Jonathan Hiller's Edward MacDowell Page

Jonathan Hiller's Edward MacDowell Page

Welcome to Jonathan Hiller's Edward MacDowell Page. This page is dedicated to my favorite composer, Edward MacDowell.

Edward Alexander MacDowell was an American composer and pianist, born in New York City. After studying in the United States, Paris, and Frankfurt (whose faculty at the time boasted Clara Schumann, Joachim Raff and Carl Heymann). He settled in Germany, becoming principal teacher of piano (1881-82) at the conservatory in Darmstadt. He returned to the U.S. in 1888, and was renowned for his excellence in teaching, composition and his virtuosic skill as a concert pianist. Upon his return from Europe he lived in Boston through the first half of the 1890s, returning to his native New York to become the head of the music department of Columbia University from 1896 to 1904.

In his compositions, MacDowell drew on 19th-century European musical styles including the music of Wagner and Liszt. Liszt heard MacDowell play during his conservatory years and was an enthusiastic supporter of MacDowell until the Hungarian composer died in 1886. MacDowell counted many promiment composers of the day, including George Templeton Strong and Edvard Grieg, among his friends. In 1896, MacDowell bought a farm in Peterborough, New Hampshire, to rest and work in tranquility. There he said, he was "able to triple his creative activity." He hoped that by expanding the facilities, his farm might become a workplace for other artists. Although he died in 1908, in 1906 a fund had already been started in his honor by many prominent people of this time, among them Grover Cleveland, Andrew Carnegie, Victor Herbert, Henry Van Dyke, and J. Pierpont Morgan.

A tireless supporter of young American composers, MacDowell was one of the original trustees of the American Academy in Rome, which to this day hosts American artists working in various fields. In 1907, the MacDowell Colony was founded in Peterborough with the help of MacDowell's wife, Marian. It was designed as a retreat for artists of all kinds to work and thrive. The colony, still active today, has hosted such illustrious artists as Aaron Copland, Thornton Wilder and Leonard Bernstein.

MacDowell's death was a mysterious one. There are a variety of contradictory stories surrounding his last years. Many accounts suggest that he suffered a complete mental breakdown, eventually lapsing into catatonia. Insomnia is mentioned in most accounts, and his disputes with Columbia University are cited as a precipitating factor. His death is most often attributed to a vague and ill-defined "brain malady."

For anyone interested in learning more about MacDowell, I suggest Alan H. Levy's excellent Edward MacDowell: An American Master (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1998).

Featured Piano Solos by the Great Edward MacDowell:

"Amourette", Op. 1

"Sung Outside the Prince's Door" from "Forgotten Fairy Tales", Op. 4, No. 1

"To A Hummingbird", Op. 7, No. 2

"Witches Dance (Hexentanz)", Op. 17, No. 2

"Once Through the Forest" from "Six Idyls after Goethe", Op. 28, No. 1

"Scotch Poem" from "Six Poems after Heine", Op. 31, No. 2

Concert d'Etude, Op. 36

"Clair de Lune" from "Les Orientales", Op. 37, No. 1

Prelude from "Marionettes", Op. 38, No. 1

"Soubrette" from "Marionettes", Op. 38, No. 2

"Lover" from "Marionettes", Op. 38, No. 3

"Witch" from "Marionettes", Op. 38, No. 4

"Romanze", Op. 39, No. 3

"Idylle", Op. 39, No. 7

"Melodie", Op. 39, No. 10

"Rigaudon", Op. 49, No. 2