e developed great strength
and intense activity in the middle joints, which enabled him to play
with a very close, often overlapping, touch, and to maintain extremely
rapid tempi in legato or staccato with perfect ease and little
fatigue. With this combination of velocity and close touch, it was a
slight matter to produce those pianistic effects which were especially
dear to him.

"MacDowell's finger development has been thus dwelt upon, because it
was, as has been said, the feature of his technic which immediately
surprised and captivated his hearers. Less noticeable was his wrist
and octave work. But his chord playing, though also relatively
unattractive, was even in those early days almost as uncommon in its
way as was his velocity. And in this field of technic, during his
later years, when in composition his mind turned almost wholly to this
mode of expression, he reached a plane of tonal effect which, for
variety, from vague, shadowy, mysterious _ppp_, to virile, orchestral
_ffff_, has never been surpassed by any pianist who has visited these
shores in recent years. His tone in chord playing, it is true, was
often harsh, and this fault also appeared in his melodic delivery. But
in both cases any unmusical effect was so greatly overbalanced by many
rare and beautiful qualities of tone production, that it was easily
forgiven and forgotten.

"Wonderful tone blending in finger passages; a peculiarly crisp, yet
veiled staccato; chord playing extraordinary in variety,--tender,
mysterious, sinister, heroic; a curiously unconventional yet effective
melodic delivery; playing replete with power, vitality, and dramatic
significance, always forcing upon the ear the phrase, never the
tickling of mere notes; a really marvellous command and use of both
pedals,--these were the characteristics of MacDowell's pianistic art
as he displayed it in the exposition of his own works. Unquestionably
he was a born pianist. If it had not been for his genius for
composition, he would, without doubt, have been known as a brilliant
and forceful interpreter of the greatest piano literature. But his
compositional bent turned him completely away from mere piano playing.
He was a composer-pianist, and as such he ever desired to be
regarded."

[Illustration: THE HOUSE AT PETERBORO, NEW HAMPSHIRE, WHERE MACDOWELL
SPENT HIS SUMMERS]

As a pianist, as in all other matters touching his own capacities, he
was often tortured by doubts concerning the