Charles Martin Loeffler (1861-1935) German-born American composer. 1861 is a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 1935 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A composer is a person who writes music. ...

Not from Alsace

Throughout his career Loeffler claimed to have been born in Mulhouse, Alsace (i.e. to be basically a Frenchman), and almost all music encyclopedias give this fabricated information. In his lifetime articles were published dissecting his 'typically Alsatian' temperament! In fact he was German - indeed a Berliner on both sides of his family, born Martin Karl Löffler in Schoneburg near Berlin. He turned against Germany when the Prussian authorities imprisoned and apparently tortured his father, an agricultural chemist and author of Republican ideals. Loeffler was only about 12 when this happened; the father spent the rest of his life in prison, dying of a stroke before he was due to be released. Before this the family had moved around a good deal, including a period in Alsace, and then to Smiela near Kiev, while Loeffler was still a small child. Later they lived in Hungary and Switzerland. ‹The template below has been proposed for deletion. ...

Career

Loeffler decided to become a violinist and studied in Berlin with Joachim, Kiel and Bargiel, then with Massart (and composition with Guiraud) in Paris. He played with the Pasdeloup Orchestra and in 1881 emigrated to the USA, where he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra and shared the first desk with the concert master from 1882 to 1903. He appeared as a violinist-composer with the orchestra first in 1891 with the performance of his suite Les Vieilles du Ukraine, and his works were performed regularly by the Boston Symphony (and by other American orchestra) for the rest of his life. Loeffler became a US citizen in 1887 and eventually resigned from the orchestra to devote himself to composition. He was a friend of Ysaÿe and John Singer Sargent, also of Fauré and Busoni (both of whom dedicated works to him), and later of George Gershwin. A man of wide culture and refined taste, he developed an idiom deeply influenced by contemporary French and Russian music, in the traditions of Franck, Chausson and Debussy, and also by Symbolist and 'decadent' literature. Loeffler often cultivated unusual combinations of instruments, and was one of the earliest modern enthusiasts for the viola d'amore, which he discovered in 1894 and wrote parts for in several scores as well as arranging much music for it. In his later years he also, unexpectedly, became deeply interested in jazz, and wrote some works for jazz band. Joachim was a king of Judah in the Old Testament. ... Statistics State: Schleswig-Holstein District: Independent city Area: 113. ... The Boston Symphony Orchestra is one of the worlds most renowned orchestras. ... Sargent is the name of the following places in the United States of America: Sargent Township, Illinois Sargent Township, Nebraska Sargent, Nebraska Sargent Township, North Dakota Sargent Township, Missouri This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Portrait with oils of Gabriel Fauré by John Singer Sargent, about 1889 (in the Paris Museum of Music) Gabriel Urbain Fauré (May 12, 1845 – November 4, 1924) was a French composer. ... Dante Michaelangelo Benvenuto Ferruccio Busoni (April 1, 1866 – July 27, Italian composer, pianist, music teacher and conductor. ... George Gershwin photograph by Edward Steichen in 1927. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Ernest Chausson (January 20, 1855 – June 10, 1899) was a French composer. ... Claude Debussy Claude Achille Debussy (August 22, 1862 – March 25, 1918), composer of impressionistic classical music. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Viola dAmore from the mid eighteenth century (Library of Congress collection) The viola damore is a stringed musical instrument sharing some characteristics with the viol family. ...

Works

Loeffler was a fastidious composer who composed slowly, and some of his works (including a Cello Concerto) are lost. His best-known works include the symphonic poems La Mort de Tintagailes (after Maeterlinck), La Bonne Chanson (after Verlaine), A Pagan Poem (after Virgil), and Memories of My Childhood (Life in a Russian Village), as well as the song-cycle Five Irish Fantasies (to words by Yeats and Heffernan), and the chamber works Music for Four String Instruments and Two Rhapsodies for oboe, viola and piano. Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck, Belgian author Count Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (August 29, 1862 - May 6, 1949) was a Belgian poet, playwright, and essayist. ... For the Television guitarist and solo artist, see Tom Verlaine. ... For other uses see Virgil (disambiguation). ... Yeats is the surname of a notable Irish family: John Butler Yeats (1839-1922), Irish artist and portrait painter William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet and playwright, Nobel prize winner Susan Yeats, also known as Lily, (1866-1949), active in the Arts and Crafts movement and Dun Emer Guild...

External links

• Art of the States: Charles Martin Loeffler