June 28th, 1915 with the Los Angeles
Symphony Orchestra; August 1st, 1915 with the Exposition Orchestra of the Panama-Pacific
International Exposition, San Francisco; February 4th, 1916 with the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra; January 12th through 13th, 1917 with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; March 2nd
through 3rd, 1917 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra; and December 14th through 15th, 1917
with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra.36
Beach divided her time later in life between her apartment in New York, and the
MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. She passed away on December 27th, 1944 of heart
disease.37
36
37
12
CHAPTER 2
ANALYSIS OF BEACH’S PIANO CONCERTO IN C-SHARP MINOR, OP. 45 AND

COMPARISON TO THE RECEPTION AT THE TIME OF ITS PREMIER TO
MACDOWELL’S PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 IN D MINOR, OP. 23
Beach’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 45 received mixed
reviews at its premier in 1900. To place the reception of Beach’s work in the context of late
nineteenth to early twentieth century society, it can be compared to another piano concerto by an
American composer premiered around the same time. Edward MacDowell’s Concerto No. 2 was
first performed with the New York Philharmonic in 1889 to rave reviews, some claiming that it
rivaled Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, which was on the same program. H. E. Krehbiel, a critic
for the Tribune, stated that MacDowell’s concerto “must be placed at the head of all works of its
kind produced by either a native or adopted citizen of America” and went on to say that he,
“derived keener pleasure from the work of the young American than from the experienced and
famous Russian.”38 In contrast, The Boston Herald declared Beach’s concerto to be,
“…weak in ideas, and, on the whole, crabbed and uninteresting. There is but little of the
flowing melody in it, with scarcely a moment of reposeful cantilena, the solo part being,
for the most part, little else than difficult, and not always clear passage work. The
orchestration is steadily thick and noisy, and too frequently so massive that the solo
instrument does not and cannot loom through it…the concerto is monotonously void of
contrasts. There are fire enough and passion enough in the work, but they did not appear
to lead to anything that was coherent or comprehensible.”39
The most critical words came from W. D. Quint, who wrote for the Boston Traveller,
“The most marked thing about Mrs. Beach’s new work is its masculinity, strength and largeness
38
Nicholas, Jeremy. Liner notes for The Romantic Piano Concerto, Edward MacDowell (1860-1908). Seta Tanyel,
Scottish BBC Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins. Hyperion CDA67165, 2001, compact disc.
39
13
looming in every direction.”40 Indeed, it is a large concerto, four movements rather than the
standard three, with an expanded orchestra, and it is rigorous in its development of thematic
material. This “masculinity” seems to have negatively affected the concerto’s reception.
MacDowell’s Concerto No. 2 relied more heavily on virtuosity to expand and work out thematic
content and was treated more kindly by critics and audiences.
Another difference between the MacDowell concerto and the Beach concerto concerns
orchestration. The MacDowell concerto lacks tubas and bass clarinets, both included in the
Beach concerto. In general, the texture of the MacDowell tends to be lighter and less rich than
the orchestration of the Beach concerto. For example, in the first movement of the Beach,
already by m. 4 the entire orchestra, except for the low brass and timpani, plays, whereas the first
ten measures of the MacDowell feature only the strings. Although to some ears a richer
orchestration would be preferred, critics cast doubt on Beach’s skill as an orchestrator and
advised that Beach write shorter, less grandiose works.
No doubt there is much beauty in the work, no little genuineness of feeling, a

considerable fertility of invention. But there is too much going on at the same time; that
is, too much until the work has been so rescored as to make its complexity intelligible to
the ear. For one thing, however, she plays it wonderfully, with consummate technique
and great beauty of expression. She was enthusiastically received, as well she deserved to
be.41
The entire MacDowell concerto is much more piano-driven than the Beach. In her concerto, the
orchestra leads with musical material until the fourth movement, whereas the piano leads for the
entirety of the MacDowell piece. As evinced by the above quote, the Boston public apparently
preferred lighter orchestration and more prominence in the solo piano part, perhaps explaining
the harshness of the critic’s opinion of Beach’s orchestration skills. In the first movement of the
40
41
Walter S. Jenkins, The Remarkable Mrs. Beach, American Composer, A Biographical Account Based on Her
Diaries, Letters, Newspaper Clippings, and Personal Reminiscences, (Harmonie Park Press, 1994), 49.
14
Beach concerto, she delays the piano entrance until m. 35, whereas MacDowell brings in the
piano much earlier at m. 17 of the first movement of his concerto. More evidence of the piano’s
predominance in MacDowell’s concerto lies in the entrance of the first theme in the piano rather
than in the orchestra; in the Beach the first theme begins immediately in the orchestra.
Both Beach and MacDowell dedicated their concertos to Venezuelan pianist Teresa
Carreño (1853–1917). MacDowell studied with Carreño and knew her personally, but it is
somewhat ironic that Beach dedicated her concerto to Carreño as well, considering that Carreño
represented everything Beach’s parents abhorred. Carreño was a virtuoso performer who had
started her career as a child prodigy, she had been married four times, and thus would not have
been considered a lady by the conservative standards of 19th-century Boston. Carreño
performed MacDowell’s Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 15 and his Concerto No. 2 in D minor,
Op. 23, but never played the Beach concerto.42
The MacDowell Concerto has three movements; Beach’s has four. Accordingly, the
performance time for Beach’s concerto runs approximately 35 minutes as opposed to
approximately 25 minutes for MacDowell. The larger scope of the Beach is also noted in the first
movement by the use of three themes. The first two themes are unique to the concerto and the
third is taken from Beach’s song, “Jeune fille et jeune fleur,” Op. 1, No. 3 (Example 2.9).43
MacDowell does not take thematic content from previously composed works, although the
original sketch of the second movement of his concerto became part of his Op. 24 piano suite.44
42
43
Rushing, 39-63.
44
Christine Bane Kefferstan, “The Piano Concertos of Edward MacDowell, (PhD diss., University of Cincinnati,
1984), 89.
15
The second movement of the Beach concerto has three themes, taken from sections of
“Empress of Night,” Op. 2, No. 3 (Examples 2.11, 2.12, and 2.14).45 The third movement is the
only movement with one theme unique to the movement, and it is also the shortest at 77
measures. The theme in the third movement is taken from “Twilight,” Op. 2, No. 1 (Example
2.16). The fourth movement incorporates three themes, all derived from “Twilight” (Examples
2.16, 2.19, and 2.20) and repeats the theme from the third movement (Example 2.16).46
Although most of the thematic content of the concerto is taken from Beach’s vocal
works, the first theme introduced by the strings in the first movement of the concerto (Example
2.6) is unique to the concerto. Since the vocal works referenced in the concerto have strong
associations to Beach’s mother and husband, and because Beach stated in an article for The
Etude that a composition can be a ‘veritable autobiography’, it is interesting to draw comparisons
between the vocal works used in the concerto and Beach’s life. Beach wrote in an article for The
Etude,
Composers are influenced in as many ways as there are composers. It might safely be
said that no two people could work in exactly the same way, or would be stimulated by
exactly the same impulse. That is one of the many wonderful aspects of musical creation.
Some writers have been influenced at once by some tremendous happening in their lives,
or in the world around them, and have been able to burst forth with some musical
utterance that was directly the result of (those) circumstances. Another composer might
remain apparently unaffected by even the most terrific onslaught upon all that was
deepest in his life, and years afterward give expression in music, perhaps unconsciously,
to all that the experience had cost him. Here we are touching upon perhaps the most
wonderful thing of all about musical composition. It may be not only the creation of an
art-form, but a veritable autobiography, whether conscious or unconscious.47
Adrienne Fried Block postulates that Beach was referring to herself and that the concerto
references aspects of Beach’s life through its use of her songs. It is unsurprising that Beach drew
45
Rushing, 49-50.
46
Rushing, 57-63.
47
Beach, “To The Girl Who Wants To Compose”, 1918.
16
from her body of vocal compositions for other works, considering that her total songs number
117, all for solo voice and piano.48
Although in sonata form, the concerto diverges from the traditional concerto-sonata form
in that it eliminates the double exposition, stating the exposition only once. Beach also departs
from traditional sonata form by employing not two, but three themes, albeit one built from
motivic fragments derived from the first theme as depicted in Example 2.1.49
These motives a, (Example 2.2), and motive b, (Example 2.3), are developed throughout
the movement. After the piano’s opening cadenza in m. 35, the piano’s tranquillo theme, or
Theme 2, is based on Motive b. Theme 1 (Example 2.1), is stated in its entirety in mm. 1-20, first
in the strings in mm. 1-6, and then in the woodwinds in mm. 6-15. Beach develops Theme 1 by
elongation in mm. 11-15, inverting the last two measures of Theme 1 in the flutes, while also
sequencing it in descending steps. The oboes pick up where the flutes leave off in mm. 15, again
sequencing a fragment of Theme 1, still descending by step. In mm. 21 a new section begins, this
time in the clarinets, fragmenting the first two measures of Theme 1 (with Motive a), ascending
by thirds, then passing the fragment of Theme 1 to the oboes in m. 25.
After the piano’s opening cadenza in mm. 35-64, which is based on Motive a from
Theme 1, Beach creates a new theme from Motive b of Theme 1. Theme 1 thus serves as
thematic material for three other themes within the movement; as material for the piano’s
opening cadenza, as a stand-alone motive, lending texture and thematic depth, and as Theme 2,
which enters in m. 69 (Example 2.8).
48
Mary Katherine Kelton, “Mrs. H. H. A. Beach and Her Songs for Solo Voice.” Journal of Singing 52 (January-
February 1996): 1.
49
Katrina Carlson Rushing, “Amy Beach’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in C-sharp Minor, Op. 45: A
Historical, Stylistic, and Analytical Study,” (PhD diss., Louisiana State University, 2000), 39.
17
In the otherworldly transition section in mm. 69-100 (Example 2.8), Motive b can be
heard clearly in the first violins (m. 79) under the piano’s building sequence of F sharp, G sharp,
A, C sharp, a pentatonic motive derived from Motive b, which will later be heard in the timpani
just before the coda (Example 2.4) and in the strings in the transition section leading to the
recapitulation (Example 2.5).
Beach was remarkably inventive in her construction of a new theme out of Motive b, yet
keeping the original Motive b as a reminder, always tying Theme 2 back to Theme 1, its original
source (Example 2.8). In the transition material in mm. 93-100, we hear Motive b clearly
framing the transition material in the flutes and first violins, and also in the woodwinds (mm.
115-119) over the piano’s closing material, transitioning to Theme 3 in m. 132 (Example 2.9).50
Another notable testament to Beach’s creativity and skill in her construction of the
concerto is the way in which she weaves Theme 1 in the first and second violins above Theme 1
inverted in the cellos and basses (mm. 223-227). In mm. 216-219 (Example 2.7), Beach uses the
same technique again, but this time Theme 1 is inverted in the first and second violins and in the
cellos and basses it maintains its original shape. Theme 2, which enters in the piano in m. 69
(Example 2.8), can be considered a true theme and not simply a development of Theme 1,
because of how often it reappears and its precedence over the musical material surrounding it. 51
Theme 3, which enters in mm. 132 (Example 2.9), is taken from the middle section, mm.
39-45, of Beach’s song “Jeune fille et jeune fleur,” Op. 1, No. 3 (Example 2.10). Beach’s
concerto is not the only work in which she borrows thematic material from her songs. Her
“Gaelic” Symphony in E minor, Op. 32, takes the first theme of the last movement from the
song, “Dark is the night!” Op. 11, No. 1. She also uses a fragment of “Dark is the night!” in the
50
Rushing 2000, 41.
51
Rushing, 42.
18
first movement of the symphony.52 The “Gaelic” Symphony received rave reviews and
motivated George Whitefield Chadwick to communicate his admiration of her work, although
with a chauvinist slant:
I want you to know how much Mr. Parker and I enjoyed your symphony on Saturday
evening. It is full of fine things, melodically, harmonically, and orchestrally, and mighty
well built besides. I always feel a thrill of pride myself whenever I hear a fine work by
any one of us, and as such you have to be counted in, whether you will or not—one of the
boys.53
Motive a Motive b
Ex. 2.1. Beach, Concerto in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 45, Mvt. I, mm. 1-6, Theme 1. Theme 1
contains Motives a and b, which form the basis for other thematic material in the
movement.
52
Block, Amy Beach: Passionate Victorian, The Life and Work of an American Composer 1867-1944 (Oxford
University Press, 1998), 99.
53
19
Motive a
1 2
Ex. 2.2. Beach, Concerto in C-sharp Minor, Op. 45, Mvt. I, Motive a, the first part of Theme 1,
mm. 1-2.
Motive b
2 3 4 5
Ex. 2.3. Beach, Concerto in C-sharp Minor, Op. 45, Mvt. I, motive b, the second part of Theme
1, mm. 2-5.
Ex. 2.4. Beach, Mvt. I, mm. 407-410. Motive b is developed in the timpani.
Ex. 2.5. Beach, Mvt. I, mm. 407-410. Motive b is developed and fragmented in
this passage.
20
Ex. 2.6. Beach, Mvt. I, mm. 223-227, Theme 1 in the first and second violins and inverted in the
cellos and basses.
21
Ex. 2.7. Beach, Mvt. I, mm. 216-219, Theme 1 in the cellos and basses and inverted in
the first and second violins.54
Ex. 2.8. Beach, Mvt. I, mm. 69-74. Theme 2, derived out of Motive b, enters in
the piano solo.
The melody from “Jeune fille et jeune fleur” serves as a gorgeous Theme 3, the first
restful section in the concerto. Although in the concerto Theme 3 enters in mm. 132 in A major,
the melody is in D-flat major in the original song (Example 2.9).
54
Rushing, 42.
22
Beach read foreign-language magazines and drew poetry to set to music from them. Most
of these songs were performed in English in the United States.55 The only song Beach stipulated
must be performed in the original language was her French song, “Elle et moi,” Op. 21, No. 3,
which she noted could be sung in English, “only when the French was impossible to attain.”56
Ex. 2.9. Beach, “Jeune fille et jeune fleur,” Op. 1, No. 3, mm. 39-45. Theme 3 of Beach’s
Concerto, Mvt.I is derived from this vocal work.
55
Kelton, 3-23.
56
Kelton, 147.
23
Ex. 2.10. Beach, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Mvt. I, mm. 132-137, Theme 3.
Thematic material is from “Jeune fille et jeune fleur”.
The text of “Jeune fille et jeune fleur”:
Il descend, le cercueil, et les roses sans taches,

Qu'un père y dèposa, tribut de sa douleur,
24
Terre, tu les portas, et maintenant tu cache,
Jeune fille et jeune fleur.
Ah! ne les rends jamais à ce monde profane,

A ce monde de deuil, d'angoisse et de malheur,
Le vent brise et flètrit, le soleil brûle et fane
Tu dors, pauvre Elisa, si légère d'années,

Tu ne sens plus du jour le poids et la chaleur;
Vous avez achevé vos fraiches matinées,
Mais ton père, Elisa, sur la tombe s'incline:

De ton front jusqu’au sien a monté la paleur;
Vieux chêne! Le temps fauché sur ta racine,
Jeune fille et jeune fleur.57
The English translation is as follows:
The Fair Young Girl and Flower
The bier descends, the spotless roses too,

The father’s tribute in his saddest hour:
O Earth! That bore them both, thou hast thy due,
The fair young girl and flower
Give them not back unto a world again,

Where mourning, grief, and agony have power,
Where winds destroy and suns malignant reign
That fair young girl and flower.
Light thou sleepest, young Eliza, now,

Nor fear’st the burning heat, nor chilling shower:
They both have perished in their morning glow,
The fair young girl and flower.
But he, thy sire, whose furrowed brow is pale,

Bends, lost in sorrow, o’er thy funeral bower,
And Time the old oak’s roots doth now assail,
O fair young girl and flower.58
57
Beach and Chateaubriand, 1887.
58
Ibid.
25
Like the concerto, “Jeune fille et jeune fleur” (Example 2.9) begins in C-sharp minor,
although the middle section is in the parallel major. The subject matter, even in a major key, fits
the gloominess of C-sharp minor, and is reminiscent of the middle section of the third movement
of Chopin’s Sonata No. 2, in B-flat minor (“Funeral March”). It shares the sweet, nostalgic
quality of an uplifting major section within a gloomy minor key area.
“Jeune fille et jeune fleur” is associated with Beach’s husband, since he performed it a
year before they were married. Henry Beach (1843-1910) was a year older than Amy Beach’s
father, Charles Cheney (1844-1895). Amy Beach’s marriage to Henry was almost like a death, in
the sense that she had to give up her maiden name and her performing career. Henry wanted her
to focus on composing, so she reduced her public performances dramatically.59
Amy Beach’s song, “Empress of Night,” Op. 2, No. 3 (Example 2.11), forms the basis
of the second movement of the concerto, Scherzo (Perpetuum mobile). The orchestra becomes
the vocal line and the piano solo becomes the piano accompaniment from the original song. The
song was dedicated to Beach’s mother, who was a singer as well as a pianist, and the text was
written by Beach’s husband.60 The second movement, is unique in piano concerto repertoire in
that the piano plays continually with no orchestral tuttis. In addition, the piano accompanies the
orchestra throughout the movement while the orchestra has the melody; the piano never has the
melody.61 The movement may be an homage to Beach’s mother. The orchestra represents the
singer and the piano the accompaniment.
Out of the darkness, Radiant with light,

Shineth her brightness, Empress of Night.
As granules of gold, from her lofty height,
Or cataract bold (Amazing sight, amazing sight!)
59
60
61
Rushing, 49.
26
Falleth her jewels on ev’ry side,
Lighting the joybells, lighting the joybells of Christmastide.
Piercing the treeboughs that wave in the breeze,
Painting their shadows among dead leaves;
Kissing the sea foam that flies in the air,
When tossed from its home in waves so fair;
Silv’ring all clouds that darken her way,
As she lifts the shrouds, the shrouds of breaking day.62
Beach sets her husband’s text to an active, rollicking accompaniment with text painting under the
words such as “joybells of Christmastide,” where the vocal line reaches its highest pitch (G, at
mm. 15) and the accompaniment ascends, and “breeze,” where the accompaniment shifts from
eighth notes (m. 20) to sixteenth notes. After a nine-measure orchestra introduction, the piano
enters with the same accompanimental figure found in the beginning of the song (Example 2.12),
and the violas play the opening vocal line. In the B section Beach treats the “Empress of Night”
melody in mm. 23-24 (Example 2.14), as a flute and oboe solo in mm. 101-108 (Example 2.15).
The second movement is primarily in A major, with a C major middle section. Its form is
simpler than the first movement, with an introduction, A section, transition, B section, cadenza,
retransition, A section, and coda.63 The perpetual motion of the piano part creates a sense of
bubbling gaiety and movement, alternating with a darker mood of busyness and franticness.
Beach wrote in “Music after Marriage and Motherhood” for The Etude,
The constant interruptions that beset one who needs repose and time for reflection in such
a career require much patience and considerable diplomacy to prevent their distracting
influence from devitalizing and unnecessarily wearying the spirits that are so essential to
commanding work…64
62
Beach, Amy. Three Songs for Voice and Piano by Amy Beach, Op. 2, Boca Raton: Masters Music Publications,
Inc., 1999.
63
Rushing, 51.
64
27
Ex. 2.11. Beach, “Empress of Night,” Op. 2, No. 3, mm. 15-20. Text painting under the word
“joybells of Christmastide”.
28
Ex. 2.12. “Empress of Night”, Op. 2, No. 3, mm. 1-5. The violas play the vocal line in the
concerto.
29
Ex. 2.13. Beach, Mvt. II, mm. 11-17. The vocal line from the song, “Empress of Night” is
present in the violas.
Ex. 2.14. Beach, “Empress of Night”, mm. 23-24. This motive is used in mm. 101-108 of
Mvt. II of concerto in the flute and oboe solo.
30
Ex. 2.15. Beach, Mvt. II, mm. 101-108, the flute passes the “Empress of Night”
motive to the oboe.
Since Clara Cheney, Beach’s mother, was often sitting in the room where Beach was composing
or practicing, it is possible that Beach was expressing the struggle of remaining focused while
under observation by using material from “Empress of Night”—a song dedicated to her
(Example 2.12).65
The third movement of the concerto is based on Beach’s song, “Twilight,” Op. 2, No. 1
(Example 2.16). Beach’s husband also wrote these lyrics, movingly set as an undulating melody
over a funeral march rhythm in the accompaniment. “Twilight” is in E-flat minor, a dark and
gloomy key, befitting of Henry Beach’s mournful text:
No sun to warm
The darkening cloud of mist
But everywhere
The steamy earth sends up
A veil of gray and damp
To kiss the green and tender leaves
And leave its cool imprint
In limpid pearls of dew.
65
Ibid.
31
The blackened trunks and boughs
In ghostly silhouette
Mark grimly in the coming eve
The shadows of the past.
All sounds are stilled,
The birds have hushed themselves to rest
And night comes fast, to drop her pall
Till morn brings life to all.66
Beach uses the first seven measures of “Twilight” (Example 2.16) as Theme A of the third
movement of the concerto (Example 2.17). The third movement is in binary form, with Theme A
in F-sharp minor, a transition section in C-sharp minor, and back to Theme A in F-sharp minor.
There is a brief tonicization of A major in m. 33, descending chromatically to B-flat major in m.
39.67
The first statement of Theme A, drawn from mm. 1-7 of “Twilight” (Example 2.16),
occurs in the clarinet solo in the orchestra introduction (mm. 6-11) (Example 2.17). The opening
motive of the movement, however, played by the woodwinds in mm. 1-2, and repeated
throughout the movement, is taken from mm. 6-7 of “Twilight,” the setting of the words “But
everywhere” (Example 2.18).68
The fourth movement of the concerto, marked Allegro con scioltezza, meaning “loose,
free,”69 is in a modified sonata-rondo form. Instead of ABACA, the form of the fourth movement
is ABACBA.70 As thematic material, Beach uses mm. 47-53 of “Twilight” for Themes A and B.
Theme A is taken from mm. 47-53 of “Twilight”—“Till morn brings life to all” (Example 2.19),
66
67
Rushing, 54-55.
68
69
Blom and Fallows, 2001.
70
Rushing, 57-58.
32
and Theme C harks back to the third movement, using the first line of “Twilight,” mm. 1-7
(Example 2.16), as the melodic content of its lento section in mm. 124-128 (Example 2.22).71
Ex. 2.16. Beach, “Twilight,” Op. 2, No. 1, mm. 1-7. Employed as Theme A of the third
movement of the concerto.
71
33
Ex. 2.17. Beach, Mvt. III, mm. 6-11, clarinet solo. Theme A, taken from mm. 1-7 of “Twilight”.
Ex. 2.18. Beach, Mvt. III, mm. 1-2, “But everywhere” from “Twilight”, used as a
motive in the woodwinds.
Ex. 2.19. Beach, “Twilight,” Op. 2, No. 1, mm. 47-53, becomes Themes A and B of Mvt. IV of
the concerto.
34
For Theme A (Example 2.20) of the fourth movement of the concerto, Beach uses the
ascending third of “Till morn,” mm. 47 of “Twilight” (Example 2.19), developing it through
ascending scalar passages and figuration to extend three octaves. The fourth movement is in 6/8
meter and is in the style of a Chopin waltz.
Ex. 2.20. Beach, Piano Concerto, Mvt. IV, mm. 1-4, Theme A.
The second theme of the fourth movement of the concerto (Example 2.21) is an inversion
of the first theme. It is marked con grazia, creating a more carefree and lighthearted impression
than the first theme first stated mournfully in the clarinet solo (Example 2.17), and derived from
mm. 1.7 of “Twilight” (Example 2.19).72 After the busy activity of the first three sections (A, B,
A) there is a ritardando to lento and the first gloomy line of “Twilight” is reintroduced in mm.
125-128.73
72
73
35
Ex. 2.21. Beach, Piano Concerto, Mvt. IV, mm. 46-49, Theme 2.
The overall key relationship scheme of the fourth movement, C-sharp minor to D-flat
major, may be connected to the meaning of the text of “Twilight.” The last three measures,
“Brings life to all,” is marked religioso, which may indicate Beach’s religious beliefs and her
affiliation with the American transcendentalist movement, embodied by writers of the Boston
elite, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mr. Beach Wadsworth Longfellow, with whom Beach
was personally acquainted. In addition, the last three measures of “Twilight” emulate a choral
cadence. All half notes, the slow pianissimo chords resolve a B flat V4/3, to the tonic, E-flat
major. The key relationship scheme of “Twilight” is also from a minor key to its relative major,
although in this case it is E-flat minor to E-flat major instead of C-sharp minor to D-flat major.
In this movement the tempo accelerates from the C section, lento mm. 124-147 (Example
2.22), in the next two sections––B (mm. 148-168) and A (mm. 168-184)––and the Coda (mm.
185-205) begins the build-up to a dazzling finish. The piano has brilliant octaves, ascending in
melodic fourths and fifths, while the timpanis beat eighth-note descending fourths from the tonic,
36
D flat, to the dominant, A flat. The trumpets crescendo from piano to forte, while the flutes and
oboes remain in the stratosphere, playing a G-flat6 resolving to F6 as the third of the tonic final
chord, D-flat major, is repeated in the two strong beats of the penultimate measure, and finally
held in the final measure under a dramatic fermata, creating a triumphant finish to a magnificent
concerto.
In an article published in the Musical Courier in 1915, Beach talks about her concerto,
“The first [movement], ‘Allegro’, is serious in character, piano and orchestra vying with each
other in the development of the two principal themes”.74 Throughout the concerto piano and
orchestra are struggling to achieve dominance. During the second movement the piano is
completely subjugated—it never rises to the surface of the texture. But by the end of the concerto
the piano achieves victory.
The third and fourth movements, based on “Twilight” (Example 2.16), with Henry
Beach’s dark text, begin in a bleak state of little movement, dark and foreboding, but emerge into
bright, jubilance with the piano’s exultant waltz, moving from the Lento third movement, in F
sharp minor, to C sharp minor, to D flat major. The piano begins in a subservient role but takes
the lead by the end of the work. In Amy Beach’s life, she struggled to have agency—many
decisions were made for her. But by the time she wrote her concerto she was able to make the
decision to perform solo. Viewing the concerto from an autobiographical perspective, perhaps
the use of songs connected with her mother and husband give expression to the struggles she
endured in achieving autonomy and the freedom to fully exercise her musical prowess.
74
37
Ex. 2.22. Beach, Piano Concerto, Mvt. IV, mm. 124-128, Theme C. Theme taken from
mm. 1-7 of “Twilight”.
38
Ex. 2.23. Beach, “Twilight”, Op. 2, No. 1, mm. 53-55.
39
CHAPTER 3
PERFORMANCE AND RECEPTION HISTORY OF BEACH’S CONCERTO, OP. 45
Although Beach’s concerto was dedicated to Teresa Carreño, the renowned pianist never
performed it. During Beach’s lifetime the only performances of the concerto other than those she
gave herself were by Dagmar de Corval Ruebner with the Washington Symphony Orchestra,
conducted by Heinrich Hammer in 1911, at the Columbia Theatre in Washington, DC, and by
Helen Pugh, a student of Mrs. Crosby Adams. Beach wrote a letter dated December 1st, 1928, to
Arthur P. Schmidt requesting that he send the score and parts to Pugh, stating that she “plays it
superbly.”75
The reviews of the first performance of Beach’s concerto in April 1900, with Beach
performing and Emil Paur conducting the Boston Symphony, were less than favorable. The
negative reception of Beach’s performance of her own concerto contrasted with Boston critics’
hearty admiration of Beach’s past performances. The Boston Journal published a negative
review of the Beach concerto’s premier by Philip Hale:
It is now a week since the concerto was played, with Mrs. Beach herself as the pianist,
and the disappointment of the first night is only deeper today. The concerto was a
disappointment in nearly every way. The structure was large, pretentious; there was an
overabundance of outside ornamentation, but the interior was bare and commonplace,
and there is a well-defined suspicion that the foundations and walls were not substantial.
The themes were not distinguished; the development was too often vague and rambling;
the moods, when there were moods, were those of other composers; thus the mood of the
opening [part] of the slow movement was palpably Wagnerian. The first movement was
long drawn out, and when there was the thought of the end, there was a curiously
unexpected and meaningless appendix. The scherzo was harmonically monotonous, and
75
Block, Amy Beach, 145, 346.
40
the finale—not one measure now remains in the memory. The orchestration was crude
and necessarily ineffective.76
At this point, although previously shielding Beach from criticism, there is reason to
believe that Mr. Beach did not keep unfavorable reviews from her, because she received a letter
from Teresa Carreño on May 25, 1900, supporting her against the criticism she was receiving:
[All] that you tell me about the first appearance of this “godchild” of mine has greatly
interested me, and as to the controversy in the matter of criticism, it is not exceptional
for, with every work of importance, criticism finds itself rather uncertain as to what to
say. How can it be otherwise? How can anyone, whilst listening to a musical, important,
complicated and long work be able to form a final opinion from one hearing? Or even
two? . . . . From the moment a work is serious and based on deeper thoughts and feelings
we must study it each one for ourselves, and try and grasp it into our soul and then we can
do it justice.77
76
Jenkins, The Remarkable Mrs. Beach, American Composer: A Biographical Account Based on Her Diaries,
Letters, Newspaper Clippings, and Personal Reminiscences (Harmonie Park Press, 1994), 48.
77
Block, Amy Beach, 1998, 145. Italics in original.
41
Recent Performance and Reception of Concerto, Op. 45
The concerto, and many of Beach’s other compositions, fell into obscurity until second-
wave feminism of the 1970s. At that point there was still no available published copy of the
concerto.78 The only available manuscript has been in the Fleisher Collection of the Free Library
of Philadelphia, available only to organizations, as the collection is not for lending.79 Finally,
however, as of May 10, 2018, an edition of the full score of the Beach concerto has become
available from Subito Music Corporation, with individual parts available for rent from Subito
Music Library Rental from Zinfonia.80
Until the pianist Mary Louise Boehm went to the Philadelphia Library to find the Beach
Concerto, there were likely no performances between Boehm’s in the 1970s and Beach’s last
performance of the Concerto, probably in the 1920s or 30s. For forty years, then, the concerto lay
forgotten. Boehm stated that the full score of the concerto was never published, thus Beach most
likely had copies of score and parts that she carried with her, as did Kalkbrenner.81
In Boehm’s interview with Dean Elder for a 1976 issue of Clavier, Elder states that the
Beach concerto is as good a composition as MacDowell’s Concerto in D minor. Boehm responds
that she believes the Beach is the better piece, but that since the full score was never published it
has not gotten the attention it deserves.82
The review of literature available regarding Beach (chapter 1), shows that scholarship on
Beach grew exponentially in the 1970s. She has been the subject of three conferences—the Amy
Beach Conference and Concert series, at the University of New Hampshire in October of 1998;
78
Trotman, accesssed September 26th, 2018, https://www.amybeach.org/.
79
Elder, 16.
80
Trotman, 2018.
81
Elder, 16.
82
Elder, 16.
42
the New England Conservatory Spring Festival, “Musical Boston a Century Ago,” in March
1999; and the “Beach Conference” at the Mannes School of Music in New York, December
1999.83 A more recent Beach Conference was held at the University of New Hampshire, in
September of 2017, in memory of Beach’s 150th birthday.84
In addition to Boehm’s recording of the Beach concerto, in 1976, Joanne Polk recorded
all of Beach’s solo music, released in 1998–1999. Polk also recorded the concerto with the
English Chamber Orchestra, which was released in 2000.85
Beach’s other works have been performed much more than her concerto; yet even her
songs and chamber music works are under-performed in comparison with similar works of
Beethoven and Brahms (among others) etched in the classical canon. However, more
enterprising orchestras and artists have bravely programmed Beach in recent years. For example,
in December 2004, the Chicago Tribune interviewed Alan Heatherington, director of the Ars
Viva and Lake Forest Symphony, regarding his choice of programming Amy Beach’s Gaelic
Symphony as part of their season.86A press release dated August 17, 2007 states that Debra
Voigt sang Amy Beach’s art songs at Ravinia on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007.87 Another press
release, dated April 22, 2011 for the Chicago Tribune, states that Avalon String quartet
performed Amy Beach’s works at Gottlieb Hall in the Merit School of Music.88 And on June 2,
2016, a review was published of the Orion Ensemble performing Amy Beach on a program with
Brahms and Dvorak.89
83
Rushing, 64.
84
Trotman, 2017.
85
Rushing, 64.
86
Rhein, John von. 2004. “Alan Heatherington, A Man for All Music.” Chicago Tribune, December 26: 7-5.
87
Rhein, John von. 2007. "Music." Chicago Tribune, August 17: 7-17.
88
Rhein, John von. 2011. "John von Rhein Recommends." Chicago Tribune, April 22: 4-11.
89
Johnson, Lawrence. 2016. Chicago Classical Review. June 2. Accessed May 5, 2018.
43
Searching through conservatories’ digital media archives of live performances, Juilliard’s
reveals four performances of Beach’s songs by first and second year vocal students in 2005,
2012, 2014, and 2015, respectively.90 An Oberlin news search shows six performances of
Beach’s works in 2001 through 2018,91 and Eastman shows two, one in 2006 and one in 2018.92
Recent performances of the concerto include Troy High School’s Symphony Orchestra
performance of the first movement of the concerto with Karen Cao, soloist, conducted by Alan
McNair on May 21, 2015, in Troy, Michigan, which can be accessed on YouTube.93
In contacting several figures active in university piano departments, I found similarly
positive regard for Beach’s music, but, disappointingly, some responded in a way that shows
Beach still has few if any performances. On January 25, 2016, Geneva Stonecipher, an
undergraduate senior at the University of Georgia Athens’ Hugh Hodgson School of Music,
performed the Beach concerto with the school’s orchestra, conducted by Mark Cedel as a result
of UGA’s concerto competition.94 When asked “What was it like performing with the UGA
orchestra? . . . . How did you come to choose the Amy Beach concerto?” Stonecipher responded:
It was an awesome experience performing with the UGA orchestra. I heard Beach's
concerto around 3 years ago through a friend who was celebrating Beach's birthday and I
knew that I had to learn and perform it one day. In fact, I wanted to study it for the very
same reason why you took on this project––why don't [we know] more about this
fascinating composer and this incredible concerto?95
In email correspondence with Mark Cedel, I asked “ . . . do you have any thoughts on this
wonderful piece you would like to share with me? Were you familiar with the piece prior to
90
Juilliard Performance Recordings. Accessed December 3 rd, 2018.
http://jmedia.juilliard.edu/digital/search/searchterm/amy%20beach/field/all/mode/all/conn/and
91
Oberlin News. Accessed December 3rd, 2018.
https://www.oberlin.edu/search/google/edward%20macdowell#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=edward%20macdowell&gsc.sort=
92
Eastman School of Music News. Accessed December 3rd, 2018.
https://www.esm.rochester.edu/news?s=amy+beach
93
Tu, John. 2015. www.youtube.com. May 21. Accessed September 27, 2017.
94
University of Georgia, “Music”, 2016.
95
Geneva Stonecipher, email correspondence with author, January 3rd, 2018.
44
performing it with Ms. Stonecipher?” Cedel responded, “We did just the first movement of the
concert. It’s beautiful, very well written. I’d never heard it before.”96
Rosangela Sebba a piano professor at Mississippi State University, when asked if she or
any of her students had performed works by Amy Beach, responded: “. . . I have never
performed (solo or collaborative) or taught any of her works. I don’t think I heard any of her
works being performed on campus and I have been here for 17 years.” Heidi Louise Williams, a
professor of music at Florida State University, replied similarly: “I have never played any
of Beach's music; I think one of my former students, Beibei Lin, has played the violin sonata. I
did email her to ask but didn't hear back . . .”97
In 2015, Jihong Park, a graduate of Florida Atlantic University, performed Beach’s
Quintet. A recording was uploaded to Youtube on February 6, 2015.98
A piano professor of the University of Miami, when asked if she or any of her students
have performed works by Amy Beach, stated, “I know some former students who played the
viola sonata by Beach, but otherwise, I don’t recall any other . . . .”99
Most recently, with the advent of the new published edition of the full score of the Beach
concerto, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has programmed the Beach concerto in
their 2017-2018 season.100
Meanwhile, by way of comparison, MacDowell’s D minor concerto has been in print
since 1890, by Breitkopf and Hartel. MacDowell greatly benefited from his ability to study in
96
Mark Cedel, email correspondence with author, January 18 th, 2018.
97
Heidi Louise Williams, email correspondence with the author, December 22, 2017.
98
Park, Jihong. 2015. Youtube. February 6. Accessed September 26, 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8XbTyWY-4w.
99
University of Miami Piano Professor, correspondence with the author, January 22, 2018. Likely conflating the
Rebecca Clarke Viola Sonata, written in 1919 with the Amy Beach Violin Sonata.
100
Barber, Valerie. 2018. Konserthuset Stockholm. May. Accessed September 26, 2018.
https://www.konserthuset.se/en/royal-stockholm-philharmonic-orchestra/press/.
45
Europe as a young music student. He was able to meet Liszt in person, which instantly connected
him to Breitkopf and Hartel,101 whom Liszt introduced to MacDowell and who almost
immediately published MacDowell’s Second Modern Suite, Op. 14.102 MacDowell was also able
to begin performing his Piano Concerto No. 2 earlier than was Beach; in fact, he performed the
work at the great Paris Exposition of 1889. MacDowell died much earlier than Beach, in 1908 at
age 47.
Another advantage MacDowell’s Piano Concerto No. 2 enjoyed was that Teresa Carreño,
the dedicatee of the work, performed it early on, with conductor Theodore Thomas, in 1888, in
Chicago, and also in Leipzig.103
The availability of the MacDowell score thus followed, published by Breitkopf and
Härtel in 1890.104 Indeed, an internet search for the full score of MacDowell’s Concerto No. 2
reveals its availability from no fewer than five publishers, whereas only this year did the full
score of Beach’s concerto become available from any publisher.
In searching for recordings of Beach’s works, nine exist on the website of Arkiv Music,
whereas there are 113 recordings of works by MacDowell, and eight recordings of the Concerto
No. 2, by pianists Donna Amato, Van Cliburn, Eugene List, Frances Nash, Stephen Prutsman,
Seta Tanyel, Thomas Tirino, and Andre Watts.105 Until the last few years, only two professional
recordings of the Beach concerto were available. Currently, four are listed as commercially
available at Arkiv Music, including performances by pianists Mary Louise Boehm and Danny
Driver in addition to two recordings by pianist Alan Feinberg.
101
Nicholas, 2001.
102
Kefferstan, 12.
103
Kefferstan, 71.
104
Nicholas, 2001.
105
Arkiv Music. Accessed December 3rd, 2018. http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Name/Edward-
MacDowell/Composer/7466-1#drilldown_recordings
46
Conclusion
The Beach concerto deserves to have a higher place in the performance canon than it
currently occupies because it is a well-constructed work with great depth of emotion and many
layers of meaning—it has much to offer an audience. It contains a great variety of themes and
sophisticated compositional techniques, involving a wide range of textures in the orchestration.
The Beach concerto has four movements whereas the MacDowell has three. The nature of the
Beach concerto is more serious than the MacDowell, which unfairly hurt its reception. Critics
judged the Beach concerto harshly, stating that it was too complex and that the piano part was
too obstructed. The style of the MacDowell is more entertaining, like a Liszt or Saint-Saens
concerto, full of color and affect, whereas the Beach is more rigorous and Brahmsian, which
does not make the Beach a lesser work.
MacDowell benefited from the difference in social pressure relating to gender. He
enjoyed the freedom to study in Europe and gained valuable connections Beach was never able
to obtain. His work did not undergo the obscurity of Beach’s. He was known at one time as the
foremost composer of the US, whereas Beach was known simply as the foremost female
composer of the US. But only a handful of women were able to surmount the obstacles of
gaining the harmony and counterpoint instruction necessary to compose on this level, not to
mention the financial and emotional support for such a career in music.
Sadly, our society is only now adjusting to the inequities of our history, but it is
encouraging that Beach’s works have garnered more attention in recent years. Indeed, we might
also take heart in the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic’s press release:
Our new season includes works by some forty female composers, not to fill gender
quotas but because they are excellent pieces of music. . . . We are focused on renewing
the repertoire in the best possible way through commissioning new works and exploring
47
neglected compositions. We’re also determined to discover outstanding music by women,
pieces that are rarely if ever performed.106
Music schools, performing organizations, teachers, and performers, of all levels of ability
and in all communities, would do well to follow this example, and thus support all good musical
works equally. The Beach concerto is unique in its potentially autobiographical nature and its use
of Beach’s vocal works as thematic material. It is a microcosm of Beach’s time, and it shares a
message of one woman’s ascendance to a higher place in the music world than was previously
occupied. We should celebrate this benchmark in the performance canon for its quality as a
composition as well as for its significance to humanity.
106
Barber, 2018.
48
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
In the following literature review I list available works with annotations in chronological
order. Chapter 1 also includes a background of Amy Beach.
In an early article on Amy Beach, entitled “Musical Creative Work Among Women,”
dated 1896, Mrs. Crosby Adams portrays the composer as the most well-trained and erudite of
the female composers mentioned in the article. She also describes Beach’s development as a
composer.107
Further articles written during Beach’s lifetime include Helen A. Clarke’s “The Nature of
Music and Its Relation to the Question of Women in Music,” published in 1895, where Clarke
hypothesizes that if women receive an adequate music education, they too could enter the world
of composition.108 In 1909, C. A. Browne’s article, “Girlhood of Famous Women in Music,” was
published in The Etude, discussing many notable female musicians, including Amy Beach,
though focusing on her early years and marveling at how her faculties bloomed at such a young
age.109 In 1912, Arthur Wilson’s article, “Mrs. H. H. A. Beach: A Conversation on Musical
Conditions in America” was published in The Musician, in which he conveys Beach’s opinions
that obtaining a music education in America is better than receiving it abroad, that performers are
107
Adams, Mrs. Crosby, Music 9 (January, 1896), 163-72.
108
Helen A. Clarke, “The Nature of Music and Its Relation to the Question of Women in Music,” Music 7 (March,
1895): 453-61.
109
Cooke, “Girlhood of Famous Women In Music”, 1909.
49
of less value to a student’s music education than are their teachers, and her thoughts about the
compositions she is the most proud of.110
In 1914, an interview with Amy Beach, “Why I Chose My Profession: The
Autobiography of a Woman Composer: An Interview Written by Ednah Aiken,” was printed in
Mother’s Magazine. In this interview, Beach discusses her background, education, and her
mother’s influence.111
The Etude published Beach’s article, “Work Out Your Own Salvation,” in 1918, in which
Beach endorses learning from the pillars of the classical tradition such as Beethoven. She
advocates the approach she took, which was to notate music from memory and listen to good
orchestras. Her goal in giving this advice is to help composers and pianists become self-
reliant.112
In 1923, Oscar G. Sonneck wrote “American Composers and the American Music
Publisher,” published in The Musical Quarterly. Sonneck presented his ideas regarding what he
saw as an issue of publishers prioritizing European over American composers, in choosing
compositions to publish during the Music Teachers National Association meeting held December
28, 1922. Sonneck advocates that American composers, such as Beach, Chadwick, and Foote,
should occupy the same position in the music publishing world as European composers.113
In 1925, William Treat Upton’s article, “Some Recent Representative American Song
Composers,” was published in The Musical Quarterly. In this article Upton reviews the major
110
Wilson, 1912.
111
Tick, 1983.
112
Cooke, The Etude Magazine, 1918, 11-12.
113
Sonneck, 1823.
50
song composers between 1875–1925. He praises Beach’s “Ah, love, but a day,” as “a truly
distinctive song in its sincerity and depth of feeling.”114
In 1928 Burnett Corwin Tuthill’s article, “Fifty Years of Chamber Music in the United
States,” was published in the Music Teachers National Association Proceedings. Tuthill ranks
Beach with George Chadwick and Arthur Foote as a composer of chamber music. He states that
Beach’s Piano Quintet, Violin Sonata, and Variations for Flute and String Quartet should be
performed more frequently.115
In The Etude’s “An American Genius of World Renown: Mrs. H. H. A. Beach,”
published in 1928, Mrs. Crosby Adams describes her in-person interaction with Beach, in which
the composer impressed her with her warmness and interest in others. She also states that Dr. H.
H. A. Beach, proud of his wife’s beautiful playing, had remarked that he was “content to be the
tail to her kite.”116
In 1931 The Boston Symphony Orchestra: 1881–1931, by Mark Anthony DeWolfe
Howe, was published, a history and record of the activities of the Boston Orchestra, in which
Howe lists two performances by the Boston Symphony of Beach’s Piano Concerto and two
performances of her Gaelic Symphony.117
Also in 1931, Arthur Elson and Everett E. Truette’s Woman’s Work in Music appeared,
an assessment of women’s accomplishments in the music world, compared to men’s
accomplishments. They view Beach as the sole example of a “legitimate” American female
composer.118
114
Upton, 1925.
115
Tuthill, 1928.
116
Cooke, The Etude Magazine, 1928, 34.
117
Howe, 1931.
118
Elson and Truette, 1931.
51
A written report, printed in the Music Teachers’ National Association Proceedings 26, in
1931, documents Beach’s views of a division between the cerebral in music versus the
emotional. Beach postulates that in order for a composition to be convincing, both must work
together.119
In 1932 Sumner Salter’s article, “Early Encouragements to American Composers,” was
published in The Musical Quarterly. Salter describes the activities of a young Music Teachers
National Association, the National Federation of Music Clubs, the Manuscript Society, and other
music organizations striving to promote American composers. Amy Beach is mentioned as one
of the active members of MTNA.120
Beach, in the Music Teachers’ National Association Proceedings 27, published in 1932,
calls for funding for the MacDowell Colony and describes its importance. She thanks the
MacDowell Colony for its support of her work and lauds Mrs. MacDowell, its founder, for her
efforts.121
In 1932 in that year’s issue, No. 50, of The Etude, Amy Beach is featured in a page of
portraits of “The Etude Historical Musical Portrait Series—An Alphabetical Serial Collection of
the World’s Best Known Musicians.” On this page, The Etude states, “This series will be
continued alphabetically until the entire history of music is adequately covered. Start making a
collection now. Nothing like this has ever hitherto been issued.” The description under the photo
of Beach states that she is best known for her songs and piano compositions.122
119
Beach, “Emotion Versus Intellect In Music”, 1931.
120
Salter, 1932.
121
Beach, Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Of A Vision, 1931.
122
52
The Etude also chose Beach as a featured composer of piano music, in September 1937,
in their article, “A Favorite Composer: Mrs. H. H. A. Beach.” They included a brief biography
and overview of her most popular pieces.
Burnett Corwin Tuthill wrote an article on Beach in 1940 for The Musical Quarterly,
entitled “Mrs. H. H. A. Beach.” He uses Beach’s String Quartet as an example of the ways in
which Beach connects romantic and modern styles of composition.123
In 1943, Beach was interviewed for The Etude in an article entitled, “The ‘How’ of
Creative Composition—A Conference with Mrs. H. H. A. Beach—Distinguished and Beloved
American Composer—Secured expressly for The Etude by Benjamin Brooks.” In this article,
Beach enjoins young composers to “…write—Write all you can! If you have a Theme 2uzzing
around in your head, set it down on paper as quickly as you can. Then look at it. It is extremely
helpful to look at one’s notes, not merely to listen to them inside one’s mind.”124 She also notes
that “I do not recommend my system of study to the average student. It requires determination
and intensive concentration to work alone, and those who are not equipped for it would go
seriously afield. I have the greatest respect for formal educational guidance in music, even
though I have been able to assert myself without it. The average student needs guidance, and to
him I say, “If you have a good teacher, let your first step be to follow instructions and do as you
are told!”125
In 1944, during World War II, Beach was featured in “Among the Composers,” an article
in The Etude. In the article Beach is quoted as saying, “‘We who sing have walked in glory.’
What more can we say about singing than that? And was there ever a time when singing was
123
Tuthill, “Mrs. H. H. A. Beach”, 1940.
124
125
53
needed more badly than now?” Beach also recommends music as a panacea for the ills of the
war.126
In 1945, Musical America published “Mrs. Beach, Leading American Woman Composer,
Dies at 77.” The article reports Beach’s death, on December 27, 1944 in New York, in her home.
It includes a list of Beach’s more prominent works and a brief biography.127
In 1957, Helen J. Bean’s article, “Women in the Music House”, was published in
American Music Teacher. In it, Bean lauds Beach as the forerunner of professional female
musicians. She also discusses the growing acceptance of women in the music world.128
In the 1963 dissertation, “Mrs. H. H. A. Beach: Her Life and Music”, E. Lindsey Merrill
attempts to discover whether or not Beach’s compositional approach is the result of the time
period in which she lived and the gender bias surrounding her. Merrill incorporates assessments
by psychologists as well as detailed charts of musical analyses.129
In 1973, Karl Krueger’s book The Musical Heritage of the United States: The Unknown
Portion, was published. Krueger’s goal in this work is to bring attention to lesser-known
American composers. He includes a biography of Beach and discusses her Gaelic Symphony in
addition to other pieces.130
Judith E. Carman, William K. Gaeddert, and Rita M. Resch’s Art-song in the United
States, 1801–1976: An Annotated Bibliography appeared in 1976. Nine of Beach’s songs are
presented and her compositional style is examined. Detail is provided regarding the length of
each song, its character, the key of each song, and the setting for which it is intended.131
126
127
Eyer, 1945.
128
Bean, 1957.
129
E. Lindsey Merrill, “Mrs.. H. H. A. Beach: Her Life And Music,” (PhD diss., The University of Rochester,
Eastman School of Music, 1963).
130
Krueger, 1973.
131
Carman, Gaeddert and Resch, 1976.
54
Richard Freed’s “The Piano Works of Mrs. H. H. A. Beach: Demonstrating the
Irrelevance of Gender” appeared in a 1975 issue of Stereo Review. Freed compares Beach’s
works to those of male composers and argues that Beach deserves more recognition.132
And, as mentioned in chapter 1, in 1976 Clavier published Dean Elder’s “Where Was
Amy Beach All These Years? An Interview with Mary Louise Boehm.” Elder describes the
resurgence of interest in Beach’s music after falling into obscurity for years and credits the
pianist, Boehm, in assisting in their revival by recording Beach’s Piano Quintet. Elder includes a
list of Beach’s works at the end of his article.133
In 1977 Myrna Garvey Eden’s dissertation, “Anna Hyatt Huntington, Sculptor, and Mrs.
H. H. A. Beach, Composer: A Comparative Study of Two Women Representatives of The
American Cultivated Tradition in the Arts”, was published. In this document, Eden examines
Huntington’s and Beach’s works in the context of the existing canon. Eden’s goal was to garner
new interest in Huntington’s and Beach’s output since their presence had waned before the
revival in interest that occurred in the 1970s. She includes a list of recordings, a thorough
bibliography, and a catalog of works. 134
In 1978 Susan Stern wrote a listing for Beach in the reference work, Women Composers:
A Handbook. The purpose of this work is to provide exposure for female musicians who have
had music published, been awarded honors, or whose music has been performed publicly.135
132
Freed, Richard. 1975. “The Piano Works of Mrs. H. H. A. Beach: Demonstrating the Irrelevance of Gender.”
Stereo Review 35, December: 82-83
133
Elder, 1976.
134
Myrna Garvey Eden, “Anna Hyatt Huntington, Sculptor, and Mrs. H. H. A. Beach, Composer: A Comparative
Study of Two Women Representatives of The American Cultivated Tradition in the Arts,” (PhD diss., Syracuse
University, 1977).
135
Stern, 1978.
55
Also published in 1978, JoAnn Skowronski’s work, Women in American Music: A
Bibliography, includes literature pertaining to Amy Beach.136
In 1979, Adrienne Fried Block, who became the foremost Beach scholar, and Carol
Neuls-Bates’ book, Women in American Music: A Bibliography of Music and Literature, was
published. Block inserted many citations regarding Beach, as well as a thorough list of Beach’s
works.137 Also in 1979, Block’s introduction to Mrs. H. H. A. Beach’s Quintet in F-Sharp Minor,
for Piano and Strings, Op. 67 was published. Block characterizes the style of the Quintet as
exemplifying Beach’s middle period. She includes an analysis of the piece and describes its
reception history, particularly as one of the most-performed of Beach’s works.138
In 1980 Christine Ammer’s book, Unsung: A History of Women in American Music, was
published. Ammer devotes a lengthy section to Beach and discusses the “Amy Beach Clubs,”
which emerged in the early 20th century.139
In 1981 the Indiana Theory Review published Rose Marie Chisholm Flatt‘s “Analytical
Approaches to Chromaticism in Amy Beach’s Piano Quintet in F sharp Minor.” Flatt provides
an overview of chromaticism in the late nineteenth century, showing how Beach’s quintet
employs these precepts. Flatt includes charts of her analysis and excerpts from the quintet.140
Also in 1981, Marcelle Vernazza’s article, “Amy Beach and Her Music for Children”,
was published in the American Music Teacher, discussing how Beach, without sacrificing her
rich harmonic language, was able to create technically accessible pieces for young pianists with
smaller hands in her Children’s Album, Op. 36, and her Children’s Carnival, Op. 25.141
136
Skowronski, 1978.
137
Adrienne Block and Carol Neuls-Bates. 1979. Women in American Music: A Bibliography of Music and
Literature. Westport, Connecticut, and London: The Greenwood Press.
138
Block, “Introduction”, 1979.
139
Ammer, 1980.
140
Flatt, 1981.
141
Vernazza, 1981.
56
In 1982 Sylvia Glickman’s introduction to Amy Beach Piano Music,
a collection of Beach’s virtuoso compositions, was published by Da Capo Press. In Glickman’s
introduction she provides a brief biography of Beach and analyzes the pieces in this collection.142
Also in 1982, Carol Neuls-Bates’ article, “A Corollary to the Question: Sexual Aesthetics
in Music Criticism”, was published in Women in Music: An Anthology of Source Readings From
the Middle Ages to the Present. Neuls-Bates examines late-nineteenth-century views of Beach’s
works through news articles regarding the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 1898 performance of
Beach’s Gaelic Symphony.143
In 1983, Lindsey Merrill, the dean of the University of Missouri-Kansas City
Conservatory of Music, invited MTNA to see the UMKC’s performance of Cabildo, Beach’s
only opera, in American Music Teacher, a publication of MTNA. Merrill mentions that Beach
was a longstanding member of MTNA and gives a brief biography, as well as summarizing the
opera’s plot and compositional style.144
Felicia Ann Piscitelli chose Beach’s works as the topic of her dissertation for her PhD at
the University of New Mexico, published in 1983. Her dissertation, “The Chamber Music of
Mrs. H. H. A. Beach (1867–1944),” describes the evolution of Beach’s style, beginning as a pure
late-Romantic style and developing to include more modern influences.145
Also in 1983, Judith Tick’s book, American Women Composers before 1870, was
published. It was one of the first books written regarding female American composers before
142
Glickman, 1982.
143
Neuls-Bates, 1982.
144
Merrill, L., 1982.
145
Piscitelli, 1983.
57
1870. Tick discusses the views toward women conveyed in etiquette books, women’s lack of
access to a formal music education, and how they were trained musically.146
Block attempts to answer the question of why Beach arose to prominence during her
lifetime in “Why Amy Beach Succeeded as a Composer: The Early Years.” Current Musicology
published Block’s article in 1983. Block hypothesizes that Mr. Beach contributed to Amy’s
success by providing for her.147
In 1984, for Vol. 2 of the series The Musical Woman: An International Perspective,
1984–85, edited by Judith Lang Zaimont, Adrienne Fried Block wrote “Arthur P. Schmidt,
Music Publisher and Champion of American Women Composers,” discussing Schmidt’s part in
promoting American Women Composers, especially Beach. The Arthur P. Schmidt collection at
the Library of Congress contains many works by female composers, most of them by Beach. 148
A discography including Beach’s works, published in 1984, and compiled by Aaron
Cohen, was entitled International Discography of Women Composers, and includes detailed
information on Beach’s works recorded on LP.149
In 1985 Marmaduke Sidney Miles’s dissertation as part of their PhD “The Solo Piano
Works of Mrs. H. H. A. Beach” appeared.150 Miles gives an overview of Beach’s approach to
composition by discussing her earliest to her latest pieces and following Beach’s style as it
changed from the beginning to the end of her life.151
146
Tick, 1983.
147
Block, “Why Amy Beach Succeeded as a Composer: The Early Years,” Current Musicology, No. 36 (1983): 41-
59.
148
Block, “Arthur P. Schmidt, Music Publisher and Champion of American Women Composers”, 1984-85.
149
Cohen, 1984.
150
Marmaduke Sidney Miles, “The Solo Piano Works of Mrs. H. H. A. Beach,” (PhD diss., Peabody Institute of the
Johns Hopkins University, 1985).
151
Miles, 1985.
58
In 1987, ten years after her dissertation on Anna Huntington and Amy Beach, Myrna
Garvey Eden’s Energy and Individuality in the Art of Anna Huntington, Sculptor and Amy
Beach, Composer was published. Eden’s goal was to promote the worth of Huntington and
Beach in the arts world. She discusses the ways in which Beach and Huntington extend the
tradition of romanticism in their respective genres, taken in part from her dissertation. An
addition to her previous document is a number of photographs of Huntington’s sculptures and
Beach’s musical scores.152
The 1987 edition of Judith Lang Zaimont’s book, The Musical Woman: An International
Perspective, provides charts and lists of female composers and performers’ activities in music,
including Beach’s.153
Adrienne Fried Block analyzes Beach’s works A Hermit Thrush at Morn, Elle et moi, and
Symphony in E Minor, and includes a biography for the section on Beach in the anthology,
Historical Anthology of Music by Women (1987), edited by James R. Briscoe.154
Diane Peacock Jezic included a section on Beach entitled “Amy Marcy Cheney Beach
(1867–1944) in her Women Composers: The Lost Tradition Found (1988). This section includes
a short biography, a timeline, a bibliography, a brief discography, and a list of Beach’s works. 155
In 1989, Leslie Petteys’ article, “Cabildo by Amy Marcy Beach”, was published in the
Opera Journal. In the article, Petteys describes the compositional process of Beach’s opera,
finished in 1932 but not performed until 1945. Petteys also includes an analysis of the work and
identifies its main themes.156
152
Eden, Energy and Individuality In The Art of Anna Huntington, Sculptor, And Amy Beach, Composer, 1987.
153
Zaimont, 1987.
154
Block, “Amy Marcy Beach (1867-1944)”, 1987.
155
Jezic, 1988.
156
Petteys, 1989.
59
Block wrote “Amy Beach’s Music on Native American Themes” for American Music
(1990), in which Block analyzes Beach’s String Quartet, Op. 89, placing it in the context of the
revival of interest in folk song, stemming from the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1892. 157
Also in 1990, Block’s article, “Dvorak, Beach, and American Music”, was published in
the anthology A Celebration of American Music: Words and Music in Honor of H. Wiley
Hitchcock, edited by Richard Crawford, R. Allen Lott, and Carol J. Oja. Block explained how
Beach responded to Dvorak’s call on American composers to use native folk music in their work,
by writing the Gaelic Symphony, employing Anglo-American folk music.158
In Sylvia Glickman’s introduction to American Women Composers: Piano Music from
1865–1915, published in 1990, she mentions the emergence of the “Mrs. Beach” clubs and
discusses Sous les Etoiles, among other works by Beach.159
Ann E. Feldman details the activities of women composers at the World’s Columbian
Exposition in her 1990 publication, “Being Heard: Women Composers and Patrons at the 1893
World’s Columbian Exposition.”160 Feldman revealed that Amy Beach was not the first female
composer whose works were performed by the Boston Symphony. Margaret Lang’s Dramatic
Overture was performed on April 7, 1893, whereas Beach’s Gaelic Symphony, the second work
by a woman performed by the Boston Symphony, was performed October 30, 1896.161
Nicholas E. Tawa wrote The Coming of Age of American Art Music: New England’s
Classical Romanticists (1991), discussing the cultural framework, musical education, and family
of Amy Beach, among other composers of New England.162
157
Block, “Amy Beach’s Music on Native American Themes”, 1990.
158
Block, “Dvorak, Beach, and American Music”, 1990.
159
Glickman, “Introduction”, 1990.
160
Ann Feldman, “Being Heard: Women Composers and Patrons at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition,”
Notes: The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 47 (September 1990): 7-20.
161
Feldman, 1990.
162
Tawa, 1991.
60
Linda Whitesitt’s 1991 “‘The Most Potent Force’ in American Music: The Role of
Women’s Music Clubs in American Concert Life” aims to provide a thorough overview of
women’s activities in music over time, from as early as the Renaissance. Whitesitt discusses the
women’s music clubs that existed during Beach’s time, and quotes Beach, “I can not express too
strongly my belief in the value of women’s clubs as a factor in the development of our
country.”163
Also in 1991, Carolyn Livingston’s “Characteristics of American Women Composers:
Implications for Music Education” appeared in Update: Applications of Research in Music
Education. Livingston compares the lives of American women composers, including Beach. She
characterizes these composer’s traits and discusses how their examples can be used to motivate
young women in music education.164
In 1992 Gail Smith’s introduction to a collection of Beach’s piano music entitled The Life
and Music of Amy Beach: “The First Woman Composer of America,” was published. Smith
describes Beach’s life, includes photographic illustrations, and discusses previously unpublished
early works.165
In 1992, Douglas Bomberger’s “Motivic Development in Amy Beach’s Variations on
Balkan Themes, Op. 60” appeared in American Music. In this article he describes the origins of
the Balkan folk songs on which Beach based her Variations. He examines the political
implications of the folk songs and provides a thorough analysis. He also describes the four
163
Linda Whitesitt. 1991. “‘The Most Potent Force’ in American Music: The Role of Women’s Music Clubs in
American Concert Life.” in The Musical Woman: An International Perspective, edited by Judith Lang Zaimont,
663-81. New York, Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press.
164
Livingston, 1991.
165
Smith, 1992.
61
versions of the Variations, assessing the 1906 and original version as the best. He states that
Beach edited the Variations for extra-musical, financial reasons.166
Mary Katherine Kelton wrote her dissertation for her PhD on Beach’s songs, entitled,
“The Songs of Mrs. H. H. A. Beach,” published in 1992. Kelton includes a thorough biography
and discusses Beach’s 117 songs and their sources, which include the MacDowell Colony
Collection, the Beach Collection in the University of New Hampshire Library, and the Schmidt
Collection in the Library of Congress. Kelton identifies Beach’s style periods and places her
songs within this context.167
In 1993, Elizabeth Ann Sears discusses the songs of Foote, Beach, and MacDowell in her
dissertation entitled, “The Art Song in Boston, 1880–1914.”168
Also in 1993, Laurel Keddie Verissimo’s thesis, “Amy Beach: Her Life, Times and
Music”, was published. Verissimo investigates Beach’s success and introduces the Theme and
Variations, Op. 80, which had not yet been published.169
In 1993, Adrienne Fried Block’s reply to Bomberger’s article appeared in American
Music as “Communications: on Beach’s Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60.” Block argues
that Beach shortened her Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60 for musical, not financial,
reasons.170
Also in 1993, Claudia MacDonald’s “Critical Perception and the Woman Composer: The
Early Reception of Piano Concertos by Clara Wieck Schumann and Amy Beach” appeared in
166
Bomberger, 1992.
167
Kelton, 1992.
168
Elizabeth Ann Sears, “The Art Song in Boston, 1880-1914,” (PhD diss., The Catholic University of America,
1993).
169
Verissimo, 1993.
170
Block, “Communications: On Beach’s Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60”, 1993.
62
Current Musicology. MacDonald compares the reception of Wieck and Beach’s concertos to
their male contemporaries.171
Geralyn Schultz’s 1994 examination of the ways in which Beach combined traditional
femininity with new ideals of women’s independence and self-reliance is entitled, “Influences of
Cultural Ideals of Womanhood on the Musical Career of Mrs. H. H. A. Beach.172
Also in 1994, Adrienne Fried Block’s “A ‘Veritable Autobiography?’: Amy Beach’s
Piano Concerto in C Sharp Minor, Op. 45 appeared in The Musical Quarterly. This article
became part of her book, Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian: The Life and Work of an American
Composer, 1867–1944 (year]). Block discusses Beach’s conflict between her desire to perform
and her desire to please her mother and husband, and how this conflict manifests in her
concerto.173
In 1994, Block’s “Introduction to Amy Beach’s Quartet on Inuit Themes: Toward a
Modernist Style” appeared in the compilation Music of the United States of America. Block
discusses Beach’s use of folk songs for this work, and states that the string quartet was written at
the height of Beach’s fascination with folk song.174
Walter S. Jenkins’ definitive work, The Remarkable Mrs. Beach, American Composer: A
Biographical Account Based on Her Diaries, Letters, Newspaper Clippings, and Personal
Reminiscences, was published in 1994. Jenkins, who was also a composer and knew Beach
personally, passed away in 1990, before the book could be published. However the editor, John
H. Baron, finished the book and published it four years later. Jenkins give in-depth biographical
171
MacDonald, 1993.
172
Geralyn Schultz, “Influences of Cultural Ideals of Womanhood on the Musical Career of Mrs. H. H. A. Beach,”
(Master’s thesis, University of Wyoming, 1994).
173
Block, “A ‘Veritable Autobiography’?: Amy Beach’s Piano Concerto in C Sharp Minor, Op. 45”, 1994.
174
Block, “Introduction to Amy Beach’s Quartet on Inuit Themes: Toward a Modernist Style”, 1994.
63
detail on Beach’s life and discusses each of her major works. He also includes an analysis of the
Gaelic Symphony.175
Amy Beach and Her Chamber Music: Biography, Documents, Style, by Jeanell Wise
Brown, was also published in 1994. Brown describes pre-twentieth-century Boston and details
the compositional style of Beach’s chamber music.176
Cecelia Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music ([year]), edited by Susan
C. Cook and Judy S. Tsou, contains a section by Adrienne Fried Block entitled “The Child is the
Mother of the Woman: Amy Beach’s New England Upbringing.” Block uncovers previously
unknown conflicts between Beach and her mother, those discovered in a recently unearthed
autobiographical sketch.177
Lorraine Wanlass Wood’s master’s thesis entitled “Musical Keys to Success: A
Historical-Philosophical Study of the Life and Work of Amy Beach, American Composer,” was
published in 1995. Wood discusses the influence of Beach’s era on her formation and examines
the reasons for Beach’s success, crediting Beach’s individual beliefs as a factor.178
Barbara Jean Reigles chronicles Beach’s performing career and performances of her
works, as well as providing background on the state of choral music in America in her
dissertation, entitled “The Choral Music of Amy Beach”. Reigles also lists Beach’s choral works
and categorizes them by level of difficulty.179
175
Jenkins, 1994.
176
Brown, 1994.
177
Block, “The Child is Mother of the Woman: Amy Beach’s New England Upbringing”, 1994.
178
Lorrain Wanlass Wood, “Musical Keys To Success: A Historical-Philosophical Study of the Life and Work of
Amy Beach, American Composer,” (Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1995).
179
Barbara Jean Reigles, “The Choral Music of Amy Beach, (PhD diss., Texas Tech University, 1996).
64
Carla Anita Miller’s master’s thesis, entitled “A Pedagogical Perspective on Selected
Piano Music of Amy Beach,” analyzes Beach’s Children’s Carnival, Op. 25, 1–6, assessing the
pedagogical level of each piece.180
Mary Katherine Kelton wrote “Mrs. H. H. A. Beach and Her Songs for Solo Voice” for
the Journal of Singing, published in 1996, and discusses the reasons for the long obscurity of
Beach’s songs and the gender bias she faced. Kelton also analyzes Beach’s songs and advocates
that they be taken seriously and not dismissed as “parlor songs” as they were often classified
during her time.181
In her dissertation, entitled “Pedagogical Analysis and Sequencing of Selected
Intermediate-Level Solo Piano Compositions of Amy Beach,” published in 1996, Donna
Elizabeth Congleton Clark organizes for pedagogical purposes some of Beach’s more accessible
works for piano students. Clark selects works from Beach’s The Children’s Album, Op. 36, From
Six to Twelve, Op. 119, Four Eskimo Pieces, Op. 64, and Scottish Legend, Op. 54, No. 1.182
Also in 1996, Elizabeth Moore Buchanan published her master’s thesis, entitled “The
Anthems and Service Music of Amy Beach Published by the Arthur P. Schmidt Company.”
Buchanan describes the religious climate directly preceding Beach and contextualizes Beach’s
worship music, such as Beach’s Te Deum, Op. 63a, and Canticle of the Sun, Op. 123.183
180
Carla Anita Miller, “A Pedagogical Perspective on Selected Piano Music of Amy Beach,” (Master’s thesis,
Western Carolina University, 1996).
181
Kelton, “Mrs. H. H. A. Beach and Her Songs for Solo Voice”, 1996.
182
Clark, 1996. Clark received her DMA in Piano Pedagogy from the University of South Carolina.
183
Elizabeth Moore Buchanan, “The Anthems and Service Music of Amy Beach Published by the Arthur P. Schmidt
Company,” (Master’s thesis, The American University, 1996).
65
Stephen Paul Burnaman’s “The Solo Piano Music of Edward MacDowell and Mrs. H. H.
A. Beach: A Historical Analysis” compares Beach and MacDowell. He provides a history of
American music and analyzes Beach and MacDowell’s compositional styles.184
In 1998, Paula Ring Zerkle’s dissertation entitled, “A Study of Amy Beach’s Grand Mass
in E flat Major, Op. 5” appeared. The mass is notable as the first large-scale work by an
American woman performed in public. 185
Adrienne Fried Block’s definitive biographical work, Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian:
The Life and Work of an American Composer, 1867–1944, was published in 1998. Block
includes a large amount of primary source material, such as newspaper clippings, interviews, and
letters. 186
In 1999, Carolyn Marie Treybig’s dissertation, “Amy Beach: An Investigation and
Analysis of the Theme and Variations for Flute and String Quartet, Op. 80”, was published.
Treybig advocates for this work to be more frequently performed in the current repertoire.187
Ching-Lan Yang’s 1999 dissertation, “An Analytical Study of the Piano Concerto in C-
sharp Minor, Op. 45,” gives a detailed analysis of the concerto, but she also provides
biographical information and insight into Beach’s compositional style.188
184
Stephen Paul Burnaman, “The Solo Piano Music of Edward MacDowell and Mrs. H. H. A. Beach: A Historical
Analysis” (PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1997).
185
Paula Ring Zerkle, “A Study of Amy Beach’s Grand Mass in E flat Major, Op. 5,” (PhD diss., Indiana
University, 1998).
186
Block, 1998.
187
Carolyn Marie Treybig, “Amy Beach: An Investigation and Analysis of the Theme and Variations for Flute and
String Quartet, Op. 80,” (PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1999).
188
Ching-Lan Yang, “An Analytical Study of the Piano Concerto in C-sharp Minor, Op. 45, by Amy Beach,” (PhD
diss., University of North Colorado, 1999).
66
Block’s “Amy Beach as a Teacher,” published by American Music Teacher in 1999,
describes how, while refusing to teach music lessons directly, Beach taught through her
interviews and with the formation of music clubs.189
Rebecca Straney Russell’s “A Study of Representative Musical Settings of the Poetry of
Sara Teasdale by Josephine McGill, Fay Foster, Alice Barnett, Mabel Wood Hill, and Amy
Beach” was published in 1999. Russell discovered that Beach set more of Sara Teasdale’s poetry
to music than any of the other four composers included in this study. Russell discusses the
methods each composer used to set Teasdale’s poetry and evaluates their use of text painting and
accompaniment versus vocal line, among other stylistic devices.190
In “Gender, Genre and Professionalism: The Songs of Clara Rogers, Helen Hopekirk,
Amy Beach, Margaret Lang and Mabel Daniels, 1880–1925” (1999), Laurie K. Blunsom
compares five female Boston composers, and describes the social expectations of the time and
the challenges they faced. She also gives the reception history of their vocal works and describes
the marketing and publishing realities they faced.191
Wilma Reid Cipolla wrote an essay, included in the collection Vistas of American Music:
Essays and Compositions in Honor of William K. Kearns, entitled “Arthur P. Schmidt: The
Publisher and His American Composers,” and published in 1999. Cipolla explains that Schmidt
was one of the foremost supporters of American composers, particularly New England
Composers at the turn of the century, including Amy Beach.192
189
Block, “Amy Beach as a Teacher”, 1999.
190
Rebecca Straney Russell, “A Study of Representative Musical Settings of the Poetry of Sara Teasdale by
Josephine McGill, Fay Foster, Alice Barnett, Mabel Wood Hill, and Amy Beach,” (PhD diss., Indiana University,
1999).
191
Laurie K. Blunsom, “Gender, Genre and Professionalism: The Songs of Clara Rogers, Helen Hopekirk, Amy
Beach, Margaret Lang and Mabel Daniels, 1880-1925,” (PhD diss., Brandeis University, 1999).
192
Cipolla, 1999.
67
Katrina Rushing’s “Amy Beach’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in C-sharp Minor,
Op. 45: A Historical, Stylistic, and Analytical Study” (2000) provides an in-depth analysis,
comparing Beach’s concerto to composers such as Chopin and Tchaikovsky. She also delves into
Beach’s use of her songs in the concerto. Rushing includes a biography and provides much detail
regarding the circumstances surrounding the concerto’s first performances, with critics’ reviews
and contemporary accounts.193
Tammie Leigh Walker’s dissertation on Beach’s quintet, entitled, “The Quintet for Piano
and Strings, Op. 67 by Amy Beach: An Historical and Analytical Investigation” (2001), places
Beach’s quintet in the lexicon of other chamber works of the period and provides an in-depth
analysis.194
Beach’s religious side is explored in Elizabeth Moore Buchanan’s article for the Choral
Journal, “Connection: A Medieval Text and Twentieth-Century Expressionism in the Canticle of
the Sun, by Amy Beach,” published in 2001. Buchanan suggests that Beach and her husband
connected through their shared religious beliefs.195
Adrienne Fried Block’s introduction to a collection of Beach’s music, entitled Amy Beach
Piano Music (2001), republished by Dover from the original Theodore Presser and Arthur P.
Schmidt edition, includes works dated from 1892–1922.196
Chang-Jin Song’s “Pianism in Selected Partsong Accompaniments and Chamber Music
of the Second New England School (Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, George Whitefield Chadwick,
and Horatio Parker), 1880–1930,” appeared in 2005. Song focuses on the piano accompaniments
193
Katrina Carlson Rushing, “Amy Beach’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in C-sharp Minor, Op. 45: A
Historical, Stylistic, and Analytical Study”, (DMA diss., Louisiana State University, 2000).
194
Tammie Leigh Walker, “The Quintet for Piano and Strings, Op.67 by Amy Beach: An Historical and Analytical
Investigation”, (PhD diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001).
195
Elizabeth Moore Buchanan, “Connection: A Medieval Text and Twentieth-Century Expressionism in the
Canticle of the Sun, by Amy Beach”, 2001.
196
Block, “Introduction”, 2001.
68
to the partsongs of American composers, including Beach, and discusses their compositional
features and technical demands.197
Yu-Hsien Judy Hung’s “The Violin Sonata of Amy Beach” (2005) discusses other
chamber works by Beach and includes a biography and the reception history of Beach’s violin
sonata. Hung also includes a detailed analysis.198
Bruce Gbur edited Two Pieces for Flute, Cello and Piano, Op. 90 by Beach, published in
2009, and includes a preface discussing Beach at the MacDowell Colony, where she wrote these
two pieces.199
Karin Pendle and Melinda Boyd included a number of citations on Beach in their
annotated bibliography, Women in Music: A Research and Information Guide (2010).200
Sarah Gerk’s thesis, entitled “A Critical Reception History of Amy Beach’s Gaelic
Symphony,” begins with an overview of her methodology of research, discusses Beach’s
background, examines the key players in the premiere of the symphony, lists the performances of
the symphony during Beach’s lifetime, delves into the gender issues at stake, and examines the
nationalist implications of the symphony.201
Sharon Llewellyn’s dissertation, entitled “Amy Beach and Judith Lang Zaimont: A
Comparative Study of their Lives and Songs,” appeared in 2008. Llewellyn traces the women’s
rights movement from 1848 onward, and places Beach and Zaimont within the context of 19th-
197
Chang-Jin Song, “Pianism in Selected Partsong Accompaniments and Chamber Music of the Second New
England School (Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, George Whitefield Chadwick, and Horatio Parker), 1880-1930”, (PhD
diss., Ball State University, 2005).
198
Yu-Hsien Judy Hung, “The Violin Sonata of Amy Beach”, (PhD diss., Louisiana State University, 2005).
199
Gbur, 2009.
200
Pendle and Boyd, 2010.
201
Sarah Gerk, “A Critical Reception History of Amy Beach’s Gaelic Symphony,” (Master’s thesis, California State
University, Long Beach, 2006).
69
and early-20th-century cultural views towards women. She follows the compositional styles of
both Zaimont and Beach as they developed and compares their output and circumstances.202
202
Sharon Llewellyn, “Amy Beach and Judith Lang Zaimont: A Comparative Study of Their Lives and Songs,”
(PhD diss., Arizona State University, 2008).
70
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AMY BEACH FOR THE NEW GENERATION: THE EFFECTS OF INCREASED INTEREST

IN BEACH’S WORKS ON THE CURRENT PLACE IN THE PERFORMANCE CANON OF

CONCERTO FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA IN C SHARP MINOR, OP. 45

MONICA SCHULTZ BAKER

KEVIN THOMAS CHANCE, CHAIR

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements

performances of Beach’s concerto.

enduring and as musical as that of Henry and Amy Beach.

LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES…………………………………………………………..…...vi

CHAPTER 1. BEACH’S BACKGROUND……………………..………………………………..1

CHAPTER 2. ANALYSIS OF BEACH’S PIANO CONCERTO IN C-SHARP MINOR, OP.45

CHAPTER 3. PERFORMANCE AND RECEPTION HISTORY OF BEACH’S CONCERTO,

Recent Performance and Reception of Concerto, Op. 45………………………….…………….42

Example. 1.1. Beach, “The Rainy Day”, mm. 1-9 ……………………………………………..…5

Example 2.4. Beach, Mvt. I, mm. 407-410. Motive b…………………………………………...20

Example 2.5. Beach, Mvt. I, mm. 407-410. Motive b …………………………………………..20

Example 2.6. Beach, Mvt. I, mm. 223-227, Theme 1 …………………………………………...21

Example 2.13. Beach, Mvt. II, mm. 11-17………………………………………………………30

Example 2.15. Beach, Mvt. II, mm. 101-108……………………………………………………31

Example 2.16. Beach, “Twilight,” Op. 2, No. 1, mm. 1-7…………………………………….…33

Example 2.17. Beach, Mvt. III, mm. 6-11……………………………………………………….34

Example 2.18. Beach, Mvt. III, mm. 1-2………………………………………………………...34

Example 2.19. Beach, “Twilight,” Op. 2, No. 1, mm. 47-53…………………………………….34

Example 2.23. Beach, “Twilight”, Op. 2, No. 1, mm. 53-55………………………………….....39

associations exceptionally vivid.

accomplished singer and pianist, who sometimes performed publicly.6

their admiration too enthusiastically.7

for the famed pianist, Rafael Joseffy (1852–1915).11

she had few other friends her age.

Rainy Day” to music, as shown in Example 1.1.12

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;

to male and female composers alike—ten percent.22

involvement with the Church of the Advent.24

the time that Shattuck served as Harvard’s dean.

medical apprenticeship before entering the Harvard Medical School.25

and more attention.

encouragement, she wrote to a friend:

professionally, and musically.30

men other than himself.31

1918, in Chicago and Minneapolis.35

with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra.36

ANALYSIS OF BEACH’S PIANO CONCERTO IN C-SHARP MINOR, OP. 45 AND

content and was treated more kindly by critics and audiences.

advised that Beach write shorter, less grandiose works.

No doubt there is much beauty in the work, no little genuineness of feeling, a

been considered a lady by the conservative standards of 19th-century Boston. Carreño

Op. 23, but never played the Beach concerto.42

performance time for Beach’s concerto runs approximately 35 minutes as opposed to

Etude that a composition can be a ‘veritable autobiography’, it is interesting to draw comparisons

117, all for solo voice and piano.48

by thirds, then passing the fragment of Theme 1 to the oboes in m. 25.

which enters in m. 69 (Example 2.8).

recapitulation (Example 2.5).

with a chauvinist slant:

the melody is in D-flat major in the original song (Example 2.9).

The text of “Jeune fille et jeune fleur”:

Il descend, le cercueil, et les roses sans taches,