bert and Louis Ehlert and having
been refused a hearing by Hans von Buellow, he left Stuttgart and
entered the Frankfort Conservatorium, where his teachers were
Raff, the Principal, for composition, and Carl Heymann for
pianoforte playing. Raff was kind and encouraging to the young
American, and once said to him, "Your music will be played when
mine is forgotten." The influence of Raff's teaching is evident
in a number of MacDowell's early compositions, especially the
_Forest Idyls, Op. 19_, and the _First Suite for Orchestra, Op.
42_.

In 1881 Heyman resigned and nominated MacDowell as his successor,
a proposal seconded by Raff. The gifted American, however,
possessed the criminal fault, in the eyes of jealous and
intolerant old men, of being young; the fact that he was quite
capable of filling the vacant post was, to them, a secondary
consideration, and he was rejected.

He now began to take private pupils, and among them was an
American girl, Marian Nevins, who was to become his wife about
three years afterwards; the _Forest Idyls, Op. 19_, are dedicated
to her. Although he had failed to obtain the vacant professorship
at Stuttgart, MacDowell was appointed head teacher of the
pianoforte at the Conservatorium in the neighbouring town of
Darmstadt. His work here was soul-killing in its drudgery and he
soon relinquished it.

Apart from his teaching labours, MacDowell had, in the meantime,
been composing steadily, and had also been appearing at local
orchestral concerts as solo pianist, and in 1882 Raff sent him to
Liszt armed with his _First Pianoforte Concerto, Op. 15_. The
mighty old Hungarian praised the work highly and also seemed
impressed with MacDowell's playing. He was kind to the struggling
young American, eventually accepted the dedication of the
concerto, and recommended the performance and publication of some
of MacDowell's earlier compositions, notably the _First Modern
Suite, Op. 10_, and the _Second Modern Suite, Op. 14_.

Composition now became more and more the dominating feature in
the development of MacDowell's musical genius, although he was
still obliged to teach for his living.

He was fortunate in being able to persuade local conductors to
try over his orchestral works, a thing that was practically
impossible in his own country, as he afterwards found. In June,
1884, he returned to the United States, and in the following
month (July 21st) he married his former pianoforte pupil, Marian
Ne