Jens Bodewalt Lampe (November 8, 1869 – May 26, 1929) was a Danish-born American composer, arranger, performer and band-leader of ragtime and syncopated dance music. Lampe was born in

Ribe Ribe () is a town in south-west Jutland, Denmark, with a population of 8,367 (2025). It is the seat of the Diocese of Ribe. Until 1 January 2007, Ribe was the seat of both a surrounding municipality and county. It is now part of the enlarged E ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

to Christian and Sophia Lampe. In 1873, his family moved to

St. Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, where his father took over leadership of the Great Western Band. Lampe was a child prodigy on the violin and became the first chair violinist for the Minneapolis Symphony at age 16. He met and married his wife, Josephine, while receiving tuition in Chicago in 1888. In the early 1890s, he and his wife moved to Buffalo, where they had four children, Walter, Petra, Dorothy and Joseph Dell (known later as "Dell"). At this time, he began composing and publishing his own music and led a dance orchestra. In 1900, a year after the success of Joplin's "

Maple Leaf Rag The "Maple Leaf Rag" (copyright registered on September 18, 1899) is an early ragtime musical piece composed for piano by Scott Joplin. It was one of Joplin's early works, becoming the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers. It ...

", he published his most successful and enduring song "Creole Belles", a rag or

cakewalk The cakewalk was a dance developed from the "prize walks" (dance contests with a cake awarded as the prize) held in the mid-19th century, generally at get-togethers on black slave plantations before and after emancipation in the Southern Unit ...

that sold more than a million copies in sheet music. The song was recorded by

Sousa's Band John Philip Sousa ( , ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to dis ...

in 1902 and has been a staple of jazz bands and ragtime pianists into the 21st century. He also collected,Fuld, James J. (2000) ''The Book of World-Famous Music'', 5th ed. Dover Publications. p. 385 and may possibly have composed, ''

Mysterioso Pizzicato ''Mysterioso Pizzicato'', also known as ''The Villain'' or ''The Villain's Theme'', is a piece of music whose earliest known publication was in 1914, when it appeared in an early collection of incidental photoplay music aimed at accompanists fo ...

'', the piece of

photoplay music Photoplay music is incidental music, soundtrack music, and themes written specifically for the accompaniment of silent films. Early years Early films (c. 1890–1910) merely relied on classical and popular repertory, mixed usually with improvi ...

whose main motif became a standard cue for stealth and villainy and has seen "hundreds of tongue-in-cheek uses" in features and cartoons.

References

External links

Jens Bodewalt Lampe
* Jens Bodewalt Lampe biography* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lampe, J. Bodewalt 1869 births 1929 deaths American male composers American composers Ragtime composers People from Ribe Musicians from the Region of Southern Denmark Danish emigrants to the United States