Life is a Beach.

"Life is too short to even care at all," sang the band Young the Giant this morning as we listened to my daughter's iPod on our morning commute.  They repeated it over, and over, and over again, concluding with a line about the merits of cough syrup.  I finally asked my daughter, "What is this song about?"  "I'm not sure," she replied, "Maybe suicide?"

I'm not sure, either, but if I really believed the philosophy they seem to be peddling, I'd want to commit suicide, too.  Planet Earth can be a rather depressing place.  Interspersed with the laments of Young the Giant I heard an NPR update on the sinking of the Korean ferry, 285 bodies recovered to date, most of them teenagers.  I also heard news about the Turkish mine disaster, the last of the 301 victims was buried on Sunday.  Flooding in the Balkans, Putin posturing, political attack ads.  What good does it do to "care at all" in the face of such overwhelming tragedies?  I might have some hope of making a difference if I were a doctor, a nurse, a journalist, or even a sincere politician (an endangered species), but I'm a musician, a composer, the most useless of all professions at solving world crises.

Mrs. H. H. A. Beach was also a composer at a time of turmoil and uncertainty.  Born Amy Marcy Cheney in 1867, she grew up in Boston and became the first accomplished and critically acclaimed female composer in the United States.  Upon her marriage to the prestigious Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach her career as a concert pianist was severely curtailed as it was not considered appropriate for a lady to be in the public eye.  However her husband did encourage her to compose and she had great success with chamber music, large scale symphonic works, choral and vocal music.  When her husband died in 1910 she resumed her concert career by touring Europe.  That came to an end with the onset of World War I.  As she watched the tragedy of a brutal conflict unfold, she too may have wondered, "What good is my music in the face of such devastation?  Why should I care at all?"  And yet, she did.  She continued to compose beautiful pieces that uplift and inspire.  Listen to this beautiful Berceuse for Cello and Piano or the Theme and Variations for Flute and Strings.   She didn't limit her contribution to composing.  She became a teacher, mentor, and champion for other composers, particularly women, who needed encouragement and support to further their careers.  She was active in important educational organizations that helped young musicians struggling to make their way in difficult times.  At a time when it would have been easy to say "I am one person.  I can do nothing," Amy Beach did everything she could.

I'm going to resist the seductive call of Young the Giant.  I think life is too short to not care.  What can I do?  I know a teenage girl who is rebelling against her parents.  She's a pianist.  I'm a pianist.  She likes Chopin, Debussy, and Bach.  So do I.  We've played some duets together and she's asked me to show her some of my own music.  I'm just a composer, but perhaps a composer is the right person to reach this lost child.  I can't save the children on the Korean ferry.  Maybe I can save one girl from making decisions she will later regret.

How about you?  Will you care?

It's a better choice than cough syrup.

Amy Cheney Beach

Young the Giant