EDWARD ALEXANDER MACDOWELL was born in New York City, U.S.A., on
December 18th, 1861, of American parents descended from a Quaker
family of Scotch-Irish extraction who emigrated to America about
the middle of the 18th Century. He was their third son. As a boy
he studied the pianoforte with Juan Buitrago, a South American,
Pablo Desvernine, a Cuban, and for a short time with the famous
Venezuelan pianist, Teresa Carreño. He also indulged in childish
composition on his own account. He was not a "wonderful" pupil
and did not like the drudgery of practising "exercises."

When he was fourteen years of age he went to France, accompanied
by his mother, to study pianoforte playing and the theory of
music at the Paris Conservatoire under Marmontel and Savard
respectively. Here one of his fellow students was Debussy, even
then looked upon as having curious and unconventional ideas on
his art.

MacDowell had also to learn the French language, and the person
who taught him French discovered that the young American had a
decided gift for drawing. He showed one of the boy's sketches to
a teacher at the School of Fine Arts, who offered to take the boy
as a pupil for three years free of charge, and to be responsible
for his maintenance during that time.

With his striking imaginative powers and love of Nature, and his
appreciation of Historical and Legendary lore, it is very
probable that MacDowell might have become distinguished as a
painter had he applied himself to painting, for he was a born
artist and very fond of sketching, but he refused the offer on
the advice of his music teachers, and continued his studies at