How Does Amy Beach Have An Impact On Women's Rights

Amy Beach: life, music, and impact on women’s rights

When it comes to music history, male composers are overwhelmingly described. While much has improved, it is still clear that the professional world is dominated by men. Fortunately, there are women who make an impact and give inspiration to other females to follow their dreams and step out of the normality of society. Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, otherwise known as Mrs. H. H. A. Beach, is extremely influential, being one of the first successful female composers and with that, being from America. Amy Beach’s life is significant in United States history because of her compositional success, high level of musicianship, and the hardships that were overcome regarding woman’s standards in the music

With her father owning an elaborate paper business, great-grandfather as the governor of New York and secretary of war under President Polk, and a long history of family members with high positions in the military, it is no wonder that she demonstrated at an early age a rare ability to achieve success on her own. She ultimately became a musician of the highest caliber and a composer of great distinction. These were the years when many women in America and abroad were struggling for recognition of their accomplishments in a variety of fields, and their struggle for professional equality made some determined to succeed. Jenkins states that “Amy’s success might be attributed not alone to purely musical assets, of which she possessed a great many, but also her inherited Yankee will power and her exposure to the battles of women’s rights on her own day. She possessed an inherent strength of character, and her indomitable will impelled to all her tasks” (Jenkins, 1994, pg

Before this time there were very few notable women in regards to the development of music. In almost every case women composers who were known previously were related or associated to a successful male composer. For instance the distinguished Clara Schumann, was the wife of Robert Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn was the sister of Felix Mendelssohn. While Amy Beach did cross many milestones in regards to women composers, she did not believe that she had a hard time doing it. In an interview with Beach, published in The Etude, she states that she never personally felt handicapped in any way or felt prejudice against her for being a women. She also stated that the field for musical composition in America offers exactly the same prospects to young women as to young men composers (Beach, 1909, pg. 16, 17). She believed that any women could make it in the business because she did herself. While Beach seems like a great feminist because of her role in American history, she actually was far from it. Being a feminist gave her very little value because her treatment in the musical society was never derogatory and her husband instilled a very traditional mindset for the role of men and women at her young