Loeffler, Charles Martin

Charles Martin Loeffler
(b. Berlin-Schöneberg, 30 January 1861 – d. Medfield, USA, 19 May 1935)

Psalm CXXXVII
(By the Rivers of Babylon)

for women’s four-part chorus, organ, harp, flutes, and violoncello obbligato

Not of his time was Charles Martin Tornov Loeffler, yet he was not comprehensible in another age.
(Moses Smith, quoted in Ellen Knight, Charles Martin Loeffler, A Life Apart in American Music)

Preface
Walking through the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Back Bay Fens Boston is an exercise in wonder. One marvels at the dizzying array of artifacts, artwork, and architectural extravaganzas which Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924), perhaps Boston’s most famous art collector, philanthropist, and energetic patron of the arts, collected over her lifetime. The visitor rejoices in the exquisite indoor courtyard overflowing year round with flowers and plants. Wandering through the maze-like interior, one may inevitably enter a room featuring, among other artifacts, a beautifully framed oil portrait of a pensive, distinguished-looking man, slightly bald, with a short beard, gazing off to the side, and holding a violin.

Painted in just three hours by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) in Gardner’s Fenway Court Gothic Room, it is a portrait of her (and Sargent’s) close friend, violinist and composer Charles Martin Loeffler, a frequent guest and performer at Mrs. Gardner’s important “at homes” and musical events. Just a few days after the portrait was given to Mrs. Gardner, she “presented a concert of Loeffler’s compositions at Fenway Court, including the premiere of his Pagan Poem,” only one of several times she showcased his music to select and discerning audiences at her palatial residence/museum. Loeffler, acknowledged by contemporary critics and fans as “an unparalleled figure in our recent musical life,” was a complex and fascinating person, and his work occupies a unique niche in the context of his time and place. …

Read full preface > HERE