Henry Eichheim (1870-1942) was an American violinist and composer whose music reflects early twentieth-century interest in musical cultures beyond Europe. Born in Chicago, he studied violin and composition before building a career as performer and composer.

Eichheim travelled widely and collected instruments, absorbing sounds that fed into orchestral and chamber works. His music includes pieces with titles and sonorities inspired by places including Bali, China and India.

His style is colourful, atmospheric and exploratory, often using Western concert forces to evoke unfamiliar scales, timbres and ceremonial impressions. Heard today, it belongs both to musical curiosity and to the period assumptions through which such curiosity was filtered.

Eichheim remains a specialist figure, but an intriguing one. His work opens a window onto a time when American composers were beginning to look beyond the old European map, sometimes with scholarship, sometimes with theatre, often with both.