What is Charles Koechlin?
[[File:Charles Koechlin 1.jpg|thumb|Charles Koechlin]] '''Charles Koechlin''' (born [[Paris]], November 27, 1867; died Le Canadel, December 31, 1950) was a [[French people|French]] [[composer]], [[teacher]] and writer on music. He wrote a very large amount of music, but very little of it was [[publish]]ed because he was more interested in helping younger composers than making himself well-known. Some of his best works include his [[symphonic poem]]s and his [[film music]]. ==His life== Koechlin was born in [[Paris]], the youngest child of a large and rich family. His mother’s family came from the [[Alsace]] near the French border with [[Germany]], and he was proud of his Alsatian background. His grandfather on his mother’s side had started a [[cotton]] [[textile]] firm in [[Mulhouse]] and his father worked in the textile business. When Koechlin was 14 his father died. He showed an interest in music, but his family wanted him to be an artillery officer. However, he had [[tuberculosis]] and had to spent six months getting better in [[Algeria]]. After finishing his schooling he was allowed to enter the [[Paris Conservatoire]] in 1890. Two years later he was studying composition with [[Massenet]], and in 1896 he was a pupil of [[Gabriel Fauré]]. [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]] was a pupil in the same class. Fauré had a big influence on Koechlin who wrote a book about him and helped him to arrange some of his music for orchestra. Koechlin became a freelance composer and teacher. He married Suzanne Pierrard in 1903 and they had five children. At first he was comfortably off, but after [[World War I]] the family lost a lot of money and they had to sell their country house. Koechlin had very free views about music, and this is probably why he never got a teaching job at the Piano Conservatoire. He also agreed with some things that the [[Communist]]s thought. He did not like modern inventions like the [[telephone]] and [[radio]]. He looked like an old Russian [[patriarch]] with his long beard. He dressed in [[vel