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Interlude
LOUIS MOREAU
GOTTSCHALK
(pronounciation: 'close the lips, advance
the tongue, appear a little like whistling, and you will have the key' -
La France musicale)
'My American manager Mr Victor Thrane
was an enormous man, very tall and fat ... and of a more venturesome a spirit
than his bulk and height suggested. He was originally a timber merchant,
and I always imagined to myself how far more fittingly he must have been
employed wrestling with great logs than with pianists ... Thrane employed
as his booking agent a man of unusual calibre. This was JW Gotschalk [sic]
who, as nephew of the pianist and composer of the same name, had some musical
reputation, and what was more useful, he was a lightweight boxing champion.
This qualification proved an "Open Sesame" even in the toughest
places in California, and some of them were pretty tough in those days [1898].
But directly the name of "Jimmy Gotschalk!" was announced, all
doors were open to our booking manager who thereby did good business for
us. Gotschalk was a charming fellow, who unfortunately came to a tragic
end; for having set up in concert management on his own, he was accidentally
killed at a railroad crossing with all his family, as he was proceeding
in a horse carriage to some town or other.'
- Mark Hambourg, From Piano to Forte
(London 1931)
'Beethoven and Liszt have contributed
to the advent of long hair'
- Gottschalk
'Without question the most colourful
personality, the most articulate intelligence, the most talented performer
and the most provocative composer among the mid-19th century [American]
pianists'
- H Wiley Hitchcock, Music in the United
States: A Historical Introduction
© Prentice-Hall Inc (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 1969)
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