Bamboula!: The Life and Times of Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Gottschalk, the first significant American composer, packed an incredible amount into his 40-year lifespan (1829-1869). Born in New Orleans to an Anglo-German-Jewish father and a French-Haitian mother, he straddled two worlds as a musician: the European, with its great cultural heritage (Chopin congratulated Gottschalk at an early concert) and the popular folk traditions of his native Louisiana-and later of Cuba and much of Latin America. He was a remarkable showman, dazzling audiences with his coruscating displays, often improvising at the keyboard; disappointingly little of his enormous output was written down, and much of what was has been lost. As Gottschalk journeyed indefatigably-to Paris, to Switzerland, back to his birthplace, then New York City, Boston, Cuba, Puerto Rico, California, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, making and losing fortunes-hysterical audiences and press panegyrics followed him; so, occasionally, did scandal, perhaps inevitable for a man whose impact can be compared to that of Michael Jackson today. Was Gottschalk a great composer or merely a marvelous pianist and phenomenal showman? Judgment must be made on so few pieces: Bamboula, a riot of rhythmic color, the lavishly scored symphony A Night in the Tropics, the Grande Tarantelle for piano and orchestra, a few lugubrious salon pieces, the sprightly arrangements that form the popular ballet Cakewalk. In this magisterial biography, Starr, former president of Oberlin College, makes an eloquent case for Gottschalk as the first great musical democrat, a man who might well have changed the course of American music had he lived longer. He also, with a wealth of colorful detail, brings the musical and cultural life of half a dozen countries in the mid-19th century vividly before the reader. Starr's book, like all fine biographies, instructs, entertains and offers infinite food for thought. Illustrations not seen by PW.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.