Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829 – 1869) was the eldest
son of a Jewish-English New Orleans real estate
speculator and his French-descended bride. Gottschalk
may have heard the drums at Place Congo in New Orleans,
but his exposure to Creole melody likely came through
his own household; his mother had grown up in Haiti and
fled to Louisiana after that island's slave uprising.
Piano study was undertaken with Narcisse Lettellier,
and at age 11, Gottschalk was sent to Paris. Denied
entrance to the Co...(+)
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829 – 1869) was the eldest
son of a Jewish-English New Orleans real estate
speculator and his French-descended bride. Gottschalk
may have heard the drums at Place Congo in New Orleans,
but his exposure to Creole melody likely came through
his own household; his mother had grown up in Haiti and
fled to Louisiana after that island's slave uprising.
Piano study was undertaken with Narcisse Lettellier,
and at age 11, Gottschalk was sent to Paris. Denied
entrance to the Conservatoire, he continued with
Charles Hallé and Camille Stamaty, adding composition
with Pierre Maleden. His Paris debut at the Salle
Pleyel in 1845 earned praise from Chopin. By the end of
the 1840s, Gottschalk's first works, such as Bamboula,
appeared. These syncopated pieces based on popular
Creole melodies rapidly gained popularity worldwide.
Gottschalk left Paris in 1852 to join his father in New
York, only to encounter stiff competition from touring
foreign artists. With his father's death in late 1853,
Gottschalk inherited support of his mother and six
siblings. In 1855, he signed a contract with publisher
William Hall to issue several pieces, including The
Banjo and The Last Hope. The Last Hope is a sad and
sweetly melancholy piece, and it proved hugely popular.
Gottschalk found himself obliged to repeat it at every
concert, and wrote "even my paternal love for The Last
Hope has succumbed under the terrible necessity of
meeting it at every step." With an appearance at
Dodsworth Hall in December 1855, Gottschalk finally
found his audience. For the first time he was solvent,
and at his mother's death in 1857 Gottschalk was
released from his familial obligations. He embarked on
a tour of the Caribbean and didn't return for five
years. When this ended, America was in the midst of
Civil War. Gottschalk supported the north, touring
Union states until 1864. Gottschalk wearied of the
horrors surrounding him, becoming an avid proponent of
education, playing benefit concerts for public schools
and libraries. During a tour to California in 1865,
Gottschalk entered into an involvement with a young
woman attending a seminary school in Oakland, and the
press excoriated him. He escaped on a steamer bound for
Panama City. Instead of returning to New York, he
pressed on to Peru, Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina,
staying one step ahead of revolutions, rioting, and
cholera epidemics, but he began to break down under the
strain. Gottschalk contracted malaria in Brazil in
August 1869; still recovering, he was hit in the
abdomen by a sandbag thrown by a student in São Paolo.
In a concert at Rio de Janeiro on November 25,
Gottschalk collapsed at the keyboard. He had
appendicitis, which led to peritonitis. On December 18,
1869, Gottschalk died at the age of 40.
The impact of Gottschalk's music on the later
development of ragtime might seem obvious, yet there is
no proven link from him to the syncopated popular music
he anticipated in works like Bamboula. The music of
Scott Joplin and Jelly Roll Morton show traces of
Gottschalk's melodic shape and rhythmic pulse, and the
New Orleans-born Morton likewise studied under
Lettellier. Nickelodeon pianists disserviced Gottschalk
by loving him too well; pieces like The Dying Poet and
Morte!! turned many a dramatic corner in silent movie
houses, and the public began to identify these themes
as cliché. By the 1940s, Gottschalk was condemned as
hopelessly old-fashioned, and it would take decades of
work by scholars to improve his critical fortunes. In
his best music, Gottschalk was an American original;
masterpieces like Souvenir de Porto Rico, Union, and O
ma charmant, épargnez-moi! transcend time through
their emotional power, technical mastery, audacity,
wit, and charm.
"The Last Hope" is annotated "Meditation Religieuse".
It was hugely successful. Gottschalk drew upon a
popular vein, that of the religious meditation. The
composition became a Presbyterian hymn, "Holy Ghost
with light divine...".
