Johanna Beyer facts for kids

Johanna Magdalena Beyer (born July 11, 1888 – died January 9, 1944) was a talented German-American composer and pianist. She created music that was very new and experimental for her time, even though many people didn't recognize her work until much later.

About Johanna Beyer

Johanna Beyer was born in Leipzig, Germany. We don't know much about her early life before she moved to the United States in 1923.

She sang for three years at the Leipziger Singakademie. She also graduated from the Deutscher Konservatorien and Musikseminare. There, she studied piano, music theory, singing, and dancing. People who knew her in New York remembered that she was an excellent pianist. They also said her musical training was very strong and traditional.

Moving to America and Her Studies

Johanna spent some time in America between 1911 and 1914. However, we don't know what she did during those years. She returned to the U.S. in 1923. She then studied at the Mannes College of Music, earning two degrees by 1928.

To support herself, she taught piano. She may have also taught at the Greenwich House Music School. Life was often hard, and she sometimes had to rely on help from programs like the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

In the late 1920s or early 1930s, she began studying with important composers. These included Ruth Crawford Seeger, Charles Seeger, and Dane Rudhyar. In 1934, she took a percussion class with Henry Cowell at the New School for Social Research.

Her Musical Friends

Johanna Beyer's musical life was closely connected to a group of modern composers. This group included Seeger, Crawford, Cowell, and John Cage. She was very close friends with Henry Cowell. Letters show they had a complicated, possibly romantic, relationship. Johanna also helped Cowell as his informal agent and secretary for several years.

Performances of Her Music

Even though she wasn't widely known as a composer, some of her important works were performed. Her first performance was in 1933 at the New School for Social Research. There, her "Three Songs for Soprano, Piano, and Percussion" were played.

In 1934, a part of her "Suite for Clarinet and Bassoon" was performed in San Francisco. The famous composer Aaron Copland even reviewed a recording of it. John Cage performed two movements of her "Three Movements for Percussion" during his tours in the late 1930s.

In 1936, Johanna showed off her many talents in a play called The Modern Composer. She wrote the words, created the music, designed the dances, made the costumes, and directed the show. She even played the piano herself! This play was part of the Federal Music Project. Her music was also performed twice at the New York Composers' Forum.

Interestingly, her work was also part of the music event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics.

Later Life and Legacy

In her final years, Johanna Beyer suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. She passed away in New York City, New York, in 1944.

Today, some of her music scores are available through the Frog Peak/Johanna Beyer Project. Composers who are interested in her work have helped to edit and recopy her music.

Her Musical Style

Much of Johanna Beyer's music, especially from 1931 to 1939, fits the style of American "ultra-modernists." This group included composers like Ruth Crawford Seeger, Charles Seeger, and Henry Cowell.

Many of her pieces use something called dissonant counterpoint. This is a special way of writing music developed by Charles Seeger and Cowell. However, Johanna Beyer also created her own unique musical ideas. Her compositions are known for using sounds wisely, having balanced forms, and showing a "unique sense of humor and whimsy." She was also very committed to trying new things in music.

Experimental Music

Even though her music was not well-known during her lifetime, it was very experimental and ahead of its time. Her piece Music of the Spheres (1938) is believed to be the first known work for electronic instruments by a female composer.

Some of her pieces, like the fourth movements of her two clarinet suites (1932), explored new ways of connecting pitches and rhythms. These ideas weren't fully explored again until the late 1940s by composers like Elliott Carter. Several of her works also predicted minimalist music, which became popular in the 1960s. A great example is the fourth movement of her first String Quartet.

She also used tone clusters in her music. These are groups of notes played very close together, often requiring the pianist to use their forearms to play many keys at once. You can hear this in Clusters for solo piano and Movement for Two Pianos.

Percussion Music

Perhaps Johanna Beyer's most important contribution to new music is her collection of pieces for percussion instruments. Her "Percussion Suite" from 1933 is one of the earliest examples of this type of music. It's different from other composers' percussion works because it "explores the understated and quiet expressive possibilities of percussion."

Other percussion pieces from the 1930s include IV (1935) and the "March for Thirty Percussion Instruments" (1939). The "March" has been called one of the "most gorgeous orchestrations for percussion ensemble ever composed." All her percussion music stands out for its sense of humor and focus on musical processes.

List of 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)

See also

In Spanish: Johanna Beyer para niños