the Conservatoire.

After persevering for a couple of years he grew dissatisfied with
the tuition he was receiving, and upon hearing Nicholas
Rubinstein play, he determined to go elsewhere.

Careful discussion with his mother resulted in their selection of
Stuttgart, Germany, whither they accordingly removed, MacDowell
entering the Conservatorium there. Here he was soon convinced,
however, that the instruction given there was of no use to him,
and after having studied under Lebert and Louis Ehlert and having
been refused a hearing by Hans von Büllow, he left Stuttgart and
entered the Frankfort Conservatorium, where his teachers were
Raff, the Principal, for composition, and Carl Heymann for
pianoforte playing. Raff was kind and encouraging to the young
American, and once said to him, "Your music will be played when
mine is forgotten." The influence of Raff's teaching is evident
in a number of MacDowell's early compositions, especially the
_Forest Idyls, Op. 19_, and the _First Suite for Orchestra, Op.
42_.

In 1881 Heyman resigned and nominated MacDowell as his successor,
a proposal seconded by Raff. The gifted American, however,
possessed the criminal fault, in the eyes of jealous and
intolerant old men, of being young; the fact that he was quite
capable of filling the vacant post was, to them, a secondary
consideration, and he was rejected.

He now began to take private pupils, and among them was an
American girl, Marian Nevins, who was to become his wife about