At the turn of this century, Charles Martin Loeffler (1861-1935) was considered to be among the finest of the handful of well-known American composers of the time. His music was often performed by major symphony orchestras, chamber groups and solo artists. Deux rapsodies for Oboe, Viola and Piano: L'Etang and La Cornemuse, after poems by Maurice Rollinat (1846-1903), show Loeffler's affinity for programmatic concepts. These works, completed in 1901, are revisions of settings of 1898 for low voice, clarinet, viola and piano, and are now, unfortunately, out of print; but the oboe, viola and piano setting has been published (originally as Deux rapsodies by G. Schirmer, 1905; the latest edition, Two Rhapsodies, is by McGinnis and Marx, N.Y., 1979) and recorded several times. Loeffler has reflected Rollinat's poetry in his settings by means of melodic, rhythmic and harmonic devices unique to his style. Formal and articulative devices also tend to point to his dependence on the poetry as a source of inspiration and as means for defining the final musical product. Indeed, the music seems incapable of existence independent of its source in the richly imagistic poetry of Rollinat.

One of the most important compositional theories of Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977), Russian-American composer and pianist, is the Eurasian ideology, which was a result of the influence of Eastern culture. Inspired by this theory, Tcherepnin not only extricated himself from his own compositional techniques, but also intensified his search for musical folklore. In April, 1934, he began a world tour which was to include China, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Egypt, and Palestine, to search for "musical folklore." He became so fascinated with the culture of ancient China that he cancelled the rest of his arrangements, and, except for visits to Japan, he remained in China for three years, until the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in July, 1937. During his three-year stay in China, Tcherepnin was greatly attracted to Chinese culture, and as a result, Chinese culture influenced his music to a significant degree. This essay examines the manner in which Tcherepnin's music was influenced by his experiences in China. In order to precisely analyze the close affiliation between Chinese musical elements and Tcherepnin's "Chinese Mikrokosmos," many original Chinese sources proved indispensable in this study. These sources include Chinese folk music, theater music, instrumental music, religious music, and Chinese periodicals and …

Stellar Ouintet is a composition in five movements (Prologue, Allegro, "...Of Stars", Rondo, Epilogue) for two violins, viola, violoncello, and harpsichord. It makes extensive use of constellations , a term used in this work to denote arrangements of pitches in spatial notation. This method of notation is derived from actual astronomical constellations. The score makes use of both real and freely constructed constellations which are rotated around their own central axis. The score is 90 pages long with a 28 page analysis preceding the score. The work has a performance time of approximately 18-20 minutes

Kidrish Fields, a pastoral fantasy, is scored for seven flutes, vibraphone, and cello. The duration of the work is eighteen minutes. The 62 pages which precede the musical score present a discussion and an analysis of the composition. The purpose of this project was to provide the composer an opportunity to apply polyphonic writing techniques within a score orchestrated for an ensemble of like instruments.

This work for harp and string orchestra uses musical materials derived from a chord taken from the lydian mode. The three major formal divisions are A, B, and A'. The A and A' sections are more homophonic in texture and slower in harmonic rhythm. The B section is mostly contrapuntal. Sections A and A' are dreamy and dance-like while the B section is turbulent and unrestful. These characteristics are represented by sustained sonorities, twoagainst- three rhythmic configurations, and lilting melodic materials in sections A and A', as opposed to the fragmented, ever-changing melodic material of the B section. The interweaving of the musical materials into a consummate form represents the conversations, personalities, and exploits of these Atmosphantoms, giving the music its philosophical and conversational character.