Amy Beach at the Panama Pacific International Exposition

Amy Beach (Mrs. H. H. A. Beach) was a regular fixture in San Francisco musical circles during 1915, the year of the Panama Pacific International Exposition. There were numerous salon concerts and receptions honoring Amy Beach and featuring her music throughout the spring and summer of 1915. Her Panama Hymn (op. 74) for mixed chorus and orchestra, organ, or piano, a setting of a poem by Wendell Phillips Stafford, was commissioned for the event. It was performed throughout the duration of the Exposition in an arrangement for military band.


Amy Beach was featured as a composer and pianist at the American Composers Day concert at the Festival Hall on August 1, 1915. Here she performed her Piano Concerto in C# minor, op. 45. On October 28, 1915 the San Francisco Quintet Club performed Beach’s Quintet in F-sharp Minor for Piano and Strings, opus 67 with the composer at the piano. Alfred Metzger wrote in the Pacific Coast Musical Review of November 16, 1915:

Mrs. Beach unquestionably understands how to create emotions of a stirring character. She played this piano part with splendid musicianship, securing from it every musical requirement which the score called for. Mrs. Beach is an executive as well as creative musician, and she is entitled to all the honor and respect which a grateful public is able to bestow upon her. She was surely deserving of the enthusiastic ovation which her audience so readily accorded her.

The San Francisco Quintet later renamed itself the Chamber Music Society of San Francisco and commission Beach’s Theme and Variations for Flute and String Quartet, op. 80.

The Chamber Music Society of San Francisco (1916)

We are very fortunate in San Francisco to have two performances of major works by Amy Beach scheduled for the near future.

The Ives Quartet, consisting of Bettina Mussumeli, violin, Susan Freier, violin; Jodi Levitz, viola; and Stephen Harrison, cello with perform the Quintet in F-sharp Minor with the assistance of pianist William Wellborn at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on October 27, 2008 at 8:00 PM. For more information about the Ives Quartet, visit their website. For ticket information about this concert visit the website for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

On Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 3 PM, Symphony Parnassus will perform Beach’s Piano Concerto with Dan Glover as the piano soloist and Dawn Harms guest conducting. They will perform at the Herbst Theatre at 401 Van Ness Street. Visit the Symphony Parnassus website for ticket information.

Remember to visit our exhibit, Amy Beach: Her Blissful Years in San Francisco, which will be displayed in the Steve Silver / Beach Blanket Babylon Room on the 4th floor of the Main Library through December 4, 2008.

Maloney’s Antiques & Collectibles Resource Directory

It’s possible to collect anything—anything that stirs ones fancy or rouses ones admiration. It may be teddy bears or Toby mugs, insulators, posters, majolica or jade, music boxes or musical instruments, or even motor cycles or automobiles of a certain vintage. But if you want to add to your collection, or to dispose of an item, or to simply establish its value beyond the worth you yourself attach to it, you will need Maloney’s.

Maloney’s Antiques & Collectibles Resource Directory, now in its 7th, rev. edition is the undisputed No.1 resource for collectors, dealers in antiques, attorneys, insurance companies, authors, lecturers and anyone with an interest in collectibles and personal property. It does not give definitions or illustrations, but provides the names and addresses of more than 20,000 collectors, buyers, dealers, experts and appraisers, clubs, societies and associations, museums and centers of specialized research. Many of these entries include websites and e-mail addresses. It also lists reproduction sources, repair/restoration services and suppliers of parts. For some collectibles it provides information on antiques buying trips, internet and gallery auctions, specialized periodicals and computer software for collectors.

The directory also offers resources that provide information about recognizing fakes and reproductions and reports on stolen art, along with listings of government offices that can give information on the laws governing items made from endangered species.

The directory lists more than 3,200 collectibles topics arranged alphabetically, many with See and See also directions. There is “User’s Guide” and a clear and simple index that will help to identify the most appropriate term. So if you collect teddy bears, for example, the first thing to do is to look for “Teddy Bears” in the index. There you will see it is a main heading, and looking in the body of the directory you will find:

Teddy Bears

See also BOOKS, Reference [Teddy Bears]; DOLLS; SMOKEY BEAR ITEMS; STEIFF; TEDDY BEARS (MODERN); TOYS (Plush)

Under each heading is a lengthy listing of Appraisers; Clubs/Associations; Collectors; Dealers; etc. with addresses and areas of expertise.

If you are a collector of jade carvings, for example, the index gives you “Jade” as a main heading and you will find:

Jade

see GEMS & JEWELRY, Jade; ORIENTALIA.

If you are not interested in jade jewelry so you may try ORIENTALIA where you see the usual list of Appraisers, Dealers, Experts, etc. There is also a subheading, Chinese Items, with its own list of Appraisers and Dealers, but no heading to guide you to jade carvings.

You decide to go back and try GEMS & JEWELRY, Jade. But there, again, you find only the names of Dealers.

Still, there is no need to give up. Anyone among the appraisers and dealers in the categories you found has knowledge about jade, and some of them will undoubtedly be able to guide you to collectors, dealers and experts on jade carvings.

If you consider yourself an expert on a particular type of collectible (Jade Carvings, for example), Maloney’s invites you to submit your name and present your credentials and prove your knowledge on the subject. Be aware, though, that your claims will be thoroughly investigated before our name appears in the directory. Perhaps then you may even convince the author to include “Jade Carvings” as a directory heading.

Collectors, almost by definition, are emotional, even passionate. Maloney’s reminds its readers repeatedly in small bullet boxes not to forget basic courtesies: Do not call collect; remember time zone differences; include a stamped, self-addresses envelope if you asked for information through the mail, always ask if there are charges for the service you request.

The directory is not a finished, complete document. It is continually updated and refined to ensure both currency and inclusiveness.

Maloney’s values lies in the easy, clear access to a monumental amount of data and information The directory deserves its fame and reputation and David Maloney, its author, merits the appreciation and gratitude of all involved in the antiques and collectibles trade and related industries.

Amy Beach: Her Blissful Years in San Francisco

Amy Beach (from The History of American Music, by Louis C. Elson)

Amy Beach: Her Blissful Years in San Francisco, an exhibit of photographs, scores, sheet music and archival material focusing on the San Francisco works of classical composer Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, will be displayed in the Steve Silver Beach Blanket Babylon Music Center on the Library's Fourth Floor through December 4, 2008.

Amy Marcy Beach (Mrs. H. H. A. Beach) was one of the leading woman composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born September 5, 1867 in Henniker, New Hampshire she had precocious musical abilities. At age four she could play music by ear and had created her first piano pieces. She was endowed with perfect pitch – the ability to identify or sing and note on demand.

Growing up in the conservative Victorian New England her mother initially limited her access to music. Her talents were appreciated and encouraged, however, by her “Aunt Franc” -- Emma Frances Clement from San Francisco, who visited her in New Hampshire. In 1875 her family moved to Boston which afforded her the opportunity to advance as a pianist and become a successful performer. At 18 she married Dr. H. H. A. Beach. Acceding to her husband’s wishes she curtailed her concert performances, but with his encouragement she devoted her energies to composition.

She has been described by the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians as “the first American woman to succeed as a composer of large-scale art music.” While best known as a composer of works for the piano, choral music and songs, she also wrote large scale works for orchestra (The Gaelic Symphony and a Piano Concerto) and nearly a dozen chamber works.

While Amy Beach spent most of her professional career in the Northeast she made couple of important sojourns to San Francisco that contributed to her development as a composer. In 1878 she visited her Aunt Franc and her cousin Ethel Clement. She later wrote of San Francisco as the “city, which I had first learned to love at ten years of age when I spent a blissful year there.” After leaving San Francisco she corresponded regularly with her aunt and cousin who to whom she dedicated several works.

After the death of her husband in 1910 she was better able to travel and promote her works and spent several years in Europe. Beach was invited to San Francisco in 1915 to participate in the musical activities of the Panama Pacific Exposition. Her “Panama Hymn” commissioned for this occasion was performed frequently through the exposition. Enjoying the company of her family in San Francisco she considered taking up permanent residence in our City, even registering to vote here in 1916. During this period she participated actively in the City’s musical and social life and composed several works.

Ultimately Amy Beach returned to the East Coast. She finished her days in New York, passing away there on December 27, 1944.

Amy Beach in 1878, photographed at Louis Thors' Photography Studio, 1025 Larkin Street, San Francisco (photograph courtesy of the Special Collections Department, University of New Hampshire)

This exhibit benefited greatly from the research of Adrienne Fried Block, in particular her book Amy Beach: Passionate Victorian (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) and from Gail Smith’s collection The Life and Music of Amy Beach: The First Woman Composer of America. (Pacific, Missouri: Creative Keyboard Publications, 1992). We also received assistance from Roland Goodbody, manuscripts coordinator at the University of New Hampshire, The Special Collections Department of the University of Missouri, Kansas City, the MacDowell Colony, Marie Harris of Barrington, New Hampshire, Helene Whitson of Berkeley, and Carol James of San Francisco.

Dorothy Starr: San Francisco’s First Lady of Sheet Music

The Art, Music & Recreation Center is exhibiting images of sheet music from the Dorothy Starr Sheet Music Collection through December 6, 2008. Dorothy Starr (1908-1990) was the beloved proprietress of the Music Stand, a used music store on Hayes Street. The Friends of Dorothy Starr in cooperation with the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library acquired the stock of Dorothy Starr’s store in order to continue to make the music available to the musicians of San Francisco.

The Library has created a separate database for the Dorothy Starr Sheet Music Collection containing more than 30,000 catalog records. This database indexes vocal sheet music of all varieties, including Tin Pan Alley songs, showtunes, popular songs of all eras, folksongs, art songs, operatic arias and choral music.

The Dorothy Starr Sheet Music Collection is a special collection of the Library – all of the songs are carefully preserved and protected. Because much of the music is fragile, we prefer that musicians use our extensive songbook collection before consulting this collection. Nevertheless, we do make the music available to musicians when all are resources are exhausted.

The current exhibit is located in three wall cases on the Main Library’s Fourth Floor. The first case contains images of sheet music about or published in San Francisco. The second case presents cover images from the “golden age” of sheet music during the first half of the twentieth century. The third case presents covers from pop and rock era of the 1960s and 1970s.
The Library’s webpage has more information about Dorothy Starr and the Dorothy Starr Sheet Music Collection as well as the database for this collection.

A Duke Ellington medley from the Dorothy Starr Collection

Poster Collection - Music Posters

A sampling of the Art, Music and Center’s poster collection is regularly on exhibit in a case adjacent to the Steve Silver Beach Blanket Babylon Room. We rotate posters from our collection throughout the year. Currently we are displaying music posters.

While most of the posters are for performances in San Francisco and the Bay Area, some others are from more far-flung sources. A photographic collage shows the dancers who interpret Isaac Albeniz’s suite, “Iberia ” in the film by Carlos Saura. The painting used in the poster to promote art from the Harlem Renaissance depicts a couple dancing in the middle of the horn section. The composition gives a sense of the rich vitality of the time and place. The poster art for "Medea: the Musical," presented by the Stage Door Theatre in 2000, is simpler, but like the other posters, distills through graphic art what would take many words to say.

Artists in California: 1786-1940

The two volume, 1249 page reference work, Artists in California: 1786-1940 by Edan Milton Hughes, is a biographical dictionary containing the names of close to 20,000 California artists. It covers the time period from 1786 when Gaspard Duché de Vancy, a member of a French expedition, painted Carmel Mission to the time of the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939-1940. It includes painters, printmakers, woodcarvers, lithographers, illustrators, sculptors, craftsmen, etchers, and artists in pastels and clay.

The arrangement of the dictionary is alphabetical and the format follows the standard pattern: the artist’s full name, dates and place of birth and death (if known), then a biographical sketch which may include the artist’s schooling and when he came to California. This is followed by the medium in which he or she worked, as well as a list of memberships, exhibitions, awards and the locations where his or her works are held. A ¶ symbol announces the bibliographic sources.

The author, a collector of California art, admits to some difficulty over who to include. Since the time of the earliest colonial explorations the mystique of California has attracted artists. Some of them have only stayed a short time, but their works are suffused with the spirit and the beauty and adventure of the untouched new land. He warns not to be deceived by the length and detail of some biographies. Sadly, very little is known of some of California’s finest early artist, painters like Grace Carpenter Hudson, Will Sparks, Edward Rufus Hill and others. They frequently left an impressive body of work, but no written records, diaries or letters. Fragments of information on them had to be pieced together from many sources. No records exist either of the lives of many minor California artists, artists attached to early expeditions, ‘49ers who turned to art when gold eluded them, or refugees from a Europe caught up in revolutions. Then there are artists whose significance to California art is minor, but their achievements elsewhere have been documented and their biographies, consequently, are well filled out.

The author has included two short papers that should be read by anyone interested in California art. The first is an essay entitled “A Brief History of Early California Art,” and it is just that--a lively, entertaining, intimate summary of how the arts became established in California. The second is called “Chronology,” and it describes in chronological order, beginning with 1850, the important events that shaped the California art world.

This reference book, now in its third edition, is an essential resource for the collectors, scholars, and lovers of California art.

Fiddling Around The World

Image from the Art, Music & Recreation Center's picture file

Even though summer has come to an end you can still travel the world with a violin and San Francisco Public Library card. The library offers a number of musical scores that provide violinists the opportunity to explore international folk music styles.

The violin is one of the world’s most versatile musical instruments. While it is a core instrument in Western classical ensembles like the orchestra and the string quartet, it is also used by many folk and non-Western cultures.

We offer collections of fiddle tunes that range from bluegrass, Cajun, Celtic, gypsy, klezmer, tango and beyond.

Here is a sampling of the possibilities:

787.11 Am3541
The American Fiddler: Old-time, Bluegrass, Cajun, and Texas Style Fiddle Tunes of the USA selected and arranged by Edward Huws Jones.
[London]: Boosey & Hawkes, 1998.

787.1 L953b
Bluegrass Fiddle: A Guide to Bluegrass and Country Style Fiddling / by Gene Lowinger.
New York: Oak Publications, 1974.

787.11 C124
The Cajun Fiddle Tune Book: A Collection of Cajun Fiddle Tunes / compiled and arranged by Deborah Greenblatt.
Anaheim Hills, CA: Centerstream, 2001.

787.11 C3321
The Celtic Fiddler / selected and arranged by Edward Huws Jones.
London: Boosey & Hawkes, 2003.

787.11 C441
Chinese Violin Solos: A Collection of Music for the Traditional Chinese Two-Stringed Fiddle / selected and transcribed for performance on the Western violin by Jonathan Stock.
Mainz: Schott, 1998.

787.11 Ea778
Eastern European Fiddle Tunes: 80 Tunes for Folk Violin from Poland, Ukraine, Klezmer Tradition, Hungary, Romania, and the Balkans / edited by Pete Cooper.
Mainz: Schott, 2007.

787.11 En355
English, Welsh, Scottish & Irish Fiddle Tunes / selected, introduced and annotated by Robin Williamson.
New York: Oak Publications, 1976.

787.11 K6795
The Klezmer Fiddler: Jewish Music of Celebration / selected and arranged by Edward Huws Jones.
London: Boosey & Hawkes, 2001.

787.1 C7872m
Cooper, Pete.
Mel Bay's complete Irish fiddle player / by Peter Cooper.
Pacific, MO: Mel Bay Publications, 1995.

787.11 M4806
Mel Bay's gypsy violin / by Mary Ann Harbar.
Pacific, MO: Mel Bay Publications, 1997.

787.11 Se822
Sevdah: traditional music from Bosnia / selected and arranged by Edward Huws Jones and Mehmed Velagić.
[London]: Boosey & Hawkes, 1997.

787.11 T1567
The tango fiddler / selected and arranged by Edward Huws Jones.
London : Boosey & Hawkes, 2006.

787.11 V6755
The Viennese fiddler / selected and arranged by Edward Huws Jones.
[London]: Boosey & Hawkes, 2001.