JAVS Spring 2019

Le Canada carrying with him letters of recommendation for work in America. 5 He spent one very successful season as a musician in New York before being personally appointed in 1882 to the position of Assistant Concertmaster of the Boston Symphony by Major Henry Lee Higginson, the owner of the Boston Symphony. 6 Once in Boston, Loeffler gained prominence as a virtuoso violinist and avid chamber musician. He became an American citizen in May of 1887. He premiered his suite for violin and orchestra, Les veilées de l’Ukraine with the Boston Symphony on November 20, 1891 and was revered by both critics and patrons. This success as both composer and performer swung the door wide open for Loeffler to pursue composition with support and enthusiasm from the city of Boston. 7 Loeffler’s popularity in Boston is still evident in 2019. His portrait hangs in both Symphony Hall and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Both venues continue to be revered centers of musical activity in Boston. Loeffler’s cultural identity is a bit complex and something he wrestled with throughout his lifetime. He never identified with his German heritage. In fact, he often claimed to have been born in Alsace, a province in France. Several articles written during his lifetime support this notion, but family records indicate that he was born Berlin. Throughout his childhood and even young adult life his family had political problems with Germany. They were so great that when Loeffler did immigrate to the United States in 1881, it is believed that his father was in prison for political reasons and Charles was left carrying the bulk of the financial burden for the family. 8

Cornemuse,” and “La Villanelle du Diable” from the collection to set to music. Loeffler was often drawn to texts of a disconcerting and unsettling nature that dwell on death and the supernatural. 10 His choice of poems for Rapsodies vividly illustrates and represents this fascination. Why did Loeffler choose these particular poems? The answer to this lies in Loeffler’s close friendship with and admiration for Léon Pourtau, the principal clarinetist of the Boston Symphony. Pourtau and Loeffler shared a passion for Rollinat’s poetry and would read and discuss it with one another. Pourtau could even recite “L’Étang” by heart. One can infer that Loeffler chose “L’Étang” for his friend Pourtau knowing of his particular affinity for the poem. Loeffler composed Rapsodies for baritone, viola, clarinet and piano: “L’Étang,” “La Cornemuse,” and “La villanelle du Diable” in the summer of 1898 in Medford, Massachusetts. Loeffler had intended to travel to Europe during the summer as many of his colleagues from the orchestra did, but had to remain in Massachusetts due to poor health. Early in the morning on July 4, 1898, the French steamboat La Bourgogne struck the British sailing vessel the Cromartyshire off the coast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. La Bourgogne sank within an hour of impact. Over two thirds (500+) of the people aboard died including all of the first-class passengers. Among the dead were three woodwind players of the Boston Symphony along with their families: Léon Pourtau, principal clarinetist, age 29; Albert Weiss, principal oboist, age 33; and Léon Jacquet, principal flutist, age 29. 11 When Loeffler heard this news, he was distraught. He stopped working on Rapsodies and abandoned the work before it was ever performed. He wrote the following in a letter to Isabella Stewart Gardner, a notable patron of the arts in Boston at the turn of the century, regarding the event and his composition: The Tragedy

The Poems

For the inspiration and text for Rapsodies Loeffler used poems from the French poet Maurice Rollinat’s Les Névroses , a collection of poems published in 1883. 9 Loeffler specifically chose the poems “L’Étang,” “La

Figure 1. A comparison of the two Rapsodies.

38

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 35, No. 1, Spring 2019