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

Reviews

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.
*MUSIC LIBRARY ASSN. NOTES*

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.
*MUSICAL OPINION QUARTERLY*

Her detailed, plain-spoken memoir, co-written with her goddaughter, addresses sources of her inspiration.
*OPERA NOW*

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.
*BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE*