A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Gottschalk, Louis

by Adolphe Jullien

GOTTSCHALK, Louis Moreau, born at New Orleans, May 2, 1829, of an English father, Doctor of Science at Cambridge, Mass., and a French mother, daughter of Count Antoine de Bruslé, colonel of a cavalry regiment and governor of St. Domingo at the time of the insurrection. His family being in easy circumstances, young Gottschalk studied the piano as an amusement; at the age of 12, having already gained much applause as a performer, he obtained permission to go to France in order to perfect himself. In Paris his first master was Charles Hallé; he afterwards studied with Camille Stamaty, and for composition with Maleden, who was Saint-Saëns first master. While he was in Europe his family sustained heavy pecuniary losses, and he at once thought of turning his talents to account. He was not content with merely playing in drawing-rooms, but gave concerts, by which his name as a composer and pianist was quickly established. He also made a professional tour in the French provinces, Savoy, Switzerland, and Spain, in which last country he had an enormous success (1852). On his return from his travels he was recalled by his father to New Orleans. He then began his first tour through America, playing his piano compositions and conducting his orchestral works at monster festivals; a symphony entitled 'La Nuit des Tropiques,' a triumphal cantata, an overture, fragments of an unpublished opera, etc., were heard in this way. His success was so great that an American speculator, Max Strakosch, since famous for having brought out Mme. Patti, engaged him to make an enormous tour through the States. From this period Gottschalk's career was one of incessant and successful travel. He died suddenly at Rio de Janeiro, Dec. 18, 1869, at the very time when, tired of his wandering life, he was planning a quiet retreat at Paris. For some time he had been weakened by fever and fatigue, and at one of his concerts, as if seized by a fatal presentiment, he was unable to finish his last composition, 'La Morte.' Probably no artist travelled more than Gottschalk; in Spanish America, where he was idolized by the public, there is scarcely a town of any importance where he did not give concerts. He wrote voluminously for the piano, and his works, popular at the time of their production, have an originality and a local colour which were much enhanced by the extraordinary charm, passion, and melancholy of his playing. He began to compose at the age of sixteen, and his 'Bananier,' at one time famous in both hemispheres, dates from this time. Few of his pieces, except a Tarantella for piano and orchestra, often played by Planté, have lived to the present day, and even most of their titles are forgotten. Gottschalk himself is only remembered as an exceptionally gifted virtuoso, whose successes were considerable, but who was not a great artist in the highest sense of the term, since he was never connected with the classical school, and his compositions owe their worth entirely to the charm, freshness, and variety of his playing.

[ A. J. ]