Amy Beach for kids: her life, her music, and what to play first

Amy Beach was an American pianist and composer who lived from 1867 to 1944. She taught herself to compose from books, and she became the first American woman to have a symphony played by a major orchestra. She wrote more than 300 pieces, among them songs, piano music, and works for choir and orchestra. The best first piece for a child is “A Hermit Thrush at Morn,” a piano piece built on a real bird’s song.

Quick facts

• Born: 1867, in Henniker, New Hampshire
• Died: 1944, in New York City
• Era: Romantic
• Played: piano
• Known for: the “Gaelic” Symphony, the Piano Concerto, songs, and piano pieces about nature

The life in short

Amy Cheney was a child prodigy. As a toddler, she could sing dozens of tunes in the right key. At four, she made up waltzes in her head while visiting a farm with no piano. She played them when she got home.

Her mother gave her piano lessons and then found her teachers in Boston. At 16, Amy gave her first public concert. At 17, she played as a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

At 18, she married Dr. Henry Beach, a Boston surgeon who was much older. He asked her to give only a few concerts a year and to spend her time composing. She agreed. For the next 25 years, her music was printed under the name “Mrs. H. H. A. Beach.”

She had no composition teacher. She collected the best books on harmony and on writing for orchestra, and she worked through them alone. She copied out great pieces by hand to learn how they were made.

In 1896, the Boston Symphony Orchestra played her “Gaelic” Symphony. She was 29.

After her husband died in 1910, she went back to the stage. She toured Europe for three years, playing her own music to strong reviews.

In her later years, she spent summers at an artists’ retreat in the New Hampshire woods. She wrote down the songs of the birds outside her cabin and used them in her pieces. She also gave her time to helping younger women composers.

What the music sounds like

Beach’s music is warm and full, with long, singing melodies and rich chords. She wrote in the Romantic style of Brahms and of her own Boston teachers.

She often borrowed tunes. The “Gaelic” Symphony uses old Irish melodies. Other pieces use bird calls, and songs of the Inuit and of people from the Balkans.

Beach also heard colors in music. To her, each key had its own color.

Four pieces to play first

“A Hermit Thrush at Morn.” High, bright notes copy the thrush’s song, just as Beach wrote it down in the woods. A slow waltz moves underneath.

“Gaelic” Symphony, second movement. A lilting Irish tune for the oboe opens and closes it. In the middle, the same tune races by at high speed.

“The Year’s at the Spring.” A song that lasts about a minute and builds from a hush to a joyful shout. It was her best-known piece in her lifetime.

Romance for violin and piano. A long, sweet melody. Beach wrote it for a famous American violinist and played the piano part at its first performance.

For piano students

Beach wrote two sets of short pieces for young players: the Children’s Carnival and the Children’s Album. They have dance titles such as “Minuet,” “Gavotte,” and “Waltz,” and characters such as Harlequin and Columbine.

Things to do together

Write down a bird. Go outside and listen to one bird. Draw its song as a line that goes up and down. Then listen to how Beach did it.

Slow, fast, slow. Play the second movement of the “Gaelic” Symphony. Raise a hand when the tune speeds up, and again when it slows down.

Color the keys. Play two pieces. Ask your child what color each one sounds like.

Soft to loud. Play “The Year’s at the Spring.” Crouch at the start and jump on the last note.

A first for women composers

When the Boston Symphony Orchestra played her symphony, a fellow Boston composer wrote to welcome her as “one of the boys.” Today orchestras are playing her music more often again.

Print and play

Fill in a composer study notebook page for Amy Beach. Read about nine more women who wrote music in women composers for kids: ten to know. For the composers of her time, see Romantic era music for kids.

For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.