Volume 8, Issue 2 The Kapralova Society Journal Fall 2010 A Journal of Women in Music MRS. H. H. A. BEACH: AMERICAN SYMPHONIST Eugene Gates Mrs. H. H. A. Beach (1867-1944) at four years, memorizing everything was the leading American woman com- that she heard correctly in four-part har- poser of her generation. At a time when mony as in the hymn tunes she heard in musically gifted women were expected church, after one hearing and always in to restrict their creative efforts to the pro- the same key in which they were written. Her gift for composition showed itself in duction of vocal and piano music for per- babyhood—before she was two years formance in the parlors of cultivated old she would, when being rocked to homes or for use as teaching material, sleep in my arms, improvise a perfectly she enjoyed an enormously successful correct alto to any soprano air I might career as a composer of large-scale art sing. She played, while under my in- music. Like most of her contemporaries, struction, at a few concerts when seven Mrs. Beach wrote many songs and piano years old, her repertoire including Bee- pieces, but her prolific output also in- thoven sonatas, op. 19, 1 and 2, Chopin, cludes a symphony (the first to be com- Waltz in E-flat, op. 18, Handel, Harmo- Special points of interest: posed and published by an American nious Blacksmith . and many other works from the old masters. In response woman), a concert mass, cantatas, a pi- to encores she would play one of her ano concerto, an opera, and several ex- Amy Beach own compositions with the most uncon- tended chamber works. A devout Episco- scious manner imaginable. 3 (1867-1944) palian, she also composed a substantial amount of very fine church music. In- At the age of four, while visiting her cluded among her works in this category grandfather's farm in Maine, Amy com- are anthems, motets, a complete Com- posed her first music: “Mama's Waltz,” munion Service, a Te Deum , and a set- “Snowflake Waltz,” and “Marlborough 1 ting of St. Francis's Canticle of the Sun . Waltz.” When she returned home and told A descendent of early colonial set- her mother that she had “made” three tlers, Mrs. Beach (Amy Marcy Cheney) waltzes, Mrs. Cheney did not believe her was born in Henniker, New Hampshire, Inside this issue: at first, since there was no piano within on September 5, 1867. The only child of miles of the farm. Amy then explained Mrs. H.H.A. Beach: American Sym- 1 paper manufacturer and importer Charles that she had written them in her head, and phonist / by Eugene Gates Abbott Cheney and Clara Imogene proved it by playing them on the piano. 4 Marcy Cheney, Amy showed signs of In 1871, the Cheney family moved CD releases 8, 11 exceptional musical talent at a very early from Henniker to Boston. When Amy was age. She received her first musical in- eight, her parents had her talents assessed Hudbaby: CD Review / by Michelle 11 Latour struction from her mother, who was an by several of Boston's foremost musicians, 2 excellent pianist and singer. In a letter to and the consensus was that she would be New publication 12 one of her relatives, Mrs. Cheney dis- immediately accepted by any of the great cussed her daughter's prodigious talent European conservatories. 5 However, after and early training as follows: careful consideration, her parents decided to send her to W. L. Whittemore’s private She commenced the study of piano school in Boston to complete her general with me at the age of six. I was com- education. Her piano studies were con- pelled to do so as she played the piano tinued under the guidance of Ernst Perabo Page 2 The Kapralova Society Journal Mrs. H.H. Beach: and Carl Baermann. 6 been published in English. 12 There is little wonder that her piano teachers consid- Amy Cheney's first published composition, a song en- ered Amy the greatest musical prodigy in America. 7 titled The Rainy Day , was issued by the Oliver Ditson Gifted with absolute pitch and an extraordinary musical Company in 1883, when she was only fifteen. On Octo- memory, she was able to reproduce accurately an entire ber 24 of the same year, she made her debut as a profes- Beethoven sonata without ever having seen the score, after sional pianist, playing Chopin’s Rondo in E-flat and hearing one of her fellow students practise it. 8 Moscheles’ Concerto in G minor with an orchestra con- The disparity between the tuition Amy Cheney re- ducted by Adolf Neuendorff at the Boston Music Hall. 13 ceived in piano and her formal education in music theory The Boston correspondent of the New York Tribune re- is of considerable interest. She studied piano for ten years ported that “she played with all the intelligence of a mas- with the finest teachers in Boston, but her theoretical ter.” 14 Other critics praised her superb touch, mastery of training consisted of only one year of harmony and coun- the instrument, and artistic finish. 15 terpoint with Junius W. Hill, in 1881-82. In 1884, her par- A series of highly successful recitals followed, and on ents sought the advice of Wilhelm Gericke, the newly ap- March 28, 1885, she made her first appearance with the pointed conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra. On this occasion, she about the further development of her creative talent. A re- played Chopin's Concerto in F minor. 16 Impressed with cent arrival from his native Austria, Gericke told the Che- her “thoroughly artistic, beautiful and brilliant perfor- neys that Amy should teach herself composition and or- mance,” a reviewer for the Boston Evening Transcript chestration by studying the works of the great masters. wrote that she played “with a totality of conception that Such advice, of course, reflected the prevailing belief that one seldom finds in players of her sex.” 17 A few months a young woman had no need for intensive theoretical later, she gained further critical acclaim for her perform- training because she would never create music of any sig- ance of Mendelssohn's Concerto in D minor with the nificant value. 9 Theodore Thomas Orchestra at the Music Hall. 18 The fact Against all odds, Amy succeeded in doing exactly that she was the first Bostonian to achieve such success what Gericke had recommended. Through diligent and as a pianist without European training was a source of systematic study, she attained a complete theoretical back- great local pride. 19 ground without the benefit of formal instruction. Many On December 2, 1885, at the age of eighteen, Amy years later, she described how she had mastered the intri- Cheney married Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach, a cacies of fugal composition by memorizing and analyzing wealthy, socially prominent surgeon and member of the Bach fugues: faculty of Harvard Medical School, and took the name she used for the rest of her life—Mrs. H. H. A. Beach. A I learned the fugue form by writing out much of the Well widower twenty-five years her senior, Dr. Beach was an Tempered Clavichord , from memory, voice for voice. accomplished amateur singer and pianist who had seri- Then I compared what I had set down with what Bach ously considered a musical career in his youth. His had written. The points where my voices crossed differ- 10 knowledge of music was comprehensive, and he enjoyed ently from Bach's, indicated valuable lessons! the respect and friendship of many of Boston’s most im- portant musicians and intellectual leaders. 20 She taught herself orchestration in the same way. Although her childless marriage—which, by all ac- counts, was a happy one—provided Amy Beach with a I have never gone to a concert hall simply for enjoy- ment or pastime; I have always tried to study the works, comfortable life unimpeded by financial worries, it also in their structure as well as their interpretation, and to interrupted the momentum of her concert career. For the bring home with me something I did not know before. next quarter of a century, she gave only a few concerts In listening to symphonies, I acquainted myself thor- per season, usually consisting of her own works, and al- oughly with the individual tone and color possibilities ways for the benefit of some charitable cause. Comment- of each instrument; with the effect of these different col- ing on this several years after her husband's death, she ex- ors on the various themes. When I got home, then, I plained: would sit down and write out the themes I could re- member, with their proper instrumentation. Then I com- 11 Dr. Beach was “old-fashioned” and believed that a hus- pared my work with the score. band should support his wife. But he did not want me to drop my music, in fact, urged me to keep on, with the To assist her study of orchestration, she also translated the stipulation that any fees I received should go to charity. treatises of Berlioz and Gevaert, neither of which had yet So hospitals, charities, institutions and similar organiza- Page 3 The Kapralova Society Journal American Symphonist tions all were the recipients. I was happy and Dr. Beach When Mrs. Beach entered the hall, leaning upon the arm was content. 21 of Secretary Stone, she was greeted with rising honours, in which the chorus and audience generally joined, the Dr.