Louis Victor Saar
1868-1937

Louis Victor (Franz) Saar was born Dec. 10, 1868 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He attended high school and university in Strassburg, graduating with a degree in history and literature in 1885. From 1886 to 1889 he studied piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Munich, where his principal teacher was Josef Rheinberger. He continued his studies in Vienna, Leipzig, and Berlin, including one winter with Brahms. His compositions earned him the Mendelssohn prize in Berlin (1891) and the Tonkünstlerpreis in Vienna (1892).

In 1894 he settled in the United States where began a three-year stint as an accompanist at the Metropolitan Opera. He was engaged by Antonín Dvorák to teach harmony and counterpoint at the National Conservatory (1896-1898) and later served in a simlar capacity at the New York College of Music (1898-1906). From 1906 to 1917 he was head of the Dept. of Theory and Composition at the College of Music of Cincinnati. In 1917 he joined the faculty of the Chicago Musical College and in 1934 moved to the St. Louis Institute of Music, where he remained until his death in 1937.

Saar wrote in all major forms. His published works comprise some 150 opus numbers. Orchestral: Rococo , suite, op. 27 (1915); From the Mountain Kingdom of the Great Northwest , suite (1922). Choral: Song of Consolation (1912); 128th Psalm . Chamber: Piano quartet , op. 39; Violin sonata , op. 44; Piano trio , op. 97; Cello sonata , op. 121.