Cat No. JM40379
Price £47.95
Composer: Edward MacDowell
Material: Philip Sparke
Category: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC

3.00 duration.

Edward MacDowell (1860-1908) has the distinction of being regarded as the first great American composer, although he disliked the idea of being classified as any sort of musical nationalist; he regarded music as being a truly international language and knew that his compositional style was largely the product of European, particularly German, influence. He was idolised as a super-star during his lifetime, both in the USA and abroad, and was a virtuoso pianist — good enough really to impress Franz Liszt, with whom he studied for a time.
He composed a vast quantity of piano music as well as several dozen songs and a number of orchestral pieces. But it is the charming and unpretentious suite of musical miniatures, Woodland Sketches, that has survived as his best-known work. Of these To a Wild Rose is the most popular. Its simple honesty has led one prominent music critic to claim that it is worth all the rest of MacDowell’s piano music put together.