On Music

Terry Teachout quotes a snippet about the triad and music from Paul Hindemith. If I were to believe this poppycock for even a moment, I do not think that I would rely on a composer as dry, dull, and all-around awful as Paul Hindemith to go to bat for me. Paul Hindemith is, of course, as well-known for his self-importance as he is for his nearly unlistenable music.

On the topic of terrible composers, I have recently heard Amy Beach rumblings. Amy Beach is the perfect composer to trot out for a variety of reasons: she was a woman, she was writing tonal treacly stuff in the Age of Berg, and she was almost completely ignored in music history.

A number of years ago one of the travelling Beach scholars made a stop at the UC Santa Cruz music department. The feminists were a-goggle, the neo-tonalists had these goofy grins plastered on their mugs, and the majority of us were baffled. This stuff was horrendous. "Danny Boy" treated to orchestral variations sort of bite-your-hand-to-keep-from-laughing-out-loud sort of drivel. For anyone who had ears, this was ample evidence as to why composers thought that tonal romanticism was dead.

Anyway, during the presentation this Beach scholar showed a picture of a whole bunch of people at the Panama Pacific Exhibition in San Francisco. The unjustly neglected Amy Beach was proudly among them. "This is a picture of Amy Beach with her contemporaries in the world of music," and rattled off a list of names. I had heard of two of them (both mediocre treaclers of a quasi-Irish stripe. Yes, I know, I am being unfair to the dear Hibernians. I realize that the Irish take their music very seriously, and I respect that. Now if they would only take it back to Ireland and bury it, then I would be most obliged. I exempt the bagpipes and the work of Planxty, but as soon as the song gets to teary eyes and "only our rivers run free" I start to scream). So, when it really came down to it, Amy Beach was forgotten because, like most of her chums, she was, well, forgettable.

So I cringe when I see some misguided ensemble putting Beach on the program. Western Art Music needs Amy Beach and Paul Hindemith the way haute cuisine needs listeria.