Bamboula (Gottschalk)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Bamboula, Op. 2, is a fantasy composition for piano written by American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk during a delirium of typhoid fever in the French town of Clermont-sur-l'Oise between 1844–45. Dedicated to "à sa Majesté Isabelle II, Reine des Espagnes", it is the first of the so-called set of three "Louisiana Creole pieces" that Gottschalk composed between 1844–46.
- During the summer of 1848 Gottschalk found himself at the country home of Dr. Eugene Woillez outside of Paris. It was there that he wrote the first two of four pieces based on Louisiana Créole tunes, La Savane and Bamboula. He introduced these pieces into the salons of Paris in 1849 when he returned and Bamboula quickly became an underground sensation. In April of that year he performed it at a public concert where it was received with wild enthusiasm. Dedicated to Isabella II of Spain, Bamboula ultimately became one of his signature pieces.[1]
Musical analysis
Based on two Creole melodies, Musieu Bainjo and Quan' patate la cuite, it was published with the subtitle of Danse des nègres at the Bureau Central de Musique on 22 April 1849 by the Paris publisher 'Escudiers', with many pirated copies being issued in Europe shortly thereafter. Its first concert performance occurred on the evening of Tuesday 17 April 1849 at the Salle Pleyel during Gottschalk's second appearance as a professional pianist.
The composition, written in the key of D-flat major, with a strongly rhythmically marked melody, is organized in three sections (A-A-B). The introduction begins with a concluding gesture in the bass range, mimicking a drum beat. The second is a transposition of the first theme, while the third is underlined by a heavily syncopated melody in the relative minor (B-flat minor). With a duple 2/4 time signature and an Allegro tempo marking, it is an exquisite and exotic musical piece with many shifting moods and virtuosic passages.
