Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian: The Life and Work of an American Composer, 1867-1944 (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The question one inevitably asks when considering the life of composer Amy Beach is this: How much greater might she have been if she'd had the same opportunities given male prodigies such as Mozart or Beethoven? As it was, Beach's talent was prodigious and widely recognized in her own time. Born in 1867 to a musical family, the young Amy was playing the piano by ear by the time she was four. Had she been a boy, no doubt a brilliant career as a concert pianist would have followed; instead, Amy married a much older man and mostly confined her musical genius to once-yearly concerts and to composing. Beach was prolific and eclectic, writing a Mass, a symphony (her "Gaelic" Symphony was the first work by an American woman composer to be performed by an American orchestra) and chamber music. In later years, after her husband's death, Beach toured the world as a performer.

In her extensive biography of Amy Beach, Adrienne Fried Block examines both the composer's life and work. Excerpts from various pieces are included in the book, giving readers an opportunity to study her music. Block does an admirable job of explaining to those less musically knowledgeable just what Beach was attempting to accomplish in each piece. Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian is an excellent biography for anyone interested in the life of a remarkable woman; for those who are also interested in music and composition, it's a real treat.

From Library Journal

Beach (1867-1944), who published her works under the name Mrs. H.H.A. Beach, was the most widely performed composer of her generation and the first major American woman composer. A musicologist and codirector of the Project for the Study of Women in Music, Block has done a great service by providing the first full-length critical biography of this talented, underappreciated composer. Beach's unwillingness to embrace the techniques of the European avant-garde endeared her to her fellow Boston Brahmins but, regrettably, guaranteed her only peripheral status in textbooks on 20th-century music. Block's thorough and clear-eyed account nicely places Beach's life and work in the context of turn-of-the-century New England arts and society. Pitched to the lay reader, her book includes 22 music examples accompanied by simple, illuminating analyses. An important work not only for general collections and music libraries but also for women's studies collections; highly recommended.?Larry A. Lipkis, Moravian Coll., Bethlehem, PA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (December 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195074084
• ISBN-13: 978-0195074086
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,131,198 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian, May 23, 2000

By	Owen G. Clayton (Irvine, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian: The Life and Work of an American Composer, 1867-1944 (Paperback)

At last, a full-length biography of the "Dean of American Women Composers." Engaging and thorougly researched. The only thing lacking is a discography of Beach's music. Highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars Still stellar, November 22, 2009

By	Susan H. Borwick (NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian: The Life and Work of an American Composer, 1867-1944 (Paperback)

Months after the passing of author Adrienne Fried Block and over a decade since the publication of her impressive study of Amy Beach, the work continues to stand up. The minor errors are hardly worth mentioning--e.g., a footnote here and there, or a lone opus number. Block injects her own passion for truth and detail into the dramatic arc of Beach's life to produce not only a research tool and musical biography, but also a model of how to write about women composers, whose lives carry complexities and conflicts. That Beach--America's first woman composer of a symphony, a concerto, a Mass, a string quartet--was captured for history by Block is justice well served.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book about a great composer, May 15, 2009

By	John Gibson "jb-linear-music" (Vancouver, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book gives lots of detail about Amy Beach, born at a time when women were not encouraged to follow productive careers in music. Despite being handicapped by her society, Amy Beach overcame many of those by the shear force of her musical talents. This book follows Beach's musical and personal life and also provides a clear image of the time in which she lived. If I had any criticism, there may be too much detail, but then I bought the book just to concentrate on her music.