Oscar Eberhard Schminke (1881-1969) was born in New York City. He attended the College of the City of New York
and studied piano. Schminke having been partially deaf from childhood, after studying piano, decided to become a dentist. He graduated
with a DDS from the New York College of Dentistry in 1903 and had a dental practice for eight years. In 1910, he returned to music,
studying piano and harmony with Max Spicer, organ and piano with Gaston Dethier, and study of Bach with Karl Straube in Leipzig, Germany.
In 1920, he held at his home the organizational meeting for the American Composers’ Fund Society, whose purpose was to award money
to American composers each year. He wrote an article in
The American Organist on organ scaling in Silbermann organs in 1933.
Schminke died on February 22, 1969 in Liberty, New York. In addition to his organ pieces, he composed songs, piano and choral music.
“Soldatenmarsch” (Soldiers’ March) from Schumann’s
Album für die Jugend (Album for the Young), Opus 68, was Schminke’s basis for his march. His title may have been inspired by
the “March of the Toys” from the operetta, “Babes in Toyland,” by Victor Herbert from 1903. The march
is dedicated to the great American concert organist, Clarence Eddy, who performed it in his recital on the four-manual Kimball
organ (1913) at First Presbyterian Church, Oakland, California on November 2, 1916. Easy.
