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Bamboula!: The Life and Times of Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Louis Moreau Gottschalk was an American original. A spellbinding piano virtuoso, he was America's first internationally recognized composer, whose "classical" works received accolades from Hector Berlioz and Victor Hugo, and whose arch-romantic melodies became for Americans the standard
expressions of common emotions. Perhaps most important, his immensely popular Louisiana and Caribbean pieces--such as Danza , Pasquinade , or Bamboula --anticipated ragtime by fifty years. Indeed, the colorful and exotic textures of Gottschalk's music establish him at the head of what is today the
mainstream of popular American culture.
In Bamboula! , S. Frederick Starr presents an authoritatively researched, engagingly written biography of America's first authentic musical voice. Starr paints for us a striking portrait of Gottschalk's childhood in 1830s New Orleans, a city madly devoted to music, where opera companies, music
halls, fiddlers and banjo-pickers, church choirs, and Army bands all contributed to what Starr calls "the most stunning manifestation of Jacksonian democracy in the realm of culture to be found anywhere in America." We meet Gottschalk's African-American nurse Sally, who regaled him with the creole
songs, legends, and lore of her native Haiti, which would inform some of his finest music. We travel with Gottschalk to Paris, where he was a sensation, playing in fashionable salons for the likes of Lamartine, Gautier, and Dumas; and we join his flight from the Revolution of 1848 to a town north of
Paris, where he composed his first great works-- Bamboula , La Savane , Le Bananier , and Le Mancenillier --all published over the name "Gottschalk of Louisiana." Starr describes Gottschalk's successful return to New York City in the early 1850s, where he enjoyed a degree of popularity never before
accorded to an American performer or composer, becoming our first homegrown concert idol. But Starr also examines the life-long struggle between the Catholic Gottschalk and earnest Protestant champions of "serious" music, a battle that pitted the austere values of northern Europe against the
brighter sensibilities of Paris, Louisiana, and the West Indies.
Based on extensive research, including hundreds of letters written by Gottschalk (in French, Spanish, and English) which are used here for the first time, Bamboula! illuminates an exotic but tragic life, as well as one of the most democratic phases of American cultural life, a world of bustling
impresarios and America's first bohemian circle. A major biography in every sense, it will help reestablish Gottschalk's place in American musical history.
expressions of common emotions. Perhaps most important, his immensely popular Louisiana and Caribbean pieces--such as Danza , Pasquinade , or Bamboula --anticipated ragtime by fifty years. Indeed, the colorful and exotic textures of Gottschalk's music establish him at the head of what is today the
mainstream of popular American culture.
In Bamboula! , S. Frederick Starr presents an authoritatively researched, engagingly written biography of America's first authentic musical voice. Starr paints for us a striking portrait of Gottschalk's childhood in 1830s New Orleans, a city madly devoted to music, where opera companies, music
halls, fiddlers and banjo-pickers, church choirs, and Army bands all contributed to what Starr calls "the most stunning manifestation of Jacksonian democracy in the realm of culture to be found anywhere in America." We meet Gottschalk's African-American nurse Sally, who regaled him with the creole
songs, legends, and lore of her native Haiti, which would inform some of his finest music. We travel with Gottschalk to Paris, where he was a sensation, playing in fashionable salons for the likes of Lamartine, Gautier, and Dumas; and we join his flight from the Revolution of 1848 to a town north of
Paris, where he composed his first great works-- Bamboula , La Savane , Le Bananier , and Le Mancenillier --all published over the name "Gottschalk of Louisiana." Starr describes Gottschalk's successful return to New York City in the early 1850s, where he enjoyed a degree of popularity never before
accorded to an American performer or composer, becoming our first homegrown concert idol. But Starr also examines the life-long struggle between the Catholic Gottschalk and earnest Protestant champions of "serious" music, a battle that pitted the austere values of northern Europe against the
brighter sensibilities of Paris, Louisiana, and the West Indies.
Based on extensive research, including hundreds of letters written by Gottschalk (in French, Spanish, and English) which are used here for the first time, Bamboula! illuminates an exotic but tragic life, as well as one of the most democratic phases of American cultural life, a world of bustling
impresarios and America's first bohemian circle. A major biography in every sense, it will help reestablish Gottschalk's place in American musical history.
- GenresBiography
Hardcover
First published January 5, 1995
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About the author
S. Frederick Starr
71 books42 followersStephen Frederick Starr (born March 24, 1940) is an American expert on Russian and Eurasian affairs, a musician, and a former college president, having served as President of Oberlin College for 11 years.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 17, 2014
Louis Moreau Gottschalk, born in New Orleans in 1829, remains a controversial figure in American music. One thing is certain: he was by all accounts one of the finest pianists of his time. After Chopin's death, only Liszt and Thalberg were considered his rivals.
But of course, since Gottschalk died 20 or so years before the advent of sound recording, we can't hear his playing. What we do have are his compositions, or a fragment of them, anyway, since many of them were never written down, and others are lost. What remains varies widely in quality - Gottschalk left us plenty of bombastic showpieces and sentimental, weepy salon pieces. But there is another body of his work that is more important: a group of small-scale compositions influenced by the folk songs and dance rhythms of the Americas - New Orleans, Cuba, Porto Rico, Brazil. (The intensely patriotic Gottschalk toured extensively in the Caribbean, Central American, and South America, and by the end of his life came to consider himself a Pan-American.) Pieces like "Bamboula," "Le Bananier," "Souvenir de Porto Rico," and "Ojos Criollos" ("Creole Eyes") are like nothing else in the classical piano literature. These compositions were sensational (in the literal sense) at the time, and deserve to be better known today.
Starr's lengthy biography is extremely well-researched and well-written. If I have few minor objections, they aren't really important enough to relate. One thing is made clear by Starr: Gottschalk had no patrons; he was a working musician who lived on sheet music sales and concert receipts. If some of his music seems as if it was composed to appeal to popular taste rather than to serve "high art," well, it was. But the best of Gottschalk's music is remarkable. And in its own way, this exhaustive biography is, too.
But of course, since Gottschalk died 20 or so years before the advent of sound recording, we can't hear his playing. What we do have are his compositions, or a fragment of them, anyway, since many of them were never written down, and others are lost. What remains varies widely in quality - Gottschalk left us plenty of bombastic showpieces and sentimental, weepy salon pieces. But there is another body of his work that is more important: a group of small-scale compositions influenced by the folk songs and dance rhythms of the Americas - New Orleans, Cuba, Porto Rico, Brazil. (The intensely patriotic Gottschalk toured extensively in the Caribbean, Central American, and South America, and by the end of his life came to consider himself a Pan-American.) Pieces like "Bamboula," "Le Bananier," "Souvenir de Porto Rico," and "Ojos Criollos" ("Creole Eyes") are like nothing else in the classical piano literature. These compositions were sensational (in the literal sense) at the time, and deserve to be better known today.
Starr's lengthy biography is extremely well-researched and well-written. If I have few minor objections, they aren't really important enough to relate. One thing is made clear by Starr: Gottschalk had no patrons; he was a working musician who lived on sheet music sales and concert receipts. If some of his music seems as if it was composed to appeal to popular taste rather than to serve "high art," well, it was. But the best of Gottschalk's music is remarkable. And in its own way, this exhaustive biography is, too.
June 8, 2016
If you haven't heard any of Gottschalk's piano music, go right now and do so; it is absolutely wonderful. He was America's first superstar performer, traveling all over the world giving virtuoso piano performances (he shipped his pianos everywhere with him) and collecting accolades and admirers in Europe and South America as well as the U.S. This biography follows him from New Orleans as he composes and performs; he was a stunning genius whose music is as complex as Chopin's, in my opinion. His use of folk melodies and sometimes dissonant tonalities even seem to presage Charles Ives (not that extreme, but it's there). This is a terrific bio of an American original.
January 25, 2025
He deserves 5 stars for the scholarship and research, 4 stars for trying his best to make an argument, but 3 stars for size - related to the second point above.
I absolutely ADORED Gottschalk's Notes of a pianist, so had to read this.
It's too long, too detailed, too all-encompassing, too veering off-course (although he would disagree I'm sure), there's too much we don't need to know, too much tangential information.
in the end, I'm not even sure I know Gottschalk better - I do, but not profoundly so.
I absolutely ADORED Gottschalk's Notes of a pianist, so had to read this.
It's too long, too detailed, too all-encompassing, too veering off-course (although he would disagree I'm sure), there's too much we don't need to know, too much tangential information.
in the end, I'm not even sure I know Gottschalk better - I do, but not profoundly so.
June 8, 2022
I love Gottschalk music. I had a great time reading about his life and listening to as much of his music as I could find on YouTube. Of course it means that it took me a long time to read this book.
February 24, 2015
Very informative and interesting biography of what I consider America's greatest composer. 5 stars for the information contained and 3 stars for the author's at-times nebulous prose, a fault with too many modern historical authors.
Gottschalk apparently had a near Liszt-level musical ability which one gets glimpses of in the book but is also downplayed. I would have preferred to know more about the mechanics of Gottschalk's performances than the vague purple prose quoted from various reviewers and critics at the time.
Gottschalk apparently had a near Liszt-level musical ability which one gets glimpses of in the book but is also downplayed. I would have preferred to know more about the mechanics of Gottschalk's performances than the vague purple prose quoted from various reviewers and critics at the time.
October 27, 2012
Outstanding chronicle of Moreau's life. Very detailed and expertly researched, a welcome addition to the limited, reliable source material available on this American pianist.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews