ECU Libraries Catalog

Amy Beach, passionate Victorian : the life and work of an American composer, 1867-1944 / Adrienne Fried Block.

Author/creator Block, Adrienne Fried
Format Book and Print
Publication InfoNew York : Oxford University Press, 1998.
Descriptionxiii, 409 pages, 22 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, music ; 24 cm
Subject(s)
Contents A prodigy's New England upbringing -- The Cheneys and the Marcys -- A prodigy despite her mother -- The making of a composer: I -- Two ways of looking at a marriage -- The making of a composer: II -- Becoming mistress of her craft -- Reaching out to the world -- "One of the boys" -- The composer at the keyboard: Beach plays Beach -- "A veritable autobiography"?: the piano concerto -- The composer's workshop -- Choral music -- The chambered nautilus -- Europe and a new life -- "Lion of the hour" -- My old New Hampshire home -- At the MacDowell colony: "Solitude in silence" -- Caring -- A fascinating New York life -- Beach the modernist? -- Reckonings -- Harvest time -- Music's ten commandments as given for young composers.
Abstract Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944), the most widely performed composer of her generation, was the first American woman to succeed as a creator of large-scale art music. Her "Gaelic" Symphony, given its premiere by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896, was the first work of its kind by an American woman to be performed by an American orchestra. Almost all of her more than 300 works were published soon after they were composed and performed, and today her music is finding new advocates and audiences for its energy, intensity, and sheer beauty. Yet, until now, no full-length critical biography of Beach's life or comprehensive critical overview of her music existed. This biography admirably fills that gap, fully examining the connections between Beach's life and work in light of social currents and dominant ideologies. The author has written a biography that takes full account of issues of gender and musical modernism, considering Beach in the contexts of her time and of her composer contemporaries, both male and female. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of American music, and to music lovers in general.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 383-393) and index.
LCCN 97002710
ISBN0195074084

Available Items

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Music Music Stacks ML410.B36 B56 1998 ✔ Available Place Hold