Elizabethtown College Music Education student Amaris Wolfe ’23 is researching, editing, and compiling sources to contribute to, “The Cambridge Companion to Amy Beach,” a book written by faculty mentor E. Douglas Bomberger. Together, the two are striving to capture the life and musicianship of Amy Beach (1867-1944), a Romantic-era composer and pianist, in what aims to become the first of the Cambridge Companions to Music series to feature a female composer with the book’s upcoming publication in mid-2023.
The independent student research and collaboration with an Etown faculty mentor is part of the Summer Creative Arts and Research Program (SCARP) program.
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, 1867-1944 | The Library of Congress.
Title of Research
Editing and Manuscript Preparation of The Cambridge Companion to Amy Beach
Student Researcher
Amaris Wolfe ’23 (Music Education major)
Faculty Mentor
E. Douglas Bomberger, Professor of Music
What are you researching?
Amaris: Amy Beach (1867-1944) was a late-Romantic composer and pianist and is considered to be the first female American composer of art music to be met with great success. She took up composition after marrying Henry Harris Aubrey Beach in 1895 and was encouraged to do so in order to maintain the propriety expected of women in the Victorian era.
I am aiding Dr. Bomberger in background research, completing a massive bibliography, and preparing manuscripts using music notation software.
Why did you choose this topic?
Amaris: Dr. Bomberger chose several students that showed strong work in his sophomore music history courses and asked if they would be willing to join this project for the summer. I am always looking to expand my musical skills in all aspects, including research, so I chose to join.
What is the most interesting aspect of this research?
Amaris: Sifting through newspapers and primary sources that are over a century old is the most interesting part of this research. Our travels to the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library allow us to examine these types of sources. I was able to hold and read original correspondence from Amy Beach to her publisher as well as search through periodicals from as early as 1917 (still in original print!)
How has your faculty mentor helped you?
Amaris: This project has allowed me to engage in research that will be useful to me in fall 2022 when I take my Senior Seminar in Musicology. This is also great preparation for graduate study and my career as a music educator. Amy Beach serves as an inspiration to women in the pursuit of music as a career. The knowledge I’ve gained about Beach through this project truly cements her as an icon in my mind and I hope to impart this knowledge to my future students after graduation.
Hear from the faculty mentor – E. Douglas Bomberger
“My book project is at just the right phase to benefit from the SCARP program,” Bomberger said. “The manuscript is almost all written, and this summer calls for editing and final manuscript preparation for submission to the press. Amaris has been an excellent help in this project, as she has done database searching, reference checking, and preparation of a chronology for the front matter. Her music skills have been put to good use as she prepared musical scores, checks citations, and prepares an appendix of musical works. I could not be more pleased to have her on board.”
