Beach, Amy (1867-1944), is considered by many experts to be the first important female composer in the United States. Beach composed in the late Romantic style of the 1800’s. She wrote in several forms, including chamber and orchestral music, works for keyboard instruments, and vocal music. A number of her works include bird songs or elements of American Indian, Inuit, Scottish, or Gaelic folk music.
Beach wrote more than 120 songs for voice and piano that rank among her most popular works. She set many of her songs to poetry by such writers as William Shakespeare and Robert Browning of England, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of the United States, and Robert Burns of Scotland. Beach’s other major works include the Gaelic Symphony (1896), a piano concerto (1900), and a piano quintet (1907). She wrote religious music for chorus, notably The Canticle of the Sun (1928). Beach also wrote 30 works for women’s chorus.
Beach was born Amy Marcy Cheney on Sept. 5, 1867, in Henniker, New Hampshire. She showed musical talent as a child and studied piano and mostly taught herself composition. She made her debut as a pianist in 1883 and made several appearances as a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, beginning in 1885. That same year, she married Henry Beach, a prominent physician. From 1911 to 1914, she made a successful tour of Europe as a concert pianist, often playing her own works. Beach died on Dec. 27, 1944.
