Johanna Beyer / Amy C. Beal.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beal, Amy C., author.

Series:

American composers

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Beyer, Johanna Magdalena, 1888-1944.

Beyer, Johanna Magdalena.

Composers--United States--Biography.

Composers.

Criticism and interpretation.

United States.

Beyer, Johanna Magdalena, 1888-1944--Criticism and interpretation.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

x, 133 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2015]

Summary:

Composer Johanna Beyer's body of music and enigmatic life story constitute an important chapter in American music history. As a hard-working German émigré piano teacher and accompanist living in and around New York City during the New Deal era, she composed plentiful music for piano, percussion ensemble, chamber groups, choir, band, and orchestra. An ultramodernist, Beyer studied with Ruth Crawford, Charles Seeger, and Henry Cowell. Though an active member of a community that included now-better-known figures, only one of her works was published and only one recorded during her lifetime. Yet contemporary musicians who play Beyer's compositions are intrigued by her originality and theorists who study her methods are impressed by her formal ideas. The first book-length study of the composer's life and music, Johanna Beyer reclaims a passionate and creative woman underestimated by her music community even as she tirelessly applied her gifts. Book jacket.

Contents:

Sunnyside, 1927-1933

Compositional beginnings, 1933-1936

Having faith, 1936-1940

New York waltzes : works for piano

Horizons : percussion ensemble music

The people, yes : songs and choral works

Sonatas, suites, and string quartets : chamber music

Symphonic striving : works for band and orchestra

Status quo

Beyer's final years, 1940-1944.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780252039157

0252039157

9780252080722

0252080726

OCLC:

890912677