1. Charles Koechlin was a political radical all his life and a passionate enthusiast for such diverse things as medieval music, The Jungle Book of Rudyard Kipling, Johann Sebastian Bach, film stars, traveling, stereoscopic photography and socialism.
Charles Koechlin was born in Paris and baptized Charles-Louis-Eugene Koechlin.
Charles Koechlin was the youngest child of a large family.
Charles Koechlin entered the Ecole Polytechnique in 1887 but the following year was diagnosed with tuberculosis and had to spend six months recuperating in Algeria.
Charles Koechlin ended up having to do his first year at the Ecole over again and graduated with only mediocre grades.
Faure had a great influence on Charles Koechlin, who wrote the first Faure biography, which is still referred to.
In 1898 a grateful Charles Koechlin orchestrated the popular suite from Faure's Pelleas et Melisande and in 1900 assisted Faure in producing the huge open-air drama Promethee.
Charles Koechlin died aged 83 at his country home at Le Canadel, Var, and his body is buried there.
Charles Koechlin was enormously prolific, as the worklist below suggests.
Charles Koechlin wrote in several styles, sometimes strict Baroque counterpoint, as in the fugue that opens his Second Symphony, and sometimes "impressionistically", as in the tone poem Au Loin, or in the scherzo of his Symphony No 2.
Charles Koechlin could go from extreme simplicity to extreme complexity of texture and harmony from work to work, or within the same work.
Charles Koechlin's melodies are often long, asymmetrical and wide-ranging in tessitura.
Charles Koechlin was interested in the works of Schoenberg, some of which he quoted from memory in his treatise on orchestration.
The twelve tone technique is one of the several modern music styles parodied in the 'Jungle Book' symphonic poem Les Bandar-Log, but Charles Koechlin wrote a few pieces in what he described as the 'style atonal-seriel'.
Charles Koechlin was fascinated by the movies and wrote many 'imaginary' film scores and works dedicated to the Anglo-German actress Lilian Harvey, with whom he was infatuated.
Charles Koechlin composed an Epitaph for Jean Harlow and a suite of dances for Ginger Rogers.
Charles Koechlin was interested in using unusual instruments, notably the saxophone and the early electronic instrument the Ondes Martenot.
Charles Koechlin wrote several pieces for the hunting-horn, an instrument he himself played.
Charles Koechlin began assisting Faure in teaching fugue and counterpoint while he was still a student in the 1890s, but though he taught privately and was an external examiner for the Paris Conservatoire throughout his career, he never occupied a permanent salaried teaching position.
Charles Koechlin wrote three compendious textbooks: one on Harmony, one on Music Theory and a huge treatise on the subject of orchestration which is a classic treatment of the subject.
Charles Koechlin's treatise uses examples from the orchestral repertoire of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, in particular including examples form French composers, such as Saint-Saens, Debussy, Chabrier, Bizet, Faure, Ravel, and Charles Koechlin himself.
Charles Koechlin wrote a number of smaller didactic works, as well as the life of Faure mentioned above.