MacDOWELL, Edward Alexander
b New York, 18 December 1860
d New York, 23 January 1908, aged forty-seven

His father was of Scottish descent and his mother Irish. At the age of fifteen he went to Paris to study, and in 1877 won a scholarship to the Paris Conservatory, where Debussy was a fellow student. He then moved to Frankfurt to study composition with Raff. He was appointed chief piano teacher at Darmstadt, and from the age of twenty-one began to achieve recognition as a composer. At the age of twenty-six he returned to America and settled in Boston, and at thirty-five he moved to New York as professor of music at Columbia University. He resigned after eight years of excessive work and developed brain trouble, from which he died.

1882 (21)

Piano Concerto No 1 in A minor

1883 (22)

Modern Suite No 1, for piano

1884 (23)

Forest Idylls, four pieces for piano

1885 (24)

p Hamlet and Ophelia, symphonic poem

1887 (26)

Six Idylls after Goethe for piano

Six Poems after Heine for piano

1888 (27)

Lancelot and Elaine, symphonic poem

Marionettes, eight pieces for piano

Romance, for cello

1889 (28)

Les Orientales, after Hugo, for piano

Lamia, symphonic poem

1890 (29)

Piano Concerto No 2 in D minor

Twelve Studies for piano, Books I and ll

1891 (30)

Suite No 1 for orchestra

The Saracens, symphonic poem

The Lovely Alda, symphonic poem

1893 (32)

Piano Sonata No 1, Tragica

1894 (33)

Twelve Virtuoso Studies for piano

1895 (34)

Piano Sonata No 2, Eroica

1896 (35)

Indian Suite (Suite No 2), for orchestra

Woodland Sketches, for piano

1898 (37)

Sea Pieces, for piano

1900 (39)

Piano Sonata No 3, Norse (dedicated to Grieg, qv)

1901 (40)

Piano Sonata No 4, Keltic

1902 (41)

Fireside Tales, for piano

New England Idylls