Amy Beach, "Gaelic" Symphony
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast
Joshua Weilerstein
4.9 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 6 March 2025
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Amy Beach is a name that might not be familiar to you. She was born in 1867 and died in 1944, and her life was one of the most fascinating and varied in musical history. She was a child prodigy, became a successful pianist, and then pivoted to composing at her husband's request. She was one of the first successful composers without any training from Europeans, and when her Gaelic Symphony was performed for the first time in 1896, it became the first symphony by an American woman to be published or performed. This symphony, and Beach's whole career, is inextricably linked with the history and mores of the time, from the influence of Dvorak on American music, to Beach's stop and start relationship to performing. The Gaelic symphony is a remarkable amalgamation of American symphonic brilliance, some European influence(especially from Dvorak), and the music of Beach's own heritage. It's a symphony that was very popular in its time and then was forgotten, but now is finding itself on the stage more and more often. This week on the show we'll go through this beautiful symphony, a pillar of early American classical music, and a piece that certainly deserves to be better known than it is. Join us!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Sticky Notes, the Classical Music Podcast. My name is Joshua |
| 0:16.9 | Weilerstein. I'm a conductor, and I'm the music director of the Orchestra National |
| 0:20.5 | of the Lille, and the chief conductor of the Allborg Symphony. |
| 0:23.9 | This podcast is for anyone who loves classical music, works in the field, or is just getting |
| 0:28.9 | ready to dive in to this amazing world of incredible music. |
| 0:32.3 | Before we get started, I want to thank my new Patreon sponsors, Deborah, Sheldon, Allison, Chris, Olivia, Jay, and Neil, |
| 0:41.0 | and all of my other Patreon sponsors for making season 10 possible. |
| 0:45.4 | If you'd like to support the show, please head over to patreon.com slash sticky notes podcast. |
| 0:50.6 | And if you are a fan of the show, please take a moment to give us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:55.5 | It is greatly appreciated. |
| 0:59.4 | So I am busy preparing for two weeks of concerts coming up. |
| 1:02.4 | The first is with the CBSO, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, a program with Rachmaninoff's symphonic dances, William Grant Stills, poem for orchestra, |
| 1:12.1 | and the Dvorajal cellist that I know pretty well, named Elisa Weilerstein, my sister. |
| 1:17.4 | And the next week will be in Lille with the Orchestra Nacional de Lille, |
| 1:20.9 | and we will be doing Shostakovich's 13th Symphony, the Babi Yar Symphony, |
| 1:25.2 | and Shermberg's Survivor from Warsaw. |
| 1:29.2 | Last week, I actually put up a bonus episode, for those of you who speak French, my first ever Sticky Nodes podcast episode in French, |
| 1:36.2 | all about the Bobby Yard Symphony, but there is also an English version of that episode way back |
| 1:41.8 | in the archives, so I do encourage you to check that out if you |
| 1:45.1 | are interested. Really hope you enjoy this week's episode on a piece that you might not be |
| 1:49.8 | that familiar with, Amy Beach's Gaelic Symphony. Hope you enjoy it. The |
| 2:03.6 | The Amy Beach is a name that might not be familiar to you. |
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