Robert Debbaut

Mrs. Beach's Symphony, an American Original Robert Debbaut

In 1896 the Boston Symphony made history by premiering a symphony by an American woman composer. That remarkable woman, composer and concert pianist Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, was immediately the source of admiration of countless young women desirous of careers in music that society denied them because of their gender. 2017 marks the sesquicentennial of her birth. This book began in 1998 as a doctoral project written by the author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan School of Music. Until September 2016 it had a comfortable home in the author's filing cabinet. One night's insomnia allowed it to see the light of day and to be brought forth for publication. Within the book are some basic background information on Mrs. Beach, as well as a brief analysis of the major thematic material of her symphony, subtitled "Gaelic" (which was due to the style of her original thematic material rather than her borrowing from folk song sources), as well as an errata list derived from the only published score and parts and further information about her symphony's performance history (Leopold Stokowski loved this work) as well as information about her other works for the orchestra. Following the premiere of her symphony George Whitefield Chadwick, arguably the dean of living American composers, pronounced her to be "one of the boys." Unlike "the boys," MRS. H. H. A. Beach agreed to spend almost all of her creative life in Boston as the dutiful wife of Dr. Beach, her husband and a man some twenty-five years her senior. It was only following his death that she became on demand across North America and in Europe as a concert soloist and composer. Many would argue that conditions are not much better for women composers today. Nonetheless, all concerned owe a debt to Amy Beach for her prolific perseverance at composing. While her well-crafted works definitely cling to the compositional style of the Nineteenth Century, they are surely deserving of hearing and performing. It is this author's opinion that Mrs. Beach's symphony is every bit as well-crafted as the vast majority of works from her era and that the only reason it has not enjoyed a richer performance history is because it was written by a woman, a remarkable woman to whom every female musician owes a great debt.