Bibliography

The following bibliographic list includes a variety of sources such as journal articles, the Grove article, books, Master’s theses, DMA/PhD dissertations, etc.  This list is intended to be comprehensive as of August 2015.  New scholarship will be added accordingly.  If an additional source concerning Amy Beach has failed to make this list, please use our contact form to send a message containing the pertinent information.


  • “A Favorite Composer: Mrs. H.H.A. Beach.” The Etude 55 (September 1937): 610.
  • Adams, Mrs. Crosby.
    1. “An American Genius of World Renown: Mrs. H.H.A. Beach.” The Etude 46 (January 1928): 34, 61, 69.
    2. “Musical Creative Work among Women.” Music 9 (January 1896): 163-172.
  • Alfeld, Anna. “Unsung Songs: Self-Borrowing in Amy Beach’s Instrumental Compositions.” Electronic Thesis or Dissertation. University of Cincinnati, 2008. https://etd.ohiolink.edu/
  • Ammer, Christine. Unsung: A History of Women in American Music. Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, 1980.
  • “Among the Composers.” The Etude 62 (January 1944): 11-12.
  • Beach, Amy.
    1. “Amy Beach, Composer, on ‘Why I Chose My Profession’”. In Music in the USA: A Documentary Companion, edited by Judith Tick, 323-29. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
    2. “Emotion Versus Intellect in Music.” Music Teachers’ National Association Proceedings 26 (1931): 17.
    3. “Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of a Vision.” Music Teachers’ National Association Proceedings 27 (1932): 45-48.
    4. “Work Out Your Own Salvation.” The Etude 36 (January 1918): 11-12.
    5. “The World Cries Out for Harmony.” The Etude 62 (January 1944): 11-12.
  • Bean, Helen J. “Women in the Music House.” American Music Teacher 6 (March-April 1957): 4-5, 23.
  • Block, Adrienne Fried.
    1. Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian: The Life and Work of an American Composer, 1867-1944. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
    2. “Amy Beach as a Teacher.” American Music Teacher 48 (April-May 1999): 22-25.
    3. “Amy Beach’s Music on Native American Themes.” American Music 8 (Summer 1990): 141-166.
    4. “Amy Marcy Beach (1867-1944).” In Historical Anthology of Music by Women. James R. Briscoe, ed., 158-210. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1987.
    5. “Arthur P. Schmidt, Music Publisher and Champion of American Women Composers.” In Vol. 2 of The Musical Woman: An International Perspective, 1984-85. Edited by Judith Lang Zaimont, 145-76. Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, [1984].
    6. “A ‘Veritable Autobiography?’: Amy Beach’s Piano Concerto in C-Sharp Minor, op. 45”. Musical Quarterly 78 (Summer 1994): 394-416.
    7. “Communications: on Beach’s Variations on Balkan Themes, op.60.” American Music 11 (Fall 1993): 368-371.
    8. “Dvorak, Beach and American Music.” In A Celebration of American Music: Words and Music in Honor of H. Wiley Hitchcock, Edited by Richard Crawford, R. Allen Lott and Carol J. Oja, 256-80. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1990.
    9. Introduction to Amy Beach Piano Music. Mineola, New York and Toronto: Dover Publications, Inc., 2001.
    10. Introduction to Amy Beach’s Quartet on Inuit Themes: Toward a Modernist Style.Vol. 3 of Music of the United States of America. Madison, Wisconsin: A-R Editions, Inc., [1994].
    11. Introduction to Mrs. H.H.A. Beach’s Quintet in F-Sharp Minor, for Piano and Strings, Opus 67. New York: Da Capo Press, 1979. [An unabridged republication of the edition published in Boston, Leipzig, and New York in 1909, supplemented with a new introduction by Adrienne Fried Block. Reprinted with the permission of A.P. Schmidt Co. Copyright 1909 A.P. Schmidt Co., Evanston, Illinois].
    12. “The Child is Mother of the Woman: Amy Beach’s New England Upbringing.” In Cecelia Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music, edited by Susan C. Cook and July S. Tsou, 107-33. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994.
    13. “Why Amy Beach Succeeded as a Composer: The Early Years.” Current Musicology, no. 36 (1983): 41-59.
  • Block, Adrienne Fried, and Carol Neuls-Bates. Women in American Music: A Bibliography of Music and Literature. Westport, Connecticut and London: The Greenwood Press, 1979.
  • Block, Adrienne Fried, and E. Douglas Bomberger. “Beach, Amy Marcy.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed August 8, 2015.
  • Blunsom, Laurie K. “Gender, Genre and Professionalism: The Songs of Clara Rogers, Helen Hopekirk, Amy Beach, Margaret Lang and Mabel Daniels, 1880-1925.” PhD.diss., Brandeis University, 1999.
  • Bomberger, Douglas. “Motivic Development in Amy Beach’s Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60.” American Music 10 (Fall 1992): 326-347.
  • Brooks, Benjamin. “The ‘How’ of Creative Composition: A Conference with Mrs. H.H.A. Beach.” The Etude 61 (March 1943): 151, 208-209.
  • Brown, Jeanell Wise. Amy Beach and Her Chamber Music: Biography, Documents, Style. Composers of North America 16, edited by John Beckwith, et al. Metuchen, New Jersey and London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1994.
  • Browne, C. A. “Girlhood of Famous Women in Music.” The Etude (July 1909): 488-489.
  • Buchanan, Elizabeth Moore.
    1. “The Anthems and Service Music of Amy Beach Published by the Arthur P. Schmidt Company.” Master’s thesis, The American University, 1996.
    2. “Connection: A Medieval Text and Twentieth-Century Expressionism in the Canticle of the Sun, by Amy Beach.” Choral Journal 41 (May 2001): 9-19.
  • Burgess, Stephanie J. “Finding the ‘Indian’ in Amy Beach’s Theme and Variations for Flute and String Quartet, op. 80.” Master’s thesis, University of North Texas, 2008.  https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5196/
  • Burnaman, Stephen Paul. “The Solo Piano Music of Edward MacDowell and Mrs. H.H.A. Beach: A Historical Analysis.” PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1997.
  • Cadman, Charles Wakefield. “The ‘Idealization’ of Indian Music.” Musical Quarterly 1 (1915): 387-396.
  • Cipolla, Wilma Reid. “Arthur P.Schmidt: The Publisher and His American Composers.” Vistas of American Music: Essays and Compositions in Honor of William K. Kearns, 267-281. Edited by Susan L. Porter and John Graziano. Warren, Michigan: Harmonie Park Press, 1999.
  • Clark, Donna Elizabeth Congleton. “Pedagogical Analysis and Sequencing of Selected Intermediate-Level Solo Piano Compositions of Amy Beach.” PhD diss., University of South Carolina, 1996.
  • Clarke, Helen A. “The Nature of Music and Its Relation to the Question of Women in Music.” Music 7 (March 1895): 453-461.
  • Eden, Myrna Garvey.
    1. “Anna Hyatt Huntington, Sculptor, and Mrs. H.H.A. Beach, Composer: A Comparative Study of Two Women Representatives of The American Cultivated Tradition in the Arts.” PhD diss., Syracuse University, 1977.
    2. Energy and Individuality in the Art of Anna Huntington, Sculptor and Amy Beach, Composer. Composers of North America 2. Metuchen, New Jersey and London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1987.
  • Elder, Dean. “Where Was Amy Beach All These Years? An Interview with Mary Louise Boehm.” Clavier 15 (December 1976): 14-17.
  • Elson, Arthur, and Everett E. Truette. Woman’s Work in Music. Boston: L.C. Page and Company, [1931].
  • Emeneth, Katherine Isbill. “Elias Hecht and the Chamber Music Society of San Francisco: Pioneers of West Coast Chamber Music.” DMA Diss., University of Washington, 2013.
  • Feldman, Ann E. “Being Heard: Women Composers and Patrons at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.” Notes: The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 47(September 1990): 7-20.
  • Flatt, Rose Marie Chisolm. “Analytical Approaches to Chromaticism in Amy Beach’s Piano Quintet in F# Minor.” Indiana Theory Review 4 (Spring 1981): 41-58.
  • Freed, Richard. “The Piano Works of Mrs. H.H.A. Beach: Demonstrating the Irrelevance of Gender.” Stereo Review 35 (December 1975): 82-83.
  • Gbur, Bruce. Preface to Two Pieces for Flute, Cello and Piano, op. 90 by Amy Cheney Beach. Durham, New Hampshire: Prairie Dawg Press, 2009.
  • Gerk, Sarah.
    1. “Common Joys, Sorrows, Adventures, and Struggles: Transnational Encounters in Amy Beach’s Gaelic Symphony”Journal of the Society for American Music. 10 (2): 149-180.
    2. “A Critical Reception History of Amy Beach’s Gaelic Symphony.” Master’s thesis. California State University, Long Beach, 2006.
  • Glickman, Sylvia.
    1. Introduction to American Women Composers: Piano Music from 1865-1915. Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania: Theodore Presser, 1990.
    2. Introduction to Amy Beach Piano Music. Women Composers Series 10. [Republication of the first editions published in America between 1889 and 1932 by A.P. Schmidt, J. Church, O. Ditson, and T. Presser] New York: Da Capo Press, 1982.
  • Howe, Mark Anthony DeWolfe. The Boston Symphony Orchestra: 1881-1931. 2nd ed. Revised and extended in collaboration with John N. Burk. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1931.
  • Hsu, Juiling. “Piano Chamber Music of the Second New England School: A Study Guide.” DMA research paper, Arizona State University, 2012.
  • Hung, Yu-Hsien Judy. “The Violin Sonata of Amy Beach.” PhD diss., Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College, 2005.
  • Jenkins, Walter S. The Remarkable Mrs. Beach, American Composer: A Biographical Account Based on Her Diaries, Letters, Newspaper Clippings, and Personal Reminiscences. Edited by John H. Baron. Detroit Monographs in Musicology: Studies in Music 13. Warren, Michigan: Harmonie Park Press, 1994.
  • Jezic, Diane Peacock. “Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944)”. In Women Composers: The Lost Tradition Found. New York: The Feminist Press, 1988.
  • Kang, Yuri. “Sonata Form in the Romantic American Violin Sonata: Clara Kathleen Rogers and Amy Beach.” DMA Diss., University of Houston, 2011.
  • Kelton, Mary Katherine.
    1. “Mrs. H.H.A. Beach and Her Songs for Solo Voice.” Journal of Singing 52 (January-February 1996): 3-23.
    2. “The Songs of Mrs. H.H.A. Beach.” PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1992.
  • Krueger, Karl. The Musical Heritage of the United States: The Unknown Portion. New York: Society for the Preservation of the American Musical Heritage, Inc., 1973.
  • Kuby, Kathryn Amelia. “Analysis of Amy Cheney Beach’s “Gaelic Symphony”, Op. 32.” DMA Diss., University of Connecticut, 2011.
  • Laemmli, Amy. “Amy Beach: The Victorian Woman, the Autism Spectrum, and Compositional Style.” Master’s thesis, University of Missouri – Columbia, 2012.
  • Livingston, Carolyn. “Characteristics of American Women Composers: Implications for Music Education.” Update: Applications of Research in Music Education 10 (Fall-Winter 1991): 15-18.
  • Llewellyn, Sharon. “Amy Beach and Judith Lang Zaimont: A Comparative Study of Their Lives and Songs.” PhD diss., Arizona State University, 2008.
  • MacDonald, Claudia. “Critical Perception and the Woman Composer: The Early Reception of Piano Concertos by Clara Wieck Schumann and Amy Beach.” Current Musicology, no. 55 (1993): 24-55.
  • Merrill, E. Lindsey.
    1. “Mrs. H.H.A. Beach: Her Life and Music.” PhD diss., The University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music, 1963.
    2. Cabildo’s Composer.” American Music Teacher 31 (January 1982): 42.
  • Miles, Marmaduke Sidney. “The Solo Piano Works of Mrs. H.H.A. Beach.” PhD diss., Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, 1985.
  • Miller, Carla Anita. “A Pedagogical Perspective on Selected Piano Music of Amy Beach.” Master’s thesis, Western Carolina University, 1996.
  • “Mrs. Beach, Leading American Woman Composer, Dies at 77.” Musical America, 10 January 1945, 24.
  • Neuls-Bates, Carol. “A Corollary to the Question: Sexual Aesthetics in Music Criticism.” In Women in Music: An Anthology of Source Readings From the Middle Ages to the Present, edited by Carol Neuls-Bates, 223-27. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, [1982].
  • Pendle, Karin, and Melinda Boyd. Women in Music: A Research and Information Guide. Second Edition. Routledge Music Bibliographies. New York and London: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, [2010].
  • Petracca, Eleanor Frances. “From the Parlor to the Stage: American Women Composers and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.” Master’s thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2012.
  • Petteys, Leslie. “Cabildo by Amy Marcy Beach.” Opera Journal 22 (March 1989): 10-19.
  • Phelps, Matthew J. “A Critical Edition of Amy Beach’s Mass in E-Flat Major for Chorus, Solo Quartet, and Orchestra.” DMA diss., University of Cincinnati, 2014.
  • Piscitelli, Felicia Ann. “The Chamber Music of Mrs. H.H.A. Beach (1867-1944).” PhD diss., University of New Mexico, 1983.
  • Radell, Judith. “Sphere of Influence: Clara Kathleen Rogers and Amy Beach.” In Essays on Music and Culture in Honor of Herbert Kellman, edited by Barbara Haggh, 503-17. Paris: Minerva, 2001.
  • Reigles, Barbara Jean. “The Choral Music of Amy Beach.” PhD diss., Texas Tech University, 1996.
  • Rich, Erin Marie. “Accent patterns in text and music in the songs of Amy Beach, Richard Strauss, and Camille Saint-Saëns.” Master’s thesis, University of Iowa, 2016. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/3173.
  • Robinson, Nicole Marie. “”to the Girl Who Wants to Compose”: Amy Beach as a Music Educator.” Master’s thesis, The Florida State University, 2013.
  • Rushing, Katrina Carlson. “Amy Beach’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in C-sharp Minor, Op. 45: A Historical, Stylistic, and Analytical Study.” PhD diss., Louisiana State University, 2000.
  • Russell, Rebecca Straney.” A Study of Representative Musical Settings of the Poetry of Sara Teasdale by Josephine McGill, Fay Foster, Alice Barnett, Mabel Wood Hill, and Amy Beach.” PhD diss., Indiana University, Bloomington, 1999.
  • Sablosky, Irving. What They Heard: Music in America, 1852-1881. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, [1986].
  • Salter, Sumner. “Early Encouragements to American Composers.” Musical Quarterly 18 (January 1932): 76-105.
  • Schultz, Geralyn. “Influences of Cultural Ideals of Womanhood on the Musical Career of Mrs. H.H.A. Beach.” Master’s thesis., University of Wyoming, 1994.
  • Sears, Elizabeth Ann. “The Art Song in Boston, 1880-1914.” PhD diss., The Catholic University of America, 1993.
  • Skowronski, JoAnn. Women in American Music: A Bibliography. Metuchen, New Jersey and London: The Scarecrow Press,Inc., 1978.
  • Smith, Gail, ed. Introduction to The Life and Music of Amy Beach: “The First Woman Composer of America.” Presented by Creative Keyboard Publications. Pacific, Missouri: Mel Bay Publications, 1992.
  • Song, Chang-Jin. “Pianism in Selected Partsong Accompaniments and Chamber Music of the Second New England School (Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, George Whitefield Chadwick, and Horatio Parker), 1880-1930.” PhD diss., Ball State University, 2005.
  • Sonneck, Oscar G. “American Composers and the American Music Publisher.” Musical Quarterly 9 (January 1923): 122-144.
  • Stern, Susan. Women Composers: A Handbook. Metuchen, New Jersey and London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc, 1978.
  • Tawa, Nicholas E. The Coming of Age of American Art Music: New England’s Classical Romanticists. New York, Westport, Connecticut, and London: Greenwood Press, [1991].
  • “The Etude Historical Musical Portrait Series.” The Etude 50 (March 1932): 160.
  • Tick, Judith. American Women Composers before 1870. Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1983.
  • Treybig, Carolyn Marie. “Amy Beach: An Investigation and Analysis of the Theme and Variations for Flute and String Quartet, Op. 80.” PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1999.
  • Tuthill, Burnett Corwin.
    1. “Fifty Years of Chamber Music in the United States.” Music Teachers National Association Proceedings (1928): 163-175.
    2. “Mrs. H.H.A. Beach.” Musical Quarterly 26 (July 1940): 297-310.
  • Upton, William Treat. “Some Recent Representative American Song Composers.” Musical Quarterly 11 (July 1925): 383-417.
  • Verissimo, Laurel Keddie. “Amy Beach: Her Life, Times and Music.” Master’s thesis. San Jose State University, 1993.
  • Vernazza, Marcelle. “Amy Beach and Her Music for Children.” American Music Teacher 30 (June-July 1981): 20-21.
  • Walker, Tammie Leigh. “The Quintet for Piano and Strings, op. 67 by Amy Beach: An Historical and Analytical Investigation.” PhD diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001.
  • Whitesitt, Linda. “‘The Most Potent Force’ in American Music: The Role of Women’s Music Clubs in American Concert Life.” In The Musical Women: An International Perspective, edited by Judith Lang Zaimont 3. 663-81. New York, Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, 1991.
  • Williams, Catherine C. “”the Solution Lies with the American Women”: Maud Powell as an Advocate for Violinists, Women, and American Music.” PhD diss., The Florida State University, 2012.
  • Wilson, Arthur. “Mrs. H.H.A. Beach: A Conversation on Musical Conditions in America.” The Musician 27 (January 1912): 9-10.
  • Wood, Lorraine Wanlass. “Musical Keys to Success: A Historical-Philosophical Study of the Life and Work of Amy Beach, American Composer.” Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1995.
  • Yang, Ching-Lan. “An Analytical Study of the Piano Concerto in C-sharp Minor, Op. 45, by Amy Beach.” PhD diss., University of Northern Colorado, 1999.
  • Zaimont, Judith Lang, ed. The Musical Woman: An International Perspective, 3 vols.. New York, Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, [1987].
  • Zerkle, Paula Ring. “A Study of Amy Beach’s Grand Mass in E flat Major, Op. 5.” PhD diss., Indiana University, 1998.

Celebrating the composer Amy Beach, 1867-1944