Gottschalk, Louis Moreau (môrō` gŏt`shôk), 1829–69, American pianist and composer, b. New Orleans, of English-French parentage, studied in Paris. Chopin and Berlioz praised his playing, and he appeared successfully in Europe, the United States, and South America. His orchestral compositions include two symphonic poems, La Nuit des Tropiques and Montevideo. He composed more than 100 piano pieces, essentially written in the romantic style with additional elements drawn from vernacular American traditions such as African-American and Creole rhythms and Spanish subjects. Immensely popular in his lifetime, these include The Banjo, The Last Hope, and The Dying Poet.

Bibliography

See his Notes of a Pianist (1881).

Gottschalk, Louis Moreau

(born May 8, 1829, New Orleans, La., U.S.—died Dec. 18, 1869, Rio de Janeiro, Braz.) U.S. composer and pianist. He was exposed early to the music of New Orleans's Caribbean and Latin American population. Sent to France at age 13 to study music, he quickly became known throughout Europe as a piano virtuoso and a composer of exotic piano works. He returned in 1853 and toured the U.S., West Indies, and South America. Though he wrote operas and symphonies, he is known for his more than 200 piano pieces, including La Bamboula, Le Bananier, Le Banjo, L'Union, and The Dying Poet. Gottschalk was the first American pianist to achieve international recognition and the first American composer to employ Latin American and Creole folk themes and rhythms.

Gottschalk, Louis Moreau (1829–69) composer; born in New Orleans, La. A keyboard prodigy, he was sent at age 13 to study in Paris, where his playing and his compositions were admired by Chopin and Berlioz and became the rage of Europe. He was among the first Americans to feature nationalistic elements in his music, such as the piano piece Bamboula (1845), based on a New Orleans slave dance. After sensational success in Europe, Gottschalk returned to the U.S.A. in 1853, to be wildly applauded for his playing and his nationalistic pieces such as Le Banjo (1855). After tours in the Americas and many hastily-written piano pieces (usually brilliant and facile, often over-sentimental), in 1865 he fled an amatory indiscretion in the U.S.A. and spent the rest of his career in South America. Exhausted by his incessant exertions, he died of yellow fever in Rio de Janeiro.