Songs of Amy Beach

6 Songs of Amy Beach
katherine kelton
Songs were the foundation of Amy Beach’s musical world. Her mother
reported that by the age of one, she could hum forty songs. By age two,
she could sing harmony to any tune her mother sang. She insisted that
her mother and maternal grandmother sing daily – but only songs she
liked. Harmonizing with her mother’s singing was a bedtime ritual.
This love of singing led to mental composition of melodies, later
harmonized during her first experiences playing the piano. It was
natural that she felt all music-making was “singing,” be it vocal or
instrumental. Appropriately, her first publication was a song, and
songwriting led to her initial fame as a composer. For decades after
her death, she was best remembered for her songs. They are well
crafted, most with singable melodies and integrated piano accompani-
ments, satisfying to both musicians and audiences.
Songs predominate her total compositional output. She composed them
prolifically, even during the years she was occupied primarily with writing
larger compositions. Between 1887 and 1915, several songs were published
each year, almost all shortly after their composition. Performances by some
of the United States’ most prominent musicians furthered the songs’
remarkable popularity and contributed to their quickly becoming standard
concert, recital, and teaching repertoire. She and her primary publisher,
Arthur P. Schmidt, worked diligently to promote the songs and ensure they
stayed in print. Despite their popularity during her lifetime, they fell into
neglect when ill health precluded her extensive travels and performances
around the United States to promote them.
In the 1970s, despite a resurgence of interest in women composers, only
two of her songs were available in print.1 Renewed interest in her oeuvre
focused primarily on her importance as the first successful American woman
composer to create large-scale orchestral, choral, and piano works, leading to
a revival of performances of her major works. Largely because it was not
unusual for women of her day to compose in smaller forms, her songs 93
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

94 Katherine Kelton
remained in obscurity a bit longer. Only after several were reprinted in the
mid-1980s did they begin to reclaim their well-deserved attention. As of this
writing, almost all of her published songs in the public domain are available
through www.imslp.org, and many songs have been republished in scholarly
editions. Numerous autographs used by publishers to prepare printed edi-
tions are housed in the Library of Congress’s A. P. Schmidt Collection (www
.loc.gov/collections/a-p-schmidt-collection/).
Stylistic Characteristics
From 1880 to 1941, Beach composed 121 art songs with keyboard accom-
paniment, of which 111 were published during her lifetime. They demon-
strate her exceptionally insightful understanding of texts, mastery of the
form, and awareness of trends in current European musical styles. The
assumption that Beach’s songs are overly Romantic in nature, unnecessar-
ily elaborate, and excessively sentimental has sometimes led to their curs-
ory dismissal as being mere parlor songs. While those descriptions might
be appropriate for many songs by her female contemporaries, Beach’s
songs were composed as art songs. Even though the vocal lines and
accompaniments of some of her songs are complex and technically
demanding, they were intended to be sung and played by both amateur
and professional musicians.
She believed that the mission of all art is to uplift: “to try to bring even
a little of the eternal into the temporal life.”2 She strove for musical expres-
sion people would understand, believing that songs should be inspired,
creative, musical responses to texts – incorporation of both intellect and
emotion.
Even though some critics have accused her of imitating other com-
posers, or of composing in the style to which she had been most recently
exposed, very few songs bear resemblances to those of her peers, a fact
recognized early in her career. In a 1904 article on Beach’s songs, critic
Berenice Thompson wrote,
She is not a poet dreamer, nor are her instincts those of the morbid or fastidious
impressionist. Her artistic personality is entirely distinct from the schools of
the day. She is neither a disciple of Richard Strauss, nor an exponent of the peculiar
theories of d’Indy, Debussy, and the other Frenchmen. Nor are her ideas affiliated
with the decadence which programmatic music and the mixture of arts is bringing
upon the music of the century.3

Songs of Amy Beach 95
Any similarities between her songs and those of other composers are more
a reflection of her manifold interests and experiences than of plagiarism.
Several poem settings actually predate those of her contemporaries.
Other critics have implied that her songs are all more or less alike. Closer
examination reveals that, while many songs share similarities in structure,
sentiment, and methods of text setting, all are quite distinctive. A hallmark
of her music is extensive use of chromaticism, rooted in the ideals of
German Romanticism. The application of this chromaticism was increas-
ingly implemented within the context of more modern musical idioms,
including impressionism and quasi-atonalism.
Song composition played a major role in the development of her unique
musical language, providing her with opportunities for small-scale experi-
mentation incorporating a wide variety of musical influences. Their use
within this small form was subtle and controlled in comparison with more
obvious inclusion of increasingly modern musical influences in her larger
works. Several quotations from her writings will provide a basis for under-
standing her goals in song composition.
“Music should be the poem translated into tone, with due care for every
emotional detail.”4
From earliest childhood, poetry was the foundation of Beach’s songs. Well
before she could read or write music, children’s poems inspired spontaneous
creation of accompanied songs. Memorizing texts came easily, as by age four,
she was able to recite many long, difficult poems. This remarkable memory
served her in good stead later in her method of songwriting: “In vocal music,
the initial impulse grows out of the poem to be set; it is the poem which gives
the song its shape, its mood, its rhythm, its very being. Sacred music requires
an even deeper emotional impulse.”5
“I believe that a composer, like anyone else, is influenced by what he
studies and reads, because literature cannot fail to react upon artistic
expression in any other form.”6
Avid reading and continuing social contact with some of the United
States’ most esteemed writers refined her literary discernment. An eclectic
taste in poetry is apparent in the wide range of authors whose texts she set.
Her husband may have suggested settings of poems by historically signifi-
cant authors, including Shakespeare and Burns, but the majority of the
songs were settings of works by living authors, many of whom were friends.
More than one-third of the texts were by female writers.
French and German poetry from anthologies, newspapers, and popular
magazines inspired eleven German and seven French songs. These texts
provided a means for experimentation with inclusion of elements of

96 Katherine Kelton
current trends in the styles of German Lied and French chanson, as well as
an opportunity to hone her skills in text settings in those languages.
Much poetry of her early songs appealed to Victorian ideals and may
seem dated today. She was drawn to poems about love and nature. Love
song texts in the first person were most commonly from a female perspec-
tive. Other favorite topics were times of day (most frequently twilight or
night), flowers, and birds. Several songs quote or are based on birdcalls,
including “The Blackbird,” op. 11, no. 3 (1889); “The Thrush,” op. 14, no. 4
(1890); and “Meadowlarks,” op. 78, no. 1 (1917).
“In vocal writing, the initial impulse grows out of the poem to be set; it is
the poem which gives the song its shape, its mood, its rhythm, its very being.”7
Beach fervently believed that in order to interpret a song effectively, a singer
must fully understand a poem’s meaning and character. To this end, she
preferred that a song’s text be printed on the page before the musical score,
as she shared with her publisher in a 1908 letter: “A singer can get at a glance
a better idea of the character of a song by this means than by a prolonged study
of words scattered thro’ [sic] several pages of music.”8 She expanded on her
views of the importance of the text to interpretation in a 1916 article:
Each song is a complete drama, be it ever so small or light in character, and no two
are interpreted in the same way. Even the quality of the voice may change
absolutely in order to bring out some salient characteristic of the composition.
Technical perfection may indeed be there, but so completely subordinated to the
emotional character of the song that we lose all consciousness of its existence.9
“A composer must give himself time to live with what he is creating.”10 “It
may happen that, for instance, that one has a ‘perfect’ theme for a song. . . .
It is quite possible that the melodic line may not seem at all suitable for the
voice . . . the original theme may develop into something quite different
from the song that was first planned.”11
Songwriting was recreation for Beach. When she felt a roadblock while
working on a larger piece, she sometimes wrote a song, viewing it as
a special treat: “It has happened to me more than once that a composition
comes to me, ready-made as it were, between the demands of other work.”12
Her songs may have seemed to flow quickly and spontaneously from her
pen, yet they often evolved unconsciously over a longer period of time,
although this was not always the case.
“In writing a song, the composer considers the voice as an instrument,
and that the song shall be singable should be the fundamental principle
underlying its creation. Many an otherwise magnificent work lies on the
shelf, unused, because it is not suitable for the voice.”13

Example 6.1 “Ecstasy,” op. 19, no. 2, mm. 1–14.
What makes most of Beach’s songs so singable? Why do they practically

sing themselves? The answer is most likely her remarkable sensitivity to
languages’ natural inflections, even though this may not be consciously
perceived by the musician or listener. Her songwriting process began by
careful contemplation of the poem to be set. After memorization, mental
repetition of the words’ spoken inflection led to the melody, phrase by
phrase. The result: melodies that are musical representations of the text’s
natural inflections, as if the pitches of the spoken word were given musical
notes (Example 6.1). Division of poetic lines into two- or three-measure
phrases enhances the songs’ singability as well.

98 Katherine Kelton
It is worthwhile to consider the voice types Beach had in mind for each
song. This can frequently be determined by a song’s dedication. Most early
songs were composed for light, high, female voices. Later in life, she favored
large, dramatic female voices.
About 60 percent of the songs, most of which were for high voice, were
published in only one key (much to the chagrin of those with lower voices).
Because her musical response to poetry emerged in specific tonalities, with
their associated timbres in both piano and vocal parts, it is preferable to
sing them in their original keys. Even so, modern performers and audiences
are not able to experience the exact, original, intended sonorities of the
early songs, as pianos in Boston were tuned slightly lower in the late
nineteenth century than they are today.
Most of her songs are in major keys, with F major, A-flat major, and
E-flat major predominating. She perceived the latter two of these as blue
and pink, respectively. Three lullabies composed for friends’ newborn
babies made use of these color associations, with blue for male and pink
for female. Curiously, given her childhood aversion to music in minor keys,
thirty-three of her songs represent ten different minor modes. With very
few exceptions, songs in minor modes end with (sometimes quite abrupt)
major cadences.
She was highly opposed to unauthorized transpositions of her songs,
as her timbral intent would be obliterated. In order to fulfill and/or
increase their demand, Schmidt requested transpositions of several
songs (beginning with “Ecstasy” in 1893). Alternate keys were usually
lowered by a minor third. Popularity of “Ah, Love, but a Day!” and
“Shena Van” warranted three transpositions. Songs with expansive
ranges and high tessiture not lending themselves to acceptable trans-
positions were published in one key, with alternate pitches for highest
and/or lowest notes.
“A composer who has something to say must say it in a fashion that
people will listen to, or his works will lie in obscurity on dusty shelves.”14
Beach understood the publishing industry was purely a business
matter, regulated by supply and demand. As her compositional career
blossomed, she and Schmidt employed a variety of strategies to create
broader demand for her music. Marketing efforts focused on songs and
short piano pieces, music that would please the amateur musician and
be performed frequently because of its accessibility. To appeal to this
demographic, songs in foreign languages were published with English
titles and singing translations printed above the original language,
a common practice at the time.

Schmidt published notices and advertisements in newspapers and

magazines. He also distributed his own promotional pamphlets containing
effusive (sometimes misrepresentative) descriptions of Beach’s songwrit-
ing prowess. He took advantage of publicity garnered by performances of
her larger works by coordinating publication of her newest songs with
those events. Their inclusion on subsequent high-profile concerts fur-
thered sales. To satisfy and increase demand, arrangements of her biggest
sellers were published with violin obbligati and for various combinations of
voices.15 “A Song of Liberty,” op. 49, and “The Year’s at the Spring,” op. 44,
no. 1, were issued in Braille (in 1922 and 1931, respectively).
Magazines offered another effective means for promoting songs. Several
were composed expressly for them, usually published with an accompany-
ing biography and/or interview. These songs are short, with simple melod-
ies within limited ranges and easy accompaniments.
When programming Beach’s songs, one should be aware that most of
her early songs were composed as individual entities, with highly varying
topics, usually unrelated. As soon as she had produced three to five songs,
Schmidt published them in an opus, deciding on the order of the songs
within the opus.
In 1891, after publishing eighteen of her songs, Schmidt assembled
fourteen, issuing them as part of a series of song anthologies. All were
subtitled “a Cyclus of Songs,” even though none of them contained song
cycles. Schmidt likely hoped these publications would increase profits, as
customers wanting to purchase one or two songs might be likely to pay
a little more to buy a collection that included songs that had not sold well
singly. After publishing another thirty-nine songs, a second anthology of
fourteen songs (also part of the “Cyclus” series) was issued in 1906. Plans
for a third anthology in the 1930s never came to fruition due to high costs
of printing during the Depression.
It is often misconstrued that since several of Beach’s better-known songs
are slow, they all share that trait. Actually, an equal number of fast and slow
tempi are represented in her song output. All tempo designations are in
Italian, most with added directives for their interpretation, commonly
including the adverbs espressivo or espressione; tranquillo or tranquillamente.
Early songs exhibit somewhat of a formula for setting up a melody’s
climactic note, usually at or near a piece’s end: an ascending vocal line
leading to the highest tone is interrupted by descending movement, either
stepwise or a skip, that precedes an ascending leap of at least a minor third
to the high note. A song’s highest (and either loudest or softest) tone is
usually set on an open vowel ([a] or [ɔ], for example), sustained for one or

100 Katherine Kelton
two measures. She certainly sensed that these open vowels are the most
conducive for optimum vocal resonance in singers’ higher ranges.
Frequently, though, the tone preceding the highest one is also on an open
vowel. As these ascending intervals straddle singers’ upper passaggi, it is
more challenging to maintain forward placement than if the high note were
preceded by a closed vowel (such as [e] or [i]). These highest tones and
their accompanying chords were usually assigned sudden, extreme
dynamic changes, sometimes pianissimo, but more often a jolting forte or
fortissimo. Musicians should consider that these sustained tones were
intended to have as much “life” as the preceding material, not beginning
and maintaining the same dynamic from outset to completion. For effect-
ive interpretation, to give the music shape and carry expressive movement
forward, pianissimo notes should begin as a slightly louder dynamic level
than specified, making a decrescendo to the level indicated. As it can be
strenuous for the singer to sing and sustain a loud tone “going nowhere”
expressively for several measures, as well as unsettling to the listener to be
bombarded by such an abrupt, loud dynamic change, the loudest notes
should begin more softly than designated, making a crescendo to the
indicated fortissimo.
Facility at the piano likely contributed to her technically challenging
accompaniments. Continual use of octaves and complex chords with quite
differing distributions of notes in quick succession requires long fingers
and comfortable hand spans of more than an octave. Accompaniments
rarely double vocal melodies. Occasionally during measures of rest between
vocal phrases in earlier songs, what promises to be an effective counter-
melody emerges, only to disappear at the voice’s reentrance. Her preference
for triple and compound meters (especially 6/8) facilitated the incorpor-
ation of repeated eighth note or triplet chords/figures to increase intensity
and forward motion, a device also found in her solo piano works
(Example 6.2). While used to great effect in several songs, its implementa-
tion for measures (or pages) at a time resulted in their monotonous
similarities.16 Endings of three chords or with ascending arpeggiated flour-
ishes (often in sixths) became somewhat cliché (Example 6.3).
Clearcut variations in Beach’s songs delineate three distinct compos-
itional style periods. These correspond with three important periods of her
life. The first style period begins with her first published work in 1883, “The
Rainy Day” (composed 1880), and ends with the deaths of her husband and
mother in 1910 and 1911, respectively. Songs composed in 1914 in Europe
comprise a second style period. A third style period begins in 1916 and
continues through 1941.

Example 6.2 “After,” op. 68, mm. 71–78.
Example 6.3 “Forget-me-not,” op. 35, no. 4, mm. 55–59.
First Style Period (1883–1911)
As a girl, and later as the wife of a socially connected, wealthy Boston

surgeon, Beach had extensive time to devote to piano practice and
composing, making this her most productive period of song composition.

She composed seventy-two songs during these thirty years, many of

which became her best known. Notably, “The Rainy Day,” her first
published song, begins with a direct quotation of the first eight notes of
the third movement of Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Sonata, op. 13, trans-
posed from C minor to F minor.
After marrying in 1885, her program of autodidactic musical study was
supplemented inestimably by her husband’s careful guidance. An amateur
singer and accomplished pianist, Dr. Beach had extensive knowledge and
appreciation of art song literature. He shared his expertise with Amy,
introducing her to masterworks of song. This deepened her understanding
of basic structural elements, including forms, text settings, sensitively
crafted accompaniments, modulations, shaping of phrases, and appropri-
ate ranges and tessiture.
Dr. Beach was also an amateur poet. Amy set seven of his poems, all
composed within his lifetime and dedicated “To H,” with authorship
attributed to H. H. A. B. The first of these settings were the three op. 2
songs. They were certainly composed for him, as relatively low and limited
ranges would have suited his baritone voice. She composed settings of his
poems on his birthday (December 18), presumably as birthday presents.
Manuscripts dated December 25 suggest that, after being given poems for
Christmas, she made settings immediately.
It should be taken into account that late nineteenth-century pianos were
usually tuned slightly lower than modern ones. The prevailing pitch stand-
ard in Boston from at least 1863 to 1900 was A = 435.17 A = 440 was not
officially adopted as the universal pitch standard until the International
Standardizing Organization (ISO) meeting in London in May 1939.18 As
a result, many songs composed for medium voice may be deceptively
difficult for today’s amateur singers, as their highest notes fall slightly in
voices’ upper passaggi.
From the outset, strophic, modified strophic, and ternary forms predom-
inated Amy Beach’s song output. All but a handful follow this uniform
pattern: minimally varied melodic material for repetitions of A sections are
supported by accompaniments’ substantially different harmonies. Most early
songs are marked by expansive, flowing melodies and accompaniments that
reflect the influence of contemporary European compositional styles.
Interspersed are several songs described as enjoyable, “if not fully
apprehended at first hearing.”19 This type of song begins with four to
eight measures of a memorable melody that subsequently evolves into
a seemingly jagged chain of notes. This is caused by vocal parts’ frequent
extraction from (or burial within) their accompaniments’ relentlessly

changing harmonies. The voice sometimes provides counterpoint for the

accompaniment or serves as an inner part to complete a complex chord.
Rapidly changing harmonies rarely lead to predictable vocal entrances
after measures of rests.20 Several songs’ introductions contain descriptive
figures that are repeated between vocal phrases, yet the vocal lines that
follow are disjunct and bear no correlation with an accompaniment’s
motive. Her usual sensitivity to natural speech inflection is absent in these
songs.21 These rambling, pianistic songs that lack perceptible melodies
show no apparent compositional models. They bring into question her
later statement that she always composed away from the piano.22
Vacillation between (often remote) tonalities necessitated the persistent
use of accidentals (including frequent double sharps/flats) and enharmonic
spellings (alternating between correct and incorrect spellings), making
them difficult for an accompanist to read. Critic Rupert Hughes even
described one of her more accessible songs as “bizarre.”23
Prominent nineteenth-century American and European song com-
posers generally employed evident melodies and sparse accompaniments
with slow harmonic movement within conventional chord progressions.
She hit her stride around 1894, composing increasingly marketable songs
containing the streamlined accompaniments and flowing melodies for
which she is best known.
The 1890s were her most productive years of songwriting, with publica-
tion of thirty-seven songs during the decade. Her first big seller was
a modified strophic setting of her own two-verse poem, “Ecstasy” (1893).
Its moderate range and simple, memorable melody in two-measure phrases
(helpful for amateurs with limited breath control) made it appealing to the
average musician. Its popularity prompted the first publication in an
alternate key. The poem was included in The Poetry Digest: Annual
Anthology of Verse for 1939 (New York: The Poetry Digest, 1939). As
most of the subsequent songs of this period are in this accessible style,
the success of “Ecstasy” may have given her better insight into the type of
song that might please the general public.
In his 1893 Harper’s Magazine article, Antonín Dvořák proposed that in
order to create a truly American art form, composers should incorporate
“plantation melodies” and minstrel show music. The article prompted
Beach’s immediate Boston Herald rebuttal: the opposing idea that
American composers should look to their own heritages for inspiration.24
There is no evidence that they met personally during his 1892–95 stay in
the United States, but she was clearly aware of his views and had thought
deeply about them. Whether coincidental or not, it was around this time

that Beach began inclusion of musical ideas reminiscent of traditional folk

music of the British Isles, as evidenced by the stark contrast between her op.
12 (1887) and op. 43 (1899) settings of Robert Burns’ poems. The 1887
songs number among the long, rambling, piano-heavy songs of her youth.
In stark contrast, with inclusion of dotted rhythms and “Scotch snaps,” the
1899 settings could be mistaken for folk songs. These songs appealed to the
market: strophic with short, easily remembered melodies and simple
accompaniments. The most popular of these, “Far Awa’!,” was later pub-
lished in six arrangements for various groupings of singers and instru-
ments between 1918 and 1936.
Following the 1899 Burns songs’ success, Beach employed the same
formula for the highly successful “Shena Van,” op. 56, no. 4 (1904),
a setting of William Black’s poem from his 1883 romance novel, Yolande.
The melody’s pentatonic melisma contributes to the song’s folklike qual-
ities, while a simple chordal accompaniment mimics a bagpipe with an
open fifth drone. Similarities with Edvard Grieg’s “Solveig’s Song” suggest
it might have been the model for “Shena Van.”
Among the handful of Beach’s most popular and enduring songs are the
Three Browning Songs, op. 44 (1900), composed and dedicated to the
Browning Society of Boston. Their high tessiture and manner in which
vocal lines approach climactic high notes contribute to these being the
most vocally demanding of her songs. “The Year’s at the Spring” and “Ah,
Love, but a Day!” are the best known and most frequently performed of the
three. In 1932, “Ah, Love, but a Day!” was reportedly the popular choice in
a nationwide survey of the most standard American songs.25
By far the most popular of her songs, “The Year’s at the Spring,” was
a staple of recital repertoire throughout the first half of the twentieth
century. She later recalled: “It was composed while travelling by train
between New York and Boston. I did nothing whatever in a conscious
way. I simply sat still in the train, thinking of Browning’s poem and
allowing it and the rhythm of the wheels to take possession of me.”26 She
also recalled, “I had no writing materials with me, and so I went over and
over it in my mind – learned my own composition by heart, so to speak,
and as soon as I got to New York, wrote it down in twenty minutes. That,
practically unchanged, was the song I gave them.”27
Robert Browning’s son was intensely moved upon hearing it, saying it
could hardly be called a “setting:” the music and words seemed to form one
entity; that one could not imagine anything more perfectly “married” than
her music to his father’s words.28 Audiences’ enthusiastic responses to it
(and a length of less than a minute) often prompted singers to repeat it

several times. Interestingly, it holds the distinction of being the first song
transmitted over the telephone.29
Although published as no. 1 of op. 44, “The Year’s at the Spring” is most
effective at the end of the group when all three songs are performed together
as a set. Its exuberance and animated tempo create a dramatic contrast with
the two other songs’ slower tempi, bringing the set to a jubilant end. This
reordering (2, 3, 1) also preserves the intended harmonic progression.
Only in her first style period did Beach set French texts, with varying
degrees of success. Of these seven, “Jeune fille et jeune fleur,” op. 1, no. 3, and
“Chanson d’amour,” op. 21, no. 2, are more varied versions of the rambling,
fast harmonic rhythm songs, as they contain occasional measures with
slower harmonic rhythms supporting “melodies.” These melodies appear
as opening statements of verses or as short refrains. The four most appealing
French songs show influences of the café chantant style of Charles Gounod
and Eva dell’Acqua: “Le Secret,” op. 14, no. 2 (1891); “Elle et moi,” op. 21,
no. 3 (1893); “Canzonetta,” op. 48, no. 4 (1902); and “Je demande á l’Oiseau,”
op. 51, no. 4 (1903). Melodies reflecting the texts’ inflection are absent in
these songs, perhaps a result of her unfamiliarity with the language.
In contrast, the melodies of her eleven German songs are excellent
examples of melodies mirroring their texts’ spoken inflections. Both light-
hearted songs and those with long, flowing melodies are among their num-
ber. They show her awareness of the most recent German song compositions,
especially those of Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss. Her admiration for
Strauss’ song “Ständchen” inspired her to compose a piano transcription in
1902. Around the same time, she produced the masterpiece, “Juni,” op. 51,
no. 3. Given her recent preoccupation with Strauss’ song, one might expect to
find similarities between their melodies (Examples 6.4 and 6.5).
The text’s sole topic of blooming spring flowers is perfectly expressed
through the melding of melody and accompaniment, which become increas-
ingly effusive throughout the piece, ending with a burst of joy. Overutilized
in some songs to the extent of being a trademark, implementation of
repeated triplets in “Juni” is the precise element needed to heighten the
song’s intensity to its final chord.
Second Style Period (1914)
During most of her time in Europe from 1911 to 1914, a busy travel and
performance schedule precluded time for composition. This lull was
broken in 1914, her most prolific year of song composition. The ten

Example 6.4 Richard Strauss, “Ständchen,” op. 17, no. 2, mm. 10–12.
Example 6.5 Beach, “Juni,” op. 51, no. 3, mm. 7–8.
songs composed in Munich in May–June (opuses 72–73 and 75–76) com-

prise her second style period.
In September 1911, Beach sailed to Europe intending to establish
a reputation abroad as a performer, thus promoting the sale of her works
there. Her traveling companion, dramatic soprano Marcella Craft (1874–
1959), was beginning the third year of her five-year contract with Munich’s
Bavarian Opera. Beach and Craft’s friendship began in 1898 while Craft

was a voice student at the New England Conservatory. Craft sang for Beach,
who was immediately enamored with her voice. After moving to Europe in
1900, Craft sang in several Italian and German opera houses before being
hired in Munich. She introduced Beach’s songs to European audiences as
early as 1903. Richard Strauss, the director of the Bayrische Staatsoper,
often chose her to sing roles under his direction, including the title role in
his Salome. Because Craft was well established in Munich, Beach chose it as
her “home base” abroad. In addition to her own ties there, Beach benefited
from Craft’s musical and social connections with prominent public and
musical figures in Europe.
As in the United States, programs of her larger instrumental works often
included songs. Those large works received critical acclaim in Germany,
but such was not always the case with her songs. Several critics expressed
bewilderment about the songs’ sentimentality in comparison with the high
caliber of her works for larger forces. The 1914 songs show that she may
have taken this criticism to heart. German audiences were accustomed to
hearing vocal works by her European contemporaries, including Johannes
Brahms, Hugo Wolf, Richard Strauss, Gabriel Fauré, and Claude Debussy.
Rather than striving to rival such masters’ work, she took another path. At
last, she had freedom to develop her own musical aesthetic, unhindered by
oversight, input, or advice from her husband and mother.30 She left the
complex Richard Wagner-influenced harmonies behind, resulting in sim-
pler songs with leaner, less complex accompaniments. The four in German
show influences of German folk songs.
After an extended trip to Italy for rest and relaxation in 1914, Beach
returned to Munich, where she completed ten songs during the month of
June, all published by G. Schirmer. Until this point, A. P. Schmidt had been
her exclusive publisher for almost thirty years. Her exasperation with
Schmidt’s inability to keep European music stores stocked with her
music led her to sign a contract with G. Schirmer the following month to
publish future works.
In contrast with most earlier songs, these songs (and the majority
composed afterward) served practical purposes. They were composed for
singer friends, crafted to meet their needs for specific occasions and to
display their greatest strengths. The 1914 songs were for performances at
San Diego’s 1915–16 Panama–California Exposition and for future tours.
The eight songs of opuses 72–73 and 75 have simple melodies in limited
ranges and uncomplicated accompaniments and are accessible to musi-
cians of all levels. However, due to Schirmer’s lack of large-scale marketing
and restrictions in the publishing industry brought about by World War I,

the delightful 1914 songs never received the widespread popularity of some
of her earlier songs published by Schmidt.
The first of the 1914 songs, “Ein altes Gebet,” op. 72, no. 1, shows
similarities with Wolf’s “Auf ein altes Bild,” suggesting that it served as
model. Parallels include structure, text, title, and use of a two-measure
ostinato that introduces a mixture of major and minor modes, a device
Beach used with increasing frequency for the rest of her career. The text’s
sentiment was clearly significant to her, as it returned in her choices of
poems for two songs composed decades later: the necessity of faith in and
total reliance on God’s saving care.
Two folklike songs (op. 73) were composed for contralto Ernestine
Schumann-Heink to sing at the San Diego Exposition, where her perform-
ances drew crowds in the tens of thousands. Schumann-Heink was a mother
of eight; Beach’s choice of German texts about familial topics comple-
mented her public image of maternal devotion and domesticity.
A sense of playfulness and whimsy surfaces in the four op. 75 songs,
commissioned by American mezzo-soprano Kitty Cheatham (1865–1946),
known for her programs of folk music and children’s songs. She was an
early proponent of the African American spiritual, introducing many to
both American and European audiences. These songs’ medium, limited
ranges, and straightforward accompaniments make them accessible to all
musicians. These four short songs are perhaps Beach’s most charming, in
particular “The Candy Lion” and “A Thanksgiving Fable.” Their unex-
pected punch lines always elicit giggles from the audience.
The final 1914 songs, “Separation” and “The Lotos Isles,” op. 76, deviate
from the folklike style of the previous eight. “Separation,” composed for
Marcella Craft, returned to the highly chromatic style of the less accessible
early songs, with unpredictable vocal lines and thick accompaniments.
Familiar repeated triplet chords make a final appearance, as after
“Separation,” Beach moved forward musically, “separating” herself from
this style of composition.
“The Lotos Isles” bears no resemblance to any earlier songs. Alfred
Tennyson’s depiction of the drugged, floating, lethargic state induced by
ingestion of lotos flowers provided a fitting musical canvas for her experi-
mentation with impressionistic devices. She unified musical and poetic
elements through a hypnotic melody, enveloped within a murmuring,
dreamy accompaniment figure. A nebulous tonal center settles only at
the end of the piece. Her inclusion of elements of the modern French
style of Henri Duparc and Debussy marked a clear compositional pivot
point (Example 6.6).

Example 6.6 “The Lotos Isles,” op. 76, no. 2, mm. 1–9.
Third Style Period (1916–1941)
Her pattern of (practically) nonstop travel for performances, talks, and

other appearances (along with the occasional respite) begun in Europe
showed no sign of subsiding after her 1914 return to the United States. If
anything, her demanding schedule intensified in 1915, leaving her scant
time to compose. Returning to songwriting in 1916, she picked up where she
left off stylistically with “The Lotos Isles.” The definite break between the
style for which she had become best known, and an increasingly more
contemporary sound, defines a third style period (1916–41).31 Musical
ideas in this period became more compact and accompaniments less flam-
boyant. Her songs maintained their characteristic chromaticism yet

emerged increasingly from contemporary musical trends rather than from

late Romantic roots. Such musical elements included vacillations between
major and minor modes; use of modal and quasi-modal scales; nonfunc-
tional, ambiguous harmonies and tonal centers; extensive use of major–
minor sevenths, half, and fully diminished seventh chords, and jazz
harmonies. Although not serial music, use of all twelve scale degrees as
a source of dissonance (chromatic saturation) in the introduction to the
song “Birth” (1929), as well as her use of a whole-tone scale in the opening
measures of the melody of “A Message,” op. 93 (1922), demonstrates her
openness to modernistic techniques. The majority of the thirty-two avail-
able songs from this period have memorable, singable melodies, under-
pinned by unexpected, chromatic harmonies reflecting the aforementioned
elements. In more dissonant songs, ambiguous or restless tonal centers are
clearly resolved in the final measures; usually ending with a cadence in
a major mode. All are in English; all but two are settings of texts by
contemporary authors.
For nineteen summers between 1921 and 1941, Beach composed (or
made sketches for) almost all her compositions during summer months
spent at the MacDowell Colony. Along with the Colony’s peaceful atmos-
phere, intellectually stimulating interaction with some of the United States’
most revered writers, artists, and composers precipitated a flood of creativ-
ity each year. New friendships with composers of the next generation led to
reflection about modern trends in composition. Adrienne Fried Block
notes that Beach’s initial experiments with dissonant, nontonal harmonies
began the year of her first stay at the Colony.32
Rather than on songwriting, her compositional efforts at the Colony
focused on choral, keyboard, and chamber works, as well as her opera,
Cabildo, resulting in an output of only thirty-nine songs in twenty-five
years, slightly more than half the number composed in the thirty years of
the first style period. Most of the thirty-one published songs were issued
individually with separate opus numbers, rather than in groups. Manuscripts
for three unpublished songs – “Mignonette,” “My Love came through the
Fields,” and “A Light that overflows” – were not assigned opus numbers, nor
are there copyright records for them.33 The manuscript of “To One I Love,”
op. 135 (1932), is in private hands.
Inclusion of songs on her many performances and programs for various
organizations and musical clubs introduced them to a wide range of
audiences in towns of all sizes throughout the United States. Older songs
were paired with her most recent works on these programs, focusing on the
latter. An increasing number of speaking and performing appearances in

the 1930s, as well as live performances of her music on local and nation-
wide radio broadcasts, kept her in the public eye, prompting greater
demand for her music. Sales of her newest works were thwarted by the
outbreak of World War I, though, when paper and other shortages pre-
cluded their expeditious publication. These production difficulties per-
sisted through the Depression, further exacerbated by World War II.
After A. P. Schmidt’s death in 1921, his successor, Henry Austin, was
often discouraging about possibilities of publishing her new songs, some-
times questioning their marketability. His excuses and reluctance to issue
or reissue her songs contributed to her contracting with other publishers
(including Schirmer, Church, and Presser). It is conceivable that Austin’s
hesitancy to publish her most recent songs was due more to their inaccess-
ibility to the average musician than to production problems. Despite his
lack of interest in her most recent songs, he was eager to issue reprints of
her most popular songs (all composed before 1905), also requesting they be
arranged for various combinations of voices.
Until her death, Beach urged Austin persistently to publish her latest
songs. As evidence of their merit, her letters frequently referenced success-
ful performances of those in manuscript and their popularity with voice
teachers. Always worded considerately, her letters reveal ever-increasing
impatience. She was eager to have new songs copyrighted, lest they be
plagiarized (a doubtful probability, given that those in question were of the
“no perceptible melody” type).
Among the first pieces composed at the MacDowell Colony in 1921 was
the dramatic song, “In the Twilight,” op. 85. Typical of many third style
period songs, its accompanimental device is more impressionistic in charac-
ter than in harmonic structure. In some ways, harmonies are reminiscent of
the first style period songs: quick movement from an initial tonality to other
tonal areas by use of dominant sevenths and fully diminished chords, with
a melody evolving from those harmonies. The poem tells of a fisherman’s
wife and child, watching a turbulent sea storm through a window at twilight,
waiting for him to return from his day’s work. The wife fears for her
husband’s fate. To enhance the text’s ominous feeling, Beach set the song
in F-sharp minor, one of her “black” keys. As the natural inflection of Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow’s masterfully chosen words create their own “text-
painting,” the majority of the musical interpretation was achieved by
manipulating the keyboard’s motif within the harmonic movement rather
than through the vocal line. Expansion and contraction of this impressionis-
tic pattern creates dramatic ebbs and flows, intensifying the text’s sense of
urgency, anxiety, and impending doom.

Example 6.7 “In the Twilight,” op. 85, mm. 100–15.
The song’s ending is the most unusual in Beach’s vocal works, bearing
a resemblance to the ending of Schubert’s “Erlkönig.” After building tension
with tremolos for fourteen measures, a fermata precedes a German sixth
chord, followed by an unaccompanied vocal line ending the song without
the chord’s resolution to reflect the text’s final, unanswered question
(Example 6.7).
“To me all music is sacred. . . . It is – and must be – a source of spiritual
value. If it is not, it falls short of its function as music.”34
At the 1926 New York City convention of the American Pen
Women, Beach became acquainted with dramatic soprano Ruth

Shaffner (1896–1981), soprano soloist at St. Bartholomew’s Church

(“St. Bart’s”), then the largest Episcopal church in North America.
Schaffner invited Beach to attend a service there the next day to hear the
composer’s Magnificat. Highly impressed by both the choirs and organist/
choirmaster David McKay Williams’s musicianship, she began regular
attendance there when in New York. Both Shaffner and Williams became
two of Beach’s closest friends. Shaffner became Beach’s most frequent collab-
orator, performing together hundreds of times throughout the United States.
Involvement with St. Bart’s music program precipitated a flurry of sacred
choral works and solo songs. Sacred music appealed to her more than
anything she had previously done and became her favorite type of work. In
a 1943 interview, she stated, “I find myself . . . turning more steadily toward
so-called ‘sacred’ music. . . . It has not been a deliberate choice, but what has
seemed a natural growth and a path which has brought me great happiness.”35
In a personal letter from a decade earlier, she had written, “There can be no
greater experience than the act of entering into the great religious texts.”36
A fortuitous incident on July 4, 1927, led to another of Beach’s most
significant relationships. Mezzo-soprano Lillian Buxbaum’s (1884–1974)
performance on a Boston radio station prompted Beach to telephone her
that afternoon, to invite her to visit Centerville the next day. Buxbaum’s
acceptance led to a familial relationship between the two. Beach later regarded
Buxbaum as a surrogate daughter. The two spent many summers together at
Cape Cod and performed numerous concerts in New England. Like Shaffner,
Buxbaum was a church soloist, serving at First Parish Church, Watertown,
Massachusetts. Friendships with Shaffner and Buxbaum prompted compos-
ition of several pieces for their use in church services. Their needs and
requests for sacred solos were met by Beach’s increasing inspiration to
compose them. To fit the rich timbres in these women’s mid- to low ranges,
some of these songs have lower tessiture than most earlier songs.
Unique among her songs is “On a Hill.” Returning to the United States
after a six-month trip to Europe in 1929, a chance shipboard encounter
presented Beach with new musical material when a fellow passenger from
Richmond, Virginia, shared a song “crooned to her by an old Mammy all
through childhood.”37 (It was assumed to be an African American spiritual,
although this has not been authenticated.) Beach said she had never been so
pleased by a folk song. She provided the song with a simple, chordal, bare-
bones accompaniment, varied harmonically (as was her practice) for each
of its three verses. This unobtrusive accompaniment allows the listeners’
ears to be drawn to the words and haunting, pentatonic melody. It was
subtitled “Negro Lullaby” to set it apart from spirituals, which had recently

inundated the market. Henry Austin of the Schmidt Company was dis-
couraging about its sales potential, however, unless the prominent African
American singer, Roland Hayes, would have interest in promoting it.38
Representative of Beach’s later sacred solos are “I Sought the Lord,” op.
142 (1937), and “Though I Take the Wings of Morning,” op. 152 (1941),
both composed at the MacDowell Colony and dedicated to Ruth Shaffner.
They express the same sentiment as her earlier song “Ein altes Gebet”:
God’s omniscience and omnipresence. These texts might well have
brought her comfort as she faced the realities of aging and adjusting to
giving up her performing career.
Composed following her 1940 heart attack, “Though I Take the Wings of
Morning” is a setting of Robert Nelson Spencer’s Psalm 139 paraphrase,
taken from his The Seer’s House.39 The song shows influences of the African
American spiritual, with chords vacillating between E minor and E major
and use of alternating major and minor thirds in the melody. The accom-
paniment contains a rare example of vocal doubling. The final words of
this, her final art song (and antepenultimate composition), are a poignant
coincidence: “bid me then, be still.”
Which were Beach’s favorite songs? Those she frequently asked Austin to
send to singers for specific performances provide clues. Almost all of the
songs she requested after 1917 were composed early in her career. Several she
repeatedly asked for had been long out of print. Songs selected for perform-
ances at retrospective concerts in honor of her seventy-fifth birthday in 1942
(all from the first style period) may indicate some favorites, those she felt
were her most representative: “Ecstasy,” op. 19, no. 2; “Villanelle: Across the
World,” op. 20; “My Star,” op. 26, no. 1; “The Wandering Knight,” op. 29,
no. 2; “I send my heart up to Thee,” op. 44, no. 3; and “June [Juni],” op. 51,
no. 3. Those most consistently found on concert programs and mentioned in
her correspondence were “Ecstasy,” the Browning Songs, op. 44, and “Juni.”
Despite the popularity of her works during her lifetime, after she was no
longer physically able to tour and concertize to promote them, regard for
most of her compositions, particularly the larger ones, declined quickly.
Even though her later songs show her efforts to include more contempor-
ary musical elements, the majority of her most well-known songs (from the
first style period) were in the late nineteenth-century idiom, then regarded
as old-fashioned and of little musical value. The author of her Musical
America obituary described her later songs as not particularly original,
having lost some of the melodic interest of her earlier works; certainly not
an accurate assessment.40 Restrictions in the publishing industry during
World War II made reissuing out-of-print works difficult, leading to their

quick neglect. By 1941, thirty-seven songs were unavailable. After Beach’s

death, Shaffner made efforts to keep New York music stores stocked with
songs that were still in print. This number had dwindled to two by 1984.41
“There is enjoyment in every contact with beautiful song – in writing,
singing, playing, or even thinking of it – and it brings to the listener
a sense of discovery of a world in which serenity and contentment still
reign.”42
New generations of musicians and audiences are becoming familiar with
Beach’s songs as copyright expirations have made possible their inclusion
in anthologies and their availability on the internet. They make a welcome
re-addition to the body of American art song repertoire, as among their
number one finds something for everyone: musicians of all levels of ability
as well as audiences of varying levels of sophistication.
A quotation from the final published interview of Beach’s life demon-
strates her optimism in the face of the physical decline of old age and the
tragedy of World War II. Fittingly, she expressed her optimism with the
metaphor of singing:
We who sing have walked in glory.43 What more can we say about singing than that?
And was there ever a time when singing was more badly needed than now? Singing,
not only with our throats but with our spirits. If we have no special voices, we can
make our fingers sing on the keyboard or strings. The main thing is to let our hearts
sing, even through sorrow and anxiety. The world cries out for harmony.”44
Representative Songs and Difficulty Levels
First Style Period

Easy
“The Rainy Day”
“With Violets,” op. 1, no. 1
“When far from Her,” op. 2, no. 2
“Ecstasy,” op. 19, no. 2
“Within thy Heart,” op. 29, no. 1
“Sleep, Little Darling,” op. 29, no. 3
“Dearie,” op. 43, no. 1
“Scottish Cradle Song,” op. 43, no. 2
“Far Awa’,” op. 43, no. 4
“My Lassie,” op. 43, no. 5
“Come, ah Come,” op. 48, no. 1

“Go not too Far,” op. 56, no. 2

“Shena Van,” op. 56, no. 4
“Baby,” op. 69, no. 1
“Hush, Baby Dear,” op. 69, no. 2
“A Prelude,” op. 71, no. 1
Medium
“Ariette,” op. 1, no. 4
“Empress of Night,” op. 2, no. 3
“Die vier Brüder,” op. 1, no. 2
“Le Secret,” op. 14, no. 2
“O mistress mine,” op. 37, no. 1
“Take, O Take those Lips Away,” op. 37, no. 2
“Fairy Lullaby,” op. 37, no. 3
“Forgotten,” op. 41, no. 3
“O were my Love yon lilac fair!” op. 43, no. 3
“The Year’s at the Spring,” op. 44, no. 1
“Canzonetta,” op. 48, no. 4
“Ich sagte nicht,” op. 51, no. 1
“Wir Drei,” op. 51, no. 2
“Juni,” op. 51, no. 3
“Je demande a l’Oiseau,” op. 51, no. 4
“O Sweet Content,” op. 71, no. 2
Difficult
“Dark is the Night,” op. 11, no. 1
“Elle et moi,” op. 21, no. 3
“Nachts,” op. 35, no. 1
“Ah, Love but a day!” op. 44, no. 2
“I Send my Heart up to Thee!” op. 44, no. 3
Second Style Period

Easy
“Ein altes Gebet,” op. 72, no. 1
“Grossmütterchen,” op. 73, no. 1
“Der Totenkranz,” op. 73, no. 2
“The Candy Lion,” op. 75, no. 1
“A Thanksgiving Fable,” op. 75, no. 2
“Prayer of a Tired Child,” op. 75, no. 4

Medium
“The Lotos Isles,” op. 76, no. 2
Third Style Period

Easy
“The Moonpath,” op. 99, no. 3
“Around the Manger,” op. 115
“The Host,” op. 117, no. 2
“Song in the Hills,” op. 117, no. 3
Medium
“In the Twilight,” op. 85
“On a Hill”
“I Sought the Lord,” op. 142
“May Flowers,” op. 137
“Though I Take the Wings of Morning,” op. 152
Notes
1. Desirée de Charmes and Paul Breed, Songs in Collections: An Index (Detroit:

Information Service, 1966), supplemented by my own research in 1989. The
songs were: “Meadowlarks,” op. 78, no. 1, in A New Anthology of American
Songs: 25 Songs by Native American Composers (New York: G. Schirmer, 1942),
and “The Year’s at the Spring,” op. 44, no. 1, in Richard D. Row, The Young
Singer, Volume One, Soprano (New York: Carl Fischer, 1965).
2. Mrs. H. H. A. Beach, “The Mission of the Present-Day Composer,” The Triangle
of Mu Phi Epsilon 36, no. 2 (February 1942): 72.
3. Berenice Thompson, “Music and Musicians: Mrs. Beach’s Songs,” Washington
Post, January 17, 1904, p. E11.
4. Mrs. H. H. A. Beach, “The Enjoyment of Music,” in Hazel Gertrude Kinscella,
Music on the Air (Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing Co., 1934), 25.
5. Benjamin Brooks, “The ‘How’ of Creative Composition: A Conference with
Mrs. H. H. A. Beach,” The Etude 61, no. 3 (March 1943): 151.
6. Quoted in Claire McGlinchee, “American Literature in American Music,”
Musical Quarterly 31, no. 1 (January 1945): 104.
7. Brooks, “The ‘How’ of Composition,” 151.

8. Letter from Beach to the A. P. Schmidt Company, November 25, 1908, box 303,
folder 5, A. P. Schmidt Company Archives, Music Division, Library of
Congress.
9. Mrs. H. H. A. Beach, “Common Sense in Pianoforte Touch and Technic,” The
Etude 34, no. 10 (October 1916): 701.
10. Mrs. H. H. A. Beach, “How Music Is Made,” Keyboard (Winter 1942): 11.
13. Beach, “The Enjoyment of Music,” 24.
14. Beach, “How Music Is Made,” 11.
15. Four of the songs that included string obbligati – “June,” op. 51, no. 3;
“Rendezvous,” op. 120; “A Mirage,” op. 100, no. 1; and “Stella viatoris,” op.
100, no. 2 – have been republished with an introductory essay in Adrienne
Fried Block, “Amy Beach (1867–1944),” in Women Composers: Music Through
the Ages, vol. 7, Composers born 1800–1899, Vocal Music, ed. Sylvia Glickman
and Martha Furman Schleifer (New York: G. K. Hall, 2003), 492–528.
16. For a discussion of this aspect of her piano accompaniments, see Adrienne
Fried Block, Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian: The Life and Work of an
American Composer (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 151 and
347n17.
17. A fascinating overview of pitch standards there can be found in Charles
R. Cross, “Historical Notes Relating to Musical Pitch in the United States,”
Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 35, no. 22 (April
1900), 453–55.
18. Dr. G. W. C. Kaye, “International Standard of Concert Pitch,” Nature 143
(May 27, 1939), 905. For a complete discussion of the evolution of Western
pitch standards from the Renaissance through the twentieth century, see
Bruce Haynes and Peter Cook, “Pitch,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, 2nd ed., 29 vols., ed. Stanley Sadie (New York: Grove Dictionaries,
2001), vol. 19.
19. Burnet Corwin Tuthill, “Mrs. H. H. A. Beach,” Musical Quarterly 26, no. 3 (July
1940): 298.
20. These early songs, published between 1887 and 1891, show her youthful
inexperience in song composition. They include the popular “Hymn of Trust,”
op. 13; “Villanelle: Across the World,” op. 20; French songs: “Jeune fille et jeune
fleur,” op. 1, no. 3, and both op. 21 songs, “Chanson d’amour” and “Extase.”
21. Examples include “The Thrush,” op. 14, no. 4, and “The Western Wind,” op.
11, no. 2. These songs have relatively simple accompanimental motives that
represent (respectively) the call of a wood thrush and a gentle breeze.
22. “unless it be an accompaniment that I want to try with the voice part, then
I sometimes take it to the piano to see what changes are needed.” Quoted in
Harriet Brower, “Mrs. H. H. A. Beach: How a Composer Works,” Piano
Mastery, Second Series (New York: F. A. Stokes, 1917), 181.

23. Rupert Hughes, Famous American Composers (Boston: L. C. Page and Co.,
1900), 430–32. In reviewing eleven of the fourteen songs in Schmidt’s first
anthology of Beach’s songs (1891), Hughes stated: “Both the defects and effects
of her qualities haunt Mrs. Beach’s songs. When she is sparing in her erudition,
she is delightful.” He praised ten of the songs with such descriptions as “tender
and graceful,” “dainty and serene,” and “of complete originality.” His
description of “A Secret” (“Le Secret,” op. 14, no. 2) as “bizarre” is especially
odd, given its lovely, flowing, singable melody. She quoted several of its
measures in the third movement (a waltz) of her Les Rêves de Columbine: Suite
Française, op. 65. It is plausible that Hughes’s comment was in reference to
“Extase,” op. 14, no. 1.
24. This debate is discussed in Adrienne Fried Block, “Boston talks back to
Dvořák,” Institute for Studies in American Music Newsletter 18, no. 2 (1989):
10–11, 15.
25. Clipping file, Rebekah Crawford Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of
Congress.
26. Quoted in “Among the Composers,” The Etude 62, no. 1 (January 1944): 11.
27. Clare P. Peeler, “American Woman Whose Musical Message Thrilled
Germany,” Musical America 20, no. 24 (October 17, 1914): 7.
28. Letter from Emma Eames-Story to Beach, September 14, 1904, box 1, folder 5,
Amy Cheney Beach (Mrs. H. H. A. Beach) Papers, 1835–1956, MC 51, Milne
Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library,
Durham, NH.
29. Block, Amy Beach: Passionate Victorian, 207.
30. “The kindest, most helpful, and most merciless critics I ever had were my
mother and my husband. How often they would make me work over a phrase –
over and over and over! – until the flow of the melody and the harmonization
sounded right.” Quoted in Brooks, “The ‘How’ of Composition,” 208.
31. “There are no absolute or eternal boundary lines in the expression of beauty
and life. The underlying principles of truth live on, but the very momentum of
the times in which we live is carrying us into new expression of them by new
formulas of tone, color, and design.” Quoted in Arthur Wilson,
“Mrs. H. H. A. Beach: A Conversation on Musical Conditions in America,” The
Musician 17, no. 1 (January 1912): 9.
32. Block, Amy Beach: Passionate Victorian, 224.
33. Block, Amy Beach: Passionate Victorian, 371n25.
34. Quoted in Brooks, “The ‘How’ of Composition,” 151, 209.
36. Letter from Beach to Mr. Weaver, May 30, 1932, box 2, folder 26, Beach
Collection, University of Missouri, Kansas City.
37. Letter from Beach to Henry Austin of the Arthur P. Schmidt Company, June 3,
1929, box 303, folder 17, Schmidt Collection, Music Division, Library of
Congress.

38. Letter from Austin to Beach, August 24, 1929, box 303, folder 17, Schmidt
Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress. There is no evidence that
Roland Hayes ever sang it.
39. Robert Nelson Spencer, The Seer’s House (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1940).
40. “Mrs. Beach, Leading American Woman Composer, Dies at 77,” Musical
America 65, no. 1 (January 10, 1945): 24.
41. These were Anne L. and William D. Leyerle, Song Anthology Two (Geneseo,
NY: Leyerle Publications, 1984) and Paul Sperry, Songs of an Innocent Age
(Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard, 1984).
42. Kinscella, Music on the Air, 26.
43. The first line of her statement quotes a poem by Boston author Amy
S. Bridgman (ca. 1865–1949). This poem (or at least part of it) was the basis of
her choral piece, “We who sing have walked in glory,” op. 140 (1930).
44. Quoted in “Among the Composers,” 11.

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6 Songs of Amy Beach

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

Example 6.1 “Ecstasy,” op. 19, no. 2, mm. 1–14.

What makes most of Beach’s songs so singable? Why do they practically

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

Schmidt published notices and advertisements in newspapers and

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

Example 6.2 “After,” op. 68, mm. 71–78.

Example 6.3 “Forget-me-not,” op. 35, no. 4, mm. 55–59.

First Style Period (1883–1911)

As a girl, and later as the wife of a socially connected, wealthy Boston

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

She composed seventy-two songs during these thirty years, many of

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

changing harmonies. The voice sometimes provides counterpoint for the

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

that Beach began inclusion of musical ideas reminiscent of traditional folk

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

Second Style Period (1914)

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

Example 6.5 Beach, “Juni,” op. 51, no. 3, mm. 7–8.

songs composed in Munich in May–June (opuses 72–73 and 75–76) com-

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https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

Third Style Period (1916–1941)

Her pattern of (practically) nonstop travel for performances, talks, and

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

emerged increasingly from contemporary musical trends rather than from

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https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

Example 6.7 “In the Twilight,” op. 85, mm. 100–15.

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Shaﬀner (1896–1981), soprano soloist at St. Bartholomew’s Church

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https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

quick neglect. By 1941, thirty-seven songs were unavailable. After Beach’s

Representative Songs and Diﬃculty Levels

First Style Period

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“Go not too Far,” op. 56, no. 2

Second Style Period

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Third Style Period

1. Desirée de Charmes and Paul Breed, Songs in Collections: An Index (Detroit:

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https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991124.007 Published online by Cambridge University Press

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