I Sang the Unsingable

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 lightlyric 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 ofArnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Milton Babbitt, and Pierre Boulez, making a vibrant career singing difficult music. I Sang the Unsingable is an autobiographical account of the acclaimed twentieth-century art song soprano. In her memoir, Beardslee tells the story of how she made her way from an inauspicious depression-era East Lansing to Carnegie Hall, and how her unique combination of musical gifts and training were alchemy for challenging mid-century music. This is Beardslee's own perspective on a formidable catalogue of premieres, a forty-six-year long career, and a deep and lifelong dedication to performing the work of the composers of our time. BR> Born in 1925 in Lansing, Michigan, Bethany Beardslee is an American soprano particularly noted for her collaborations with major twentieth-century composers. Minna Zallman Proctor is an editor and essayist. Her book and art criticism has been published in BookForum, BOMB, The Nation, Aperture, NPR.org, American Scholar, The New York Times Book Review, and Salon. She teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Fairleigh Dickinson University and is editor of The Literary Review.

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