AMERICAN CLASSICS Louis Moreau GOTTSCHALK A Night in the Tropics Solo Piano Music Steven Mayer Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) virtuosity of Grande Fantaisie triomphale sur l’hymne Pasquinade is one of Gottschalk’s finest pieces. A Night in the Tropics: Solo Piano Music national brésilien, or the pianistic high jinks of Pasquinade Suggesting the French gavotte, its sunny mood and proud and Le Banjo? Interestingly, what sometimes leaves the strut, combined with its delicate pianistic intricacies, Some of the most commonly known facts regarding Louis Berlioz. Though denied admission to the Paris greatest impression when one hears the last three works creates a delicious musical morsel. Moreau Gottschalk include his having brought classical Conservatoire because its director seemed biased is not the glitter, but the core of what Gottschalk Chopin’s Berceuse must have been well-known to piano music to mid-nineteenth-century America, his against any American daring to strive to be an important expresses in each piece – the special character of each Gottschalk. While Chopin’s composition of this title is having composed music that appealingly reflected musical artist, Gottschalk persevered, returning to “subject” at hand. The almost heartbreaking, hushed pianistically more ornate, Gottschalk’s achieves an aspects of the cultures of the Americas and sometimes America a full ten years later, after many triumphs in sweetness of The Last Hope, the hypnotic mini-world of equally hypnotic mood by layering three pianistic registers anticipated ragtime, and his having been caught up in a France and Spain. Le Songe d’une nuit d’été, the grandeur of La Nuit des simultaneously, giving the effect of three hands playing at personal scandal that necessitated a sudden departure Once back on American soil, he began a profitable tropiques – all seem to be in keeping with a desire to once. A gentler and more peaceful composition has rarely from the United States to South America, where he later career as a touring pianist, at one point even turning down emphasize substance over mere pianistic rhetoric. It is as be seen. died. Less often spoken of is Gottschalk’s enormous debt an offer from P.T. Barnum, the famed circus creator. He if Gottschalk was himself so original that he could “show Grande Fantaisie triomphale sur l’hymne national to the greatest of all piano composers, Frédéric Chopin, documented much of his life and his travels to the off” pianistically, yet still write music that did not seem to brésilien is Gottschalk’s ode to his adoptive final home. whom he met and played for while living in Paris as a frontiers of the mid-nineteenth-century United States in place instrumental effect over musical substance. Popular with Brazilian pianists to the present day, it was youth. While outwardly Gottschalk’s life may have his memoirs, which remain sophisticated and insightful Perhaps as an idolized performer Gottschalk was under composed in 1869, the year of Gottschalk’s death. Its resembled that of the young Franz Liszt – the solo piano reading to the present day. Though a Southerner, he pressure to meet a certain “entertainment quota” that his basis is an anthem with a tune more operatic than tours, the audience adulation – inside the composer opposed slavery and supported Union causes tirelessly. audiences expected of him. But he once said that as a patriotic, though Gottschalk does not miss the opportunity remained loyal to an aesthetic quite close to that of Gottschalk is regarded by many musicologists as composer he knew he was “capable of better”. And the to create “martial” effects in some spots. Two of the Chopin, and one that was in some respects in opposition being the first important American composer to combine beauty and harmonic ingenuity of La Nuit des tropiques, variations may be said to anticipate piano music of the to that of Liszt. European pianistic craftsmanship with elements of the and others of his works, attests to this fact. Harlem Stride period of the 1920s, with their continuous The question of the essence of Gottschalk continues cultures of the Americas such as the music of slaves, folk The essence of Gottschalk’s aesthetic is indeed left-hand jumps. today, for while his piano works look and feel to be tunes, patriotic airs and Latin American dances. Elements delicate and refined, but also uniquely vital and original. Gottschalk was a friend of the French opera influenced by Chopin, much of the ever-increasing in his music may be said to anticipate ragtime and Harlem And in the end, it is really no less challenging for pianists composer Ambroise Thomas, adapter of Shakespeare’s A Gottschalk discography emphasizes an interpretive bent Stride Piano in their syncopation and particular pianistic to interpret Gottschalk’s music idiomatically than it is for Midsummer Night’s Dream (Le Songe d’une nuit d’été). pointing more in the direction of Liszt. Speaking of the scoring. them to properly interpret the works of Gottschalk’s most Gottschalk bases this short transcription on an aria from Parisian musical scene in the 1840s, the time of young A thorough look at Gottschalk’s approximately 150 important role model – Chopin. Thomas’ opera, creating an intoxicating sound-world in Gottschalk’s first trip to Europe, the pianist Charles Hallé piano pieces does indeed show Chopin’s great influence. Le Banjo is so original, so American and so effective the piano’s upper registers. spoke of “the three mighty heroes” of the piano, Chopin, Pieces like Fantôme de bonheur (Illusions perdues) and that a decent performance of it given anywhere in the Illusions perdues is the subtitle of Fantôme de Thalberg and Liszt. Of these, Gottschalk considered Reflets du passé clearly reflect Chopin’s waltzes and world practically guarantees success. It combines banjo- bonheur, and better describes the mood of the piece than Chopin to be of the first rank, followed by Thalberg, and nocturnes, as do many others of Gottschalk’s smaller like effects, such as repeated notes as well as guitar-like does its actual title. Wistful and melancholic, the gently then by Liszt. Gottschalk writes: “[In Liszt’s compositions] scale works. While a delicacy and wistfulness consistent strumming that became popular at the time of Gottschalk’s repeated right-hand pedal point notes seem like the falling we see the constant effort of one seeking to hide the with the Polish master’s pieces is quite evident, there childhood in New Orleans, with a non-modulatory bass of a light rain, creating a palpable sense of ennui. The sterility of his ideas beneath the mantle of the unusual, the exists in Gottschalk a heart-on-the-sleeve emotionality and an infectious motoric drive. Quotations from Stephen recurrent passages with descending sixths in the right eccentric and the obscure.” And later, “[Liszt] piles up that seems more American – perhaps Gottschalk’s take Foster’s Camptown Races at the opening, and in the coda, hand can be seen to depict falling tears, as well. A middle difficulty upon difficulty, as if he wishes only to defy other on a European aesthetic. This special quality in heighten the work’s wit and charm. section may have its origin in a similar spot in Chopin’s pianists.” By contrast, Gottschalk speaks of Chopin Gottschalk, one that led him to write such wonderfully During the second half of the nineteenth century The famous C sharp minor waltz, and Gottschalk’s coda glowingly, as possessing delicacy, reserve and sensitivity. expressive and extroverted pieces as Le Banjo and Last Hope was Gottschalk’s best-selling published conveys a true sense of pathos. Louis Moreau Gottschalk was born in New Orleans Pasquinade, does not negate a delicacy and refinement – composition. Four different Protestant hymns which later Equally affecting is the beautifully set opening theme to a Haitian Creole mother and a Jewish father of English as well as a lack of Lisztian excess – consistent with the took its main theme now exist. The manner in which of Reflets du passé, which combines a sense of longing origin. At fourteen he was sent to France and soon music of Chopin. Gottschalk’s lovely melody is surrounded by deep and of resignation. A short series of harmonic shifts usher enjoyed great popularity, both for his compositions and Where Berceuse may be influenced by the work of harmonic support and stratospheric angel-like flourishes in a concluding, gently undulating waltz, which ends with piano playing. He received praise from both Chopin and the same title by Chopin, what can one say of the glittery above creates an almost celestial calm. nine soft chime-like strokes. Today, the title La Nuit des tropiques sometimes expurgates an entire section of the piece – one which refers to the two-movement Symphonie romantique of the contains music as harmonically innovative as any same title, which includes a large scale opening Gottschalk ever wrote. For this reason I have made sure to movement followed by a samba-like finale entitled Fiesta include the formerly omitted material in my own criolla. Gottschalk, however, originally intended the title transcription, the present recording of which contains no La Nuit des tropiques to refer only to the opening over-dubbing to reproduce all the orchestral parts. Instead, movement, which tells a story of a serene night in the I have tried to use the “three handed effect” originally Antilles, a thunderstorm and its peaceful, shimmering made famous by Thalberg in his opera transcriptions, and aftermath. Perhaps, partly because this programmatic later used subtly, but frequently, by Gottschalk. It is my work was one of Gottschalk’s first attempts at a big-scale belief that a work as substantive as La Nuit des tropiques composition, the composer plumbed his own depths to need not remain solely in the orchestral repertoire, but also come up with not just lovely themes but also harmonic be able to be experienced through Gottschalk’s most innovation.