- Amy Beach composed this trio in 1938, and it was first published in 1939.1
- This trio was Beach’s last major work. She composed it at the MacDowell Colony,2 the composers’ retreat to which she would go on to bequeath her estate.3
This trio features themes and motifs from several of Beach’s previous compositions:4
- The first movement recalls her piano piece “Morning Glories,” from the suite From Grandmother’s Garden, Op. 97.
- The second movement uses material from her song “Allein!” (Alone), a setting of Heinrich Heine from her Op. 35 set of four songs.
- Clara Schumann also set this Heine poem, in her song Ich stand in dunklen Träumen, Op. 13, No. 1.
- The third movement of the trio comes from “The Returning Hunter,” a setting of an Inuit folk song in Beach’s piano suite entitled Eskimos, Op. 64 (1907).
- Beach referenced her songs and other earlier pieces in her instrumental works. For example, she themes from her songs in her Symphony and in her Piano Concerto in c-sharp minor, Op.45.5
“Trying a trio from old material. Great fun.”
Amy Beach’s diary, June 19386
Sources
- Adrienne Fried Block and E. Douglas Bomberger, “Beach [Cheney], Amy Marcy,” Grove Music Online (October 16, 2013), accessed July 1, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002248268.
- Laura Tunbridge, liner notes to Her Voice: Piano Trios by Beach, Clarke, Farrenc, Neave Trio, Chandos 20139, CD, 2019.
- Block and Bomberger, “Beach [Cheney], Amy Marcy,” Grove Music Online.
- Tunbridge, liner notes to Her Voice: Piano Trios.
- Block and Bomberger, “Beach [Cheney], Amy Marcy,” Grove Music Online.
- Tunbridge, liner notes to Her Voice: Piano Trios.
Cut IDs
23378