The Untold Story of Amy Beach

Authors

Alissa Dorman Ruff, Brigham Young University

Keywords

amy beach discovery, female composers in western music, dreaming by amy beach

Abstract

Minerva Teichert Award 2024

Honorable mention

I discovered the music of Amy Beach by chance while deciding on a program for an upcoming recital. While perusing the internet for repertoire, I stumbled upon a piece of hers entitled “Dreaming” from her Four Sketches, Op. 15. I was instantly entranced! I fell in love with the Brahmsian harmonies, the lulling triplets, and the yearning melody on the spot. I was also shocked that, as a piano performance major with several semesters’ worth of music history classes, I had never heard of her before. Intrigued, I visited the library to find her biography. Passing shelf after shelf crammed with volumes on Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and so forth, I finally located three dusty books about this important heroine in Western music.

Recommended Citation

Ruff, Alissa Dorman (2025) "The Untold Story of Amy Beach," AWE (A Woman’s Experience): Vol. 11, Article 4.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/awe/vol11/iss1/4