Johanna Magdalena Beyer was a German-American composer and pianist.
11 Facts About Johanna Beyer
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Johanna Beyer was born in Leipzig, Germany, but very little is known about her life prior to her move to the United States in 1923.
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Johanna Beyer sang for three years at the Leipziger Singakademie and graduated from the Deutscher Konservatorien and Musikseminare, having studied piano, harmony, theory, counterpoint, singing, and dancing.
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Johanna Beyer's music was performed twice in the New York Composers' Forum, in 1936 and 1937.
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Johanna Beyer's work was part of the music event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics.
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Johanna Beyer battled with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehrig's disease, during the final years of her life.
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Johanna Beyer died in New York City, New York, in 1944.
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Many of Johanna Beyer's works are exemplary of dissonant counterpoint, a theoretical compositional system developed by Charles Seeger and Cowell and most famously articulated in the works of Ruth Crawford Seeger.
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However, Johanna Beyer developed her own distinctive gestures and procedures that distinguished her music from that of her colleagues.
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Johanna Beyer's compositions are characterized by an economic use of resources, balanced and well-constructed forms, "a unique sense of humor and whimsy," and a commitment to experimentation.
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Johanna Beyer included tone clusters in Clusters, a suite for solo piano, and the duet, Movement for Two Pianos.