New Light on the Programmatic Aesthetic of MacDowell's Symphonic Poems

For most listeners the name Edward MacDowell brings to mind his piano collections-Woodland Sketches, op. 51, Sea Pieces, op. 55, Fireside Tales, op. 61, and New England Idyls, op. 62. These piano miniatures were all composed between 1890 and 1902, years that both Marian MacDowell, the composer's wife, and Lawrence Gilman, his biographer, have labeled his mature period.' Without exception every instrumental work from this period carries a programmatic title; in many cases, so do their individual movements. Thus, in Woodland Sketches appear Deserted Farm;' Told at Sunset;' and, of course, To a Wild Rose,' and in New England Idyls, An Old Garden;' With Sweet Lavender, and To an Old White Pine. Most of MacDowell's titles denote a source, a setting, an atmosphere. His music, however, rarely attempts to represent the ostensible subject; MacDowell's miniatures are not musical depictions but rather musical evocations of the moods and atmospheres suggested by his titles. Since his programmatic intention seems closest to that of Debussy in the Preludes, some writers have labeled MacDowell an impressionist.2 Another less well known group of works, the four symphonic poems composed between 1884 and 1890, suggests that MacDowell was not always committed to the particular type of programmatic writing for which he is best known. One of the tone poems, Lancelot und Elaine, op. 25, offers a musical depiction, a presentation and manipulation of musical ideas dictated in large part by the events of the Arthurian

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Depiction · Literature · Musical · Piano · Poetry · Symphony · Diverse Musicological Studies · History · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Poetry Analysis and Criticism

• Edward Macdowell's Letters to Templeton Strong in the Library of Congress

  Michael Saffle, Elizabeth Mclain•Fontes artis musicae•2019

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