Rediscoveries: Amy Beach by Adrienne Block June 23, 2008
Posted by Angela Mace in : Uncategorized, popular , trackback
Amy Beach: Passionate Victorian (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) by Adrienne Block has been in the collection for ten years now, but it is still a prime source for information about the remarkable American composer, Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944). What’s more, Block writes with an engaging style and fresh perspective that has kept this reader riveted this summer. Block traces the Marcy and Cheney family histories in New England, explores Amy Beach’s early struggles as an extremely talented child with limited means, explains the effect her marriage to Dr. H. H. A. Beach had on both her social status and artistic freedom, and follows her life long struggle with prejudices against female composers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Don’t miss the “Catalog of Works” in the appendix, which displays the impressive breadth of Amy Beach’s accomplishments, from piano miniatures and songs to orchestral works and a piano concerto, as well as a mass and other choral works (sacred and secular). My personal favorites are her lovely solo keyboard works (many of which reflect her fascination with bird calls) and her dark and passionate Piano Quintet in F-sharp Minor, Op. 67.
This item is available in the general collection: ML 410 .B36 B56 1998
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