Eichheim, Henry

Eichheim, Henry, American composer and violinist; b. Chicago, Jan. 3, 1870; d. Montecito, near Santa Barbara, Calif., Aug. 22, 1942. He received elementary musical training from his father, Meinhard Eichheim, a cellist in the Theodore Thomas Orch., then studied with Becker, L. Lichtenberg, and S. Jacobson at the Chicago Musical Coll. After a season as a violinist in the Thomas Orch. in Chicago, he was a member of the Boston Sym. Orch. (1890–1912). He then devoted himself to concert work and composition. He made 5 trips to the Orient (1915, 1919, 1922, 1928, mid-1930s) and collected indigenous instruments, which he subsequently used in his orch. music. All of his works are based on oriental subjects, with their harmonic idiom derived from Debussy and Scriabin.

Works

DRAMATIC The Rivals, ballet (1924; Chicago, Jan. 1, 1925; rev. as Chinese Legend for Orch., Boston, April 3, 1925); A Burmese pwe, incidental music (N.Y, March 16, 1926). ORCH.: Oriental Impressions or The Story of the Bell (1919–22; Boston, March 24, 1922; rev. of a piano piece, 1918–22); Malay Mosaic (1924; N.Y., March 1, 1925); Impressions of Peking and Korean Sketch for Chamber Orch. (Venice, Sept. 3, 1925); Java (Philadelphia, Nov. 8, 1929); Bali (Philadelphia, April 20, 1933). CHAMBER: 2 violin sonatas (1892–95; 1934); String Quartet (1895); violin music; piano pieces. VOCAL: The Moon, My Shadow, and I for Soprano and Orch. (1926); songs.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire