New Orleans-born Louis Moreau Gottschalk was an American composer and virtuoso pianist. Born to a Creole mother and Jewish father, he was a child prodigy on the piano, leaving Louisiana as a teenager to study music in Paris. He spent much of his career touring South America and the Caribbean and was dubbed the “Chopin of the Creoles.”
As a composer, he was renowned for his eclectic blend of classical, Creole, Caribbean, and Latin American influences. His Symphony No. 1, titled “A Night in the Tropics” (“Nuit des Tropiques”), premiered in Havana in 1860. It is one of the earliest examples of an orchestral work by an American composer that integrates elements of Afro-Caribbean music and rhythm.
The piece may have been played at one of Gottschalk’s famous “monster concerts” that employed hundreds of musicians (sometimes as many as 600!) performing newly composed works. One version of the Night in the Tropics was scored for 150 musicians, including an orchestra, a band and extra percussionists. There is also a two piano rendition another version for a smaller orchestra.
The symphony is in two movements, of which we are performing the second movement, titled “Festa Criolla.” Based on the samba, it features syncopated and lively Afro-Cuban rhythms.
A Night In The Tropics
D. 104
Composed in ca. 1858
By Louis Moreau Gottschalk
