Edward MacDowell was one of the earliest American composers to achieve fame both in his homeland and in Europe. But there was little that was American sounding about his music. It typically divulged a German or French character and, especially in the solo piano works, was light and often sentimental or even fantasy-like. To a Wild Rose is a thoroughly delightful work and typifies so much of his solo piano music style. This modest miniature offers an instantly memorable theme, a somewhat nostalgic creation whose mostly upper register sonorities gently invoke a sense of fragile sweetness, as if its sounds are but a fleeting pleasantry irretrievably fading. The theme has a restricted range on the keyboard, but its second subject reaches into wider areas, emotionally flowering, too, to encompass a greater sense of warmth and brightness. This lovely piano piece lasts a mere minute and a half, but despite its brevity and modest character, it has become one of the most popular piano works by an American composer.

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Edward MacDowell was one of the earliest American composers to achieve fame both in his homeland and in Europe. But there was little that was American sounding about his music. It typically divulged a German or French character and, especially in the solo piano works, was light and often sentimental or even fantasy-like. To a Wild Rose is a thoroughly delightful work and typifies so much of his solo piano music style. This modest miniature offers an instantly memorable theme, a somewhat nostalgic creation whose mostly upper register sonorities gently invoke a sense of fragile sweetness, as if its sounds are but a fleeting pleasantry irretrievably fading. The theme has a restricted range on the keyboard, but its second subject reaches into wider areas, emotionally flowering, too, to encompass a greater sense of warmth and brightness. This lovely piano piece lasts a mere minute and a half, but despite its brevity and modest character, it has become one of the most popular piano works by an American composer.

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Edward MacDowell published his Woodland Sketches Op. 51 in 1896 through the New York branch of his German publisher Breitkopf and Härtel. Perhaps inspired by his move to a farm in Peterborough, N.H.—later to become the MacDowell colony—and its peaceful woodland surroundings, these ten short pieces for piano have remained the composer's best-known works.

"To a Wild Rose" (No. 1) and "To a Water Lily" (No. 6) are the most frequently played of the set, included in countless editions of primary level piano collections. These gentle works, with their mildly impressionistic harmony and simple rhythmic profile, are both easy and satisfying to play; the harmonic richness of these works has flattered many beginner pianists! "To a Wild Rose" is based on a tune sung by the Brotherton Native American tribe. "To a Water Lily" is played almost entirely on the black keys of the piano, and some difficulty reading is encountered when the notation branches out to three staves instead of the usual two.

Of the rest, the most significant is probably No. 8, "A Deserted Farm." MacDowell presents the minor-key tune in a stark and simple harmonization; at times, the texture pares down to a single melodic voice. The piece captures a barren landscape where home and hearth once stood. This bare texture and relative lack of adornment looks forward to the vernacular American style of the 1930s—unusual in so conservative a composer as MacDowell.

Also mostly in the minor, but a good deal more colorful, is "Will o' the Wisp" (No. 2), which hints at the impish flickering of fireflies. "At an Old Trysting Place" (No. 3) is a sentimental tune spelled out in straightforward harmony, evoking a hymn-like nostalgia; at just 35 measures, this is the shortest Woodland Sketch. "In Autumn" (No. 4) begins with brilliant, rising octaves and settles into a dance-like texture reminiscent of Grieg. "From an Indian Lodge" (No. 5) is the most austere piece of the set; while it does not try to evoke Native American melody as in "To a Wild Rose," it is a pictorial work representing the resolute determination of Native Americans themselves, stated in octaves and underscored with crabbed, sometimes discordant chords (it is marked "sternly, with great emphasis"). "From Uncle Remus" (No. 7) is a character piece with the buoyant spirit of minstrel song, but is without its rhythmic syncopation—sounding more Scottish than African American. "By a Meadow Brook" (No. 9) is etude-like and makes up for the simplicity of "To a Wild Rose" in virtuosic sprays of color. "Told at Sunset" (No. 10) serves to summarize the whole set, incorporating parts of "The Deserted Farm" and "From an Indian Lodge," although a stately march tune dominates the first half.

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