Does anybody remember Jack Beeson (1921-2010)? I mean, do his works get performed anymore? Maybe in opera departments in music conservatories. He was part of that whole movement by mid-century American composers to write tonal, accessible opera, frequently on American themes. Carlisle Floyd and Dominick Argento were among the most successful. And Beeson was no slouch.

By disposition, Beeson was an easygoing Midwesterner, a transplant from Muncie, Indiana, to New York City, where he taught at Columbia University for 20 years. Somehow he managed not to be squeezed between the warring artistic factions of uptown academics and downtown avant-gardists. Throughout the contentious ‘60s, Beeson kept right on composing well-crafted music that spoke directly to his audiences. He also gave free rein to his pupils to pursue their own voices, offering guidance only when he deemed it necessary. Strictly speaking, he thought it was impossible to teach composition. One could only teach technique.

He himself had been inspired to write opera because of early exposure to radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera. He claimed to be the only American composition student of Béla Bartók, whose reservations he overcame with the observation that it might be possible to learn something from someone who thought he couldn’t teach. Bartók spent his last years in New York, where he was supported by a research fellowship from Columbia.

Among Beeson’s operas are “Hello Out There!” (1953), “The Sweet Bye and Bye” (1956, revised 1958), and “Lizzie Borden” (1965).

Borden, of course, entered American folklore after she was acquitted of the axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts, in August 1892. The lurid details and the fact that no one else was ever charged with the crimes have only cemented the story in the American consciousness. The story also became the subject of Morton Gould’s ballet, “Fall River Legend.”

Here’s “Lizzie Borden” from the New York City Opera (introduced by Martin Bookspan and Beverly Sills):

Beeson’s Symphony No. 1

Peter G. Davis remembers Beeson in the New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/arts/music/11beeson.html

In an engrossing interview with Bruce Duffie. Beeson has something to say about birthday programming at the end!

http://www.bruceduffie.com/beeson.html

Beeson would have been 100 years-old today. Forgive me, Jack, but happy birthday!