Title: Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian
First published: 1998
Description: Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944), the most widely performed composer of her generation, was the first American woman to succeed as a creator of large-scale art music. Her "Gaelic" Symphony, given its premiere by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896, was the first work of its kind by an American woman to be performed by an American orchestra.

Almost all of her more than 300 works were published soon after they were composed and performed, and today her music is finding new advocates and audiences for its energy, intensity, and sheer beauty. Yet, until now, no full-length critical biography of Beach's life or comprehensive critical overview of her music existed. This biography admirably fills that gap, fully examining the connections between Beach's life and work in light of social currents and dominant ideologies.

Adrienne Fried Block has written a biography that takes full account of issues of gender and musical modernism, considering Beach in the contexts of her time and of her composer contemporaries, both male and female. Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian will be of great interest to students and scholars of American music, and to music lovers in general.
Subjects: Biography, Composers, Women composers, Composers, biography, Composers, united states, Women, united states, biography, New York Times reviewed, Classical composers - biography, Entertainers & musicians - women's biography, General & miscellaneous music, Romantic period - classical music - general & miscellaneous, Modern classical music - general & miscellaneous
Places: United States
People: H. H. A. Beach Mrs. (1867-1944)
LC classification: ML410.B36 B56 1998