Indian Suite Opus 48 by Edward MacDowell American Recording Society ARS-3 front

Indian Suite Opus 48 by Edward MacDowell American Recording Society ARS-3 back

The ''Indian Suite'' for

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

was composed in 1892 by

Edward MacDowell Edward Alexander MacDowell (December 18, 1860January 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the late Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites '' Woodland Sketches'', ''Sea Pieces'' and '' ...

. The composer's second suite for orchestra, it was first performed in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

by the

Boston Symphony The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...

on January 23, 1896. The piece is based upon numerous American Indian melodies and rhythms. The suite is in five movements. The first, "Legend," is built upon two themes, both for horns. The second, "Love Song," is derived from a love song of the

Iowa tribe The Iowa, also known as Ioway, and the Bah-Kho-Je or Báxoje (English: grey snow; Chiwere: Báxoje ich'é) are a Native American Siouan people. Today, they are enrolled in either of two federally recognized tribes, the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma an ...

. The third movement is titled "In War-Time" and is martial in character. The fourth movement, "Dirge," is a threnody introduced by the tolling of

bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...

s. The fifth and last movement, "Village," is based upon two

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

melodies, one in the plucked strings and one played by flute and piccolo accompanied by strings and

woodwind Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and re ...

s. A pre-1972 recording was issued by the American Recording Society. It was by Edward MacDowell and included Suite No. 2, Opus 48. A recording of the suite exists; it is distributed by the Naxos Records label.

References

*David Ewen, ''Encyclopedia of Concert Music''. New York; Hill and Wang, 1959. 1892 compositions Compositions by Edward MacDowell Orchestral suites {{classical-composition-stub