Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869); USA

Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829–1869) was born in New Orleans to a Jewish father of English-German background and a Creole mother of French descent. Exposed from childhood to the extraordinarily varied musical culture of New Orleans, he absorbed European, Caribbean, African American, and Creole influences. At thirteen he went to Paris, where he studied privately after initially being refused admission to the Conservatoire. His performances and early compositions won admiration from figures including Chopin and Berlioz. Gottschalk became an internationally celebrated piano virtuoso, touring extensively through Europe, the United States, the Caribbean, and South America before dying in Rio de Janeiro at the age of forty.

Gottschalk was among the first American composers to achieve an international reputation and among the earliest to incorporate New World vernacular materials prominently into concert music. Piano works such as Bamboula, Le Bananier, and La Savane draw upon Creole and Caribbean rhythms and melodies, while The Banjo evokes African American instrumental style with remarkable vitality. More sentimental works such as The Last Hope became immensely popular in nineteenth-century parlors. His large-scale Symphony No. 1, “A Night in the Tropics” combines European symphonic writing with Caribbean rhythmic energy. Gottschalk’s cosmopolitan musical identity makes him a uniquely important precursor of later American musical pluralism.

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Gottschalk, Louis Moreau (b New Orleans, 1829; d Tijuca, nr. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1869). Amer. pianist, conductor, and composer. His pf. début in 1844 was praised by Chopin. On return to USA toured widely, playing and conducting his own sentimental and naive mus. for unsophisticated audiences who enjoyed his virtuoso panache and his arrs. of nat. airs. Collapsed on stage in Rio after playing a piece called Morte! and died a month later. Wrote 2 operas; 2 syms.; Grande Tarantelle, The Union, and Marcha triunfal y final de opera, all for pf. and orch.; and pf. pieces such as The Dying Poet (1863-4).

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