Edward MacDowell (1860 -1908) Piano Music, Volume 2 It would seem fair to say that Edward MacDowell was not only the most prominent American composer of the...
Edward MacDowell (1860 -1908) Piano Music,
Volume 2
It would seem fair
to say that Edward MacDowell was not only the most prominent American composer
of the nineteenth century but also the first to see a considerable number of
his works performed in Europe. At an early age MacDowell proved to be greatly
gifted in both painting and music. He went to Paris for his studies and even
while he took courses at the Conservatoire, where he was a classmate of
Debussy, he was advised to switch to painting as a career. Yet in 1878 he went
to Germany to continue his studies on the piano and in composing. Stuttgart,
Wiesbaden, and Frankfurt were early stations of his stay in Germany. When in
1882, on the occasion of a visit to Liszt, the master invited him to play his (MacDowell's)
first piano concerto at a festival that same year, there was no longer any
doubt that MacDowell was now a rising musician. He returned home in 1994, but
later returned to Europe for another prolonged stay. After his final
repatriation in 1884, he appeared in Boston as composer and pianist, and was
from then on until his untimely death in 1908 an outstanding personality in the
musical life of America.
MacDowell's works
attracted all the greatest interpreters of the time. It was Nikisch who first
conducted his symphonic poem Lancelot and
Elaine. In 1896, he was called to Columbia University to head there
the newly created music department, a high honor at a time when music was not
considered a subject worthy of the academic accolade. But MacDowell's stay at
Columbia was hardly the happiest or most successful part of his career, and he
resigned in 1904. He received honorary degrees from the Universities of
Pennsylvania and Princeton, and was made a member of the American Academy of
Arts and Letters.
Being a fine
pianist himself, MacDowell's best compositions were written for that
instrument. the first and second Modern
Suite, two piano concertos and collections of short pieces called by
such characteristic names as Fireside Tales,
New England Idyls, Woodland Sketches Forest Idyls. The titles of his
four sonatas are indicative of the romantic dreamer that MacDowell was Tragica, Eroica, the Norse and the Keltic Sonatas. Besides a number of songs, he also composed
a smaller number of orchestral works, among them Hamlet and Ophelia and
Lamia (after Keats). MacDowell, as the story of his
life as well as his literary inclinations show, was a highly cultured man; a
poet in music, a Romantic in the declining years of Romanticism.
Teresa Carreno, the
noted Venezuelan pianist who was MacDowell's boyhood teacher, was the first
person to play MacDowell's music in America. It happened that while MacDowell
was studying in Europe, he sent Madame Carreno, who was then in America, a roll
of manuscript along with a letter in which he said. "Dear Teresa. You know
how I have always valued your advice. Look these over. If they are no good, put
them in the paper basket and tell me, and I'll never write another note."
Madame Carreno opened the bundle and there she found MacDowell's First Suite, the "Witches Dance", and several
other pieces which later helped to make him famous. "I played them
over", she once related. "They were splendid. I was to give a recital
in Chicago in two weeks, so I learned some of them, played them there - and
that was the first MacDowell every played in concert in the New World". The First Modern Suite, Opus 10 was
composed in 1881 and dedicated to the wife of his teacher and friend, Joachim
Raff. It was first published in 1893 and subsequently republished with minor
changes in 1891, 1896, 1904 and 1906. The revised 1906 edition was used for
this recording The Suite is in six movements, opening with a powerful Praeludium. The Presto that follows is
alight elfin-like romp MacDowell writes. "The Presto looks so innocent and
easy, very much as Robert Louis Steven,on expressed it when he said, 'It really
looks like music if you hold it far enough away."' The Andantino ed Allegretto is serene and
contemplative. MacDowell prefaces it with a quotation from Virgil, "Per
arnica silentia lunae". The Intermezzo was
shortened and lengthened by the composer several times. In an interview with
Mrs. Crosby Adams in 1899, he stated. "The Intermezzo was re-written and lengthened after hearing from
a famous artist who complained that it was 'too short to put between pieces and
not long enough to play by itself' - and then he never played it!" The Rhapsodie is dark-hued, majestic and
almost Brahmsian. MacDowell provides a poetic motto on the score from Dante's Inferno. "Lasciate ogni speranza /
Voi chentrate". Of the Fugue, MacDowell
wrote. "I'm very proud of that fugue. It was written just after finishing
counterpoint, and those four notes are used in every possible way, upside down,
backwards and forwards. After I played it for Raff, he said to me, 'Never let
me hear that thing again.' Raff did not like fugues."
>Amourette, Opus 1, and In
Lilting Rhythm, Opus 2, were published by P.L. lung in 1896 and 1897
under the pseudonym Edgar Thorn (Thorne). Illustrative of the shy and modest
reserve of MacDowell is the story of the mythical "Edgar Thorne", who
became a person of some consequence in New York City. Reference has frequently
been made to MacDowell's use of his nom de
plume in connection with the writing of his Marionettes, the royalty of which was
given over to a needy friend. But comparatively few people know of its first
use, which was in connection with the Mendelssohn Glee Club. At the time of
MacDowell's taking over the direction of the club (1896) he found that the work
with the singers offered to him anew avenue of musical expression and presented
a desire to compose some music suitable for their use. But with his usual
modesty he feared that if the men knew that the new songs he was presenting for
their examination were of his own composition, they would feel under obligation
to sing them" So one night he appeared at rehearsal with two new songs,
under the name of "Edgar Thorne", and simply asked them to try them
over, if they 1iked them to sing them, perhaps in concert. The songs proved
very effective, won the instant approval of the club, and remained
"favorite" numbers. MacDowell used the same acid test on his poems,
often copying texts which he had written for his own songs on the board for the
use of his classes in composition either anonymously or under the signature of
"Edgar Thorne".
In 1949 Marian
MacDowell (Edward MacDowell's wife) wrote the following about the Six Idyls After Goethe, Opus 28:
"When MacDowell had been at the Frankfurt Conservatory about two years,
studying piano with Carl Heymann and composition with Joachim Raff, the
position of piano instructor there was made vacant by Heymann's resignation.
Although only twenty, MacDowell was recommended for the position by both Raff
and Heymann, but was not accepted because of his youth. Denied this opportunity
he began to take private pupils, among them the young counts and countesses who
lived at the ancient castle of Erbach-Furstenau, a three-hour train journey
from Frankfurt. This necessitated a weekly trip to the castle, which he turned
to good account by using the long train ride to familiarize himself with the
works of Goethe, Heine, Schiller and other German writers. There is no record
of appreciable musical accomplishment on the part of any of his aristocratic
pupils, but for MacDowell the time was not wasted. The Idyls After Goethe and Poems After Heine are doubtless
the indirect if not direct result; they were among his earlier compositions and
must have been written not long afterward." The Six Idyls After Goethe were first published in 1887 and
reprinted with English translations of the poems in 1898. An
"augmented" edition was published in 1901. According to Oscar George
Sonneck, cataloguer of MacDowell's works at the Library of Congress, why this
1901 edition is called "augmented", "is not clear, since the
changes from the 1887 edition are not frequent and affect only the melody,
harmony, orthography, or interpretation of single bars. Nothing has otherwise
been added. The composer's own translations of the poems are used in this
edition." Below are the original texts and MacDowell's own translations.
I.
In The Woods
Ich
ging im Walde
So
für mich hin,
Und
nichts zu suchen,
Das
war mein Sinn
Im
Schatten sah ich
Ein
Blümchen steh'n,
Wie
Sterne leuchtend,
Wie
Äuglein schon
Ich
Wollt'es brechen,
Da
sagt' es fein:
Soll
ich zum Welken
Gebrochen
sein?
Ich grub's
mit allen
Den Würzlein
aus,
Zum Garten
trug ich's
Am hübschen
Haus
Und
pflanzt'es wieder
Am
stillen Ort:
Nun
zweigt es immer
Und
blüht sn fort.
-
Goethe
II.
Siesta
Unter
des Grünen
Blühender
Kraft,
Naschcn
die Bienen
Summend
am Saft.
Leise
Bewegung
Bebt
in der Luft,
Reizende
Regung,
Schlafernder
Duft
-
Goethe
III.
Tu the Moonlight
Füllest
wieder Busch und Thal
Still
mit Nebelblanz,
Losest
endlich auch einmal
Meine
Seele ganz.
Selig,
wer sich vor der Welt
Ohne
Hass verschliesst,
Einen
Freund am Busen halt
Und
mit dem geniesst.
Was
von Mcnschen nicht gewusst,
Oder
nicht bedacht
Durch
das Lahyrinth der Brust
Wandelt
in der Nacht
-
Goethe: "An den Mond"
IV.
Silver Clouds
Leichte
Silberwolken schweben
Durch
die erst erwarmten Lüfte,
Mild,
von Schimmer sanft Umgeben,
Blickt
die Sonne durch die Düfte;
Leise
wallt und drangt die Welle
Sich
am reichen Ufer hin;
Und
wie reingewaschen, helle,
Schwankend
hin und her un hin,
Spiegelt
sich da, junge Grün
-
Goethe
V.
Flute Idyl
Bei
dem Glanz der Abendrotbe
Ging
ich still den Wald entlang,
Damon
sass und blies die Flote,
Dass
es von den Felsen klang,
So
la la, re lalla!
Und
er zog mich an sich nieder.
Kusste
mich so hold, so süss.
Und
ich sagte blase wieder!
Und
der gute Junge blies,
So
la Ja re lalla!
Meine
Ruh' ist num verloren.
Meine
Freude floh davon.
Uod
ich hor' vor meinen Ohren
Immer
nur den alten Ton.
So
la la. re lalla!
Goethe
VI.
The Bluebell
Ein
Blumenglückcben
Vom
Boden hervor
War
früh gesprosset
In
lieblichem Flor
Da
kam ein Bienchen
Und
naschte fein
Die
müssen wohl beide
Fur
einander sein
-
Goethe
First Modern Suite (more info)
-
Praeludium: Largamente con Energia - 3:08
-
Presto: Scherzando- Vivace - 4:10
-
Andantino ed Allegretto: Con tenerezzas serena. Piu Allegretto - 5:30
-
Intermezzo: Con leggerezza e giocoso - 2:33
-
Rhapsodie: In ritmo tenebre - 4:59
-
Fugue: Allegro risoluto - 4:00
Amourette, Op. 1 (Not fast, with simplicity) (more info)
-
Amourette, Op. 1 (Not fast, with simplicity) - 1:29
In Lilting Rhythm (more info)
-
Capriciously, yet not slow - 2:18
-
Not slow, liltingly - 2:22
6 Idyls after Goethe (more info)
-
In the Woods (Lightly, almost Jauntily) - 2:00
-
Siesta (Slowly, Swayingly) - 1:52
-
To the Moonlight (With Breath and Tenderness) - 2:21
-
Silver Clouds (Smoothly, Placidly) - 2:20
-
Flute Idyl (Lightly, Joyously) - 2:06
-
The Bluebell (Lightly, Daintly) - 1:22
Sonata No. 3, D minor, Op. 57 (more info)
-
Mesto, ma con passione - 6:06
-
Tristamente, ma con tenerezza - 5:08
-
Allegro con fuoco - 5:37
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