null Skip to main content
Page background

Beach

Amy Beach (1867–1944) was an American composer and pianist who had made her debut with the Boston Symphony before marrying in 1885, at eighteen, and leaving the concert platform at her husband's wish. Her formal composition training came to one year of harmony and counterpoint. Told to teach herself from the masters instead, she spent a decade on fugue and orchestration alone, translating Berlioz's treatise to get at it. The Gaelic Symphony followed in 1896, the first symphony by an American woman to be performed and published, prompting George Chadwick to write that she would have to be counted "one of the boys". Her Violin Sonata, Piano Quintet and the Romance Op. 23, written for Maud Powell, are the works string players meet most often.

Frequently Asked Questions