Many American women were celebrated as composers in their day. Here is a short history of the most famous.
Marion Bauer
Marion Eugenie Bauer was born in Walla Walla, Washington, 1887 and died in South Hadley, Massachusetts, 1955. She studied with Andre Gedalge, Nadia Boulanger, Campbell-Tipton and in Berlin with Paul Ertel. She became an instructor at the Juilliard School and an associate professor of music at New York University.
Bauer was a founder of the American Guild of Music in New York in 1921, and was also an executive board member of the League of Composers. She was a prolific composer and some of her works are tone poems; a string quartet; Indian Pipes (Chautauqua Festival, 1928); incidental music to Prometheus Bound (1930); Sun Splendor (originally for piano), arranged for orchestra and performed under the direction of Leopold Stokowski and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1947; suites; sonatas and China, for chorus and orchestra, performed at the Worcester Festival in 1945.
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (Mrs.H.H.A.Beach).
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach was born in Heniker, New Hampshire in 1867 and died in New York City in 1944. She was a noted pianist who taught herself composition, counterpoint and orchestration. She made her debut as a pianist in 1883 in Boston and appeared in concert until her marriage to Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach in 1885, when she turned to composition.
The first American woman composer to write a symphony (the Gaelic Symphony ), she also wrote a piano concerto (performed in New York City in 1976); quintets, sonatas; and much church music. Beach composed a Mass in E-Flat for soloists, chorus, organ and orchestra, which was performed by the Handel and Haydn Society in 1892. (Women of Notes: 1,000 Women Composers Born Before 1900).
Mabel Wheeler Daniels
Mabel Wheeler Daniels was born in Swampscott, Massachusetts, in 1878 and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1971. She graduated from Radcliffe College magna cum laude in 1900, and later went on to study with Ludwig Thuille in Munich. She was a prize-winning composer, and for several years was a director of music at Simmons College, Boston.
Daniels wrote a vast amount of music including two operettas written for Radcliffe College; Songs for Elfland, for women's voices, flute, harp, strings and percussion; Exultate Deo, written for the 50th anniversary of Radcliffe College; Deep Forest, for orchestra (performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra); Pastoral Ode, for flute and strings and Three Observations, for woodwinds. A director of the Zumbler Symphonietta, she wrote her memoirs "An American Girl in Munich," which was published by Little, Brown and Co., in 1912.
Fannie Charles Dillon
Fannie Charles Dillon was born in Denver, Colorado in 1881 and died in California in 1947. A pianist, she studied with Leopold Godowsky and later with Urban and Karl Goldmark for composition. She taught at Pomona College from 1910 to 1913 and in the Los Angeles High School system from 1918.
She was invited by the Beethoven Society of New York in 1918 to give a concert 'of her own compositions, and she was also chosen to be California's first representative composer to go to the MacDowell Colony in 1921.
Among her works are an orchestral piece, Celebration of Victory (Los Angeles, 1918); The Cloud, for orchestra; A Letter from the Southland: Mission Garden; and The Alps (1920); Chinese Symphonic Suite, piano pieces and songs. She was the founder of the Woodlawn Theater at Big Bear Lake, California.
These women made musical history in their lifetimes and perhaps some of their works will find their way back into the repertoire of various artists and orchestras.
Marion Bauer
Marion Eugenie Bauer was born in Walla Walla, Washington, 1887 and died in South Hadley, Massachusetts, 1955. She studied with Andre Gedalge, Nadia Boulanger, Campbell-Tipton and in Berlin with Paul Ertel. She became an instructor at the Juilliard School and an associate professor of music at New York University.
Bauer was a founder of the American Guild of Music in New York in 1921, and was also an executive board member of the League of Composers. She was a prolific composer and some of her works are tone poems; a string quartet; Indian Pipes (Chautauqua Festival, 1928); incidental music to Prometheus Bound (1930); Sun Splendor (originally for piano), arranged for orchestra and performed under the direction of Leopold Stokowski and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1947; suites; sonatas and China, for chorus and orchestra, performed at the Worcester Festival in 1945.
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (Mrs.H.H.A.Beach).
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach was born in Heniker, New Hampshire in 1867 and died in New York City in 1944. She was a noted pianist who taught herself composition, counterpoint and orchestration. She made her debut as a pianist in 1883 in Boston and appeared in concert until her marriage to Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach in 1885, when she turned to composition.
The first American woman composer to write a symphony (the Gaelic Symphony ), she also wrote a piano concerto (performed in New York City in 1976); quintets, sonatas; and much church music. Beach composed a Mass in E-Flat for soloists, chorus, organ and orchestra, which was performed by the Handel and Haydn Society in 1892. (Women of Notes: 1,000 Women Composers Born Before 1900).
Mabel Wheeler Daniels
Mabel Wheeler Daniels was born in Swampscott, Massachusetts, in 1878 and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1971. She graduated from Radcliffe College magna cum laude in 1900, and later went on to study with Ludwig Thuille in Munich. She was a prize-winning composer, and for several years was a director of music at Simmons College, Boston.
Daniels wrote a vast amount of music including two operettas written for Radcliffe College; Songs for Elfland, for women's voices, flute, harp, strings and percussion; Exultate Deo, written for the 50th anniversary of Radcliffe College; Deep Forest, for orchestra (performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra); Pastoral Ode, for flute and strings and Three Observations, for woodwinds. A director of the Zumbler Symphonietta, she wrote her memoirs "An American Girl in Munich," which was published by Little, Brown and Co., in 1912.
Fannie Charles Dillon
Fannie Charles Dillon was born in Denver, Colorado in 1881 and died in California in 1947. A pianist, she studied with Leopold Godowsky and later with Urban and Karl Goldmark for composition. She taught at Pomona College from 1910 to 1913 and in the Los Angeles High School system from 1918.
She was invited by the Beethoven Society of New York in 1918 to give a concert 'of her own compositions, and she was also chosen to be California's first representative composer to go to the MacDowell Colony in 1921.
Among her works are an orchestral piece, Celebration of Victory (Los Angeles, 1918); The Cloud, for orchestra; A Letter from the Southland: Mission Garden; and The Alps (1920); Chinese Symphonic Suite, piano pieces and songs. She was the founder of the Woodlawn Theater at Big Bear Lake, California.
These women made musical history in their lifetimes and perhaps some of their works will find their way back into the repertoire of various artists and orchestras.
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