Amy Beach

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944) was a groundbreaking American composer. Shortly after Antonin Dvorak arrived in America in 1892, he was quoted supporting the prevailing view that “ladies cannot help us much. They have not the creative power.” Only ten days later, Mrs. Beach wrote an op-ed in another Boston newspaper that undermined Dvorak’s views, detailing important accomplishments of women composers over the previous 200 years.

Not long after this, Beach herself began to be recognized as a major composer–and the first American woman to gain international recognition. She married Dr. H.H.A. Beach and often went by “Mrs. H.H.A. Beach” for her professional name as both composer and concert pianist.

In line with contemporary Victorian attitudes, Dr. Beach prescribed that Mrs. Beach would not teach piano and only perform two public piano concerts per year. Further, she was to devote herself more to composition than performance. Since Dr. Beach disapproved of his wife having a tutor, and a prominent conductor advised self-study, she was left with no alternative but to teach herself to compose.

As William Robin wrote in the New York Times in 2017, “While American composers of the time typically traveled to Europe for private instruction, women were perceived as intuitive musicians and not capable of intensive training.” 

Intertwined with this, curiously, is that Dr. Beach also pressed Amy to compose, as she later recounted:

“It was he more than any one else who encouraged my interest upon the field of musical composition in the larger forms. It was pioneer work, at least for this country, for a woman to do.”

Explore Beach’s Work: The Polka, Op. 36 No.5

The Polka, Op. 36 No. 5 is the last of a brief Children’s Album that seems inspired by the more famous volumes by Schumann and Tchaikovsky without being as extensive. Tchaikovsky included a Polka in his own Op. 39.

Fred Karpoff opens his lesson on Beach’s Polka by playing the opening of Tchaikovsky’s work, and demonstrating parallels in articulation, rubato, and spirit.

Other topics covered include three-dimensional shaping combined with staccato and artistic “secrets,” not only of rhythmic playing, but also of vocal phrasing and breathing. These elements help elevate solo performance by integrating chamber music experience.

Watch the full Masterclass inside Entrada