[Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)]
Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma, http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com, replies to the post of Byron Hanson, Archivist at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, which noted the use of the tune of the Bamboula by Louis Moreau Gottschalk long before Samuel Coleridge-Taylor used it:
I suspect that Coleridge-Taylor and Gottschalk both
had a Caribbean source for the Bamboula, particularly since CT's awareness
of African music was second hand. Note might be made of the book by S.
Frederick Starr: Bamboula!; The life and times of Louis Moreau Gottschalk
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1995 -- Gottschalk was undeniably this
country's first music super star). A fourth use of the tune appears in Henry
F. Gilbert's The dance in the Place Congo, op. 15 (1908; rev. 1916), a
ballet first performed at the Metropolitan Opera House (recorded in 1977 by
Calvin Simmons conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic on New World Records
NW-228). Incidentally, much of Gottschalk's biography has led some to think
he was Black. He was not.
Comment by email:
Thank you for this additional information, Dr. Lerma -- I
believe I may have heard the Henry Gilbert music performed in Rochester in the
early 1960s at one of Howard Hanson's American music festivals but I'm not
sure! I need to hear more of Coleridge-Taylor's work, and the attention he is
receiving with new recordings in this centennial year should provide the
opportunity !
The Gilbert's piece (based on the double Scotch-snap) is, indeed, fascinating, albeit rarely played and recorded (I remember a recording by New World Records). It's curious that people may think that Gottschalk was an African-American: if I'm not mistaken he was also of Jewish origins. Wasn't the bamboula-section in Gilbert's piece based on creole songs?
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