Synesthesia and American Composer, Amy Beach (1867-1944) Real or Imagined – a Neuropsychological Analysis of her Life and Music

Amy Marcy Cheney Child Prodigy

Parents: Father - Charles Abbot Cheney – Paper Importer Mother - Clara Marcy Cheney - Singer/Pianist Amy – a child with “unusual” musical abilities: Age 1 - Could sing 40 tunes – always in the same key. Age 2 – Harmonized against her mother’s melodies. Age 3 – Taught herself to read Age 4 – Taught herself piano- could play 4-part church hymns after one hearing – begins composing

Amy Marcy Cheney Childhood Years ~ Mother’s influence

Age 6 – Formal piano lessons from her mother Age 7 – Memorized long poems Age 8 – Family moves to Boston Mother’s influence: •Her mother is very supportive of Amy’s music •Mother encourages color-key associations “pink music” or “blue music” •Mother may have been synesthete •Statistics: 72% passed on from mother to daughter 6:1 ratio female to male •Immediate progress and acclaim at the piano •Professional reins tightly held by her mother

Synesthesia

Amy’s (Major) Key Colors

Amy Beach’s COLORS:

C Major = WHITE

E Major = YELLOW

G Major = RED

A Major = GREEN

Ab Major = BLUE

Db Major = Violet

Eb Major = Pink

Definition: Involuntary, automatic, locational, generic, memorable, laden with affect – Cytowic

Amy Marcy Cheney Teenage synesthete:

• Enters private school • Interests in mathematics, philosophy • Becomes fluent in French and German • Studies piano in Boston with Perabo and Baermann • Refused entrance into composition programs, ergo • Self-taught in composition “Best way to learn a fugue is by dissecting one by Bach.” – Amy Beach • Mentored by Goetschius, Longfellow, Wendell Holmes, William Mason and H.H.A. Beach

Amy Marcy Cheney Shortest career in history?

Beginning of Professional Career - 1883

Boston – Successful Professional Debut at Age 16

Plays Chopin’s Rondo in E (Oct 1883)

BSO – Plays Chopin’s F minor Concerto (March 1885) and several other concerts

1885 – Marries wealthy, influential doctor

End of Professional Career - 1885

Reviews at this time – Amy at age 16-18

“She plays with the intelligence of a master…remarkable and extraordinary gifts” New York Tribune Oct 1883

“pianist to the manner born and bred…correctness and precocity of her musical understanding …not a mere imitative talent…the artist was speaking of herself and not meerely reproducing the teacher’s thought…either a great talent, or a great genius” Boston Daily Advertiser Oct 1883

“artistic wisdom that is far beyond her years…” Boston Transcript Jan 1884

“a truth which many mature players never reach in more than one or two of their pieces” Boston Advertiser Mar 1884

“shut your eyes and listen…a child of genius, such as Liszt and Mendelssohn…a maturity of powers that would place her among the great geniuses of the world” Boston Post Apr 1884

Mrs. H.H.A. Beach Child bride?

Age 18 – marries widowed Harvard medical doctor, surgeon and lecturer on anatomy, Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach OR H.H.A.Beach, M.D.

The good doctor has as known Amy since a teenager – first encounter as doctor/patient.

“I do”- she changes her name to Mrs. H.H.A.

Ceases all public performances – annual charities

Loves and obeys……(no children)

Composition only until his death in 1910 – then hits Europe with 3-year performance tour (under maiden name!)

Who is Mrs. A.A. Beach? 1885-1890

.

• Surgeon’s wife first…. then composer • Performs once per year and only for charities • Socialite in husbands’ Boston elite circle • Hostess and housewife • Restrained and measured in public

• Her life as his wife was “arduous and a tax on her utmost powers of social intercourse” – letter

from her Cousin Ester Bates to biographer Jenkins • “I doubt, seriously, if any woman will ever take a

place among the really great composers of the world because women must be occupied with…duties of the home, for instance, serve to occupy a great part of any woman’s life - Amy Beach

Reviewers change their tune regarding Mrs. Beach

• Reviews change (no more mention of genius):

• “simplicity and absolute truth…brilliant…but undazzling ease of the allegro…smoothness tender, but unaffected…pearly precision…all new…illustrations of the true artist…patient in faithful study” Boston Advertiser Feb 1886 and…

• “delightful; her technique seems to have gained even in smoothness and clearness…thorough musicianship” Boston Transcript Mar 1886

Clever Mrs. H.H.A. Beach (the composer)

Her serious, large scale compositions begin in 1890-92 with Mass in Eb (but released as “The Beach Mass” – perhaps rather “The Pink Mass”?)

She finds her synesthesia through composing:

REVIEWS - She says: “unmistakable fervor and feeling…grandeur of the words…passages were actually luminous with a brightness akin to that of faith and true sentiment.” Julia Ward Howe Women’s Journal Feb 1892

He says: “a work of long breath…knowledge, skill…application, patience and industry…fixed ideas of her own…not hesitated to carry them out.” Philip Hale Boston Journal Feb 1892

Another she says: “reposeful dignity of form…solemnity and fervor…healthful vigor of the composer’s mind, and of her originality in construction and expression.” Mrs. T.H. Garrison Woman’s Journal Feb 1892

Love - love changes everything

After Mass in Eb (first large composition while married), reviews change again, especially regarding large scale works:

Gaelic Symphony – “the third movement is long-winded, laboriously contrived, and at times downright dull.” – Boston Journal Feb 1898

Gaelic Symphony – “not a profound work, and it makes no attempt at an exploration of the classic methods…first and last movements are somewhat turdig in style and uncertain in form, but…rich in color” – New York Times Feb 1898

Gaelic Symphony – “beyond her powers” – New York Tribune Feb 1898

Piano Concerto – “”the concerto is monotonously void of contrasts. There are fire enough and passion enough in the work, but they did not appear to lead to anything that was coherent or comprehensible.” – Boston Herald Apr 1900

Piano Quintet “sure acquaintance with the technic of composition…well planned and carried out” – Boston Herald Feb 1905

(Amy’s true synesthetic itch not going to be well-scratched again until 1910)

Doctor’s death in 1910 7-year itch finally scratched

after 25-year marriage

Amy immediately reverts back to maiden name of Amy Cheney

She hits Europe on a 3-year piano performance tour

Reviews rave again with synesthesia implications:

“[Beach’s] understanding of the music…enables her to transform what, in other hands, however skilled technically, might be a colorless combination of tones, into a brilliant weave of many distinct yet intricately woven voices, presenting a rich and wonderful colorful tapestry of sound.” and “sunshiny, spontaneous music…listeners [were] caught up into a seventh heaven of delight…day long remembered.” Musical Leader (Nov, 1912)

“every one of [her] dazzling notes had it meritable place and meaning; that not one of them was introduced for mere ornament or parade…unflagging vitality…one marveled at the inexhaustible forms of energy from which poured forth this racing torrent of ideas.” St. Louis Post Dispatch (Nov 1912)

Musical Examples spanning 40 years

“Blue” in Extase Op.21, no.21 mm.61-64 (1983)

“d’or” (gold) “ “ mm.44-46 “

“Dew-pearled” in The Year’s at the Spring Op.44,no.1 mm.5-9 (1900)

“Dark” in Prayer Op.75, no 4 mm.24-30 (1914)

“White” “ “ mm.13-16 “

“No color” in In the Twilight Op.97,no.4 mm/10-14 (1922)

Conclusions

• Amy’s influential mother promoted early fruition of all forms of Amy’s synesthesia, including color-sound.

• Her influential husband quelled all medically stigmatized forms of the syndrome (particularly in her piano performances and later compositions), in addition to public mention of her color-sound synesthesia.

• Amy finds a cloaked way to exercise many aspects of synesthesia through compositions, (while at the same time pleasing her controlling husband).

• Upon her husband’s death in 1910, Beach breaks loose, takes back her maiden name and retakes her core identity via European performing tour.

More conclusions

• Amy Beach was a synesthete. • She married to protect her career. • Lost direct access to her genetic gift, likely due to directives of elitist, physician husband. • She exercised aspects of synesthesia thru

compositions initially in marriage. • Subsequent compositions lost synesthetic

dimensions. • Nonetheless, became a great American female

composer, but did she lose her core artistry 1885-1910?

• Reclaimed her life and synesthetic core after husband’s death.

• Synesthesia reemerges in reviewer’s comments. • Amy finally speaks openly about color-key

associations in later years. • Motto of the story?

Mirror Neuron System

• Why we enjoy sports due to these (colored) brain areas - (colored areas = motor mirror neurons). • Why we enjoy music may be due to mirror neurons yet to be discovered - (in the non-colored regions = specifically auditory, sensory, spatial and visual cortex)

References:

Beach, Amy Marcy Cheney, Twelve Songs for Medium to High Voice, (Editor, Deborah Cook) (Bryn Mawr, PA, Hildegard Publishing Company 1994). This is the reference score for the musical examples in the paper. Songs referenced are: Prayer of a Tired Child Op.75, no.4, Extase Op. 21, no.21, The Year’s at the Spring Op.44, no.1 and Juni, Op. 51, no. 3.

Beach, Amy, “In the Twilight,” Op. 85 (Arthur P. Schmidt, 1922).

Jenkins, Walter S. The Remarkable Mrs. Beach, American Composer: A Biographical Account Based on Her Diaries, Letters, Newspaper Clippings, and Personal Reminiscences. (Warren, Michigan, Harmonie Park Press 1994).

Pineda, Jaime A, “Sensorimotor Cortex as a Critical Component of an 'Extended' Mirror Neuron System: Does it Solve the Development, Correspondence, and Control Problems in Mirroring?” Behavioral and Brain Functions 4, no. 47 (2008):1-16.

Photo Credits

Toddler - Sepia, 2×4, n.d. Photographer: W.G.C. Kimball, Concord, N.H.

Young Girl - e.4.jpg Sepia, 6×4, n.d. Photographer: Thors, Larkin Street, San Francisco.

Teenager - e.8.jpg Sepia, 6×4, n.d. Side profile. Photographer: Homert Co., Temple Place, Boston. 2 copies.

Young woman - Sepia, 6×4, n.d. Side profile. Photographer: Homert Co., Temple Place, Boston. 2 copies.

Young woman - Sepia, 6×4, n.d.. Photographer: Metcalf, Washington St., Boston.

Married couple - e.15.jpg B&w, 8×10 print, Aug 12, 1886. Standing with Dr. H.H.A. Beach. Photographer unknown. Also 3×5 tintype. 1886.

Mature woman - Sepia, 3×5, ca. 1900. Photographer: Apeda, New York. Matted

Middle age n.d. Photographer: Elmer Chickering, Boston.

Old Age – seated Sepia, 8×10, 1934. Seated holding a book. Photographer: Bachrach.

Mature Woman with necklace - epia (a) and b&w (b), 8×10, glossy, ca. 1920. Publicity portrait, frontal. Photographer: Rayhuff-Richter. 4 b&w prints.

Musical examples: testing your synesthesia!

Voicing test

Example 1 = color?

Example 2 = color?

Example 3 = color?

Example 4 = color?

Name that composer!

Choose from :

Amy Beach

Rimsky Korsakoff

Alexander Scriabin