Charles Loeffler

Charles Martin Loeffler was an American violinist and composer of German origin. Born on January 30, 1861, he was known in English as Charles Martin Loeffler, while his original German name was Karl Martin Loeffler.

The son of an engineer whose work required constant travel, he spent his childhood in Paris, Hungary, Switzerland, the town of Smila near Kyiv, where he began studying the violin at the age of nine, and in Alsace. He became especially attached to Alsace and later consistently named Mulhouse as his birthplace. This was partly connected with his hostility toward Germany itself: his father, who wrote political articles, was arrested while Loeffler was still a young man and died in prison.

Loeffler studied in Berlin with Joseph Joachim in violin and with Friedrich Kiel and Woldemar Bargiel in composition. He then continued his studies in Paris with Lambert Massart in violin and Ernest Guiraud in composition. In 1881 he emigrated to the United States, and in 1887 he obtained American citizenship.

From 1882 to 1903, Loeffler served as second concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with Franz Kneisel as first concertmaster. In 1891 he made his debut with the orchestra as a soloist in a performance of his own suite for violin and orchestra, Ukrainian Evenings. Among other works he introduced to Boston audiences were Edouard Lalo's Symphonie espagnole and Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy. From 1903 onward, he devoted himself fully to composition, and partly to teaching.

Loeffler's music shows a marked influence of French composers such as Cesar Franck, Ernest Chausson, and Claude Debussy. He was also close to Symbolist culture. Among his most important works is the symphonic poem The Death of Tintagiles, written in 1896–1897 after Maurice Maeterlinck and scored for two viola d'amore with orchestra; Loeffler was one of the earliest advocates of the revival of that instrument.

Other notable works include A Pagan Poem, composed in 1906–1907, whose final version was written for piano, three trumpets, and English horn, and the orchestral suite Memories of My Childhood (Life in a Russian Village), completed in 1923. His Divertissement for violin and orchestra was rejected by Fritz Kreisler and Eugene Ysaye, both his friends, because of its technical difficulty. It was first performed on October 19, 1905, in Berlin by Karl Halir, on the same concert that featured the first performance of the final version of Sibelius's Violin Concerto under the direction of Richard Strauss.

Connections

This figure has 1 connection in the Music Lineage catalog.