The Cambridge Companion to Amy Beach
Ed. E Douglas Bomberger
Cambridge 268pp (pb) £22.99
Amy Beach (née Cheney) could hum 40 tunes before her first birthday and harmonise her mother’s songs by the age of two. She became a first-rate pianist but when, at the age of 18, she married Henry Harris Aubrey Beach, her performing career was thwarted – unacceptable, you see, for the wife of a respected Boston doctor. However, she was allowed to compose. And compose she