Edward Alexander MacDowell (1860-1908) was one of the most well known composers in the nineteenth century and as also one of the first to gain international recognition. “ His native land not only accepted but encouraged him—and heaped praise upon him, often so extravagantly as to put his sensitive nature ill at ease. (539, Kingman)” Very talented at the piano and a great composer, Macdowell is one of the first American composers to win international praise. He stands critically as one of the pioneers of artistic music in our nation’s history. Not only is his music compelling, his personal life is also quite eventful.
Born on December 18th 1860, Edward MacDowell was a musically and artistically talented as a boy who started piano lessons at the age of eight with Juan Buitratgo, a violinist living with MacDowells at the time. Later he studied with a Cuban friend of Juan’s, Pablo Desvernine, and also took occasional lessons from Teresa Carreno, another of Juan’s friends.
In April of 1876, Edward, his mother, and Juan moved to Paris, France so he could better his studies. On October 31, 1877 he was accepted at a music academy called the Conservatoire. In that year he won a full ride scholarship and admission award as a re
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On September 9, 1878 MacDowell withdrew from the Conservatoire to move to Germany to continue his piano studies. However, Macdowell started to mix Indian Themes (a piece of his own flesh) into his music. After leaving Colombia in 1903, MacDowell’s career finally seemed to be approaching a halt. In 1885 both Macdowell and his wife moved to Wiesbaden where he composed eight solo works, two piano duets, eleven songs, a chorale piece, the Romanze for cello and orchestra, the Second Piano Concerto, and three orchestral tone poems. His library of pieces includes: two piano concertos, five orchestral works, some choral works, forty songs, four piano sonatas, and many short piano pieces. Both pieces were then published with the help of a recommendation from Franz Listz. 10 and his First Piano Concerto, he realized that he had a talent for composing.
MacDowell’s genre is considered to be Romantic style. His skill (even though great) at the piano undoubtedly follows the style of Liszt’s. In addition to teaching, he also conducted a chorus called the Mendelssohn Glee Club.
I don’t really think that Macdowell should have been regarded as one of America’s leading composers, since it is hard to find anything American at all about his music. His reason for leaving was that his profession gave him little time to compose. After creating such successful works as First Modern Suite op. But after many recommendations from different friends and composers, MacDowell finally became successful in the early 1890s by playing in different areas of Boston.
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