Talk:Amy Beach

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 11 January 2021 and 1 May 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): RannochbyGlencoe.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 14:06, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Initial version?
Born on September 5, 1876 in Henniker, NH, Amy Marcy Cheney was a child prodigy. By the age of one, she knew forty songs and always sung them at the same pitch. When she was two she could compose a harmony with any melody her mother sang. By age four, she could sight read four part hymns and compose songs in her head and play them on the piano. She started taking piano lessons at age six with her mom and made her debut in 1885 at age 16, when she started to play with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She played during the Romantic Era.

After that point, her career was based on the society’s views of women. It was believed that women composed on feeling rather than intellect, so she studied composition independently. She married Henry Harris Aubrey Beach in 1885 and he asked her to limit her concerts to just a few a year. This is when she decided to focus on her compositions. When he died in 1910 she started playing concerts again in Europe. Her husband’s desire for her to not play at concerts may have interrupted her career in one aspect, but it allowed her to study composition full-time. This was considered a rare luxury at the time.

In her life, Beach wrote a variety of things, from orchestral music like Gaelic Symphony to opera like Cabildo. She also wrote choral music, including Mass in E-Flat and more than 120 songs for voice and piano. Beach also was responsible for numerous articles on composition and pedagogical topics. Amy Marcy Cheney Beach died on December 27, 1944 in New York, New York. After her death, her music, along with other Romantic works, was neglected. Recent committed singers and musicians are working to change that.

03:38, 1 November 2005 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.161.105.183 (talk • contribs)

H.H.
It should be explained where the "H.H." comes from in her name. Is it "Her Highness"? Badagnani 06:37, 31 May 2007 (UTC)


 * It's from her marriage to Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach; it's also where the A and the Beach comes from. (3rd paragraph) :)  -- Myke Cuthbert (talk) 19:52, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Synesthesia
The article is included in the category Category:People with synesthesia, but, although the article List of people with synesthesia has a short description of Amy Beach's association between colors and keys, synesthsia is not mentioned anywhere in this article. Coyets (talk) 10:36, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Radio 3
Catch a whole week of programmes devoted to her on Radio 3 this week, 2-6 Aug, 2010 Tsinfandel (talk) 11:02, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

And as a shortened podcast available to UK IP addresses until Friday 13th August. Soarhead77 (talk) 14:06, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

Adding Info
I am planning on adding more information about Beach's childhood, career as a performer, the impact of her compositions in the scope of music and women's history, as well as her role as a music educator and her work to promote music in young people. Total it's approximately 3 paragraphs of information. Bkg7290 (talk) 00:34, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Info added Bkg7290 (talk) 16:22, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

Name before marriage (maiden name)
Apparently it was Amy Marcy Cheney, as used in the initial version. It seems to make little sense to refer to her as "Beach" before marriage. I plan to revise accordingly. Marlindale (talk) 23:15, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

Generalizations on male vs. female composers?
These seem questionable, so perhaps best not repeated? Marlindale (talk) 23:38, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

For example, Brahms and Clara Schumann exchanged mutually fruitful correspondence on their compositions; Brahms's of course are better known, but he earnestly solicited her advice. Marlindale (talk) 20:17, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

Concert debut
The Oxford Companion gives the debut as playing the Moscheles concerto with the Boston Symphony, not mentioning the Chopin rondo. Marlindale (talk) 01:21, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

It was not the Boston Symphony but another orchestra (Gates 2010, p. 2). Marlindale (talk) 23:52, 23 February 2016 (UTC)

The Rondo is said to take only 10 minutes to play, so seemingly there were other pieces on a program with it. Marlindale (talk) 01:26, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

Gstes 2010 p.2 confirms that both pieces were played on the same program. Marlindale (talk) 23:52, 23 February 2016 (UTC)

Paine, Chadwick symphonies before 1896 Gaelic Symphony
John Knowles Paine wrote his Symphony No. 1 in 1875 and No. 2 in 1879. George Whitefield Chadwick wrote his Symphony No. 2 in 1883—86 (No. 1 presumably earlier?) and No. 3 in 1894. Marlindale (talk) 23:42, 23 February 2016 (UTC)

Symphonies by European female composers before Beach
To assume that the List of symphony composers is complete would not be valid in WP, but here are the earlier female Europeans I found on the list: Louise Farrenc, née Jeanne-Louise Dumont 1804—1875, Symphony No. 1 (1842), No. 2 (1845), No. 3 (1847); Alice Mary Smith, née Alice Mary Meadows White 1839—1916 or 1884? wrote two symphonies; Elfrida Andrée 1841—1929, also two symphonies. Marlindale (talk) 02:41, 24 February 2016 (UTC)the

Critic Philip Hale in his review of the premiere of the Gaelic Symphony did not mention Andrée but did mention two others, Emilie Mayer, 1821-1883 who wrote 8 symphonies and Aline Hundt. The latter is not on the List of symphony composers but is one of the composers in the List of compositions for viola, 1849-1883.So there may have been four, five, or more women symphonists before Amy Beach. Marlindale (talk) 21:33, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

Hoffmann String Quartet
According to Fried Block 1998, pp. 129 and 199, Beach's Quintet for piano and strings was premiered in 1908 by her at piano and this string quartet. The Hoffmann Quartet seems to have been less well known than the Kneisel Quartet. Since Amy Beach did perform her Quintet on tour with the Kneisel Quartet many times, as mentioned in the article, I suggest not mentioning the premiere or the Hoffmann Quartet, unless maybe more information about it appears? Marlindale (talk) 22:29, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

Betty Buchanan
She is said to have investigated "about a dozen" sacred choral works of Beach's, but without details or a reference. I found what is apparently an obituary of Betty Buchanan from the online Washington Post, Nov. 14, 2011. She was Choir Director of the Riverside Baptist Church and is said to have founded and led the Capitol Hill Choral Society. Marlindale (talk) 01:16, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

Some information comes along with the recording by the Choral Society of Beach, "Canticle of the Sun" etc. Marlindale (talk) 03:46, 27 March 2016 (UTC)

Notes with problems 26 March 2016
There is a thesis mentioned in the Notes, purportedly linked to, but the link seems to be dead: "Not found on this server"


 * Founder and first president of Society of American Women Composers, replaced by reference to Block. Marlindale (talk) 03:34, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

The Achenbach Gramophone review is cited in two footnotes, accessed on different dates Jan. 9 and Jan. 16. Probably the review didn't change between those dates? If it didn't, then one citation to a "ref name" could be cited twice, with just one access date, say the 9th. Marlindale (talk) 03:43, 27 March 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Amy Beach. Please take a moment to review my edit. (from User:Cyberbot 30 March 2016)

- - - - - - - - - -

I (User:Marlindale) deleted the reference to a dead link later. Marlindale (talk) 16:37, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 01:48, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

Link to a PBS program in 1997 is dead according to a bot?
Maybe delete the citation? Marlindale (talk) 03:15, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

I did that. It's that citation which some (other?) bot is talking about in the previous section. Marlindale (talk) 03:44, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

Notable People in articles on places and "people from" categories
The article Centerville, Massachusetts lists no Notable People. The article on Henniker, New Hampshire lists Amy Beach among Notable People. Marlindale (talk) 22:37, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

Encyclopedic tone
The article needs some work to make it less of a tribute and more factual, with no opinion unless it is attributed to a recognized expert. If events are "recalled" by the subject or someone close to her, we should be able to read to whom the information was recounted and when. Too much of the information in the article is sourced to one biography, a tertiary source; instead the information where possible should be sourced to secondary published documents which the biographer likely used in writing the book.

Also, the subject should be referred to by her surname, as is standard in WP biographies.&mdash;Anne Delong (talk) 17:05, 7 August 2017 (UTC)

Her surname became "Beach" only after her marriage to H.H.A. Beach. Before that, her maiden name was "Cheney" as already mentioned in the article. Before her marriage I believe she is best called "Amy". Marlindale (talk) 19:43, 7 August 2017 (UTC)

To add to the tribute vs factual tone, in the Return to America and later life section, the sentence "Someone had asked her if she were the daughter of Mrs. H. H. A. Beach." seems a bit out of place.


 * Her last name is Beach and that is how she should be named throughout, once her birth name is stated. This is WP style. See, for example: Hillary Clinton: "Hillary Diane Rodham was born on October 26, 1947, at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. Clinton was raised..." Bmclaughlin9 (talk) 19:36, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

Comparison with Fanny Mendelssohn
With reference to the conditions on Beach's musical activities after her marriage, the statement that "restrictions like these were typical for middle- and upper-class women of the time" is illustrated by reference to Fanny Mendelssohn. But Mendelssohn and Beach were not contemporaries, and they lived in quite different cultures. Nor is it clear (at least from WP) that any restrictions were placed on Mendelssohn's musical activities by her husband, Wilhelm Hensel. So I think this comparison is inapt. (I do not wish to edit this article myself, as I know almost nothing about the subject---indeed, I came here to find out about her.) JBritnell (talk) 19:57, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

Specification needed & further information sought.
1. The very first sentence in the MARRIAGE section says...

"Amy was married the same year (1885) to Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach (1843-1910[15]), a Boston surgeon twenty-four years her senior (she was eighteen at the time).[16]"

The "same year" as what? Please specify.

2. In season 1, episode 10 of the TV show, Everything's Gonna Be Okay, the sisters characterize Amy Beach as "an autistic feminist  ...   they think". They then go on to visit St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Manhattan where Beach was the composer-in-residence. Although St. Bartholomew's is mentioned, this article doesn't describe the possibility that she was an "autistic feminist". Is this true?

Thank you for your input, Wordreader (talk) 00:13, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

Given name edits.
I went ahead and corrected the instances where the musician's given name was incorrectly used - "Amy" to "Beach" or to a pronoun, per MOS:SURNAME. Only the first half of the article needed cleaning up in this way. I also polished a few minor typos.

I am at a loss about what to do about "Aunt Franc" and her husband "Lyman", as well as "Cousin Ethel". Does anybody know what their surnames are?

Thank you, Wordreader (talk) 02:53, 25 March 2020 (UTC)
 * All "Clement": see Music and the Skillful Listener: American Women Compose the Natural World by Denise Von Glahn, p. 40. It is in Google books, but I cannot create a working link. "Lyman Clement" and the Clement family are also referred to on page 212 of the book by Adrienne Fried Block that's already referenced. William Avery (talk) 06:23, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

Upcoming edits to chamber music section
Hi, I'm RannochbyGlencoe, a student at the University of North Texas, and I will be revising this article as part of my class on chamber music literature this spring. I am anticipating primarily focusing on developing, expanding, and refining the section on Beach's chamber music. I look forward to your feedback on my revisions!RannochbyGlencoe (talk) 06:54, 26 February 2021 (UTC)