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, pianist, and virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States. Life and career Gottschalk ...

'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 c ...

Background

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

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Berlioz Louis-Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer and conductor. His output includes orchestral works such as the ''Symphonie fantastique'' and ''Harold en Italie, Harold in Italy'' ...

'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 a ...

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

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

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 conducting, conductor, arranger and teacher. He had a special affinity with Russian classical music and with Sergei Rachmaninoff in particular. He also strongly promoted Unit ...

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

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean or African Caribbean people are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern Afro-Caribbean people descend from the Indigenous peoples of Africa, Africans (primarily fr ...

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 () is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilians, Afro Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, It is a name or ...

. 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. 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 for over 30 years. Life Abravanel was born in Salonika, Rumelia Eyalet, Ottoman Emp ...

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 ...

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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''. Similarly, the Arabic equivalent of the name is Abdullah (عبد الل ...

Compositions by Louis Moreau Gottschalk 1858 compositions