Existing comment:
Amy Beach to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, November 17, 1902.
The Art of Composition
In addition to studying piano and performing, Coolidge also found "spiritual refuge" in the art of composition. In 1901, in honor of the tenth anniversary of her marriage, she set to music a group of texts from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese. A sketch for the work includes a scheme of subject motives and each motive's emotional association, which Coolidge identifies throughout the sketch and develops in a later draft. She sought feedback on the work from composer Amy Beach (1867–1944), whose career was well established by the turn of the century. Beach responded with enthusiasm for the song cycle, noting "considerable ingenuity in the handling of your ‘leit-motiven'." |