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Witches' Dance Op. 17 No. 2
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Browse piano sheets by Macdowell on Zen Virtual Piano. The Witches’ Dance, or Hexentanz, was written by Edward MacDowell in 1883 and formed part of the 2 Fantasiestücke for Piano. 8notes calls it a very difficult piece, often used to showcase a pianist’s skills. A dance that formed part of a pair of fantasy pieces for piano, and that is singled out for its difficulty, suggests a work written with the pianist’s hands in mind. AllMusic says MacDowell was born in New York City, the son of a milkman and his musically inclined spouse, and that at eight he began piano lessons with a boarder in the home, Juan Buitrago. Through Buitrago he met the pianist and international concert star Teresa Carreño, who also provided instruction and encouragement. In April 1877 MacDowell and his mother travelled to Paris, where he enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire. A lodger in the family home who opened the door to a concert star makes a small household connection part of the story of his path. In 1878 MacDowell heard Nikolai Rubinstein play the first Tchaikovsky piano concerto, and with that decided to abandon Paris and study in Germany, going first to Stuttgart, then Wiesbaden and finally Frankfurt, where he studied with Joachim Raff and concertized in the presence of Franz Liszt. He began to take in piano pupils of his own, and one of them, Margaret Nevins, became his wife in 1884. Following Liszt’s recommendation he turned to composition rather than performance, and his First and Second Modern Suites were widely successful when first published, with Carreño helping to spread the word through frequent programming of them. Choosing Germany over Paris, and then composition over the concert stage on Liszt’s recommendation, makes his path look like a few pointed decisions. Until 1896, AllMusic says, he enjoyed his greatest successes and patronage, writing most of his music, including the Second Piano Concerto, Indian Suite, Sonata Tragica, most of his songs and the Woodland Sketches, which contained both To a Water Lily and To a Wild Rose. In 1896 he was named head of the newly established music department at Columbia University, where AllMusic says he quickly won the admiration of colleagues and students through his boundless energy and enthusiasm. Encyclopedia.com lists two honorary doctorates, from Princeton in 1896 and the University of Pennsylvania in 1902, and says that in 1940 a five-cent U.S. postage stamp with his likeness was issued. Honours that stretched from degrees to a postage stamp hint at a name familiar well beyond the concert hall, in academic life and in public life.
Browse piano sheets by Macdowell on Zen Virtual Piano.
The Witches’ Dance, or Hexentanz, was written by Edward MacDowell in 1883 and formed part of the 2 Fantasiestücke for Piano. 8notes calls it a very difficult piece, often used to showcase a pianist’s skills. A dance that formed part of a pair of fantasy pieces for piano, and that is singled out for its difficulty, suggests a work written with the pianist’s hands in mind.
AllMusic says MacDowell was born in New York City, the son of a milkman and his musically inclined spouse, and that at eight he began piano lessons with a boarder in the home, Juan Buitrago. Through Buitrago he met the pianist and international concert star Teresa Carreño, who also provided instruction and encouragement. In April 1877 MacDowell and his mother travelled to Paris, where he enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire. A lodger in the family home who opened the door to a concert star makes a small household connection part of the story of his path.
In 1878 MacDowell heard Nikolai Rubinstein play the first Tchaikovsky piano concerto, and with that decided to abandon Paris and study in Germany, going first to Stuttgart, then Wiesbaden and finally Frankfurt, where he studied with Joachim Raff and concertized in the presence of Franz Liszt. He began to take in piano pupils of his own, and one of them, Margaret Nevins, became his wife in 1884. Following Liszt’s recommendation he turned to composition rather than performance, and his First and Second Modern Suites were widely successful when first published, with Carreño helping to spread the word through frequent programming of them. Choosing Germany over Paris, and then composition over the concert stage on Liszt’s recommendation, makes his path look like a few pointed decisions.
Until 1896, AllMusic says, he enjoyed his greatest successes and patronage, writing most of his music, including the Second Piano Concerto, Indian Suite, Sonata Tragica, most of his songs and the Woodland Sketches, which contained both To a Water Lily and To a Wild Rose. In 1896 he was named head of the newly established music department at Columbia University, where AllMusic says he quickly won the admiration of colleagues and students through his boundless energy and enthusiasm. Encyclopedia.com lists two honorary doctorates, from Princeton in 1896 and the University of Pennsylvania in 1902, and says that in 1940 a five-cent U.S. postage stamp with his likeness was issued. Honours that stretched from degrees to a postage stamp hint at a name familiar well beyond the concert hall, in academic life and in public life.
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Common questions
The Witches’ Dance (Hexentanz) was written in 1883 and formed part of the 2 Fantasiestücke for Piano; 8notes calls it a very difficult piece, often used to showcase a pianist’s skills.
He studied in Paris at the Conservatoire from 1877 and then in Germany, going to Frankfurt, where he studied with Joachim Raff.
AllMusic names the Second Piano Concerto, Indian Suite, Sonata Tragica and the Woodland Sketches, which contain To a Water Lily and To a Wild Rose, among the music he wrote until 1896.
In 1896 he was named head of the newly established music department at Columbia University.