His style is, in fact, a subtle blend of opposing tendencies.
That his songs constitute almost a third of the entire bulk of his work is not without significance; for his melodic gift is, probably, the most notable possession of his art.

His insistence upon the value and importance of the _melos_ was, indeed, one of his cardinal tenets; and he is, in his practice,--whether writing for the voice, for piano, or for orchestra,--inveterately and frankly melodic: melodic with a suppleness, a breadth, a freshness and spontaneity which are anything but common in the typical music of our day.

It is a curious experience to turn from the music of such typical moderns as Loeffler and Debussy, with its elusive melodic contours, its continual avoidance of definite patterns, its passion for the esoteric and its horror of direct communication, to the music of such a writer as MacDowell.

For he has accomplished the difficult and perilous feat of writing frankly without obviousness, simply without triteness.

His melodic outlines are firm, clean-cut, apprehendable; but they are seldom commonplace in design.