I Sang the Unsingable: My Life in Twentieth-Century Music

Memoir of Bethany Beardslee, the iconic American soprano known as the "composer's singer." American soprano Bethany Beardslee rose to prominence in the postwar years when the modernist sensibilities of European artists and thinkers were flooding American shores and challenging classical music audiences. With her light lyric voice, her musical intuition, and her fearless dedication to new music, Beardslee became the go-to girl for twelve-tone music in New York City. She was the first American singer to build a repertoire performing the music of Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Milton Babbitt, and Pierre Boulez, making a vibrant career singing difficult music. I Sang the Unsingable is the autobiography of the acclaimed twentieth-century art-song soprano. In her memoir, Beardslee tells the story of how she made her way from inauspicious depression-era East Lansing to Carnegie Hall, and how her unique combination of musical gifts and training were alchemy for challengingmid-century music. This is Beardslee's own perspective on a formidable catalog of premieres, a forty-six-year career, and a deep and lifelong dedication to performing the work of the composers of our time. Born in 1925 in Lansing, Michigan, Bethany Beardslee is an American soprano. She is noted for her collaborations with major twentieth-century composers. Minna Zallman Proctor is a writer, critic, and translator. She is editor-in-chief of The Literary Review and the author of Do You Hear What I Hear? and Landslide: True Stories. Support for this publication was provided by the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music at theEastman School of Music at the University of Rochester.

Table of Contents:
Part One: Childhood (1925--50) Christmas 1925 The Great Depression East Lansing College Years Lessons with J. Herbert Swanson Father New York, Here I Come Part Two: The Monod Era (1948-55) Juilliard The Monod Era, 1949 Work with Jacques Farewell, Juilliard Paris and the Monod Family Home Again New Music in New York City "All the Right People" The Duo: Recital Tours for the Association of American Colleges and Universities Fifty-Nine New Pieces of Music 1955 and Pierrot lunaire: A Tumultuous Year Camera Concerts with Stanley Seeger Part Three: Godfrey (1956-62) A Season of Change: Summer 1956 Godfrey Winham London New York Pro Musica: 1958 The Fromm Music Foundation Earl Kim and Russell Sherman Working with Martha Graham Threni and the Altenberg Lieder Princeton and Saskatoon The Russian Delegation Recordings with Robert Craft To Prove My Love Baird and Christopher Winham: Life in Princeton Das Buch der hängenden Gärten: Opus 15 by Arnold Schoenberg Part Four: New Music (1963-75) Vision and Prayer, or, My First Adventure with Electronic Music Camelot Years: 1962 Le marteau sans maître The Sixties Philomel: 1964 A Composer's Singer Darmstadt: 1964 Aaron Copland, Imeneo, and Max: 1965 Belle Mead Godfrey and the Computer Marlboro and Penderecki: 1967-68 Old Friends and New Pieces Erwartung How Things Wind Down: 1973 Godfrey Part Five: Farewell and Farewell Remembering Milton Aftermath Singing Again Lieder with Richard Goode: 1980-90 Pierrot Records: New Ventures Encore with Robert Helps Farewell and Farewell Appendix A: Discography Appendix B: Premieres by Bethany Beardslee Notes Bibliography Index

Review :
Shares the excitement and challenges of her forty-six-year career as a vocalist devoted to the music of her time . . . Beardslee's memories are fascinating. . . . One of the most refreshing aspects of this memoir is her candid discussions of the financial realities of being a performer of new music. A quick and enjoyable read for any scholar of twentieth-century music. I Sang the Unsingable was listed by Alex Ross as a noted book of the year for 2017 on his blog The Rest is Noise. This is a book about a truly remarkable American singer...Beardslee was indispensable to the whole Princeton/New York new music scene and her contacts with figures like Martha Graham, Stravinsky, and Boulez also make for fascinating reading, all written in an engagingly informal style. Her detailed, plain-spoken memoir, co-written with her goddaughter, addresses sources of her inspiration. Entertaining and highly personal...From reminiscences of major figures such as Stravinsky, Boulez, Martha Graham and many others unjustly neglected, to pithy observations about new music and the art of singing, this is essential reading. Five Stars.