MacDowell

E. Douglas Bomberger

Master Musicians Series

Celebrates MacDowell's life and the musically vibrant era at the beginning of the 20th century
Incorporates new sources on MacDowell's German years
Offers controversial new theory on the cause of MacDowell's death

MacDowell

E. Douglas Bomberger

Description

Edward MacDowell was born on the eve of the Civil War into a Quaker family in lower Manhattan, where music was a forbidden pleasure. With the help of Latin-American émigré teachers, he became a formidable pianist and composer, spending twelve years in France and Germany establishing his career. Upon his return to the United States in 1888 he conquered American audiences with his dramatic Second Piano Concerto and won his way into their hearts with his poetic Woodland Sketches. Columbia University tapped him as their first professor of music in 1896, but a scandalous row with powerful university president Nicholas Murray Butler spelled the end of his career. MacDowell died a broken man four years later, but his widow Marian kept his spirit alive through the MacDowell Colony, which she founded in 1907 in their New Hampshire home, and which is today the oldest and one of the most influential, thriving artist colonies in the the United States. Drawing on private letters that were sealed for fifty years after his death, this biography traces MacDowell's compelling life story, with new revelations about his Quaker childhood, his efforts to succeed in the insular German music world, his mysterious death, and his lifelong struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder. Edward MacDowell's story is a timeless tale of human strength and weakness set in one of the most vibrant periods of American musical history, when optimism about the country's artistic future made anything seem possible.

MacDowell

E. Douglas Bomberger

Master Musicians Series

Contents
List of Illustrations xii
List of Musical Examples xiii
List of Bibliographic Abbreviations xv

Book One: The Education of Edward MacDowell
Chapter 1. Quaker Roots 1
Chapter 2. The Latin American Connection 17
Chapter 3. The Paris Conservatory 31
Chapter 4. A Fourth-Rate Conservatory and a First-Rate Mentor 53
Chapter 5. The Big Break 72
Chapter 6. Establishing a Career in Germany 94
Chapter 7. Married Life 121
Chapter 8. Templeton Strong, Loyal Friend 142

Book Two: Edward MacDowell in Boston
Chapter 9. The Prodigal Returns 165
Chapter 10. The Politics of Musical Boston 194
Chapter 11. MacDowell the Pianist 205
Chapter 12. The Darkest Winter 220
Chapter 13. European Aesthetics vs. American Opportunities 234
Chapter 14. A Cabin in the Woods 258

Book Three: Edward MacDowell in New York
Chapter 15. Columbia University, 1896-1901 268
Chapter 16. Outside the University 284
Chapter 17. The Price of Fame 297
Chapter 18. Columbia University, 1901-1904 309
Chapter 19. A Living Death 342
Chapter 20. MacDowell's Legacy 364

Appendices
A. Calendar 376
B. List of Works 392
C. Personalia 405
D. Bibliography 427
Index 457

MacDowell

E. Douglas Bomberger

Master Musicians Series

Author Information

E. Douglas Bomberger is a pianist and musicologist specializing in American music of the nineteenth century. The author of three previous books and numerous articles, he also served as senior editor for nineteenth-century concert music for the New Grove Dictionary of American Music, second edition. He has taught at Goshen College, Ithaca College, the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, and Elizabethtown College, where he currently serves as chair of Fine and Performing Arts.

MacDowell

E. Douglas Bomberger

Master Musicians Series

Reviews and Awards

"[A] major achievement." --International Piano Magazine

"Bomberger's brilliant sleuthing has uncovered new information that illuminates even the most familiar facts of MacDowell's life. . . . This is an important book, a significant achievement, and highly recommended."--Notes

"Professor Bomberger's book will be an essential addition to the existing scholarship on this remarkable man."--American Music Teacher

"This book is an exciting, often captivating read with well-chosen musical examples and well-written analyses."--Journal of the Society for American Music

"MacDowell fulfills a sore need for a reliable modern biography that will doubtless support and stimulate future inquiries into the achievements of one of the most eminent yet enigmatic figures in the annals of American music."--Journal of Musicological Research

"Bomberger has written a well-researched, eminently readable biography that makes excellent use of primary documents. Highly recommended."--Choice

"Bomberger has done a good job explaining the composer's innovations and urging us to hear his music 'for what it is rather than what it is not.'"--Columbia Magazine

"Bomberger's monograph is the new reference book onMacDowell. If one were to look for flaws, one would find hardly any. This book is an exciting, often captivating read with well-chosen musical examples and well-written analyses ... The 'extras' of this book, which comprise an extended timeline, a works list, and short biographies of its more important (and sometimes lesser known) 'dramatis personae,' increase its value. It is fascinating reading and a useful book for study purposes, if not, by design, a textbook. Bomberger succeeds in making a strong argument for the study of a U.S.-born composer of nineteenth-century music as an indispensable part of global music history." -- Journal of the Society for American Music