Edna Frida Pietsch (1894-1982)

[Wheesht]

Edna Frida Pietsch, born Milwaukee, WI, 7 May 1894 - died 16 July 1982

The composer's homepage starts like this:

Edna Pietsch shared a birthday with Brahms and Tchaikovsky, a fact she reported with immense pride. Perhaps this was an omen that she would go on to become an accomplished composer herself. Pietsch was quite a character and possessed an unforgettable persona. She had strong opinions about many matters. Regarding music, she likened "modern music" to a garbage dump; if you were around it long enough, it stopped smelling.

She was quite prolific, writing orchestral music, chamber music, piano pieces and songs. See here for a list of her works.

In She's Grand Dame of Wisconsin Composers, a portrait in the Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wisconsin, November 1969, it is said that
'she likes best the fulness of orchestral works' and, asked to name her favourite composition: 'she hesitated like a mother asked to designate her best-loved child and murmured, "I love all my brain children." Then she named her "Piano Concerto in A minor".

In the article the composer Joseph E. Skornicka said about her music: 'Her works have just enough of the modern idiom to make them interesting to the above average listener and still remain definitely romantic. There seems to be room even in the already heavily explored romantic school for Miss Pietsch to write fine music that is fresh and new. This is a great tribute to her keen inspiration and originality.'

Some of her works were performed, for example by Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and there were also apparently commercial recordings.

Two works that can be listened to online are her beautiful Andante Cantabile for viola and piano and the Canzonetta for horn and piano.

I have not been able to find out whether her piano concerto was ever publicly performed or even recorded.

[semloh]

Thanks for drawing attention to this composer, Wheesht, certainly a new name to me. The short pieces on YT give  a tantalizing taste of what we may be missing.

Her homepage gives lots of unwanted advertising 'pop-ups', but is fascinating. As to the Piano Concerto, it does say that: In 1956 piano soloist Shirley Sax Wasserman performed "Piano Concerto" in Waukesha, Wisconsin with Maestro Milton Weber conducting. The link to the list of compositions is very helpful, with details of manuscripts/scores.

Her name doesn't appear in most books on 20thC American composers, although I did find the following in Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary (Anderson 1976):

PIETSCH, EDNA FRIDA
b. Milwaukee, Wis., 7 May 1894. Studied piano and violin in Milwaukee; composition with Bernard Dieter, Chicago Cons. She received many awards in annual contests sponsored by Wisconsin State Fair and Wisconsin Fed. of Music Clubs. She taught composition, Wisconsin Cons., 1942-66.
WORKS: Orchestra: 2 piano concertos; viola concerto; Fantasy for orchestra , performed by Chicago symphony in 1942 and 1946; 5 oriental impressions ; Chamber music: string quartet; piano quintet; woodwind quintet; suite for harp; Woodland fantasy , flute and piano; Piano: sonata; 5 poems ; many works for chamber groups,
chorus, duo piano, etc.
3522 West Kilbourn Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53208 [!!]

How much of her work falls into UC's remit we don't know, of course, but her views on 'modern music', and the romanticism of the Andante Cantabile, are promising. Hopefully, we can track down some more information and maybe even some recordings.

[Wheesht]

Thank you for reading the homepage more carefully than I did... My browser settings mean I don't get any "pop-ups", only a "fixed ad" at the top of the page, but it may have been the dead links that irritated me, even though I know how often this sort of thing happens when an organisation such as a library changes its website.

She does appear, if only with her name and dates, in the comprehensive list of women composers run by the Kapralova Society. Their entire Women in Music project looks interesting.