"Berceuse" for flute and piano Op. 40, No. 2

Amy Beach (1867–1944) was the first successful American female composer.
Born in Henniker, New Hampshire, she was a musical wunderkind. By age one, she could sing forty tunes; by four, she was composing piano pieces in her head; and by seven, she was performing public recitals of Beethoven and Chopin.
Unlike her male contemporaries, who traveled to Europe for training, Beach was almost entirely self-taught in composition. She studied original scores by Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, and she translated the theoretical treatises of Berlioz and Gevaert from French to English herself to master orchestration.
In 1885, at age 18, she married Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach. Per his request and social norms, she curtailed her performing career and published under the name Mrs. H.H.A. Beach, focusing her creative energy on composition.
Her style is rooted in the rich harmonic language of the late 19th century, comparable to Brahms or Wagner, but with a uniquely lyrical "New England" sensibility. Beach was an early advocate for using folk melodies to create a national identity. She frequently incorporated Irish (Gaelic) and Balkan folk tunes, as well as bird songs, into her complex structures.
Among her most notable compositions: "Mass in E-flat major" (1890), the "Gaelic Symphony" (1896), the Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor (1899), and the opera "Cabildo" (1932), which utilized a chamber ensemble and reflected her later, more innovative style.