In the spring of 1896 it was determined to found a department of music
at Columbia University, New York. This was made possible by a fund of
$150,000 given to the trustees by Mrs. Elizabeth Mary Ludow, with the
proviso that the income was to be applied in such ways as should "tend
more effectually to elevate the standard of musical instruction in the
United States, and to afford the most favourable opportunity for
acquiring musical instruction of the highest order." In May of that
year the professorship was offered to MacDowell, the committee who had
the appointment in charge announcing the consensus of their opinion to
be that he was "the greatest musical genius America has produced."
MacDowell, though he valued greatly the honour of his selection,
considered anxiously the advisability of accepting the post. He now
had more pupils than he could take, and his pecuniary circumstances
would not be improved by the change, save that a settled income would
be assured to him. This was of course a tempting prospect; on the
other hand, the task of organizing _de novo_ a new department in a
large university, and the curtailed freedom which the position would
necessitate, made him hesitate. But the assurance of an income free
from precariousness finally decided him in favour of acceptance; and
in the following autumn he moved from Boston to New York, and began
his duties at Columbia.

That he undertook his labours there, from the start, in no casual or
perfunctory spirit, is made clear by the bare record of his activity.
For the first two years of his incumbency he had no assistant, carrying
all the work of his department on his own shoulders. He devoted from
eight to ten hours a week to lectures and class-work; and this
represented but a small proportion of the time and labour expended in
establishing the new department. The aim of the instruction was to be