Amy Beach Biography

Introduction

Amy Beach's first official music composition, With Violets, remains one of the most influential pieces. Born at a period women featured less in music profession and composition, Amy Beach's status as a pianists ad composer rose and became eminent in all her productions. She became the first women ever to come up with a symphony in addition to a mass. According to Block (14), she became a favorite among many music lovers and enthusiasts all over the world beyond her American background. All through Europe, Canada, the United States, Amy Beach's professional work and personal life stretched beyond the borders. She was born and raised in the United States on 5th September 1867, a time when women featured less in musical composition and vocals. Jeanell Wise Brown argues that Amy Beach became the first American woman to achieve such success in music without European training (Block 14). She featured her production and compositions in both the United States and European nations. Amy Beach remains the most respected and influential pianists and music composer within and outside the American borders.

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Childhood and Musical Education

Amy Beach was born and raised in New Hampshire in the United States to Clara Imogene Marcy Cheney and Charles Abbott Cheney. From an early age, her mother, Clara had excellent piano skills and vocals. A look at her family depicts personalities with a great liking for art as her aunt Emma Francis taught piano and music in Boston. Emma's daughter, Ethel showed artistic talent in art subjects (Logan 17). By the age of one, Amy Beach was at a position to sing over forty pieces of songs correctly with a great inventing of countermelody. She gradually learned to compose musical waltzes in one of her grandfather's homes. According to Logan (29), it was difficult to understand how she achieved to produce the musicals as she had no piano at the time (Logan 47). In her book Amy Beach and Her Chamber Music, Jeanell Wise argues that Amy Beach composed the pieces in her mind and put them together logically later at home. Her mother played a crucial role in helping her stay tuned to her development in music composition. However, according to Block (14), at times, she was prevented from using the family piano with most of her siblings and parents holding it that to give her permission would overindulge her in unnecessary entertainment and further damage her discipline.

Officially, she began piano training when she hit six years. Within a short duration, she had gained the confidence to perform before an audience a feat that propelled her to stardom at an early age. Her exposure led to several invitations for performances in addition to attracting various musical representatives to organize for her international tour (Block 14). Amy later regretted her parent's authoritativeness that led her to lose on several endorsements to go on musical trips. However, her training and mastery in music composition improved as she endeavored to produce more collections and pieces.

According to Logan (67), her parents would later enrol for her a private trainer, Ernst Perabo, who guided her through her musical career. At the age of fifteen, Amy enrolled in a music college to study counterpoint and harmony. With the turn of events in her favor, Amy delved deep into music with the result of the composition of more pieces and more extended stay at the piano. Her training sharpened her music skills with the end product being a masterpiece in music composition and production (Block 14). She added her education with her private tuition and learning in which she dedicated her life to reading and researching on music composition. She concentrated on fatigue, harmony, vocals, and counterpoint.

Musical Career

Amy made her first ever musical debut in 1883 at the famous Boston Music Hall She played and was the piano soloist in G-minor. From an observer's viewpoint, it was a rare show of talent and intelligence coupled with a young age (Logan 87). Her fame rose with demand for more performances starting to stream in from as early as 1885 when she was barely sixteen years of age. Her other successful performances included a presentation at the Chicken Hall in 1885. Between 1884 and 1885, Amy decided to gradually let go of the teenage soloist and concentrated on playing the piano.

Marital Life

Amy beach got married Dr. Henry Harris in the year 1885 at the age of eighteen. Dr. Henry Harris was a Boston surgeon and almost twenty-four years older than her. She later devoted her time to music composition than on performances and teaching. She agreed to live by her marital status and portray her patron status symbol than her musical process. He reduced her performances (Block 14). Due to the position of women in the society, Amy resigned to her position as a married woman although to her; she believed she had it all in music production and composition.

According to Logan (101), Amy Beach rose to stardom with her orchestra performance in which Americans' declared he as the first and foremost composer compared to famous artists such as Bach and Cherubini. Later production of symphony elevated her status to prominence. Her prominence led her to be included in the Boston Six group, a composition that consisted of males who specialized in Gaelic Symphony. She went on with the group despite opposition from her husband and immediate family members. She remained influential in the late production of the group a feat that the composer, George Chadwick acclaimed as the most successful group in the history of the United States (Block 14).

Composition

"With Violets"

Amy Beach's With Violets was produced in the year 1885, and it came from Kate Vannah's text. The piece captures Beach's features and composition style, a feat that remained with her all through her musical and composition life (Phelps 45). Her unique blend of poetic expression in her compositions stayed an essential aspect of her sons in addition to her mastery of contemporary style at an early age, a feat that saw her remain unique in all her pieces.

Beach commented on her works comparing them to poetry that is stirred by a strong emotional urge. The first lines of "With Violets" reflect calmly over emotional feelings seeking to cover the combination of various emotional feelings. The lines are brought forth with a mix of suitable words, rhymes, and meters.

'The violets I send to you

Will close their blue eyes on your breast

I shall not be there, sweet, to see

Yet do I know my flowers will rest

Within that chaste, while nest"

It forms the very first line of Amy's composition, a description that is similar in her "Cantile of the Sun;" in her own words, Beach eludes that:

"The text called melodies to my mind. I went out at once under a tree, and the text took possession of me. As if from dictation, I jolted down the notes of my 'Cantile.'"

A comparison between the two texts shows clearly that beach's composition has elements of musical connotation and epiphany, although the deliberate compositions of her texts are evident and clear (Grant 27). She viewed her compositions as pieces of art. She exuded much of her feelings the same as poetry does a feat that saw much of her success. Due to the poetic nature of her compositions, Beach's work and pieces majorly involved the piano sonata violin with different recordings in which several pieces for the piano and violin, a piano quintet, a piano trio, and a string quartet (Grant 31). Her "Gaelic Symphony is a typical example of this type of composition. The Gaelic Symphony was produced together with the Piano Concerto in C- sharp -minor. She also included an orchestra voice that blended well with the much-used solo piano style.

Works Cited

Block, Adrienne Fried. "Why Amy Beach Succeeded as a Composer: the early years." Current Musicology 36 (1983): 41.

Grant, Courtney Erin. A Transcription for the Viola of Three Violin Works by Amy Beach: A Historical, Theoretical, and Pedagogical Analysis. West Virginia University, 2017.Logan, Jeremy. "SYNESTHESIA AND FEMINISM: A CASE STUDY ON AMY BEACH (1867-1944)." New Sound: International Journal of Music 46.2 (2015): 130.

Phelps, Matthew. A Critical Edition of Amy Beach's Mass In E-Flat Major for Chorus, Solo Quartet, and Orchestra. Diss. University of Cincinnati, 2014.