A German in the United States
By: Michael Campion
When Charles Martin Loeffler died in 1935 an article in the New York Herald Tribune acknowledged his inestimable contribution to American music by saying, “There will not be another like him. No one in America has approached him for individuality of style, perfection of craftsmanship, beauty of utterance, loftiness and subtlety of thought.”
Though born in Germany, Loeffler lived during a great crossroads in the musical life of our country. Long dominated by the great European romantic tradition, American composers were desperately trying to find their own individual voice. Into all this uncertainty, Loeffler brought a timely freshness and uniqueness of style that helped to revive the American artistic scene.
Having traveled much while still a boy, Loeffler absorbed the languages and cultures of many different nations, giving his music a diversity that is difficult to fully categorize. He has often been compared to the French Impressionists, but his highly eclectic style was also influenced by Russian, Spanish, and jazz elements as well as his love of medieval music.
Trained as a violinist, Loeffler decided to give up a lofty position in the Boston Symphony Orchestra to devote himself to composition but most of the time he found it a struggle. During the summer of 1889, Denis Bunker, an artist and close friend of the composer, described the agony that Loeffler suffered over a particular work: “I hear Loeffler downstairs working over his composition, going over one phrase hundreds of times and days at a time – a most wonderful, patient, slow and courageous work. I wonder if people know what a labor it is – but they can’t.”
