Composer, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. A keyboard prodigy, he was sent at 13 to study in Paris, where his playing and his compositions were widely admired. He was among the first Americans to feature nationalistic elements in his music, such as the piano piece Bamboula (1845), based on a New Orleans slave dance. Highly successful in Europe, he returned to the USA in 1853, and made several tours in the Americas. In 1865 he fled an amatory indiscretion in the USA and spent the rest of his life in South America, where he died of yellow fever.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano pieces. Although he is regarded as an American composer and musician, he spent most of his working career outside of the United States.
Biography
Gottschalk was born of a Jewish businessman from London and a white Creole Haitian in New Orleans, where he was exposed to a wide variety of musical traditions.
Only two years later, he left the United States and sailed to Europe, realizing that a classical training would be required to fulfill his musical ambitions. The Paris Conservatoire, however, initially rejected his application, and Gottschalk only gradually gained access to the musical establishment through friends.
Upon his return to the United States in 1853, Gottschalk travelled extensively; By the 1860s, Gottschalk had established himself as the foremost pianist in the New World. Although born in New Orleans, he was a supporter of the Union cause during the American Civil War -- and although he returned to his native city only occasionally for concerts, he always introduced himself as a New Orleanian.
He chose to again travel to South America, where he continued to give frequent concerts.
Gottschalk never recovered from the collapse and three weeks later, on December 18, 1869, died at his hotel in Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Works
Gottschalk's music was very popular during his lifetime, and his earliest compositions created a sensation in Europe. Early pieces like "Le Bananier" and "Bamboula" were based on Gottschalk's memories of the music he heard during his youth in Louisiana, and were regarded as magnificently exotic by the critics of the time. Throughout his life, Gottschalk used a variety of non-traditional, ethnically derived material for many of his compositions.
Gottschalk was also very successful as a composer of more traditional salon music. His most famous work in this vein is "The Last Hope, Religious Meditation" which enjoyed a spectacular success during Gottschalk's life, and for several decades afterward. Most critics regard Gottschalk's salon compositions as dated, musically shallow and insignificant in comparison with his more distinctive American ethnic music. In this context, some of Gottschalk's work, such as the 13 minute opera "Cuban Country Scenes" retains a wonderfully innocent sweetness and charm.
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