11 and 12, issued in 1883, were the first of his _Lieder_ to appear in print; the songs numbered op.

9, which would appear to antedate them in composition and publication, were not written until a decade later, when they were issued under an arbitrary opus number as a matter of expediency.

Their proper place in MacDowell's musical history is, therefore, about synchronous with the mature and characteristic "Eight Songs" of op.47.From the five songs now published in one volume as op.

11 and 12, the progress of MacDowell's art as a song writer is both steady and intelligible.
He has not been especially prolific in this field, when one thinks of Grieg's one hundred and twenty songs, and of Brahms' one hundred and ninety-six; not to mention Schumann's two hundred and forty-eight, or Schubert's amazing six hundred and over.

MacDowell has written forty-two songs for single voice and piano, together with a number of ingenious and effective pieces for men's voices and for mixed chorus.
He has avowed his methods and principles as a song writer.