Special Collections
Amy Cheney Beach Collection

Amy Cheney Beach (1867-1944) was America's foremost composer of the Romantic period and a virtuoso concert pianist. A musical prodigy, Beach studied with Ernest Perabo, Carl Baermann, and Junius W. Hill. She began composing at age four and at seven made her first public appearance, playing some of her own waltzes. During 1884 and 1885 Beach performed 12 recitals, the most noteworthy occuring in March and April, 1885, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. After marrying Dr. H.H.A Beach that same year she concentrated on composition until her husband's death in 1910, at which time she resumed her concert career. Beach toured in Europe as a pianist from 1911-1914. Amy Beach was best known for her songs, and two Browning settings, Ah, Love, but a Day and The Year's at the Spring, which achieved considerable popularity during her lifetime.

The Amy Cheney Beach Collection includes the one-act opera Cabildo, op. 149; The Chambered Nautilus, op. 66, a cantata for women's voices and orchestra; Quintet in F-sharp minor, op. 67, for pianoforte, two violins, viola and violincello; Variations on Balkan Themes, op. 60, for solo piano; and a number of solo songs. The collection also contains several works for solo piano written during the composer's childhood, such as Mamma’s Waltz (shown right, 1872), Air and Variations (1877); Menuette (1877); and Petite Valse (1878). Printed works in the Collection include the Concert für Pianoforte und Orchester, op. 45; Three Browning Songs Set to Music. op. 44; Mass in E-flat; Five Improvisations for Piano, op. 148; and several solo songs. A finding-aid to the collection is available online and also in print in the department of Special Collections, Miller Nichols Library. Other UMKC Library resources pertaining to the life and compositions of Amy Beach can be found through a subject search (Beach H H A Mrs.) of the Merlin Library catalog.

Above left: Mrs. H.H.A. (Amy) Beach, Portrait by Apeda, ca. 1900. Photo courtesy of Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire. Above right: "Mamma’s Waltz," composed by Amy Cheney at the age of four.

Special Collections is a non-circulating and non-browsing resource center. The Special Collections Reading Room is open to researchers Monday through Friday during the academic year. Public service hours for the current semester are listed at http://library.umkc.edu/spec-col/index.html#hours but researchers are encouraged to call ahead for verification of hours due to University intersessions and other events. Special Collections is located on the fourth floor of the Miller Nichols Library at 5100 Rockhill Road in Kansas City, Missouri. All inquiries concerning access to the collections should be addressed to Special Collections Library Information Specialists Teresa Gipson or Kelly McEniry.