"Very Good for an American": Essays on Edward MacDowell ed. by E. Douglas Bomberger (review)

At the turn of the twentieth century, Edward MacDowell was at the top of his game. Not only had he been appointed the first professor of music at Columbia University, his compositions were equally valued at home and abroad. The Germanophile conductor Theodore Thomas, for example, insisted that his Second Piano Concerto, op. 23 (1884–86) was not merely "very good for an 'American,'" but "for a German either" (p. 2). Such transatlantic esteem was rare indeed. And yet, as E. Douglas Bomberger argues in the introduction to this new collection of essays, MacDowell's status was not secure. Within a few years, he would resign from Columbia, defeated in an ideological struggle with its administration, and within a quarter century the fortunes of his reception would change, as proponents of the avant-garde—positioning themselves as rugged innovators—recast MacDowell as an effeminate composer of miniatures. It is true that MacDowell devoted time to smaller-scale genres—not only suites, sonatas, and songs, but also character pieces for amateur pianists. His reputation suffered beginning in the 1920s, resulting in the neglect of his work in larger-scale genres like the concerto and symphonic poem.

The unevenness of MacDowell's reception is not altogether unlike that of the essays Bomberger assembles. Together, these represent a welcome contribution that nuance aspects of MacDowell's life and music, ranging from his youthful relationship to Quakerism and exposure to historical concerts in New York City to his years at Columbia and his wife Marian's founding of the MacDowell Colony shortly before his death. But while the best of the essays exhibit world-class scholarship, others are occasionally bland, and one is entirely questionable. Just as MacDowell's image rose and fell with the passage of time, so does the reader's satisfaction ebb and flow as the pages turn.

Bomberger opens the volume on a strong note, following his summary of MacDowell's reception with an evaluation of the composer's Quaker roots. He argues that MacDowell's early marginalization as a member of a mixed Quaker family (his mother was outside the fellowship) prepared him to take creative stands later in life without fear of reprisal. Not only this, his mother took a more liberal view of music than most Quakers, for whom it retained the stigma of vice, and she thus encouraged his early development as a performer. Bomberger concludes that although the experience of Quakerism molded MacDowell, it ultimately makes little sense to define him as a Quaker composer.

The next essay in the collection is its finest: a history of the historical concert in New York City from 1860, the year of MacDowell's birth there, to 1876, when he left to study in Europe. In documenting a trend that shaped MacDowell musically, F. Javier Albo does more than explain the inspiration for historically conscious piano works like the Modern Suites, opp. 10 and 14 (1880–82) and the Prelude and Fugue, op. 13 (1881). He educates the reader on the origins of the solo-piano recital format, with its thoughtfully ordered series of works by dead composers. Though taken for granted today, this format was new when MacDowell grew up. Surrounded by variety programs in which currency was paramount, MacDowell could nevertheless attend serious concerts devoted to the accurate interpretation of past piano masters, much as we do now.

If New York's historical concerts account for the genesis of some of MacDowell's early works, they are less useful in explaining how his compositions brought him to prominence. As Laura Pita outlines in her contribution, this was the responsibility of Venezuelan pianist Teresa Carreño (1853–1917), a family friend of the MacDowells who taught Edward occasionally and performed his works regularly at prestigious international venues. Although Carreño's...