Marion Bauer (Aug. 15, 1882 - Aug. 9, 1955) was an American composer, music critic, teacher, and writer. Born in Walla Walla, Washington, she was the youngest of seven children. Her father noticed her musical inclinations and she began studying piano  with her elder sister Emilie, who was 17 years older than her. 

After finishing high school, Bauer traveled to New York City to be with her sister Emilie, and focus on composition. She also studied with Henry Holden Huss and Eugene Heffley, and through some other connections, Bauer went to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger. In return for composition lessons, Bauer taught her English. Bauer came back to America after a year in Paris, and continued to study with Heffley, and also began teaching piano and music theory on her own. Just a few years after that she returned again to Europe, this time to study with Paul Ertel in Berlin. She also studied later on with Andre Gedalge at the Paris Conservatory, who had also taught Maurice Ravel and Darius Milhaud. Bauer would go on to teach and lecture at New York University, Juilliard, and Columbia University. She also helped found the American Music Guild, the American Music Center, and the American Composer's Alliance, and also served on the board of important organizations.

As a composer, her music was enjoyed by audience goers and critics alike; her music was contemporary, but on the conservative side. She wrote around 160 works of various genres, including a song, The Epitaph of a Butterfly,  for voice and piano, based on the poem by Thomas Walsh:

As one by one she saw the leaves of red
And yellow wafted to the ground
Hope buoyed her heavy wings of flame, and said
That 'mong them still some comrade might be found.

But when o'er all the autumn hills a pall
Of gold was drawn before her glazing eye
Yon mirrored pool made ready for her fall
A grave as lovely as her native sky.

The work starts with a simple melody in the piano which repeats throughout the piece, before the vocal part comes in. The Impressionism in her writing gives the very short work (slightly under two minutes) a mysterious and calm atmosphere. It's simple, effective, and beautiful.

Here's a recording of this lovely work for you to enjoy!

Robert Barefield