台东师院学报
台东师院学报,民89,11期(下),171~200页
JOURAL OF NATIONAL TAITUNG TEACHERS COLLEGE,
Vol.11-2,pp.171~ 200(2000)
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The Formal Organization of Amy Beach's
Piano Concerto in C-sharp Minor, Op.45
Yang,Ching-Lan
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to reintroduce Amy Beach's piano
concerto to the music public and to show Beach's contribution to
American Romantic music. Furthermore, it is hoped that this study
will stimulate research and performing interests in Amy Beach's works.
The study begins with a review of the related literature followed by
a biographical look at Amy Beach. Critical response to the piano
concerto is included. After the compositional background, the formal
organization of Amy Beach's piano concerto, which is the main focus of
this study, is followed.
Although the forms that Amy Beach chooses for this piano concerto
are basically traditional, it is her ways of developing the thematic
materials, and that connection between movements make her piano
concerto very individual and representative.
Keywords: Amy Beach, Piano concerto, Form.
本校音乐教育学系副教授
台东师院学报第十一期(下) 民89年12月
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The Formal Organization of Amy Beach's
Piano Concerto in C-sharp Minor, Op.45
Yang Ching-Lan
INTRODUCTION
Amy Beach (1867-1944) was a remarkable woman in the history of
late nineteenth and early twentieth-century American music. She was
the first American woman to successfully compose large scale forms
and to achieve recognition both in America and Europe. Her Mass in
E-Flat was performed by the Boston Handel and Haydn Society in 1892;
her Gaelic Symphony in E-Minor was premiered by the Boston
Symphony Orchestra in 1896. This was followed in 1899 by a piano
concerto in C-Sharp minor, which was premiered by the Boston
Symphony Orchestra in 1900 with the composer as soloist.
The Piano Concerto in C-Sharp minor was dedicated to Teresa
Carre o, a well-known Venezuelan pianist and close friend of Amy
Beach. It is a long work in four movements with a brilliant and
difficult piano part. From 1900 to 1915, Amy Beach's concerto was
frequently performed by major orchestras including Boston, Pittsburgh,
St. Louis and Los Angeles in the United States and Berlin, Leipzig and
Hamburg in Europe. After a performance by the Boston Symphony
under Karl Muck in 1917, the concerto virtually disappeared from the
concert stage until it was reintroduced by Mary Louise Boehm almost
six decades later. The two-piano version of this concerto, as arranged
by the composer, was published in 1900. While the full score and parts,
which remain in manuscript, are in the Edwin Fleisher Collection in
Philadelphia, only a musical organization is allowed to remove this
material.
Many of Beach's works were frequently performed and published
during her lifetime. However, it was Amy Beach's Gaelic Symphony
and her Piano Concerto that quickly established her international
reputation. Although this piano concerto is virtually unknown today, it
was favorably received by audiences and became an important vehicle
for Mrs. Beach as both composer and performer. Her chamber music and
many of her solo piano works have been brought to the concert stage
and chosen as research topics in the past few years. The piano concerto,
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Piano Concerto in C-sharp Minor, Op.45
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after it was reintroduced by pianist Mary Louise Boehm in 1976, is still
neglected by both performers and writers. Only one recording of this
work, which was made by Mary Louise Boehm with the Westphalian
Symphony Orchestra, can be found.
The most recent published sources that provide more detailed
information on Amy Beach's life and works are Energy and
Individuality in the Art of Anna Huntington, Sculptor, and Amy Beach,
Composer1 by Myrna Eden, Amy Beach and her Chamber Music
Biography, Documents, Style2 by Jeanell Brown, and The Remarkable
Mrs. Beach, American Composer3 by Walter S. Jenkins.
Myrna Eden expounds upon the lives and works of Anna
Huntington and Amy Beach and how they relate to the "cultivated
tradition." Through an analysis of some of Amy Beach's works, Eden
shows that Amy Beach contributed a remarkable individuality and
unique energy to the cultivated tradition.
Published in 1994, Jeanell Brown's book is based on her doctoral
dissertation, which was written in 1993 at the University of Maryland,
College Park. Having included information from Amy Beach's
personal and business correspondence and scrapbooks, Brown presents a
reliable biography of Amy Beach. Through examples from her piano
music and chamber music, Brown summarizes the trademarks of Amy
Beach's writing style as well as the characteristics of her melody,
harmony, rhythm, texture and form. Brown also discusses how the
styles of Brahms, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and MacDowell influenced that
of Amy Beach. The main focus of Brown's work is a detailed analysis
of Amy Beach's chamber works.
Walter S. Jenkin's book, edited by John H. Baron, was published
after Jenkins death in 1994. An acquaintance of Amy Beach, Jenkins
was entrusted by Mrs. Lillian Buxbaum, Amy Beach's principal heir,
with Beach's diaries, letters, newspaper clippings, and other
miscellaneous documents. An analysis by Amy Beach of her Gaelic
Symphony is included. One omission is to be noted in this dissertation.
1Myrna G. Eden, Energy and Individuality in the Art of Anna Huntington,
Sculptor and Amy Beach, Composer. Metuchen N. J. And London: The Scarecrow
Press, Inc., 1987.
2Jeanell Brown, Amy Beach and her Chamber Music Biography, Documents,
Style. Metuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press Inc., 1994.
3Walter S. Jenkins, The Remarkable Mrs. Beach, American Composer.
Michigan: Harmonie Park Press, 1994.
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When Merrill discusses the cyclic form in Amy Beach's works, he states
that the Symphony, Op. 32, and the Quintet, Op. 67, are the only two
instrumental works having a theme that recurs in a later movement. As
will be seen in the current study on Amy Beach's piano concerto, the
tragic theme at the beginning of the third movement recurs in the last
movement (mm.128-132). Therefore, this piano concerto uses cyclic
form as well.
Numerous articles including personal interviews, performance
reviews, and reports of events about Amy Beach were written during her
lifetime. However, none of the sources has a detailed discussion of her
Piano Concerto. Only three articles written since Beach's death in
1944 deal specifically with her Piano Concerto. One is "Where Was
Amy Beach All These Years An Interview with Mary Louise
Boehm"by Dean Elder (Clavier, 1976). As mentioned in the
introduction, Mrs. Boehm reintroduced Amy Beach's Piano Concerto in
1976. In Elder's article, Mrs. Boehm briefly comments on each
movement of this concerto, discussing musical style and pianistic
characteristics. The second article is "'Veritable Autobiography'
Amy Beach's Piano Concerto in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 45" by Adrienne
Fried Block (Musical Quarterly, 1994). In her essay, Block uncovers
Amy Beach's quotation of her own songs in her Piano Concerto, and
discusses how the text, music, dedication and date of composition
suggest extramusical meanings which could be related to Amy Beach's
life. Another article entitled "Critical Perception and the Woman
Composer: The Early Reception of Piano Concertos by Clara Wieck
Schumann and Amy Beach" by Claudia Macdonald (Current
Musicology, 1993) was originally presented in a shorter form at the
Feminist Theory and Music Conference in Minneapolis. In her
research, Macdonald cites various critical reviews of Amy Beach's
Piano Concerto from the earliest performance to the latest. These
reviews show us how opinions change given different times and
circumstances. In addition, an outline and a basic analysis of the first
movement of Amy Beach's Piano Concerto are included. The three
remaining movements are first analyzed in this paper.
The Elder, Block, and Macdonald articles are all based on the
two-piano version which was published during Amy Beach's lifetime.
This version later went out of print, until its republication in 1995 by
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Hildegard Publishing Company.4
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Amy Marcy Cheney was born in Henniker, New Hampshire on
September 5, 1867, the only child of Charles Abbott Cheney and Clara
Imogene Marcy, both descendants of colonial settlers. Charles Cheney, a
Bates College graduate, operated a paper-importing business, which was
inherited from his grandfather. Clara Cheney was a fine pianist and
singer and recognized her daughter's gifts very early.
Gifted with remarkable memory and absolute pitch, Amy Beach
constantly surprised her family and friends when she was a child. In a
letter from Clara Cheney to her cousin Anna, Clara recalled that when
Amy Beach was nearly two, she could improvise a perfectly correct alto
to any soprano air Clara might sing. At the age of four, Amy could
play from memory, after one hearing, every four-part hymn tune which
she heard in church. And she always played them in the same key in
which they were written5. She revealed talent for musical composition
at the age of four. Her earliest compositions were several waltzes for
piano.6
In 1871, the Cheney family moved to Chelsea, a suburb of Boston.
At the age of six, Amy began piano lessons with her mother and made
her first public appearance as a pianist at seven,7 She continued to
compose throughout her youth. Two of her songs, The Rainy Day
(1883) and With Violets (1885), were published under her maiden name.
With Violets, her Op. 1, No. 1, was her first piece issued by Arthur P.
Schmidt.
In 1875, the family moved to Boston. Despite several leading
musicians' advice, Mr. and Mrs. Cheney sent eight-year-old Amy to a
private school in Boston for general education instead of sending her to
Europe. Meanwhile, she studied piano with Johann Ernst Parabo (a
pupil of Moscheles, Richter, Hauptmann, and Reinecke) and later with
4 Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, Piano Concerto in C# Minor, Op. 45,
Hildegard Publishing Company, Pennsylvania. 1995
5 Letter from Clara Cheney to cousin Anna dated April 27, 1898, UNH: 1883
diary.
6 They were named as Golden Robin Waltz, Marlboro Waltz, Mama's Waltz
and Snow-flake Waltz.
7 Amy Beach Correspondence Collection, Special Collections, University of
New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH. A letter from Mrs. Cheney to Cousin Anna.
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Carl Baermann (a pupil of Liszt). These two prominent teachers
prepared Amy for a professional career. She also had one year of study
in harmony and counterpoint with Junius Hill (professor of composition
at Wellesley College) from 1881 to 1882. This ended her formal
instruction in music theory.
After this brief formal training, Amy began a systematic study of
counterpoint, fugue, musical form, and orchestration on her own. She
learned the fugal procedure by writing out much of Bach's
Well-Tempered Clavier from memory. Then she compared her version
with Bach's.8 In order to learn their instrumentation and structure, she
carefully studied the scores of standard orchestral works at the many
concerts and rehearsals she was able to attend. Her knowledge of
French9 made it possible for her to translate the instrumentation
treatises of Berlioz and Gavaert. There were no previous translations
in English to aid her study of instrumentation.
In 1883, Amy Cheney gave her concert debut at Boston Music Hall
playing the Moscheles G Minor Concerto with "grand orchestra"10
under the direction of Adolf Neuendorff. She also performed the
Rondo in E-Flat by Chopin. According to Walter Jenkins, ten Boston
newspapers and one New York paper gave favorable reviews on the
debut of Amy Cheney.
Due to the success of her debut, various concerts and recitals
followed in Boston and other places. The most noteworthy concerts
were two performances in March and April, 1885, of Chopin's Concerto
in F Minor and Mendelssohn's Concerto in D Minor with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra under Mr. Gericke and Theodore Thomas'
Orchestra. Both the musical public and critics were very encouraging
and enthusiastic. From 1885 to 1889, Amy began publication of her
compositions including Op. 1, Op. 2, Op. 11, and Op. 12, four sets of
songs; Op. 3, a cadenza to Beethoven's Piano Concerto in C Minor; and
Op. 4, a Valse Carprice for piano.
In 1885 she married Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach, a
distinguished surgeon on the staff of the Harvard Medical School and
the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Beach, twenty-four years
8 Benjamin Brooks, The 'How' of Creative Composition with Mrs. H. H. A.
Beach. Etude 61 pt. 1 (March 1943): 208.
9 Harriette Brower, Piano Master. Frederick A. Stokes Company (1917):
186.
10 Brown, 22.
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Amy's senior, was a well-established physician and an amateur musician
and music lover. He took a strong interest in Amy's musical talents and
was very supportive of her musical development. After they were
married, Amy Beach chose to use her married name, Mrs. H. H. A.
Beach, as her professional name. During the twenty-five years of her
marriage, Amy Beach wrote her most important compositions.
According to a review of the catalog by Brown, works in almost every
genre, including songs, solo piano works, choral works, and chamber
works, were published during this time.
In 1896, Amy Beach's monumental Gaelic Symphony was
premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It was the first
symphony ever composed by an American woman. It established Amy
Beach as a major American composer. Due to its great success, it was
later performed in New York, Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Kansas
City, San Francisco, Chicago, Hamburg, and Berlin. Following the
Symphony, her Sonata in A minor for violin and piano was first
performed in 1897 by Franz Kneisel and the composer. The same work
was first introduced to Europe by Amy Beach's good friend and pianist
Teresa Carre o, to whom Amy Beach dedicated her Piano Concerto in
C-sharp Minor in 1899.
The piano concerto, Op. 45, was premiered by Amy Beach with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of Wilhelm Gericke
on April 7, 1900. According to Claudia Macdonald, audience reaction
to the early performances of this piano concerto was favorable. After
its premiere in 1900, this concerto was frequently performed by Amy
Beach with European orchestras and later with many American
orchestras. It made her internationally-known as an American
pianist-composer.
It appears that Amy Beach's career flourished during her marriage.
She not only composed her most important works, but also had almost
half of her compositions (Op. 1~71) published. The happy marriage
came to an end in 1910 when Dr. Beach died in an accident11. Mrs.
Cheney died the following year. Suffering from the double loss, Amy
Beach decided to take an extended trip to Europe. From 1911 to 1914
she performed her own works as well as standard repertoire in many
leading European cities and established herself as an international
pianist-composer. Due to her busy concert schedule during her stay in
11 Jenkins, 66.
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Europe, Amy Beach composed only a few songs and the quartet for
strings, Op. 89. With the growing tensions which led to the first World
War, Amy Beach returned home in 1914.
After she came back to the United States, Amy Beach was
honorably greeted as a musical heroine with a distinctive reputation.
She resumed her performing career and gave numerous solo and
chamber recitals throughout the country. All of the reviews praised her
musicianship and performance skills.
After her return from California, Amy Beach settled in New York
City. In 1921, she started spending a portion of her summers at the
MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The Colony
was founded by Mrs. Edward MacDowell in 1908 for the purpose of
providing artists, composers, poets and writers a secluded place to
create. Amy Beach wrote many of her compositions while at the
Colony. Among them were the Thrush Pieces for Piano; a one
movement String Quartet based on Eskimo themes; numerous songs and
other vocal works; and a Trio for Piano, Violin, and Cello (her last
chamber work).
Due to her declining health, Amy Beach greatly reduced her
performances between 1931 and 1944. Despite an increasing interest
in atonality and other modern music trends, Amy Beach continued to
write in the Late-Romantic style. Her only opera, Cabildo, was written
in 1932, at the age of sixty-five. In 1933, she received a medal from
the Chicago International Exposition for creative work in music, and
was by then considered one of the leading American composers.
In 1944, at the age of seventy-seven, Amy Beach died of heart
failure in New York.
COMPOSITIONAL BACKGROUND OF AMY
BEACH'S PIANO CONCERTO
During the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first
decade of the twentieth, several major European composers, including
Sergei Rachmaninoff, Camille Saint-Sa ns, Alexander Scriabin, Mili
Balakirev, Max Reger, Ottorino Respighi, Peter Tchaikowsky, Nikolai
Tcherepnin, composed piano concertos12. In America, Edward
MacDowell's second piano concerto was completed in 1885. Between
12 Maurice Hinson. Music for Piano and Orchestra, Bloomington and
Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993.
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1885 and 1899, no major American composer composed a piano
concerto.13 Thus, it appears that Amy Beach's piano concerto was
among the very first to be written by an American composer, and was
the first to be written by an American woman composer.
Amy Beach began writing her piano concerto in C-sharp minor in
1897- twelve years after she was married and one year after her
monumental Gaelic Symphony was premiered by the Boston Symphony
Orchestra. Before composing this work, Amy Beach had learned and
performed several piano concertos, including Moscheles's G minor,
Chopin's F minor, Mendelssohn's D minor, Mozart's D minor,
Beethoven's C minor (with her own cadenza, Op.3), and Saint-Sa ns's G
minor.
Although her performances continued after her marriage, concerto
performances became less frequent. According to Adrienne Fried
Block, the main object of Amy Beach's piano concerto was to present
herself as a composer of an important composition with orchestra as
well as a virtuoso concert pianist.14
Wilhelm Gericke, conductor of the Boston Symphony, engaged
Amy Beach to play the premiere of her concerto before it was completed.
She finished it in 1899 and premiered it on April 7, 1900.
The themes of the four movements of the concerto are borrowed
from three of her songs. The song quoted in the first movement is Jeune
fille et jeune fleur, Op.1, No.3, a setting of a poem by the French poet
Chateaubriand. The second movement is derived from her Empress of
Night, Op.2, No.3 (1891), a setting of her husband, Dr. Henry Beach's
poem, At Night. The third movement is based on her setting of another
of Dr. Beach's poems.
FORMAL ORGANIZATION OF AMY
BEACH'S PIANO CONCERTO
Movement I
The first movement is in sonata allegro form. The exposition begins
with the orchestra's playing the first theme in the tonic key, C-sharp
minor. (See Figure 1.)
13 Peter Dickinson. The American Concerto, In A Companion to the
Concerto, 305, Ed. by Robert Layton, New York: Schirmer Books, 1989.
14 Block, 395.
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Figure 1. The first movement, the main theme and its extension,
mm. 1-6. (All figures are reprinted by permission of The Hildegard
Publishing Company, Pennsylvania.)
The piano solo then enters with a brief cadenza and a fragment of
the first theme. The countertheme is introduced by the piano while the
orchestra again plays the first theme. (See Figure 2.)
Figure 2. The first movement, The counter theme, mm. 69-72.
In the transition section, a motive of the first theme and the
complete transition theme are used in a modulatory passage which ends
in the key of A major. After the transition the second theme is
introduced in A major by the piano. It is then repeated in C-sharp
major by a solo violin. (See Figure 3.)
Piano
Orch.
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Figure 3. The first movement, the second theme, mm. 131-137.
The second theme group ends in the key of A major, followed by a
modulatory closing group with all of the themes that were previously
used.
The development continues the modulatory treatment of the closing
group, which ends in C-sharp minor. The first theme, the countertheme,
the second theme, and materials that are unrelated to the preceding
themes are presented in the development section. After the
development,
a brief retransition presents a fragment of the first theme in C-sharp
minor. (See Figure 4.)
Piano
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Figure 4. The first movement, the retransition, mm. 278-281.
The recapitulation enters without textural separation from the
development. The piano and the orchestra play together through the
end of the development and into the first theme group of the
recapitulation. The first theme is stated first in C-sharp minor and then
repeated in F major. The second theme is first presented in D-flat
major and is then repeated in F major. At the end of the second theme
group, the second theme modulates through D-flat major to C-sharp
minor. The following cadenza incorporates the first theme, the
countertheme, the transition theme, and the beginning motive of the
second theme along with materials that are unrelated to these themes.
Motives of the first theme and the transition theme are used in the coda
in C-sharp minor. (See Figure 5.)
Figure 5. The first movement, the coda, mm. 407-417
Movement II
The second movement is a scherzo in three-part form. It opens
with a brief orchestral introduction featuring the beginning motive of
theme A. (See Figure 6.)
Orch.
Orch.
Piano.
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Piano Concerto in C-sharp Minor, Op.45
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Figure 6. The second movement, the introduction and the
beginning theme A, mm. 1-14.
Theme A is presented and repeated in several modified forms in the
first section, which modulates from A major to C-sharp major. The
first section ends in G major. The second section starts by presenting
theme B in G major; followed by theme C, theme B, and a motive of
theme A, employed in a modulatory passage. (See Figure 7 and Figure
8.)
Orch.
Piano
Orch.
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Figure 7. The second movement, theme B, mm. 101-108.
Figure 8. The second movement, Theme C, mm. 117-118.
The piano cadenza presents modulatory, free materials in the
middle of the second section, which is followed by a short cadential
passage formed by theme C in F major.
In the third section theme A recurs in the key of A major. Theme
B and theme C are also presented in the third section, modulating from
D major to A major. This movement closes with a coda in A major
featuring a motive of theme B and a chromatic scale in thirds. (See
Table 2 on page 191)
Movement III
The third movement is through-composed and monothematic. It
opens with a brief orchestral introduction presenting the motto motive
of the main theme twice in F-sharp minor. (See Figure 9.)
Orch.
Orch.
Piano
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Figure 9. The third movement, mm. 1-4.
After the orchestra introduces the main theme in F-sharp minor, the
piano cadenza presents the beginning part of the main theme and
extends it with a sequence of the ending three notes from the second
measure of the main theme.
Following a brief cadenza, the piano presents the ornamented main
theme in F-sharp minor accompanied by the orchestra. When the
tempo changes to Poco piu mosso, fragments and motives of the main
theme are presented as the basic developmental materials. The
development section begins in A major and then becomes modulatory.
After the return to tempo I, the orchestra again presents the main theme
in F-sharp minor accompanied by the piano. The beginning motive of
the main theme comprises the closing section. This movement ends on
the dominant seventh chord of D major which transforms
enharmonically to become the German sixth of C-sharp minor. (See
Figure 10.)
Figure 10. The end of the third movement, mm. 77-78.
Movement IV
The final movement, which continues from the third movement
without pause, is in rondo form. The piano solo introduces the first
two notes of theme A, which are anticipated at the end of the preceding
Orch.
motto motive
Orch.
V7
/D
Ger6
/C
#
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movement. (See Figure 11.)
Figure 11. The fourth movement, theme A, mm. 1-4.
The orchestra repeats theme A in the same key (C-sharp minor)
without the piano accompaniment.
Theme B, a bolero-like dance, is first introduced by the piano in E
major accompanied by the orchestra (See Figure 12.) The orchestra
repeats theme B in the same key with the piano accompanying it.
Figure 12. The fourth movement, theme B, mm. 46-49.
Before theme A recurs, a cadential passage, combining theme B
and a fragment of theme A, is followed by a piano cadenza using free
materials. Theme A recurs in C-sharp minor played by the orchestra.
This is followed by a bridge-like passage which changes the meter
(from 6/8 to 9/8) as well as the tempo (from allegro to lento). In the
lento section the piano begins a quasi-fantasy of theme A materials; the
piano then recalls the motto motive of the third movement. The
Piano
Ger6/C#
Orch.
Piano
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orchestra next recalls a fragment of the main theme of the third
movement in G-sharp minor. (See Figure 13.)
Figure 13. The fourth movement, mm. 128-132.
As the slow tempo proceeds, theme C is introduced by a cello solo
in B major accompanied by the piano. It is stated only once and closes
with the piano's playing the beginning motive of theme A. After
theme C, theme B recurs in A-flat major in its original meter (6/8) and
tempo. It modulates through C major, D-flat major, and ends in
B-double-flat major.
Only the motives of theme A appear in the last section. The coda
modulates, with fragments of theme B and theme A in sequence. The
last movement ends in D-flat major, the parallel major to the main
tonality of this work, C-sharp minor. (See Table 4 on page 194)
Orch.
Piano
motto motive of the third movement
Orch.
Piano
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TABLE 1.
FORMAL ORGANIZATION (MOVEMENT I).
The first movement: Sonata Allegro Form
Section Description Key Measures
Exposition:
First theme group
Orchestra The first theme C# minor (mm 1-35)
Piano Cadenza with ragment
of the first theme
C# minor (mm 35-68)
Orchestra & Piano First theme and
countertheme
C# minor (mm 69-92)
Transition
Orchestra & Piano First theme and
ransition theme
Modulatory
(keys of
E-B-D-F-A
majors)
(mm93-131)
Second theme group
Piano Second theme A major (mm132-47)
Violin & Orchestra &
Piano
Second theme C# major to A
major
(mm147-165)
Closing group
Orchestra & Piano Countertheme,
transition theme
and the first theme
Modulatory (mm166-182)
Piano Cadenza Ending on G#
minor
(mm182-192)
(continued).
Yang , Ching-Lan The Formal Organization of Amy Beach's
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Section Description Key Measures
Orchestra First theme and
second theme
Modulatory (G#
minor - B major -
G major)
(mm 192-215)
Development
Orchestra & Piano Countertheme, first
theme, and second
theme
Modulatory
Ending in C#
minor
(mm 215-278)
Retransition
Orchestra & Piano Fragment of the
first theme
C# minor (mm 278-285)
Recapitulation
First theme group
Orchestra & Piano First theme C# minor - F
major
(mm 286-303)
Second theme group
Orchestra & Piano Second theme Db major - F
major - Db major
- C# minor
(mm 304-349)
Cadenza
Piano First theme,
countertheme,
transition theme,
and motive of the
second theme
Modulatory (mm 350-407)
Coda
Orchestra & Piano First theme and
transition theme
C# minor (mm 407-440)
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TABLE 2.
FORMAL ORGANIZATION (MOVEMENT II).
The second movement: Scherzo.(Perpetuum mobile). Three-part form
Section Description Key Measures
Introduction
Orchestra Motive of theme A (mm 1-9)
A
Orchestra &
Piano
Theme A A major - C#
minor
(mm 10-28)
Fragment of Theme A C# major (mm 29-37)
Transformation of
Theme A
A major (mm 37-53)
Transformation of
Theme A
D major - A
major
(mm 53-71)
Fragment of Theme A C major - Eb
major - G
major
(mm 73-100)
B
Orchestra &
Piano
Theme B, theme C, and
motive of theme A
G major - G
minor - Bb
major - C
major
(mm 101-156)
Cadenza
Piano Free materials Modulatory (mm 157-188)
Closing of B
Orchestra &
Piano
Theme C F major
Ends on Ger.6
of A major
(mm 189-199)
(continued).
Yang , Ching-Lan The Formal Organization of Amy Beach's
Piano Concerto in C-sharp Minor, Op.45
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Section Description Key Measures
A
Orchestra &
Piano
Theme A A major - C# minor (mm 199-235)
Theme B D major (mm 236-243)
Theme C & theme A A major (mm 244-249)
Theme B A major (mm 260-267)
Fragment of theme A A major (mm 267-277)
Coda
Orchestra &
Piano
Motive of theme B A major (mm 278-292)
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TABLE 3.
FORMAL ORGANIZATION (MOVEMENT III).
The third movement (Through-composed)
Section Description Key Measures
Largo
Introduction
Orchestra Motive of the main
theme
F# minor (mm 1-6)
Orchestra The main theme F# minor
Ends on V
(mm 7-15)
Cadenza
Piano Fragment of the main
theme
VII 0
7
0 of F# (mm 15-20)
Orchestra & Piano The main theme with
elaboration
F# minor - A
major
(mm 21-30)
Poco Piu Mosso
Orchestra & Piano Fragments of the main
theme
Start with A
major
Modulatory
(mm 31-56)
Tempo I
Orchestra & Piano The main theme F# minor (mm 57-66)
Orchestra & Piano Motive of the main
theme
Modulatory
Ends on V7 of
D major,
transformed to
the Ger. 6 of
C# minor
(mm 67-78)
Yang , Ching-Lan The Formal Organization of Amy Beach's
Piano Concerto in C-sharp Minor, Op.45
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TABLE 4.
FORMAL ORGANIZATION (MOVEMENT IV).
The fourth movement: Rondo Form
Section Description Key Measures
A
Piano Theme A C# minor (mm 1-27)
Orchestra Theme A C# minor (mm 28-43)
B
Orchestra & Piano Theme B
Theme B
E major-G# major
Modulatory
(mm 46-74)
Closing section
Orchestra & Piano Theme A & theme
B
Ends on V7 of D (mm 74-86)
Cadenza
Piano Free materials (mm 87-94)
A
Orchestra & Piano Theme A C# minor (mm 95-119)
Bridge
Orchestra & Piano Motive of theme B G# minor (mm 119-124)
(Cyclic section)
Theme A & theme
from the third
movement
G# minor (mm 125-135)
(continued).
台东师院学报第十一期(下) 民89年12月
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Section Description Key Measures
C
Orchestra & Piano Theme C B major (mm 135-147)
B
Orchestra & Piano Theme B Ab major - C
major - Db
major - Gb major
- Bbb major
(mm 148-168)
A
Orchestra & Piano Motive of theme
A
Modulatory (mm 168-184)
Coda
Orchestra & Piano Fragments of
theme B & theme
A
Modulatory Ends
on Db major
(mm 185-205)
CONCLUSION
Often being mentioned as a member of the New England School,
Amy Beach was trained in the United States, but her self-directed study
mainly focused on the European Masters. Her music reflects aspects of
Brahms, Wagner, and MacDowell, representing an extension of the
late-Romantic style in early twentieth-century America.
This study reveals certain stylistic traits of Amy Beach's writing.
The forms that she chooses for this piano concerto are traditional,
including introductions, cadenzas, and codas. In the exposition of the
sonata allegro form in the first movement, Amy Beach creates a
recurring counter theme and a transition theme in addition to the two
contrasting main themes, and uses all of them as development materials.
Multiple thematic ideas also appear in the ternary form of the second
movement where a new melodic idea (Theme C) is added and
juxtaposed with theme B in the middle section. The third movement
serves as an introduction to the finale in two ways: it goes without pause
into the last movement, and both movements share the same thematic
material. Cyclical use of thematic materials is found in the last
Yang , Ching-Lan The Formal Organization of Amy Beach's
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movement. The fact that this last movement is a rondo belies the
statement by E. Lindsey Merrill: "The rondo form does not exist in the
works of Mrs. Beach."15
In the past few years many of Amy Beach's compositions,
including piano works, organ works, choral music, chamber music, and
art songs, have been republished and have been chosen as dissertation
topics. However, many of her works are still waiting to be studied.
This piano concerto is found to be imaginative, fresh, and well-crafted,
requiring performers of considerable technical skill. It is hoped that
this project will stimulate interest in Amy Beach's piano concerto and
will help the reader gain an insight into and an understanding of the
piece. Furthermore, it is hoped that enthusiastic conductors and
pianists will bring this work to the concert stage again.
15 Merrill, 283.
台东师院学报第十一期(下) 民89年12月
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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Ammer, Christine. Unsung: a History of Women in American Music.
Westport, Conn. Greenwood Press, 1980.
Block, Adrienne Fried (assisted by Nancy Stewart). "Women in
American Music, 1800-1918". Women and Music: a History.
Ed. by Karen Pendle, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana
University Press, 1991.
Block, Adrienne Fried. Amy Beach: Passionate Victorian. New York:
Oxford University Press, Inc., 1998.
Brower, Harriette. "Mrs. H. H. A. Beach: How a Composer Works,"
Piano Mastery, Ed. by Harriette Brower, 179-187, New York: F.
A. Stokes, 1917.
Brown, Jeanell Wise. Amy Beach and Her Chamber Music:
Documents, Biography, Style. Metuchen, New Jersey: The
Scarecrow Press Inc., 1994.
Dickinson, Peter. "The American Concerto." A Companion to the
Concerto. Ed. by Robert Layton, 305-325, New York: Shirmer
Books, 1989.
Eden, Myrna G. Energy and Individuality in the Art of Anna
Huntington, Sculptor and Amy Beach, Composer. Metuchen N.
J. And London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1987.
Elson, Louis C. The History of American Music. New York: The
Macmillan Company, 1904.
Goetschius, Percy. Mrs. H. H. A. Beach and Analytical Sketch.
Boston: Arthur P. Schmidt, 1906.
Howard, John Tasker. Our American Music. 4th ed., New York:
Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1965.
Jenkins, Walter S. The Remarkable Mrs. Beach, American Composer.
Ed. by John H. Baron. Michigan: Harmonie Park Press, 1994.
Jezic, Diane Peacock. Women Composers: The Lost Tradition. City
University of New York, New York: The Feminist Press, 1988.
Tick, Judith. "Passed Away is the Piano Girl: Changes in American
Musical Life: 1870-1900." Women Making Music: The Western
Art Tradition. Ed. by Jane Bowers and Judith Tick, 325-344,
Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986.
Yang , Ching-Lan The Formal Organization of Amy Beach's
Piano Concerto in C-sharp Minor, Op.45
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Periodicals
Adams, Mrs. Crosby. "The American Genius of World Renown: Mrs.
H. H. A. Beach." Etude (January 1928): 34.
. "Debuts & reappearances." High Fidelity/Musical
America (July 1976): MA-29.
Block, Adrienne Fried. "'Veritable autobiography' Amy Beach's
Piano Concerto in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 45." Musical Quarterly
78 (1994), 394-416.
. "Why Amy Beach Succeeded as a Composer: The Early
Years." Current Musicology 36 (Spring 1983): 41-59.
Brooks, Benjamin. "The 'How' of Creative Composition." Etude
(March 1943): 151.
Browne, C. A. "Girlhood of Famous Women in Music." Etude
(July 1909): 488-9.
Cowen, Gertrude, "Mrs. H. H. A. Beach, the celebrated composer,"
Musical Courier LX/23 (June 1910): 14-15.
Elder, Dean. "Where was Amy Beach All These Years An Interview
with Mary Louise Boehm." Clavier 15/9 (December 1976):
14-17.
Freed, Richard. "The Piano Works of Mrs. H. H. A. Beach:
Demonstrating the Irrelevance of Gender." Stereo Review 35
(December 1975): 82-3.
Hughes, Edwin. "The Outlook for the Young American Composer."
Etude 33/1 (January 1915): 13-14.
Jacob, O. P. "Mrs. Beach's New Concerto Played: Berlin Audience
Hears Ambitious Work by American Woman Who Appears as
Pianist." Musical America XIX/10 (10 January 1914): 35.
Macdonald, Claudia. "Critical Perception and the Woman Composer:
The Early Reception of Piano Concertos by Clara Wieck
Schumann and Amy Beach. Current Musicology 55, 1993.
Peyser, Herbert F. "Believes Women Composers Will Rise To Greater
Heights in World Democracy." Musical America 25 (21 April
1917): 3.
Tuthill, Burnet C. "Mrs. H. H. A. Beach." Musical Quarterly 26/3
(July 1940): 297-306.
台东师院学报第十一期(下) 民89年12月
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Unpublished Dissertations and Theses
Merrill, Lindsey E. "Mrs. H. H. A. Beach: Her Life and Music."
Ph.D., Diss., Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester,
1963.
Miles, Marmaduke Sidney. "The Solo Piano Works of Mrs. H. H. A.
Beach." D. M. A. Diss., Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins
University, 1985.
Bibliographies and Other Reference Works
Block, Adrienne Fried. "Beach, Amy March (Cheney)" in The new
Grove Dictionary of American Music, edited by H. Wiley
Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan Press
Limited, 1986.
__________. "Amy Marcy Beach" The Norton/Grove Dictionary of
Women Composers. Edited by Julie Anne Sadie and Rhian
Samuel. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1995.
Block, Adrienne Fried, and Neuls-Bates, Carol. Women in American
Music, a bibliography of Music and Literature. Westport, CT.
Greenwood Press, 1979.
Cohen, Aaron. International Encyclopedia of Women Composers, 1,
2nd ed., New York: Books and Music USA, 1987.
Sadie, Julie-Anne, and Rhian Samuel, eds. The Norton/Grove
Dictionary of Women Composers. New York: W. W. Norton,
1995.
Discogrophy
Beach, Amy. and Daniel Gregory Mason. Beach Concerto in
C-Sharp Minor for Pianoforte and Orchestra, Op. 45 Mason Prelude and
Fugue for piano and Orchestra, Op. 20. Turnabout QTV34665, 1976,
Record, New York: Vox Production Inc.
Music
Beach, Amy. Piano Concerto in C# Minor, Op. 45. Score. 1900,
Fleisher Collection, Free Library, Philadelphia.
. Piano Concerto in C# Minor, Op. 45. Bryn
Mawr, Penn.: Hildegard Publishing Company, 1995.
Yang , Ching-Lan The Formal Organization of Amy Beach's
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AMY BEACH 升C小调钢琴协奏曲的
曲式组织之分析
杨景兰
摘 要
本文的目的是想藉著分析 Amy Beach 的代表性创作,让世人再一次认识这位曾
对美国浪漫派音乐有卓越贡献的女作曲家,进而引起音乐学习者研究或演奏的兴趣,
并提供爱好音乐者一个选择.
本文先就相关文献逐一探讨,再介绍 Amy Beach 的生平事迹.其中并包含了在
不同时期乐评家对这首钢琴协奏曲所给予不同的评价.接著介绍该曲的作曲背景及本
研究的重心-升C小调钢琴协奏曲的曲式组织之分析.
分析的结果发现 Amy Beach 虽在这首协奏曲仍选用传统的曲式,但其所采用主
题的发展方式,以及主题在乐章间的关连,都充满作曲者个人独特的风格,是一首非
常具有代表性的作品.
关键字: Amy Beach, 钢琴协奏曲,曲式.
台东师院学报第十一期(下) 民89年12月
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