''Bamboula'', Op. 2, is a

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

for

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

written by American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Louis Moreau Gottschalk during a delirium of

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella enterica'' serotype Typhi bacteria, also called ''Salmonella'' Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often th ...

in the French town of Clermont-sur-l'Oise in the summer of 1848. Dedicated "à sa Majesté Isabelle II, Reine des Espagnes", it is the first of the so-called set of four "

Louisiana Creole Louisiana Creole is a French-based creole language spoken by fewer than 10,000 people, mostly in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Also known as Kouri-Vini, it is spoken today by people who may racially identify as white, black, mixed, and Native ...

pieces" that Gottschalk composed between 1848 and 1851.

Musical analysis

According to the ''Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago'', the term "bamboula" refers to "a kind of vigorous African-based dance with singing and drumming", possibly from the Southern Kikongo ( Congo) language, in which it means "a word which transfers the force of external things into oneself"; and in the Jola languages "", "war dance" (Eastern Kikongo: "ignite"). An early 1950

Haitian Vodou Haitian Vodou () is an African diasporic religions, African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. It arose through a process of syncretism between several traditional religions of West Africa, West and ...

ritual recording by Harold Courlander, "Baboule Dance (three drums)", shows a traditional rhythmic drum pattern very similar to the specific rhythm found in Gottschalk's ''Bamboula''. This is evidence that the bamboula was an old dance based on a particular rhythm that Gottschalk heard in his youth; many

African Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

had come from Haiti and reference the term "bamboula"; this rhythm can also be found in various

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

islands. A 1954

biguine Biguine ( , ; ) is a rhythmic dance and music style that originated from Saint-Pierre, Martinique in the 19th century. It fuses West African traditional music genres, such as Bélé, with 19th-century French ballroom dance steps. History Two ...

-style recording, "Bamboula", made in April 1954 (with added lyrics in creole French) by Abel Beauregard Et l'Orchestre Créole Matou from Guadeloupe, is a cover version based on Gottschalk's ''Bamboula''. Being based on two Creole melodies ('' Musieu Bainjo'' and ''Quan' patate la cuite''), ''Bamboula'' was published with the subtitle ''Danse des nègres'' at the Bureau Central de la Musique on 22 April 1849 by Escudier (a Paris publisher); many unauthorized copies were issued in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

shortly thereafter. Its first concert performance occurred on the evening of 17 April 1849 at the

Salle Pleyel The Salle Pleyel (, meaning "Pleyel Hall") is a concert hall in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, designed by the acoustician Gustave Lyon together with the architect Jacques Marcel Auburtin, who died in 1926, and the work was completed i ...

during Gottschalk's second appearance as a professional pianist. The composition—written in the key of D-flat major, with a strongly rhythmically marked melody—is organized into three sections (AAB). The introduction begins with a concluding gesture in the bass range, mimicking a drum beat. The second is a transposition of the first theme, while the third is underlined by a heavily syncopated melody in the relative minor (B-flat minor). With a duple

time signature A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates th ...

and an ''Allegro'' tempo marking, the composition features many shifting moods and virtuosic passages.

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar, Classical music, Music Solo piano compositions by Louis Moreau Gottschalk 1845 compositions Piano compositions in the Romantic era Compositions in D-flat major