Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 14109-h.htm or 14109-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/1/0/14109/14109-h/14109-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/1/0/14109/14109-h.zip) EDWARD MACDOWELL A Study by LAWRENCE GILMAN Author of _Phases of Modern Music_; _The Music of Tomorrow_; _Stories of Symphonic Music_; _A Guide to Strauss' "Salome"_; _Debussy's "Pelléas el Melisande": A Guide to the Opera_; _Aspects of Modern Opera_; etc. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head New York: John Lane Company MCMIX 1908 [Illustration: Edward MacDowell] TO HENRY T. FINCK PREFACE This study is based upon the monograph on MacDowell which I contributed in 1905 to the "Living Masters of Music" series. That book could not, of course, remain in the series after the death of MacDowell three years later; it was therefore taken from its place and used as a foundation for the present volume, which supersedes it in every respect. The biographical portion is almost wholly new, and has been greatly enlarged, while the chapters dealing with MacDowell's music have been revised and extended. In completing this survey of one who in his art is still of to-day, I have been poignantly conscious throughout of the fact that posterity has an inconvenient habit of reversing the judgments delivered upon creative artists by their contemporaries; yet to trim deftly one's convictions in the hope that they may elastically conform to any one of a number of possible verdicts to be expected from a capricious futurity, is probably as dangerous a proceeding as to avow, without equivocation or compromise, one's precise beliefs. It will therefore be understood that the critical estimates which are offered in the following pages have been set down with deliberation. I desire to acknowledge gratefully the assistance which I have received from various sources: Primarily, from Mrs. Edward MacDowell, who has rendered help of an indispensable kind; from Mr. Henry T. Finck, who furnished me with his views and recollections of MacDowell as a pianist; and from reminiscences and impressions contributed by Mr. W.H. Humiston, Miss J.S. Watson, and Mr. T.P. Currier--pupils and friends of MacDowell--to _The Musician_, and by Mr. William Armstrong to _The Étude_, parts of which I have been privileged to quote. MacDowell wrote surprisingly few letters, and comparatively little of his correspondence is of intrinsic or general interest. I am indebted to Mr. N.J. Corey for permission to quote from several in his possession; while for the use of letters written to MacDowell and his wife by Liszt and Grieg my thanks are due to Mrs. MacDowell. L.G. DIXVILLE NOTCH, NEW HAMPSHIRE, September 18, 1908. CONTENTS CHAPTER THE MAN I RECORDS AND EVENTS II PERSONAL TRAITS AND VIEWS THE MUSIC-MAKER III HIS ART AND ITS METHODS IV EARLY EXPERIMENTS