Edward MacDowell

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Title: Edward MacDowell
Author: Elizabeth Fry Page
Release Date: October 16, 2004 [eBook #13767]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
EDWARD MACDOWELL***
E-text prepared by David Newman, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project
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EDWARD MACDOWELL
His Work and Ideals
by
ELIZABETH FRY PAGE
With Poetical Interpretations by the Author
New York
Dedicated to MRS. ALINE REESE BLONDNER
Founder and Honorary President of the MacDowell Club of Nashville,

Tennessee.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
EDWARD MACDOWELL
His Work and Ideals
POETICAL INTERPRETATIONS
To MacDowell
0. D. 1620 Song In Deep Woods Shadow Dance At an Old
Trysting-Place To a Water Lily Told at Sunset To a Wild Rose
The Spirit Call A Deserted Farm In Memoriam
PREFACE
This is not merely an appreciation of Edward MacDowell as a man and
a composer, but a study of the influences and natural endowments that
combined to produce his style, a comparison of his work with that of
others who achieved fame in other branches of the fine arts, all of
which he felt were closely allied and supplemental, and a glance at his
ideals and their evolution at Peterboro.
Most of his compositions are written around some poetic idea and are
so suggestive and appealing to the imagination that in studying them
the native poetic fancy is easily aroused; but the full effect is lost to the
casual hearer who is not familiar with the theme. The accompanying
poems are interpretations of some of his best-known piano numbers,
based upon the briefly indicated poetic idea upon which they are
founded, reinforced by a careful intellectual study of each composition
and its appeal to the individual creative faculty of the author.
The sonnet to MacDowell was written at the beginning of the two
darkened years preceding his death, when he forgot that there was such
a thing as music.
"A.D. 1620" and "Song" are from the "Sea Pieces." The former

describes the sailing of the galleon bearing the Pilgrim Fathers to
America. The "Song," which is distinctly Irish in its melody, seems to
me to be sung by a lad on board the galleon, who sings and whistles to
keep up the courage of his fellow-pilgrims, thereby forgetting his own
pain.
The "Shadow Dance" is written three notes to two, and this difficult
musical form is represented by the three shadows dancing before two
people. "A Deserted Farm" is a lyric description of the now beautiful
"Hill Crest" as he found it. "The Spirit Call" is suggested by the Celtic
vein of mystery and haunting sadness pervading most of the
MacDowell music.
The sonnet "To a Wild Rose" was inspired by a rumor from the
musician's sick room that his night had passed and he would recover;
but this was a false hope, and it was not long until he was sleeping on a
green hill-side at Peterboro, his resting-place, in the grandeur of its
simplicity, suggesting the modest, child-hearted, nature-loving man
who had passed on beyond earth's discord.
The other poems in this little collection speak for themselves, and all
are offered as a handful of rosemary to one who ever harkened to the
simplest strain.--E.F.P.
EDWARD MACDOWELL
HIS WORK AND IDEALS
_"Late explorers say they have found some nations that have no God;
but I have not read of any that had no music." "Music means harmony,
harmony means love, love means--God."_--SIDNEY LANIER.
"Music is love in search of a word," said the same poet-musician. He
was born full of the music and the love, and so was enabled to find and
transmit to the world the undying word.
One cannot be a true poet, it seems to me, without at least an abiding
love and sympathetic appreciation of the finest in music, or a great

musician without a love of poetry and a responsiveness to its witchery.
The two arts are interdependent and well nigh inseparable. A great
musician may compose a song without words, but sooner or later there
will be born a poet-soul who, hearing the song, will be irresistibly
impelled to supply the words. On the other hand, many of the greatest
musical compositions we have were inspired, like most of MacDowell's,
by some poet's lines, a single figure, sentence or stanza furnishing the
theme of oratorio, cantata, opera or ballad. Schubert's genius could be
fired at any time, even under the most adverse conditions, by a
beautiful poem, and many writers have received the inspiration for their
masterpieces under