Dying From Malaria Is Less Embarrassing Than Dying From Syphilis

Louis Moreau Gottschalk was a poster boy for the American melting pot ideal. The son of a Jewish father from London and a Creole Haitian mother, he was born in the cultural potpourri that is New Orleans. He trained at the Paris Conservatoire and went on to tour extensively in Central and South America.

Souvenir De Porto Rico (Marche Des Gibaros) was written during a lengthy vacation in Puerto Rico. The first theme of the piece is based on a melody borrowed from “Si me dan pasteles, les dénmoles calientes” (which translates to “If You Give Me Cakes, Give Me Hot Ones"), a folk song of the local peasants. This use of folk music reproduced in a European classical form predates the work of Béla Bartók who frequently used native Hungarian songs as compositional themes. Gottschalk’s first theme, on first presentation, does not have any of the melodic spice or dance-like rhythm one would associate with Puerto Rican music. It sounds like a Eurocentric minor key dirge. However in repeated variations it grows in rhythmic and harmonic complexity. The second, major key theme is where I believe the song begins to shine. There are traces of ragtime – although the piece was written nearly fifty years before the invention of ragtime. The rhythm becomes more and more syncopated, perhaps an influence of Central American music. The melody successively becomes more chromatic. This chromaticism, rather than sounding dissonant or atonal, has a playful nature. Many of the runs are in conjunct half-step motion – and I think the one that screams RAGTIME is the Major 2 to the Minor 3, to the Major 3. This is the exact same melodic element that defines Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” from 1902. The entire form of the piece starts slow and simple, builds to a bundle of energy, and then dies away. It is written that the piece is intended to sound like the Gibaros (the local farmers) approaching from the distance and then marching away. I guess I can buy that. This storyline behind the music is a hallmark of the Romanic Era.

I admire this piece for its originality, especially its adaptation of various cultural influences into a Romanic piano solo. The work shows signs of virtuosity, however every note serves a purpose rather than just being excessively flashy. I also remember enjoying my first exposure to Gottschalk – a creative piece called “The Banjo” which sounded like … a banjo. Duh.