Feminist Friday -Meet Amy M.C. Beach

I attended a storytelling workshop recently for teachers.  In a room of 99% women the storyteller, a man, proceeded to spin entertaining stories with 100% male protagonists.  He was a lovely person, but story after story I kept hoping to hear about a girl, a woman who was clever, or kind or adventurous and who overcame the odds.  I talked with him about it after the class and to his credit, he admitted it had never really occurred to him that women might have a hard time connecting to all-male stories.  Reading history books is much the same.  Stories of incredible men abound.  That is nice and all, but I want to know what the humans that look like me and have had some of the same social experiences I have were doing too.  This is what drew me to study history, and because I'm a musician, I look at it through the lens of music.  Feminist history is just the other side of the coin of history.  Feminist history is just more-complete-human-history.  So let me introduce you to one of those women who I wish I'd read about in my music history books.

I was drawn to her because we shared a first name.  But that is pretty much it.  Amy Marcy Cheney Beach was truly extraordinary.   She was a composer, the first major female composer of orchestral music in the United States.  When her mother held her in her arms at just 2 years old, she would sing harmony to her mother's trained soprano voice.

She was a pianist, and wrote music for voice, piano, as well as concertos and string quartets.  Her music fit in the Romantic period genre and I would compare her composition style to something between the Mendelssohn's (both Fanny and Felix) and Frederik Chopin.

 There were other female composers during her time, but her situation was a bit unique.  She was married to a doctor, who encouraged her talent and craft.  She had no children. She composed just one symphony (the traditional criteria to consider yourself a 'serious' composer through the Romantic and early Modern periods) but that one symphony made her stand out among her fellow female composers.  She spent her lifetime composing, collaborating with other artists and musicians and honing her craft.  Here is her symphony:

Before I started graduate school, I barely knew female composers existed.  Now everywhere I turn I am finding new, exquisite music to discover by people who share my gender.  It is exciting.


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