Woodland Sketches

''Woodland Sketches'', Opus number, Op. 51, is a Suite (music), suite of ten short piano pieces by the American composer Edward MacDowell. It was written during an 1896 stay at MacDowell's summer retreat in Peterborough, New Hampshire, where each piece was inspired by a different aspect of the surrounding nature and landscape. The suite was first published in 1896, with pieces such as "To a Wild Rose" (No. 1) and "To a Water-lily" (No. 6) becoming some of MacDowell's most popular works. While some pieces are notable for their use of Impressionism in music, impressionistic techniques in depicting the New England wilderness, others are based on elements from Native Americans in the United States, Native American and Southern United States, Southern music. ''Woodland Sketches'' is considered by critics and historians to contain some of MacDowell's most skillful and distinctive works.

History

In 1896, MacDowell and his wife Marian MacDowell, Marian fulfilled their dream of owning a country home with the purchase of a farm in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The farm served as MacDowell's summer retreat, where he composed ''Woodland Sketches''. During the summer of 1896, MacDowell was inspired by the nature around his summer home and began composing brief melodies every morning, of which he later disposed. That past April, MacDowell explained how his composing occurred mostly in the summer as well as the importance of inspiration to his work:

At the suggestion of his wife, MacDowell recovered one of the thrown-away pieces and titled it "To a Wild Rose". It became the first in a set of ten pieces MacDowell composed that summer, which were first published as ''Woodland Sketches'' that fall by P. L. Jung in New York. The work was then assigned to the publisher Arthur P. Schmidt (music publisher), Arthur P. Schmidt in 1899. The suite grew popular, and upon MacDowell's death in 1908, had reportedly sold over one hundred thousand copies. The appeal of MacDowell's pieces was due in part to their accessibility to amateur pianists during a time when many households owned a piano.

The music historian Richard Crawford (music historian), Richard Crawford wrote in 1996 that ''Woodland Sketches''s source of inspiration in the American landscape may have been one way for MacDowell to "[claim] an identity as an American composer". Some time prior to composing the sketches, MacDowell told the American writer Hamlin Garland:

Pieces

The suite (Op. 51) consists of ten pieces for piano:
* No. 1, "To a Wild Rose" — A major
* No. 2, "Will-o'-the-wisp, Will o' the Wisp" — F-sharp minor
* No. 3, "At an Old Trysting-place" — A-flat major
* No. 4, "In Autumn" — F-sharp minor
* No. 5, "From an Indian Lodge" — C minor
* No. 6, "To a Water-lily" — F-sharp major
* No. 7, "From Uncle Remus" — F major
* No. 8, "A Deserted Farm" — F-sharp minor
* No. 9, "By a Meadow Brook" — A-flat major
* No. 10, "Told at Sunset" — F minor

Most of the works in ''Woodland Sketches'' are in ternary form, consisting of simple melodies with chordal accompaniment. Many of the pieces' subjects are indicative of the nature and wildlife surrounding MacDowell's farm ("To a Wild Rose", "Will o' the Wisp", "To a Water-lily", "By a Meadow Brook") or are inspired by the MacDowells' frequent walks in the woods ("At an Old Trysting-place", "From an Indian Lodge", "A Deserted Farm"). According to the musicologist Douglas E. Bomberger, the pieces "are suggestive of extramusical ideas without telling a specific story". The musicologist Michael Broyles drew a connection between the suite and the short piano pieces of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, a Norse similarity that is also evident in MacDowell's piano sonatas.

"To a Wild Rose" (No. 1)

The suite's first piece, "To a Wild Rose", is "MacDowell's best known single work" according to the musicologist H. Wiley Hitchcock, and it achieved what Bomberger described as "phenomenal popularity". MacDowell believed the work's popularity arose because the publisher spread its score generously across two pages. The piece begins with a spare melody, based on a simple one from the Brothertown Indians, Brotherton Indians. The melody is played in short fragments and accompanied by chords and pedal points. The climax consists of a repeated Ninth chord#Dominant ninth, dominant ninth chord, which can also be heard as a version of the Tristan chord. The piece concludes with a Lombard rhythm, Scotch snap rhythm. Crawford opined that the piece's harmony "saves it from blandness".

"Will o' the Wisp" (No. 2)

Bomberger considered "Will o' the Wisp" to be "the most virtuosic of the set", evoking MacDowell's love for "extreme speed". The music historian Neil Leonard cited "Will o' the Wisp" as an example of MacDowell's "concern for atmospheric effects" in depicting the Will-o'-the-wisp, titular lights with his Impressionism in music, impressionistic and economic style.

"At an Old Trysting-place" (No. 3)

"At an Old Trysting-place" is the shortest piece in the suite. The music portrays the return to a place where one has once met their lover. It consists of a "long-breathed" melody, in contrast to the melodic fragments in "To a Wild Rose".

"In Autumn" (No. 4)

"In Autumn" begins with a "brisk, staccato theme" followed by chromatic runs. The music shifts to a mysterious and questioning tone in the middle section before returning to the joyous opening theme.

"From an Indian Lodge" (No. 5)

"From an Indian Lodge" opens with bare octaves, introducing a musical depiction of a pow wow in a wigwam. The piece ends on loud, orchestral-like chords. Just as "To a Wild Rose", "From an Indian Lodge" uses a melody from the Brotherton Indians. However, the piece also incorporates other Native American motifs; the first eight measures correspond to the "Songs of the Walla Walla people, Walla-Walla Indians, Nos. 1 and 2", while measures 9 to 25 correspond to the "Song of the Brotherton Indians". These melodies are compiled in the musicologist Theodore Baker's 1882 German dissertation ''Über die Musik der nordamerikanischen Wilden'' ( en, On the Music of the North American Indians), which MacDowell received in 1891.

"To a Water-lily" (No. 6)

"To a Water-lily" has what the music historian John F. Porte described as "one of the most exquisite and perfect lyrics MacDowell ever composed for the pianoforte". The piece is mostly played on the black keys, with a meter change in the short middle section between two rounds of the opening passage scored on three staffs. MacDowell's inspiration for the piece came when his wife introduced him to the titular plant on one of their walks. To illustrate the floating flowers, MacDowell uses triple piano and pedal effects. Bomberger noted that this piece was an early example of impressionistic textures in American music, and it rivaled "To a Wild Rose" in popularity.

"From Uncle Remus" (No. 7)

"From Uncle Remus" reflects MacDowell's nostalgia from reading Joel Chandler Harris' stories of the Uncle Remus, titular African American. In the piece, MacDowell attempts to imitate the banjo and elements of Southern culture despite never having directly experienced the Southern United States, American South. Nevertheless, Bomberger assessed the result as "charmingly nostalgic", and Porte found the piece "delightfully frank".

"A Deserted Farm" (No. 8)

The music critic Lawrence Gilman described "A Deserted Farm" as the "quintessence of [MacDowell]'s style". The piece opens and ends with a grave theme in the minor key. This is contrasted by a middle section in the major key, marked "pianissimo as heard from afar" to indicate echoes from past barn dances. For this work, MacDowell was inspired by an abandoned farmstead where he and his wife previously had lunch.

"By a Meadow Brook" (No. 9)

"By a Meadow Brook" is MacDowell's impression of the Nubanusit Brook, which flows past his Peterborough property. The piece suggests what MacDowell's wife described as "the busy, noisy, little stream rushing over a rocky bed" before closing on a diminuendo.

"Told at Sunset" (No. 10)

The tenth and last piece, "Told at Sunset", recalls material from earlier pieces like "At an Old Trysting-place". The piece opens with a theme similar to "A Deserted Farm", which dies away before a new theme grows louder and then also dies away. A more expressive form of the theme from "A Deserted Farm" returns before reaching the piece's conclusion: silence followed by stern chords from the introduction to "From an Indian Lodge" that begin soft but finish in fortissimo. MacDowell used the Scotch snap rhythm extensively in "Told at Sunset", leading Bomberger to call the piece "The Apotheosis of the Scotch Snap".

Reception

In his 1908 study on MacDowell's life, Lawrence Gilman considered some of the ''Woodland Sketches'' to be among "the choicest emanation of MacDowell's genius". He later wrote that in ''Woodland Sketches'', MacDowell's speech "assumes for the first time some of its most engaging and distinctive characteristics" and that the pieces "have an inescapable fragrance, tenderness, and zest". Gilman recognized "At an Old Trysting-place", "From an Indian Lodge", "To a Water-lily", "A Deserted Farm", and "Told at Sunset" to be pieces of "a different calibre", remarkable for their "richness of emotion", "dramatic purpose", and "tactful reticence". He commented that the other five pieces "are slight in poetic substance, though executed with charm and humour".

In his 1991 treatise on American music, Nicholas E. Tawa deemed that "the finest of MacDowell's short characteristic pieces" are found in ''Woodland Sketches'', as well as in three of MacDowell's subsequent suites: ''Sea Pieces'', Op. 55 (1898); ''Fireside Tales'', Op. 61 (1902); and ''New England Idylls'', Op. 62 (1902). Michael Broyles wrote in 1998 that MacDowell's "sense of color, focus, and economy of means was extraordinary" in these suites.

Footnotes

References

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External links

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Media notes for ''MacDowell: Woodland Sketches / Fireside Tales / New England Idyls'' (Naxos recording 8.559010)

Theodore Baker's dissertation (in German)

{{Edward MacDowell

1896 compositions
Compositions by Edward MacDowell
Suites (music)