It betrayed Germanic influences: of that there was no question; yet it was strikingly rich in personal accent.

Gradually his art came to find, through various forms, a constantly finer and weightier expression.

For orchestra he wrote the "Indian" suite--music of superb vigour, fantastically and deeply imaginative, wholly personal in quality; for the piano he wrote four sonatas of heroic and passionate content--indisputable masterworks--and various shorter pieces, free in form and poetic in inspiration; and he wrote many songs, some of them quite flawless in their loveliness and their emotional veracity.
It will thus be seen why the potent and aromatic art of MacDowell impressed those who were able to feel its charm and estimate its value.

It is mere justice to him, now that he has definitely passed beyond the reach of our praise, to say that he gave to the art of creative music in this country (I am thinking now only of music-makers of native birth) its single impressive and vital figure.

His is the one name in our music which, for instance, one would venture to pair with that of Whitman in poetry.
An abundance of pregnant, beautiful, and novel ideas was his chief possession, and he fashioned them into musical designs with great skill and unflagging art.