Louis Moreau Gottschalk , the first American pianist and composer to achieve international fame, was born in New Orleans in 1829. His Creole mother and British father raised him in an environment full of contrasts. In the first years of his musical education in New Orleans, Gottschalk was influenced by the diverse culture of New Orleans, as “Le Bananier” (“The Banana Tree” and “Bamboula, Danse des Nègres” (“Bamboula, Negro Dance”), would later show. In 1842, at the age of 13, he went to Paris to pursue his studies and soon entered the elite circles of French culture, rubbing elbows with Victor Hugo, Alphonse de Lamartine, Frédérique Chopin, Jacques Offenbach and Hector Berlioz. During his first years in Paris, the young Gottschalk gave many public recitals. The novelty of his work, which displayed influences from the black and Creole cultures of New Orleans, earned Berlioz’s admiration. In 1846 and 1847 the two musicians performed together for a series of concerts at the Théâtre des Italiens. Before returning to America in 1853, Gottschalk performed hundreds of concerts in the major cities of Europe. While he had been praised in Paris as “the Louisiana pianist and composer,” Gottschalk realized upon disembarking in New York that his fame had arrived before he did. New York in turn brought him success and glory, but the death of his father brought Gottschalk new financial responsibilities, and he became the main bread winner for his large family. In 1854 Gottschalk traveled to Cuba to give a series of concerts. He went back to New York and became famous for his expensive piano lessons and adventurous love affairs. In 1857 he returned to the West Indies to begin a tour with Adelina Patti, the young singer who was later to perform with great success at the Theaters of New Orleans. Everywhere they traveled in Central and South America jubilant crowds greeted the pair. It was in the course of his five-year stay in the West Indies that Gottschalk started to keep a diary. His sister Clara later translated and published this diary under the title Notes of a Pianist. In Cuba, Gottschalk set up gigantic festivals and concerts during which he would perform such compositions as “La Fête champêtre cubaine” (“The Cuban Village Feast”), “La nuit des tropiques” (“The Tropical Night”), and “La Grande Marche” (“The Great March”). Adamantly opposed to slavery, Gottschalk renounced his loyalty to Louisiana and sided with the Northern cause before leaving Havana in 1862. During the Civil War, he toured frenetically around the United States, giving more than a thousand concerts between 1862 and 1865. While in California, Gottschalk was involved in a scandal with one of his students. The incident drove him back to Latin America in 1865 and he was never again to return to the country where he was born. Gottschalk’s life was characterized by intense travels, outstanding success wherever he performed and admission into the highest spheres of local societies. Gottschalk would often play concerts of his own music with immense orchestras of local musicians. He continued to compose new works throughout his lifetime and his published music sold well. Under the influence of Louis Fors, he became something of a local reformer, giving speeches in Buenos Aires or Montevideo about the advantages of the American public school system. In the spring of 1869 in Rio, he appeared weakened by an illness (probably yellow fever) that he had carried along with him most of his life. Gottschalk stopped his concert tour to rest. In November of the same year he collapsed over his piano in the middle of a concert. His doctor diagnosed an infection of the intestines and urged him to get some rest away from Rio’s heat. But on December 18, 1869, Gottschalk died at the age of forty. Rio gave him a majestic funeral but New York claimed his body the next year, and he was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
 

See: William E. Korf. The Orchestral Music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk. (Henryville: Institute of Midaeval Music, 1983).

Case 15 Gallery:

Sheet Music. "Bamboula. Danse des Nègres." in Gottschalk, "Miscellaneous selections for Piano." (New York, Boston, 1853-1893).
[Hill Louisiana Flat M20. G687 M5 no.1]

"The Bamboula" The Century Magazine. Feb 1886, vol. 31, no.4
[Hill Rare 051 C33, p524.]

Sheet Music. “Le Bananier."in Gottschalk, "Miscellaneous selections for Piano." (New York, Boston, 1853-1893).
[Hill Louisiana Flat M20. G687 M5 no.2]

Sheet Music. “Gottschalk’s Choicest Compositions” in Gottschalk, "Miscellaneous selections for Piano." (New York, Boston, 1853-1893).
[Hill La Flat M20 .G687 no.14]

Photograph. Carte de visite. L.M.Gottschalk. in Hill Louisiana Manuscripts.
[E: 70, Mss 2734]

Manuscript Letter. Louis Moreau Gottschalk. in Hill Louisiana Manuscripts.
[MS 1454]

Sheet Music. "Creole Songs from New Orleans in the Negro Dialect." Clara Gottschalk Peterson. (New Orleans: L.Grunewald Co., 1909)
[OS: P]