The art of music, Vol. 04 (of 14) : $b Music in America
History
The art of music, Vol. 04 (of 14) : $b Music in America
Music -- History and criticism; Musicians
The 'Indian Suite' (opus 48) has been the most frequently heard of
MacDowell's orchestral works, which have, as a class, been somewhat
overshadowed by the piano compositions. In it the composer has touched
but lightly upon his Indian thematic sources, building from his own
fertile imagination a work of substantial character in five movements,
depicting his conception of various phases of Indian life. The fourth
movement, a dirge, has won great favor through its sheer imaginative
beauty, but the work as a whole has not proved wholly convincing, and
is far less true to the Indian than the sonatas are to the Gaelic
genius. It represents, however, a matured mastery of orchestration and
the formal presentation of ideas. An earlier orchestral suite (opus 42)
is a less notable work, reflecting the influence of Raff, and is seldom
heard. 'The Saracens' and 'The Lovely Alda,' two colorful orchestral
fragments from a once-projected 'Roland' symphony, are not infrequently
heard, and with pleasure, but, while characteristic of the composer's
genius, are scarcely representative of it. An earlier 'Hamlet and
Ophelia' overture has fared rather less well.
In a great number of little piano compositions, grouped under various
titles, MacDowell has left an exquisite and extensive legacy of
works which mirror forth the world of multitudinous fancy which he
delighted to haunt. Not conceived with the view of displaying modern
concert technique, but in a vein of sincere and intimate poetic
expression, these works have been cherished and enjoyed wherever the
piano is played. Reflecting more particularly the earlier phases of
the composer's artistic sympathies are two suites (opera 10 and 14),
'Forest Idyls' (opus 19), 'Six Idyls' (opus 28), 'Four Little Poems'
(opus 32), 'Marionettes' (opus 38), and 'Twelve Studies' (opus 39).
The works in this form by which MacDowell has chiefly endeared himself
to the rank and file of American music-lovers, are 'Woodland Sketches'
(opus 51), containing 'To a Wild Rose' and 'To a Water Lily;' 'Sea
Pieces' (opus 55); 'Fireside Tales' (opus 61), and 'New England Idyls'
(opus 62), the last work of the composer.
By no means the least of MacDowell's contributions to musical
literature, either in quantity or quality, are his songs, of which
there are some ten groups for solo voice, and various part songs,
chiefly for male voices. In the spheres of charm, fancy, and
'atmospheric' intuition these undoubtedly hold a very high place,
though in respect to passion and imaginative vigor the same can
scarcely be said, despite the claims of Henry T. Finck, who places
MacDowell with the highest rank of the world's song-writers. The
highest type of song-writing would seem to demand not so much a
passion for beauty as a passion for passion itself, either physical
or spiritual, and such a quality, while not absent from it, was not
central to the ethereal character of MacDowell's genius.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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