He now began to take private pupils, and among them was an American girl, Marian Nevins, who was to become his wife about three years afterwards; the Forest Idyls, Op. 19, are dedicated to her.  Although he had failed to obtain the vacant professorship at Stuttgart, MacDowell was appointed head teacher of the pianoforte at the Conservatorium in the neighbouring town of Darmstadt.  His work here was soul-killing in its drudgery and he soon relinquished it.

Apart from his teaching labours, MacDowell had, in the meantime, been composing steadily, and had also been appearing at local orchestral concerts as solo pianist, and in 1882 Raff sent him to Liszt armed with his First Pianoforte Concerto, Op. 15.  The mighty old Hungarian praised the work highly and also seemed impressed with MacDowell’s playing.  He was kind to the struggling young American, eventually accepted the dedication of the concerto, and recommended the performance and publication of some of MacDowell’s earlier compositions, notably the First Modern Suite, Op. 10, and the Second Modern Suite, Op. 14.

Composition now became more and more the dominating feature in the development of MacDowell’s musical genius, although he was still obliged to teach for his living.

He was fortunate in being able to persuade local conductors to try over his orchestral works, a thing that was practically impossible in his own country, as he afterwards found.  In June, 1884, he returned to the United States, and in the following month (July 21st) he married his former pianoforte pupil, Marian Nevins, in whom he was to find complete happiness and a devoted companion and sympathiser.  In the same year Mr. and Mrs. MacDowell returned to Frankfort, after having visited England.

In 1885 MacDowell applied for a professorship at the English Royal Academy of Music, but Lady Macfarren, wife of the Principal, was instrumental in securing his rejection on account of his youth, nationality and friendship with Liszt, who, in English Victorian academic eyes, was too “modern.”

In 1887 MacDowell and his wife, they having returned to Germany, bought a little cottage in the woods some distance from Wiesbaden.  They were very friendly with Templeton Strong, another American composer, some of whose works have been played at the Queen’s Hall Promenade Concerts in London.

In September, 1888, the MacDowells sold their German cottage and returned to their native country, electing to make their home in Boston, Mass.

MacDowell found that his European reputation and his music had preceded him to America, and he was well received on the occasion of his first concert in his native country.  Most notable were his successes when he played his Second Pianoforte Concerto, in D minor (Op. 23), at important orchestral concerts in New York and Boston.

In 1889 MacDowell played his D minor concerto in Paris, where more than twelve years before he had been a student, and it was after his return from this visit to France that his fame as a pianist and composer began to spread freely in America.  In 1890 his Second Symphonic Poem, Lancelot and Elaine (Op. 25), was played under Nikisch at Boston.