The Symphony No. 1 "La nuit des tropiques" (lit. Night of the Tropics), D. 104 (RO 255), is

Louis Moreau Gottschalk Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States. Life and car ...

's first and most well-known

symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

Background

The symphony was probably completed in 1858; the first movement, sometimes subtitled ''La nuit des tropiques'', was premiered in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

during the winter of the following year. Fourteen months later, the full symphony, with the second movement, "Une Fête sous les tropiques" (lit. A day in the tropics), was performed at one of Gottschalk's "monster concerts" with an orchestra of over 600 players, inspired by Berlioz's similar performance venues. The manuscript survived in Havana until 1932, when it was stolen, only to reappear in a

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

in the 1950s. The first premiere in the US was not until 5 May 1955, when

Howard Shanet Howard Shanet (9 November 191819 June 2006) was a U.S. conductor and composer. He was also a music professor at Columbia University, and the chairman of its music department from 1972–1978. Biography Howard Shanet was born on 9 November 1918 in ...

conducted the

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Orchestra with his own arrangement of the score for a smaller orchestra. The symphony was first recorded in 1971, with an edition by

Igor Buketoff Igor Konstantin Buketoff (29 May 19157 September 2001) was an American conductor, arranger and teacher. He had a special affinity with Russian music and with Sergei Rachmaninoff in particular. He also strongly promoted British contemporary music ...

that called for a total of only 150 players, including a full symphony orchestra, an extra band, and many

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...

percussion instruments.

Structure

The symphony is written in two movements: #Andante #Allegro moderato The first movement, a "divine tropical sunset-with-storm," begins and ends with strings, building into an agitated section, where the winds and brass support them before coming back to the opening phrases. It is considered more "European" than the second movement, which historically is probably the first orchestral setting of a

samba Samba (), also known as samba urbano carioca (''urban Carioca samba'') or simply samba carioca (''Carioca samba''), is a Brazilian music genre that originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century. Havin ...

. Forty-four measures from the end of the second movement are missing in the manuscript full score; although one conductor suggests this was possibly "for the orchestra to improvise in a jazz-like manner", this seems highly unlikely with such huge instrumental forces, plus the missing passage survives in a contemporary two-piano arrangement by Gottschalk's Brazilian friend and publisher

Arthur Napoleão dos Santos Arthur Napoleão dos Santos (6 March 1843 – 12 May 1925) was a Portuguese composer, pianist, instrument dealer and music publisher. He was brother of Aníbal Napoleão and Alfredo Napoleão. Biography He was born in Porto, Portugal, and gave ...

. A typical performance takes approximately 20 minutes.

References

External links

* *Recording of the first movement (Andante), with

Maurice Abravanel Maurice Abravanel (January 6, 1903 – September 22, 1993) was an American classical music conductor. He is remembered as the conductor of the Utah Symphony Orchestra for over 30 years. Life Abravanel was born in Salonika, Rumelia Eyalet, Ottom ...

conducting the

Utah Symphony The Utah Symphony is an American orchestra based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The orchestra's principal venue is Abravanel Hall. In addition to its Salt Lake City subscription concerts, the orchestra travels around the Intermountain West serving c ...

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YouTube
*Recording of the second movement (Allegro moderato), with

conducting the

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Gottschalk Gottschalk or Godescalc (Old High German) is a male German name that can be translated literally as " servant of God". Latin forms include ''Godeschalcus'' and ''Godescalcus''. Given name * Godescalc of Benevento, 8th-century Lombard duke *Godescal ...

Compositions by Louis Moreau Gottschalk 1858 compositions