“Amy Beach originally Amy Marcy Cheney known as Mrs, H.H.A. Beach: (1867-1944) U.S. composer and pianist. Born in Henniker, New Hampshire, to a distinguished family, she was a precociously brilliant and mostly self-taught musician, and she performed as soloist with major orchestras in the U.S. and Europe. As a composer, she was devoted to German romanticism rather than American themes or sources. Her best-loved works were her songs. Her Gaelic Symphony (1894) was the first symphony written by an American woman. Other works include a piano concerto (1899), the choral pieces The Chambered Nautilus (1907) and Canticle of the Sun (1928), the opera Cabildo (1932), and a piano quintet.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
Mark's Text Terminal 