Charles Martin Loeffler (1861-1935) was raised in Europe and came to the United States in 1881 and immediately found employment with the New York Symphony Orchestra. He moved to Boston during the fall of 1882, where he assumed the position of assistant concertmaster with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a position he held for over twenty years. Having become established as an accomplished musician, Loeffler began devoting more and more time to his composition. He resigned from the orchestra in 1903 to devote himself to creative work. He later settled on a farm in Medfield, Massachusetts, where he bred horses, read classic and contemporary literature, enjoyed epicurean cooking and continued to teach and compose.

Perhaps the best-known and most often performed work of Loeffler is the Two Rhapsodies for Oboe, Viola and Piano (1905), which are revisions of two songs from a set of three that Loeffler composed in 1898 for bass voice, clarinet and piano. They are settings of poems by the French poet Maurice Rollinat, which Loeffler attached to the Rhapsodies as a preface. This work holds a major position in the oboe repertoire.

The viola part has been bowed by Korey Konkol, Professor of Viola, University of Minnesota; and the oboe part has been edited by Valarie Anderson, Jeanne, Inc.