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.