To a Wild Rose, one of the European-trained MacDowell's most well-known and loved pieces, is part of the larger Woodland Sketches, finished in 1896 for solo piano. The composer incorporated certain Native American themes into it.Alan Levy, the critic and biographer, wrote: However, Marian's version of the story is slightly different. She wrote that the fragment made her husband think of their "log cabin" — as opposed to "cabin" — which was not built until 1898, two years after the Sketches were published.