V A MATURED IMPRESSIONIST VI THE SONATAS VII THE SONGS VIII SUMMARY LIST OF WORKS ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE NO. I EDWARD MACDOWELL (Frontispiece) II MACDOWELL AT FOURTEEN From a sketch drawn by himself III MACDOWELL AT EIGHTEEN, AS A MEMBER OF RAFF'S CLASS AT THE FRANKFORT CONSERVATORY IV A SKETCH OF LISZT BY MACDOWELL, DRAWN IN 1883 V FACSIMILE OF A LETTER FROM LISZT TO MACDOWELL VI A LETTER FROM LISZT TO MACDOWELL ACCEPTING THE DEDICATION OF THE FIRST PIANO CONCERTO VII MACDOWELL AND TEMPLETON STRONG From a photograph taken at Wiesbaden in 1888 VIII MACDOWELL IN 1892 IX FACSIMILE OF A LETTER FROM GRIEG TO MACDOWELL, ACCEPTING THE DEDICATION OF THE "NORSE" SONATA. ONE OF GRIEG'S RARE ATTEMPTS AT ENGLISH COMPOSITION X THE HOUSE AT PETERBORO, NEW HAMPSHIRE, WHERE MACDOWELL SPENT HIS SUMMERS XI THE PIAZZA AND GARDEN WALK AT PETERBORO XII A WINTER VIEW OF THE PETERBORO HOUSE XIII THE "HOUSE OF DREAMS UNTOLD"--THE LOG CABIN IN THE WOODS AT PETERBORO WHERE MACDOWELL COMPOSED, AND WHERE MOST OF HIS LATER MUSIC WAS WRITTEN XIV FACSIMILE OF A PORTION OF THE MS. OF THE "SONATA TRAGICA" XV FACSIMILE OF A PASSAGE FROM THE ORIGINAL MS. OF THE "KELTIC" SONATA XVI THE MUSIC-ROOM AT PETERBORO ... we grow immortal, And that ... harp awakens of itself To cry aloud to the grey birds; and dreams, That have had dreams for fathers, live in us. --_The Shadowy Waters._ THE MAN CHAPTER I RECORDS AND EVENTS Edward MacDowell, the first Celtic voice that has spoken commandingly out of musical art, achieved that priority through natural if not inevitable processes. Both his grandfather and grandmother on his father's side were born in Ireland, of Irish-Scotch parents. To his paternal great-grandfather, Alexander MacDowell, the composer traced the Scottish element in his blood; his paternal great-grandmother, whose maiden name was Ann McMurran, was born near Belfast, Ireland. Their son, Alexander, born in Belfast, came to America early in the last century and settled in New York, where he married a countrywoman, Sarah Thompson, whom he met after his arrival in the New World. A son, Thomas (Edward's father), was born to them in New York--where, until his retirement some time ago, he was engaged in business for many years. He married in 1856 Frances M. Knapp, a young American woman of English antecedents. Five years later, on December 18, 1861, their third son, Edward Alexander (he discarded the middle name toward the end of his life), was born at 220 Clinton Street, New York--a neighbourhood which has since suffered the deterioration common to many of what were once among the town's most irreproachable residential districts.