Notes of a Pianist during his professional tours in the United States, Canada, the Antilles, and South America. Preceded by a short biographical ... Translated from French by Peterson.

by Louis Moreau Gottschalk

Notes of a Pianist ... during his professional tours in the United States, Canada, the Antilles, and South America. Preceded by a short biographical sketch, with contemporaneous criticisms. Edited by ... Clara Gottschalk. Translated from the French by R. E. Peterson.

British Library, Historical Print Editions

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British Library
Gottschalk, Louis Moreau; Gottschalk, Clara;
1881.
480 p.; 12°.
10408.ee.17.

Genres: Music, Biography

506 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1881

About the author

Louis Moreau Gottschalk was a composer best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works.

Reviews

[Vicki · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is less about being a pianist and more about travelling through the United States, Canada, and South America in the 1860's. As Gottschalk's diary, it has its interests, including getting caught in the middle of the American Civil War, a civil war in Peru, and first-hand recollections of President Lincoln attending his concerts, but very little about music. Moments of astute observations on music and humanity are tainted by the racism, sexism, and classism you would expect from a rich American educated in Paris travelling through "uncivilized" parts of the world at that point in history. I was glad that I got through the overly effusive introduction to get into Gottschalk's own words, but in the end, wished that I'd set it down to read something else. Mixed review; wouldn't highly recommend.

[Robert Poortinga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remarkable reading, not as known as others but one of the most incredible travelling-musicians books ive read

[Vincent Hernot · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those texts you wish everyone would read.
Gottschalk was funny, wrote exceptionally well, had plenty to say, had a good mind, a hatred of fanaticism and bigotry, and a deep passion for - and an understanding of - music.
He doesn't wax lyrical about this or that composer, about this or that piece, but he reflects on music and musical feeling constantly, as well as on his life as an itinerant pianist. He also reflects on audiences, and their sense of what music means.
He was on the road a lot, travelling in often very poor conditions, playing every night, getting up at dawn, travelling for hours, playing, repeat: a gigging musician like today's, except with horses, steam trains and unheated hotels.
With him, we travel through 19th-Century America, a country of small towns and puritan habits, when San Francisco was only 20 years old and the Civil War was raging.
His observations of that country, and of others (South America, Canada), are often remarkable for their openness, clarity of mind and absence of prejudice. Again: he is very, very funny ('The preacher was evidently intent on emitting the greatest number of words with the smallest possible number of ideas.').
But he is also melancholy, reflective, at times depressed and rather fed up with the whole thing, and that he expresses superbly well too ('The other day in the car, I took refuge in the baggage car, seated on the case of my piano, alongside of which, O human frailty! were two other cases also inclosing instruments, now mute, since the principle that made them vibrate, under a skillful touch, like a keyboard, has left them. They were the bodies of two young soldiers killed in one of the recent battles').
The text is peppered with ideas about Art, about the artistic life ('I lament that the man of genius is, sometimes, from his private character unworthy of the sentiments his writings inspire, but do not forget that he dies while his works live (…) Rembrandt was a miser. Are his lights and shadows less marvelous? Was he a miser of his palette?').
Superb.

[Blake Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

A treasure

This book is an invaluable document. Gottschalk was a concert pianist who was born in New Orleans, spent his boyhood in the Carribean, and went, while still a boy, to Paris to study piano. He met there many noted musicians including Chopin. These memoirs consist of notes he made as a touring pianist giving concerts and recitals throughout America, north of the Mason Dixon line, during the Civil War. He made stops in numerous places, from Boston to St. Louis, and then the west coast, down through central and South America. He has colorful and impassioned things to say about travel, his accommodations, audiences, food, politics, religion, and many vivid and charming descriptions of places, events, and people. Written in a lively and engaging style, I found it a great pleasure to read. This books offers a unique view of its time from a man with a rare combination of American and European, Tropical and Northern (and Southern!) perspective. I read this on Kindle, and there are some errors due to automated transcription, like the word 'ears' appearing as 'oars' but they are comparatively few, and did not distract me from reading. Well worth the time, and the very low price.

[Sarah Dunmire · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am so disappointed about this. I had read great things about Gottschalk, as a pioneering, original American composer for piano. I bought his music and enjoyed it. And then he had to talk about his view of women. That we should not be anything but dainty and subservient. That he doesn’t like when we assert our rights. After reading halfway through and now having a magnificent female Vice President elect, I am officially throwing this trash away.