Description
The American composer and pianist, Amy Beach (1867-1944) was a child prodigy but, upon her marriage, aged 18, to a surgeon 24 years her senior she had to agree to only give two public performances a year, and to never teach piano. She was permitted to continue to compose but her husband would not allow her a tutor, so she was largely self-taught. Despite this she enjoyed considerable success as a composer. As a member of the Second New England School (also known as the Boston Six) she used her status as the top female American composer to further the careers of young musicians and was much in demand as a music educator after her husband died in 1910.
In the early 1890s Beach had started to become interested in folk songs, including those of Scotland and Ireland. The Prelude on an Old Folk Tune is Beach’s beautiful take on The Fair Hills of Eire, O! – a 17th century traditional Irish melody. Originally written for piano in 1923 this arrangement for wind quintet by Graham Sheen is based on a later version Beach produced for organ.
Graham Sheen is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and became a professor there in 1979. He was principal bassoonist of both the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1983-2017) and, until 2016, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, having completed forty years’ service. He has appeared extensively as soloist with both orchestras and in April 2013 gave the première of a new bassoon concerto by Judith Bingham. He has recorded two solo CDs with Elizabeth Burley for SFZ Music. Graham is also a composer, editor and arranger with over sixty published works. He has written several graded albums and studies for bassoon and bassoon ensemble, including Mr Sheen’s Miscellany, a series of 13 pieces for the Trinity Guildhall Examination Board.
