Edward MacDowell
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer and pianist of the Romantic period
Romantic music
Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
. He was best known for his second piano concerto
Piano concerto
A piano concerto is a concerto written for piano and orchestra.See also harpsichord concerto; some of these works are occasionally played on piano...
and his piano suites "Woodland Sketches", "Sea Pieces", and "New England Idylls". "Woodland Sketches" includes his most popular short piece, "To a Wild Rose". In 1904 he was one of the first seven Americans honored by membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Biography
Edward MacDowell was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He received his first piano lessons from Juan Buitrago, a Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
n violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist who was living with the MacDowell family at the time. He later received lessons from friends of Buitrago, including Teresa Carreño
Teresa Carreño
María Teresa Carreño García de Sena was a Venezuelan pianist, singer, composer, and conductor.Born into a musical family, she was at first taught by her father, then by Mathias, Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Anton Rubinstein and her talent was recognized at an early age...
, a Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n pianist.
His family later moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where in 1877 he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire. He then continued his education at Dr. Hoch's Conservatory
Hoch Conservatory
Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium - Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on September 22, 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for music and the arts was established for all age groups. ...
in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
where he studied piano with Carl Heymann
Carl Heymann
Carl Heymann , was a virtuoso German pianist, composer and piano teacher.- Life :Heymann was considered to the successor to Rubinstein, and taught at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main from 1878-1880...
and composition with Joachim Raff
Joachim Raff
Joseph Joachim Raff was a German-Swiss composer, teacher and pianist.-Biography:Raff was born in Lachen in Switzerland. His father, a teacher, had fled there from Württemberg in 1810 to escape forced recruitment into the military of that southwestern German state that had to fight for Napoleon in...
. When Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
visited the conservatory in 1879 and attended a recital of student compositions, MacDowell performed some of his own compositions, along with a transcription of a Liszt symphonic poem
Symphonic poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein...
. MacDowell also taught piano at "Schmitt’s Akademie für Tonkunst" in Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
(now known as the "Akademie für Tonkunst") for a year.
Marriage and family
In 1884, MacDowell married Marian Griswold NevinsMarian MacDowell
Marian MacDowell was a pianist, and in 1907 the founder and developer of the MacDowell Colony, an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States...
, an American who was one of his piano students in Frankfurt for three years. About the time that MacDowell composed a piano piece titled "Cradle Song", Marian suffered an illness that resulted in her being unable to bear children.
Career
The MacDowells settled first in Frankfurt, then in WiesbadenWiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
. From 1885 to 1888 MacDowell devoted himself almost exclusively to composition. Driven in part by financial difficulties, he decided to return to America in the autumn of 1888.
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
until 1896, when MacDowell became professor of music at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. He held this position until 1904. In addition to composing and teaching, from 1896-1898 he directed the Mendelssohn Glee Club
Mendelssohn Glee Club
The Mendelssohn Glee Club of New York City, founded in 1866, is the oldest glee club not associated with a university in the United States. An early men's glee club that traveled up and down the eastern seaboard of the United States, the Mendelssohn helped to popularize classical music before...
. MacDowell composed some music for the group to perform.
In 1896 Marian MacDowell purchased Hillcrest Farm, to serve as their summer residence in Peterborough, New Hampshire
Peterborough, New Hampshire
Peterborough is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,284 at the 2010 census. Home to the MacDowell Art Colony, the town is a popular tourist destination....
. MacDowell found his creativity flourished in the beautiful setting.
MacDowell's compositions included two piano concertos, two orchestral suites, four symphonic poems, four piano sonata
Piano sonata
A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement , two movements , five or even more movements...
s, piano suite
Suite
In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet , or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements .In the...
s, and songs. He also published dozens of piano transcription
Transcription (music)
In music, transcription can mean notating a piece or a sound which was previously unnotated, as, for example, an improvised jazz solo. Further examples include ethnomusicological notation of oral traditions of folk music, such as Béla Bartók's and Ralph Vaughan Williams' collections of the national...
s of mostly 18th century pre-piano keyboard pieces.
From 1896 to 1898, MacDowell also published 13 piano pieces and 4 partsongs under the pseudonym of Edgar Thorn. These compositions were not mentioned in Lawrence Gilman's 1909 biography of MacDowell. They were listed without opus numbers in MacDowell's Critical and Historical Essays (1912) and in John F. Porte's Edward MacDowell (1922). They were listed with opus numbers in Oscar Sonneck's Catalogue of First Editions of Edward MacDowell (1917).
In 1904, MacDowell was one of the first seven people chosen for membership in The American Academy of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 250-member honor society; its goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Located in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan in New York, it shares Audubon Terrace, its Beaux Arts campus on...
. After this experience, the MacDowells envisioned establishing a colony for artists near their summer home in Peterborough, New Hampshire
Peterborough, New Hampshire
Peterborough is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,284 at the 2010 census. Home to the MacDowell Art Colony, the town is a popular tourist destination....
.
MacDowell was also a noted teacher of the piano, and his students included John Pierce Langs, a student from Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, NY with whom he became very close friends. Langs was also close to noted Canadian pianist Harold Bradley
Harold Bradley
Harold Bradley is a pop guitarist and an American country guitarist.Harold played banjo as a child but switched to guitar on the advice of his elder brother, Owen Bradley. Owen arranged for Harold to tour with Ernest Tubb while Harold was still in high school. After graduation, Harold joined the...
, and both championed MacDowell's piano compositions. Linguist Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir was an American anthropologist-linguist, widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the early development of the discipline of linguistics....
was also among his students.
A 1904 accident in which MacDowell was run over by a Hansom cab
Hansom cab
The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn cart designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safety cab, it was designed to combine speed with safety, with a low...
may have contributed to a growing disorder and dementia. This ended his composing and teaching career, causing him to lose his mental capacities. Lawrence Gilman, a contemporary, described him: "His mind became as that of a little child. He sat quietly, day after day, in a chair by a window, smiling patiently from time to time at those about him, turning the pages of a book of fairy tales that seemed to give him a definite pleasure, and greeting with a fugitive gleam of recognition certain of his more intimate friends."
The Mendelssohn Glee Club raised money to help the MacDowells. Friends launched a public appeal to raise funds for his care; among the signers were Horatio Parker
Horatio Parker
Horatio William Parker was an American composer, organist and teacher. He was a central figure in musical life in New Haven, Connecticut in the late 19th century, and is best remembered as the teacher of Charles Ives....
, Victor Herbert
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
, Arthur Foote
Arthur Foote
Arthur William Foote was an American classical composer, and a member of the "Boston Six." The other five were George Whitefield Chadwick, Amy Beach, Edward MacDowell, John Knowles Paine, and Horatio Parker.The modern tendency is to view Foote’s music as “Romantic” and “European” in light of the...
, George Whitefield Chadwick
George Whitefield Chadwick
George Whitefield Chadwick was an American composer. Along with Horatio Parker, Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, and Edward MacDowell, he was a representative composer of what can be called the New England School of American composers of the late 19th century—the generation before Charles Ives...
, Frederick Converse
Frederick Converse
Frederick Shepherd Converse , was an American composer of classical music.-Life and career:Converse was born in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Edmund Winchester and Charlotte Augusta Converse. His father was a successful merchant, and president of the National Tube Works and the Conanicut Mills...
, Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
, J. P. Morgan
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric...
and former President Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
Marian MacDowell cared for her husband to the end of his life. In 1907 she founded the MacDowell Colony
MacDowell Colony
The MacDowell Colony is an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, U.S.A., founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds...
by deeding the Hillcrest Farm to the newly established Edward MacDowell Association. She led the Association and Colony for more than 25 years, building its endowment through resuming her performing career, and creating a wide circle of support, especially among women's clubs and musical sororities.
Edward MacDowell died in 1908 in New York City and was buried at the MacDowell Colony, which Marian established at Hillcrest Farm in 1907.
Legacy and honors
- 1940 - MacDowell was one of five American composers honored in a series of United States postage stamps. The other four composers were Stephen FosterStephen FosterStephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...
, John Philip SousaJohn Philip SousaJohn Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....
, Victor HerbertVictor HerbertVictor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
, and Ethelbert Nevin. - The MacDowell Colony continues to honor his memory by supporting the work of other artists in an interdisciplinary environment.
Works
Published compositions for piano, a complete listing
Op. 1 Amourette (1896) by Edgar Thorn
Op. 2 In Lilting Rhythm (1897) by Edgar Thorn
Op. 4 Forgotten Fairy Tales (1897) by Edgar Thorn
Op. 7 Six Fancies (1898) by Edgar Thorn
In 1895, an "op. 8 Waltz" for piano by MacDowell was listed by Breitkopf & Hartel, but no price was shown, and the piece was not published.
Op. 10 First Modern Suite (1883)
Op. 13 Prelude and Fugue (1883)
Op. 14 Second Modern Suite (1883)
Op. 15 First Concerto (1885)
Op. 16 Serenata (1883)
Op. 17 Two Fantastic Pieces (1884)
Op. 18 Two Compositions (1884)
Op. 19 Forest Idylls (1884)
Op. 20 Three Poems (1886) duets
Op. 21 Moon Pictures (1886) duets after Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
's "Picture-book without Pictures"
Op. 23 Second Concerto (1890)
Op. 24 Four Compositions (1887)
Op. 28 Six Idylls after Goethe (1887)
Op. 31 Six Poems after Heine (1887,1901)
Op. 32 Four Little Poems (1888)
Op. 36 Etude de Concert (1889)
Op. 37 Les Orientales (1889)
Op. 38 Marionettes (1888,1901)
Op. 39 Twelve Studies (1890)
Op. 45 Sonata Tragica (1893)
Op. 46 Twelve Virtuoso Studies (1894)
Op. 49 Air and Rigaudon (1894)
Op. 50 Sonata Eroica (1895) "Flos regum Arthurus"
Op. 51 Woodland Sketches (1896)
Op. 55 Sea Pieces (1898)
Op. 57 Third Sonata (1900)
Op. 59 Fourth Sonata (1901)
Op. 61 Fireside Tales (1902)
Op. 62 New England Idylls (1902)
MacDowell published two books of Technical Exercises for piano; piano duet transcriptions of Hamlet and Ophelia for orchestra (op. 22); First Suite for orchestra (op.42); and a piano solo version of op. 42, no. 4, "The Shepherdess' Song", renamed "The Song of the Shepherdess".
Published compositions for orchestra, a complete listing
Op. 15 First Concerto (1885)
Op. 22 Hamlet and Ophelia (1885)
Op. 23 Second Concerto (1890)
Op. 25 Lancelot and Elaine (1888)
Op. 29 Lamia (1908)
Op. 30 Two Fragments after the Song of Roland (1891) I. The Saracens - II. The Lovely Alda
Op. 35 Romance for Violoncello and Orchestra (1888)
Op. 42 First Suite (1891-1893) I. In a Haunted Forest - II. Summer Idyl - III. In October - IV. The Shepherdess' Song - V. Forest Spirits
Op. 48 Second ("Indian") Suite
Indian Suite
The Indian Suite for orchestra was composed in 1892 by Edward MacDowell. The composer's second suite for orchestra, it was first performed in New York City by the Boston Symphony on January 23, 1896. The piece is based upon numerous American Indian melodies and rhythms.The suite is in five...
(1897) I. Legend - II. Love Song - III. In War-time - IV. Dirge - V. Village Festival
Published songs
Op. 3 Love and Time and The Rose and the Gardener, for male chorus (1897) by Edgar Thorn
Op. 5 The Witch, for male chorus (1898) by Edgar Thorn
Op. 6 War Song, for male chorus (1898) by Edgar Thorn
Op. 9 Two Old Songs, for voice and piano (1894) I. Deserted - II. Slumber Song
Op. 11 and 12 An Album of Five Songs, for voice and piano (1883) I. My Love and I - II. You Love Me Not - III. In the Skies - IV. Night-Song - V. Bands of Roses
Op. 26 From an Old Garden, for voice and piano (1887) I. The Pansy - II. The Myrtle - III. The Clover - IV. The Yellow Daisy - V. The Blue Bell - VI. The Mignonette
Op. 27 Three Songs, for male chorus (1890) I. In the Starry Sky Above Us - II. Springtime - III. The Fisherboy
Op. 33 Three Songs, for voice and piano (1894) I. Prayer - II. Cradle Hymn - III. Idyl
Op. 34 Two Songs, for voice and piano (1889) I. Menie - II. My Jean
Op. 40 Six Love Songs, for voice and piano (1890) I. Sweet, Blue-eyed Maid - II. Sweetheart, Tell Me - III. Thy Beaming Eyes - IV. For Love's Sweet Sake - V. O Lovely Rose - VI. I Ask but This
Op. 41 Two Songs, for male chorus (1890) I. Cradle Song - II. Dance of the Gnomes
Op. 43 Two Northern Songs, for mixed chorus (1891) I. The Brook - II. Slumber Song
Op. 44 Barcarolle, for mixed chorus with four-hand piano accompaniment (1892)
Op. 47 Eight Songs, for voice and piano (1893) I. The Robin Sings in the Apple Tree - II. Midsummer Lullaby - III. Folk Song - IV. Confidence - V. The West Wind Croons in the Cedar Trees - VI. In the Woods - VII. The Sea - VIII. Through the Meadow
Two Songs from the Thirteenth Century, for male chorus (1897) I. Winter Wraps his Grimmest Spell - II. As the Gloaming Shadows Creep
Op. 52 Three Choruses, for male voices (1897) I. Hush, hush! - II. From the Sea - III. The Crusaders
Op. 53 Two Choruses, for male voices (1898) I. Bonnie Ann - II. The Collier Lassie
Op. 54 Two Choruses, for male voices (1898) I. A Ballad of Charles the Bold - II. Midsummer Clouds
Op. 56 Four Songs, for voice and piano (1898) I. Long Ago - II. The Swan Bent Low to the Lily - III. A Maid Sings Light - IV. As the Gloaming Shadows Creep
Op. 58 Three Songs, for voice and piano (1899) I. Constancy - II. Sunrise - III. Merry Maiden Spring
Op. 60 Three Songs, for voice and piano (1902) I. Tyrant Love - II. Fair Springtide - III. To the Golden Rod
Summer Wind, for women's voices (1902)
Two College Songs, for women's voices (1907) I. Alma Mater - II. At Parting
Recordings
- Piano Music by Edward MacDowell, Sandra Carlock, pianist (2005)
- Heroic Tales: Piano Music of Edward MacDowell, Fred Karpoff, pianist (2002)
Publications
- Lawrence GilmanLawrence GilmanLawrence Gilman was a U.S. author and music critic.Lawrence Gilman was the son of Arthur Coit Gilman and Bessie Gilman, and the grandnephew of educator Daniel Coit Gilman. Lawrence Gilman studied art at Collins Street Classical School in Hartford, Connecticut under William M. Chase...
, Edward MacDowell: A Study (New York, 1909) - W. J. Baltzell (editor), Critical and Historical Essays: Lectures Delivered at Columbia University by Edward MacDowell (Boston, 1912)
- Oscar SonneckOscar SonneckOscar George Theodore Sonneck was a U.S. librarian, editor, and musicologist.Sonneck studied philosophy and musicology in Germany at the universities of Heidelberg and Munich....
, Catalogue of First Editions of Edward MacDowell (Library of Congress, 1917) - John F. Porte, Edward Macdowell: A Great American Tone Poet, His Life and Music (New York, 1922)
- Alan H. Levy, Edward MacDowell, an American master (Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow Press, 1998).
External links
online book- Oscar Sonneck, Catalogue of First Editions of Edward MacDowell (Library of Congress, 1917) online book online book
- MIDI sequences of instrumental compositions and transcriptions by Edward MacDowell
- MIDI sequences of 22 songs for voice and piano by Edward MacDowell, with lyrics and sheet music
- Art of the States: Edward MacDowell
- "To a Wild Rose" free pdf & midi
- Sheet music for "To a Wild Rose", A.P. Schmidt Company, 1919.