Johanna Beyer
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Johanna Magdalena Beyer (July 11, 1888 – January 9, 1944) was a German-American
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 ...
and
pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
.


Biography

Johanna Beyer was born in
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
, Germany, but very little is known about her life prior to her move to the United States in 1923. She sang for three years at the Leipziger Singakademie and graduated from the Deutscher Konservatorien and Musikseminare, having studied piano, harmony, theory, counterpoint, singing, and dancing. Colleagues in New York recalled that her pianism and musicianship were excellent and that her musical training seemed traditional and solid. She spent 1911–1914 in America, though nothing is known of her activities during those years. Returning to the U.S. in 1923 (according to the biographical notes she provided in a Composers' Forum concert program), she studied at the
Mannes College of Music Mannes School of Music is a music conservatory in The New School, a private research university in New York City. In the fall of 2015, Mannes moved from its previous location on Manhattan's Upper West Side to join the rest of the New School cam ...
, receiving two degrees by 1928. She taught piano to support herself, and may have taught at Greenwich House Music School, but struggled to make ends meet, resorting at times to
WPA WPA may refer to: Computing *Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard *Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing * Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada * Windows Performance An ...
work and Ladies Home Aid. In the late 1920s or early thirties she began studying with
Ruth Crawford Ruth Crawford Seeger (born Ruth Porter Crawford; July 3, 1901 – November 18, 1953) was an American composer and folk music specialist. Her music was a prominent exponent of the emerging modernist aesthetic and she became a central member of a g ...
,
Charles Seeger Charles Louis Seeger Jr. (December 14, 1886 – February 7, 1979) was an American musicologist, composer, teacher, and folklorist. He was the father of the American folk singers Pete Seeger (1919–2014), Peggy Seeger (b. 1935), and Mike Seeger ( ...
, and
Dane Rudhyar Dane Rudhyar (March 23, 1895 – September 13, 1985), born Daniel Chennevière, was a American author, modernist composer and humanistic astrologer. He was a pioneer of modern transpersonal astrology. Biography Dane Rudhyar was born in Paris on ...
and in 1934 took
Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 202 ...
's percussion class at the
New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...
. Her musical life during these years was intertwined with Seeger, Crawford, Cowell,
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 ...
, and others in this modernist circle such as Jessie Baetz, a now-forgotten composer and painter who studied with Beyer. Her most intimate friendship was with Cowell; surviving correspondence reveals a tumultuous, and possibly romantic, relationship between the two composers. Beyer acted as Cowell's informal agent and secretary from 1936 to 1941 on a voluntary basis (only receiving partial compensation in 1941). Though she was largely ignored as a composer,Amirkhanian, Charles
"Women in Electronic Music – 1977"
Liner note essay.
New World Records New World Records is a record label that was established in 1975 through a Rockefeller Foundation grant to celebrate America's bicentennial (1976) by producing a 100-LP anthology, with American music from many genres.New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...
in 1933, where her Three Songs for Soprano, Piano, and Percussion were performed. A year later, the second movement from her Suite for Clarinet and Bassoon, performed in one of
Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 202 ...
's New Music Society of California concerts in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, was perceived as a "doleful dull duet."
Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...
reviewed a New Music Quarterly Recording of the movement.
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 ...
performed two movements of her "Three Movements for Percussion" in his northwestern percussion tours during the late 1930s. In 1936 her skills in multiple media came to the fore in her play, ''The Modern Composer'', for which she wrote the lyrics, composed the incidental music, choreographed the modern ballet, designed and created the costumes, slides, and advertisements, directed the production, and performed the piano part. The play was performed under the auspices of the
Federal Music Project The Federal Music Project (FMP) was a part of the New Deal program Federal Project Number One provided by the U.S. federal government which employed musicians, conductors and composers during the Great Depression. In addition to performing thousan ...
at the Central Manhattan Music Center, but manuscript sources for it have not yet been found. Her music was performed twice in the New York Composers' Forum, in 1936 and 1937. Her work was also part of the music event in the art competition at the
1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...
. Beyer battled with
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...
(ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, during the final years of her life. She died in
New York City, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, in 1944. Some of her scores are available in recopied, annotated editions through the Frog Peak/Johanna Beyer Project. The editing and recopying work has been contributed on a voluntary basis by composers interested in the project.


Musical style

Much of Beyer's music, particularly that written between 1931 and 1939, reflects the aesthetics of the American "ultra-modernists," a circle which included
Ruth Crawford Seeger Ruth Crawford Seeger (born Ruth Porter Crawford; July 3, 1901 – November 18, 1953) was an American composer and folk music specialist. Her music was a prominent exponent of the emerging modernist aesthetic and she became a central member of a g ...
,
Charles Seeger Charles Louis Seeger Jr. (December 14, 1886 – February 7, 1979) was an American musicologist, composer, teacher, and folklorist. He was the father of the American folk singers Pete Seeger (1919–2014), Peggy Seeger (b. 1935), and Mike Seeger ( ...
,
Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 202 ...
,
Dane Rudhyar Dane Rudhyar (March 23, 1895 – September 13, 1985), born Daniel Chennevière, was a American author, modernist composer and humanistic astrologer. He was a pioneer of modern transpersonal astrology. Biography Dane Rudhyar was born in Paris on ...
and
Carl Ruggles Carl Ruggles (born Charles Sprague Ruggles; March 11, 1876 – October 24, 1971) was an American composer, painter and teacher. His pieces employed " dissonant counterpoint", a term coined by fellow composer and musicologist Charles Seeger to ...
. Many of Beyer's works are exemplary of
dissonant counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
, a theoretical compositional system developed by Charles Seeger and Cowell and most famously articulated in the works of Ruth Crawford Seeger. However, Beyer developed her own distinctive gestures and procedures that distinguished her music from that of her colleagues. Her compositions are characterized by an economic use of resources, balanced and well-constructed forms, "a unique sense of humor and whimsy," and a commitment to experimentation. Although her music was overlooked during her lifetime and for decades after her death, it was some of the most experimental and prophetic work created during the 1930s. ''Music of the Spheres'' (1938) is the first known work scored for electronic instruments by a female composer. The fourth movements of her two clarinet suites (1932) are some of the earliest examples of a pitch-based approach to rhythmic processes, which would not be fully explored again until the late 1940s by composers such as
Elliott Carter Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer. One of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century, he combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra- ...
and
Conlon Nancarrow Samuel Conlon Nancarrow (; October 27, 1912 – August 10, 1997) was an American- Mexican composer who lived and worked in Mexico for most of his life. Nancarrow is best remembered for his ''Studies for Player Piano'', being one of the first ...
.Boland, http://eamusic.dartmouth.edu/~larry/beyerjpegs/beyer_tempo_melodies_boland_polansky.pdf Several of her works anticipate the
minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...
music of the 1960s, most notably the fourth movement of her first String Quartet. She included tone clusters in ''Clusters,'' a suite for solo piano, and the duet, ''Movement for Two Pianos.'' The large clusters in these works often require the pianist to play the keys with their forearms. Perhaps Beyer's most important and overlooked contribution to the development of new music is her repertoire for percussion ensemble. The Percussion Suite of 1933 is one of the earliest examples in this genre and differs from those of her contemporaries in that it "explores the understated and quiet expressive possibilities of percussion."Polansky and Kennedy, "'Total Eclipse,'" 726. Other percussion pieces from the 1930s include ''IV'' (1935), the March for Thirty Percussion Instruments (1939), which John Kennedy calls one of the "most gorgeous orchestrations for percussion ensemble ever composed," and the Three Movements for Percussion (1939). All of her percussion music is distinguished from that of her contemporaries by its sense of humor, and "emphasis on process over more purely rhythmic exploration."


Works

Percussion *''Percussion Suite in 3 Movements'' (1933) *'' IV'' (1935) *''March for 30 Percussion Instruments'' (1939) *''Percussion'', opus 14 (1939) *''Three Movements for Percussion'' (1939) *''Waltz for Percussion'' (1939) Chamber works *''Suite for Clarinet I'' (1932) *''Suite for Clarinet Ib'' (1932) *''Suite for Clarinet and Bassoon'' (1933) *''Sonata for Clarinet and Piano'' (1936) *''Suite for Bass Clarinet and Piano'' (1936?) *''Movement for Double Bass and Piano'' (1936) *''Movement for Two Pianos'' (1936) *''Suite for Violin and Piano'' (1937) *''Suite for Oboe and Bassoon'' (1937) *''Six Pieces for Oboe and Piano'' (1939) *''Quintet for Woodwinds'' (1933) *''Movement for Woodwinds'' (1938) *''Trio for Woodwinds'' (194?) *''String Quartet No. 1'' (1933–34) *''String Quartet No. 2'' (1936) *''Movement for String Quartet ("Dance")'' (1938) *''String Quartet No. 4'' (1943?) *"Music of the Spheres" from ''Status Quo'' (1938) For solo piano: *''Gebrauchs-Musik'' (1934) *''Clusters (or, New York Waltzes)'' (1936) *''Winter Ade and five other folk song settings'' (1936) *''Dissonant Counterpoint'' (193?) *''Suite for Piano'' (1939) *''Sonatina in C'' (1943) *''Prelude and Fugue (in C Major)'' (no date) *''Piano-Book, Classic-Romantic-Modern" (no date) Songs: *''Sky-Pieces'' (1933) *''Three Songs'' (Timber Moon; Stars, Songs, Faces; Summer Grass) (soprano, piano, percussion) (1933) *''Ballad of the Star-Eater'' (soprano and clarinet) (1934) *''Three Songs for Soprano and Clarinet'' (Total Eclipse; Universal-Local; To Be) (1934) *''Have Faith!'' (soprano and flute) (3 versions) (1936–37) Large Mixed Ensembles *''March'' (14 instruments) (1935) *''Cyrnab'' (chamber orchestra) (1937) *''Elation'' (concert band) (1938) *''Reverence'' (wind ensemble) (1938) Choir *''The Robin in the Rain'' (1935) *''The Federal Music Project'' (1936) *''The Main—Deep'' (1937) *''The People, Yes'' (1937) *''The Composers' Forum Laboratory'' (1937) Orchestra *''Fragment for Chamber Orchestra'' (1937) *''Symphonic Suite'' (1937) *''Dance for Full Orchestra'' from ''Status Quo'' (1938) *''Symphonic Movement I'' (1939) *''Symphonic Opus 3'' (1939) *''Symphonic Opus 5'' (1940) *''Symphonic Movement II'' (1941)


Selected discography

* ''Restless, Endless, Tactless: Johanna Beyer and the Birth of American Percussion Music'', Meehan/Perkins Duo and the Baylor Percussion Group, (New World Records 80711, 2011) *''Dissonant Counterpoint'', I–VIII; ''Gebrauchs-Musik'', on ''Nine Preludes'', Ruth Crawford/Johanna Beyer, Sarah Cahill, piano (New Albion, NA 114 CD, 2001) *''Ballad of the Star-Eater'', Merlyn Quaife, soprano, Craig Hill, clarinet, on ''Sticky Melodies'', (New World Records 80678-2, 2008) *''Bees'', Peter Dumsday, piano, on ''Sticky Melodies'', (New World Records 80678-2, 2008) *Clarinet Sonata II in B flat, Pat Okeefe, clarinet, on ''If Tigers Were Clouds'' (Zeitgeist, Innova 589, 2003) *''The Federal Music Project'', Astra Choir, John McCaughey, conductor, on ''Sticky Melodies'', (New World Records 80678-2, 2008) *Movement for Double Bass and Piano, Nicholas Synot, double bass, Kim Bastin, piano *Movement for Two Pianos, Peter Dumsday, piano 1, Kim Bastin, piano 2, on ''Sticky Melodies'', (New World Records 80678-2, 2008) *''Music of the Spheres'' (1938), The Electronic Weasel Ensemble, on ''New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media: Women in Electronic Music'' (CRI CD 728, 1977, 1997) *Sonatina in C, Peter Dumsday, piano, on ''Sticky Melodies'', (New World Records 80678-2, 2008) *String Quartet no. 1, Miwako Abe, violin 1, Aaron Barnden, violin 2, Erkki Veltheim, viola, Rosanne Hunt, cello, on ''Sticky Melodies'', (New World Records 80678-2, 2008) *String Quartet no. 2, Miwako Abe, violin 1, Aaron Barnden, violin 2, Erkki Veltheim, viola, Rosanne Hunt, cello, on ''Sticky Melodies'', (New World Records 80678-2, 2008) *Suite for Clarinet I, Daniel Goode, clarinet, on ''Sticky Melodies'', (New World Records 80678-2, 2008) *Suite for Clarinet Ib, Craig Hill, clarinet, on ''Sticky Melodies'', (New World Records 80678-2, 2008) *Suite for Violin and Piano, Miwako Abe, violin,
Michael Kieran Harvey Michael Kieran Harvey (born 7 July 1961) is an Australian pianist and composer whose career has been notable for its diversity and wide repertoire. He is renowned for commissioning, performing and composing new music. He has especially promoted ...
, piano, on ''Works for Violin by
George Antheil George Johann Carl Antheil (; July 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959) was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author, and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the modern sounds – musical, industrial, and mechanical – of t ...
, Johanna Beyer,
Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 202 ...
, Ruth Crawford, Charles Dodge, David Mahler, Larry Polansky,
Stefan Wolpe Stefan Wolpe (25 August 1902, Berlin – 4 April 1972, New York City) was a German-Jewish-American composer. He was associated with interdisciplinary modernism, with affiliations ranging from the Bauhaus, Berlin agitprop theater and the kibbutz mo ...
'' (New World Records 80-641, 2006) *Three Pieces for Choir: The Main Deep; The Composers Forum Laboratory; The People, Yes!, Astra Choir, John McCaughey, conductor, on ''Sticky Melodies'', (New World Records 80678-2, 2008) *Three Songs for Soprano and Clarinet, Merlyn Quaife, soprano, Craig Hill, clarinet, on ''Sticky Melodies'', (New World Records 80678-2, 2008) *''IV'', performed by Essential Music, on ''The Aerial'' no. 3, (Non Sequitur Recordings, 1991) *Suite for Clarinet and Bassoon, movements 2 and 4 only, Rosario Mazzeo, clarinet, Raymond Allard, bassoon (New Music Quarterly Recordings 1413 side A 8rpm 1938).


Notes


Sources

*Beal, Amy. ''Johanna Beyer.'' Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2015. *Beal, Amy. "'Her Whimsy and Originality Really Amount to Genius': New Biographical Research on Johanna Beyer," ''American Music Review'' 38/1 (Fall 2008), 1, 4-5, 12-13. *Boland, Marguerite. "Experimentation and Process in the Music of Johanna Beyer." ''Viva Voce'' 76 (2007), https://mugi.hfmt-hamburg.de/upload/Johanna_Beyer/BeyerBoland.pdf *Boland, Marguerite. "Le langage musical de Johanna Beyer." Proceedings from Le Colloque ''Des Ponts vers L'Amérique I'', Centre de recherches sur les arts et le language, EHESS (Paris, France), December 2006. http://cral.ehess.fr/docannexe/file/1077/marguerite_boland_le_langage_musical_de_johanna_beyer.pdf *Boland, Marguerite, and Larry Polansky.
Tempo Melodies in the Johanna Beyer Clarinet Suites (Fourth Movements)
. Larry Polansky's Dartmouth website (accessed September 20, 2015). *de Graaf, Melissa. "Intersections of Gender and Modernism in the Music of Johanna Beyer," ''Institute for Studies in American Music Newsletter'' 33/2 (Spring 2004), 8–9, 15 http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/isam/. *de Graaf, Melissa. "'Never Call Us Lady Composers': Gendered Receptions in the New York Composers' Forum, 1935-1940," ''American Music'' 26/3 (Fall 2008), 277–308. *de Graaf, Melissa. "The Reception of an Ultra-Modernist: Ruth Crawford's Experience in the Composers' Forum," in ''Ruth Crawford Seeger's Worlds: Innovation and Tradition in Twentieth-century American Music'', eds. Ellie Hisama & Ray Allen. University of Rochester Press, 2006. *Hinkle-Turner, Elizabeth. "Lady Ada's Offspring: Some Women Pioneers in Music Technology," in ''Frau Musica (nova): Komponieren heute/Composing today'', ed. Martina Homma, 25–33. Sinzig: Studio-Verlag, 2000. *Hinkle-Turner, Elizabeth. ''Women Composers and Music Technology in the United States''. Aldershot, Hants; Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishers, 2006. *Lumsden, Rachel. "'The Pulse of Life Today': Borrowing in Johanna Beyer's String Quartet No. 2," ''American Music'' 35/3 (Fall 2017), 303–342. *Polansky, Larr
"The Choral and Chamber Music of Johanna Magdalena Beyer"
Liner notes to ''Johanna Beyer - Sticky Melodies''. New World Records. *Polansky, Larry, and John Kennedy. "'Total Eclipse': The Music of Johanna Magdalena Beyer: An Introduction and Preliminary Annotated Checklist," ''The Musical Quarterly'' 80/4 (1996), 719–78. *Reese, Kirsten. "Ruhelos: Annäherung an Johanna Magdalena Beyer," ''Musiktexte: Zeitschrift fur Neue Musik'', nos. 81–82 (1999): 6–15.


External links


Johanna Magdalena Beyer scores (the composer's manuscripts)
in th
Music Division
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The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beyer, Johanna 20th-century classical composers German classical composers Modernist composers American women classical composers American classical composers Contemporary classical music performers 1888 births 1944 deaths People from the Kingdom of Saxony Musicians from Leipzig German emigrants to the United States Mannes School of Music alumni Neurological disease deaths in New York (state) Deaths from motor neuron disease Pupils of Henry Cowell Pupils of Charles Seeger Pupils of Ruth Crawford Seeger Women in electronic music 20th-century German composers 20th-century American women musicians 20th-century American composers Sub Rosa Records artists Olympic competitors in art competitions 20th-century women composers