October 30, 1896: The 1st Symphony By an American Woman

October 30, 1896: Symphony in E minor, Op. 32, known as the Gaelic Symphony, debuts at Boston Music Hall. (It would have been appropriate for Symphony Hall, but that building, Music Hall's successor, did not open until 1900.)

Its composer is Amy Beach. This makes her the 1st American woman to have composed a symphony that has been published and performed.

Amy Marcy Cheney was born on September 5, 1867 in Henniker, New Hampshire. Her mother was a pianist, and from her she inherited perfect musical memory, composing 3 waltzes in her head at the age of 4, and then reproducing them on the piano. She made her concert debut in 1883, at the same Music Hall, playing Frederic Chopin's Rondo in E flat.

In 1885, only 18 years old, she married Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach, 42, a surgeon and amateur singer. For the rest of his life, her compositions would be published under the name "Mrs. H.H.A. Beach." In 1892, the Handel and Haydn Society orchestra performed her Mass in E-flat major, their 1st ever performance of a woman's composition. It received rave reviews in newspapers. Likewise, when her Gaelic Symphony was premiered, The Boston Globe's critic wrote that the Boston Symphony performed it "with exceptional success."

Composers George Whitefield Chadwick and Horatio Parker attended, and Chadwick wrote to her, "You will have to be counted in, whether you like it or not, one of the boys." "The boys" became known as "The Boston Six": Mrs. Beach, Chadwick, Parker, John Knowles Paine, Arthur Foote and Edward MacDowell. Mrs. Beach was not only the only woman among them, but also the youngest: She was 29 at the time of the premiere, while Parker was 33, MacDowell was 36, Chadwick was 42, Foote was 43, and Paine was 57.

Dr. Beach died in 1910, and he and Amy had no children. Feeling unable to work, she sailed to Europe, staying for 2 years until she began giving performances there. She became the 1st American composer to become popular in Europe, particularly so in Germany. She had to leave when World War I broke out.

In the 1920s, she served as President of the Board of Councillors of the New England Conservatory of Music, using her position to promote young American composers. In 1928, she went to Rome, and in 1929 gave a concert there to raise money for the city's American Hospital. She continued to write and perform until stricken with heart disease in 1940, and died on December 27, 1944, in New York, at the age of 77.

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October 30, 1896 was a Friday. Actress Ruth Gordon was born. There were no scores on this day: Baseball season had recently ended, with the original version of the Baltimore Orioles winning the National League Pennant. There were no major college football games. Hockey was still all-amateur, and basketball barely existed.