Charles Griffes

 After early studies on piano and organ in his home town he went to Berlin for four years to study composition with Engelbert Humperdink and piano with Emst Jedliczka at the Stern conservertory.On eturning to the Hackley School for boys in Tarrytown,New York, a post which he held until his early death 13 years later. Griffes is the most famous American representative of musical. He was the French  impressionists, and was compositionally much influenced by them while he was in Europe. He also studied the work of contemporary Russian  composers, whose influence is also apparent in his work, for example in his use of synthetic scales.