Gustav Peter (1833 – 1919) was a composer of

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...

There is little known about the life of Gustav Peter.Ursula Hemetek, Rudolf Pietsch, ''Volksmusik, Wandel und Deutung.'' Böhlau Verlag Wien, 2000. . Seite 585
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/ref> He is supposed to be Austrian or Hungarian but this is still unsure. Sometimes his name is also given as ''Gustav Heinrich Peter'' or ''Heinrich Gustav Peter''. Gustav Peter is the composer of the widely popular piece of music ''Memory of Circus Renz'' that was published in 1894 with the original title ''Souvenir de Cirque Renz''. Its musical form is a

Galop In dance, the galop, named after the fastest running gait of a horse (see Gallop), a shortened version of the original term galoppade, is a lively country dance, introduced in the late 1820s to Parisian society by the Duchesse de Berry and popul ...

and primarily it was written for

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in ...

, but later adapted to various kinds of instruments. It is one of the best-known examples of circus music. The work was composed at a time when fast dances such as the ''Galopp'' were popular in German light music, the xylophone was being rediscovered as an instrument, and

Circus Renz Circus Renz was a German circus company. It was established in 1842 in Berlin by Ernst Jakob Renz (1815–1892) as ''Circus Olympic'' and existed until 1897. The company had several stationary buildings in Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, Breslau and V ...

was enjoying great popularity in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. Thus, a number of Gustav Peter's contemporaries composed similar works, most of which, however, have been forgotten today.

External links

* ''Souvenir de Cirque Renz'' historic music notes at the Landesbibliothek Coburg (Germany)
Brass band
�
strings
*Historic records: ** ''Souvenir de Renz'' Galopp (Dietrich), Albert Müller (Xylophon), Odeon No. 64765
Online at gramofon.nava.hu
** ''Souvenir à Cirque Renz'' '' H. Fliege'' is given as composer what is supposed to be a confusion because of his ''Gavotte Circus Renz Op. 105'', a distinct work. Glockenspiel-Solo played by Albert Müller, Favorite Record 1-14160
Online at gramofon.nava.hu
*Modern performances:
Xylophone

Typical arrangement for brassband
most popular kind of performance

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peter, Gustav 1833 births 1919 deaths Male composers