Under the rose. Currier & Ives, c1896. Prints and Photographs Reading Room, Library of Congress.

from Six Love Songs, op. 40 (1890) by Edward MacDowell, 1860-1908

Edward MacDowell's set of Six Love Songs, op. 40, was composed during the middle period of his song composition (roughly 1886-1890). By the late 1880s, MacDowell had moved away from the German lieder that characterized his first period of song composition and focused instead on setting English texts, especially those written by contemporary American poets. It was also during this time that MacDowell and his wife Marian moved from Germany to the United States, settling in Massachusetts, where the composer met Boston music publisher Arthur Paul Schmidt, who would became MacDowell's primary publisher.

In 1890, MacDowell's Six Love Songs, op. 40, with texts by W. H. Gardner, was published by Schmidt in Boston and then by Elkins in London. Scholars believe that it was with this collection that MacDowell began to establish his unique American voice as a song composer. Although not as well known as some of MacDowell's other song sets, these six songs are nonetheless refined and full of tenderness and charm. The fifth song of the set, "O Lovely Rose," features, for example, a sweet, simple melody over a sparse accompaniment with a chordal texture.