Beth Anderson is an American neo-romantic

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. She studied with

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

Terry Riley Terrence Mitchell "Terry" Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his music became notable for it ...

Robert Ashley Robert Reynolds Ashley (March 28, 1930 – March 3, 2014) was an American composer, who was best known for his television operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. His works often involve ...

, and

Larry Austin Larry Don Austin (September 12, 1930 – December 30, 2018) was an American composer noted for his electronic and computer music works. He was a co-founder and editor of the avant-garde music periodical '' Source: Music of the Avant Garde''. Austin ...

, among others. She studied at the University of Kentucky, UC Davis, New York University and

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

. Anderson is best known in her field for her swales, a musical form she invented based on collages and samples of newly composed music rather than existing music. She told a reporter for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' in 1995 she named the form based on this definition of the word: "A swale is a meadow or marsh where a lot of wild things go together."

Biography

Early life

Anderson was born in Lexington,

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

in 1950 and grew up in

Mt. Sterling, Kentucky Mount Sterling, often written as Mt. Sterling, is a home rule-class city in Montgomery County, Kentucky. The population was 6,895 at the time of the 2010 U.S. census. It is the county seat of Montgomery County and the principal city of the Moun ...

. Her parents, Marjorie and Sidney Anderson, encouraged her to pursue music. She began playing the piano as a child and began composing shortly after. At age 14 she began studying piano with composer Helen Libscomb. Liscomb taught Anderson the rules of counterpoint, enabling her to compose simplistic traditional music. During her last two years of high school she began to compose serial music, learning from books on the topic.

Education

Anderson attended the University of Kentucky after graduating from high school. After two years there she transferred to the University of California at Davis. After completing her undergraduate degree she received her Master of Fine Arts Degree in Piano Performance. Shortly before completing that degree, her piece ''Peachy Keen-O'' was performed at Mills College.

Bob Ashley Robert G. Ashley (born July 4, 1953, Charleston, West Virginia) is an American politician from West Virginia. A Republican, Ashley served in the West Virginia Senate for the 3rd district between 2015 and 2017. He was previously a member of the ...

, director of the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music, upon hearing the performance, urged her to stay there and study. She completed her M.A. in Composition there.

Later life

In California, Anderson became known as one of the prominent "avant-garde feminist composers, critics, and poets." She married the computer book author Elliotte Rusty Harold on July 28, 1995, one year after they met at a potluck dinner held by the New York Macintosh Users Group. A 1995 ''

'' feature story on Harold's wedding called her both old-fashioned and conventional and observed, "She giggles often, as lightly as wind chimes. And yet she listens to the band

Megadeth Megadeth is an American thrash metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1983 by vocalist/guitarist Dave Mustaine. Known for their technically complex guitar work and musicianship, Megadeth is one of the "big four" of American thrash metal along wit ...

when cleaning her apartment."

Discography

* ''Feminae in Musica'' ( Feminae Records, 2007) ** ''Tale One'' ** ''Tale Three'' ** ''Belgian Tango'' *** Performed by: Aleksandra Maslovaric (violin), Tania Fleischer (piano)

References

External links

Listening

NewMusicJukeBox.org: Beth Anderson
1950 births 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers American women composers Living people Pupils of John Cage American women in electronic music 21st-century American composers Women classical composers 20th-century American women musicians 20th-century American musicians 20th-century American composers 21st-century American women musicians University of California, Davis alumni 20th-century women composers 21st-century women composers {{US-composer-20thC-stub