The Sketcher.

Otago Witness, Issue 1581, 11 March 1882, Page 27

The Sketcher.

£ WANDERIKO PIANIST.* U'he name of <. Louis Moreau G-ottschalk will probably be^ unfamiliar to many English amateurs, although during his lifetime he eni^ed great popularity in his own country — Anterioft— andevea in France, where he studied ana earned hia firßt laurelß as a pianist. Thirty jtow ago America in an artistic sense was conBi.loreil to bo a desert, and a musician coming from that desert and treating . Parisian amauiurs t.« all manner of negro melodies and national- airs, skilfully, arranged naturally cieatbd no small sensation. . Gottschalk for a time was the lion of fashionable drawing-rooms, and the critics, Berlioz, Tin the. Journal deß Debate, among the number, sang bis praises in unbroken (Unison. -From France Gottaohalk made artistic tours. into. Spain,, and here his reoeption was, if possiple.i.more; enthusiastic. He basked in ithe sub pf Eoyal f ifavour with a deb'gfit;>hioh only,/* flUi&an of , the .Great Republlo can .feel .i?» .suoh. exalted company, and his triumphs .and decorations are duly recordedt'/by his biographer. 'H.R.H. the Infanta DonarJosepha,' we are informed, ' one day #t her own dinner table. playfully and kindly presented him with a cake made by her Royal hands j'^apd Iten Jose ; Redondo, • the famous tioreklyi*; presented 'him. with a magnificent sword.;fbic,h had been the bane of bulls, withou^iiiuuibej',' asking, only for a autograph in return/ That Gottschalk was a pianist of. great* 'power, and refinement is acknowledged by all who heard him ; and his compositions, although essentially 'pieces.. <k salon, are uot withqut 'a certain individual charm, increased by the rhyltimical .piquancy jOf .theinatjonal airs which' he cleverly interweavea with, his own imaginiiogsV tJnfortun^tely^circupstangeH did not' allow 1 him to develop sach gifts as he poasessed. In 1,853 he returned to America, and th 6 death. of his., father, in straitened circumstances le^t him 'the; chief,. ju'ppQrfc, of his mother and he? young family^ The,auty, thus devolving 'apon him Gottschalk, who waa an excellent son and bro.tjb.er, aqoepfced'oheerfully, aad it Was in such ciioumstances that he begun' the Jife . of a wandering pianist of whicb the Voluino „ before : us the record. > . That record! It '^must'iDe owned^ 1b of more .than ordinary. '.' interest.; ',', ! Modern, are. perhaps the rnost, migratory race the world has ever "seen. I '"Even pur -English singers, rushiug from'^he p'royJ^oißl tojra, ft, another, 'J|eaye the, mostt xeßtles8 r .iip^trels. '.'of ,the middle ages far. behind';' and 1 in ''America v the .; distances thug traversed have! to be multiplied ten, or perhaps a hundwd' tin> ( esi' i "Singerß ,and .pj|aniß.tß,,thuß pass c iii one week more xaen'd cities, .than, Odysseus the weary years : of Tils wanderingß,'buc ifew of , them look at them aud their* inhabitants with, eyes more': open and intelligent than Gottschalk'si , •-,• .., „, : Tbere'is in these notes, Httla style, or compo sition. They were put down on the spur of the moment," and the author was" prevented by death ixom fitting them for publication. Moreover Qdtttfchajk^ri'native of NewXMeans wrote 'in French, and the translator's com mand of English, at least of literary English, is evidently far from perfect. It is, therefore, in the matter, not. in the manner, that the value' of the book must be discovered. To begin with the author himself, one oan hardly fail to sympathise with a nature so gentle and so full of genuine human kindness. Gottschalk, to quote but one instance, although : born in ,a Blave state, and belonging to a alave-owning family— some of bis maternal relatives were killed during the rebellion in St. Domingo tinder ToussiantL'Ouvertuire— from his earliest youth detested slavery." and' to that creed he remained attached during the troubles of the Civil War, : of which he, was. destined to sac more than other peaceful citizens. His portion in life, in spite of his, popularity, was not anenviable one. Concert tours such as he was compelled to undertake w,ere a mere matter of business, into which art entered only to. an infinitesimal degree. ' Moreover, a player could scarcely be "expected to" adhere to an ideal stancford 6i' excellence when he might have to perfom'befoife an" audience inclined to mistake the aeiiftn' of his feet on the pedals for nervous, twitcning. ' No w'oiider" that Gottschalk fre^ quently deßceaded to the level of his public, and committed arrangements of operatic aira for fourteen pianos and similar Americanisms. No one, indsad, felt the misery and-degrada tion of Buch a life more keenly than Gotts chalk himself. Here is one of mapy passages in his diary reflecting his state of mind :— ' As in tba past, I ' continue to b9 whirled in space. Thiirjagitated life is. a distressing monotony. TThe Ohartreux themselves have no 4 a mle more unpitiable and of more unchangeable rigidity than that to which my J||^tiny Kubmita me. Pianistonwnambulist 1 : ntr'is foreseen, everything is marked, everythii g is regulated in my peregrinations. Tnanks io the experience of my agent, I know in aJvAiicf, within a few dollars, the amount ' of the receipt** in a town of a given number of itil .thiUuts. I know with my eyes shut every ono of the inextricable cross threads that form ' t-.tm met work of the railroads) with which New England is covered. The railroad conductors Balute me familiarly as one of the ompliyeta. The yuuag girls at the refreshment-room' of the ataUou whom fire minutes, are given select for me the best cat of bam, and sugar my toa with the obliging smile that all well- taught

* * Notes of a Pianist." By Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Preceded by a short biographical sketch, with contemporary criticisms. Edited by his sister, Olara Got.Bchalk. Translated from (he French by Robert' E, pateraeri, M.D., (London ;, J, E, Mppham ana

tradespeople owe to their customers. At eight o'clock X salute,' in my black suit, my audience, and give them <l II Trovatore." At a quarter to nine they encore the'"Murmures Eolisns." At half- past nine they call again for "La Berceuse," in the midst of some young romantio virgins and Borne papaß slightly inclined in a semicofaHciouß state of sleep, who find the piece full of agreeable effects.' Troubles and mortifications ,of this kind G-ottschalk shared with most wonderful virtuosi before and after him. 1 But in addition to these he had to go through dangers of siege and battle, of which his peaceful profession, under ordinary ciroumatauces, knows nothing. Hjb chief concert tour in. the United States, coincided with the Civil War, and sometimes took him unpleasantly near the front. Hu diary makes frequent complaint of drunken recruits fillibg the railway carriages to suffocation, smoking horrid tobacco in the presence of 'ladies, and replying to polite remonstrance • with a crowd of epithets from the blackguard's dictionary, saying that we were no gentlemen, that these were' hir ladies, that, being soldiers, they have a right' to do as they please, and they will prove it to us.' But all this is as nothing to ! the exciting • scenes which ' G-ottschalk witnessed at Harrisbtirg, wb;ere his obstinate impresario had dragged him, in, spite of the imminent invasion;of ' the city by the, Confederate army under General Lee." 1 The following extracts— the last we have space to quotegive a vivid v idea of the excitement of the situation:— '' . .v" . ■ •Harrißbur^, June 16th 1 ,- 1863, 2 P-m.— A

Battery of artillery 'passes at full gallop. c are crushed in the midat of the' crowd. Jones Hotel is a quarter of a mile, off. Numerous groups stand before the telegraph-office. The rebels, the despatches announce, are eighteen miles off. All the shops are closed, and moat of the houses, from the garret to the cellar, 11 Decidedly our concert is done for," exclaims, in,' piteous voice, my poor Strakoßoh, who had just returned from a voyage of discovery. The reflection is rather a late one. . . -The hot,el is overrun hy a noisy crowd, in which 1 recognise many New York reporters, sent in haste by the great journals in the hope of furnishing their readers with sensational news. . i . . " Dinner, gentlemen !" A general tush to the dining-room. The hotel is j oat no w literally invaded. I succeed with great difficulty in Ending a place at the table. The poor blacks who, wait upon us look so sad and suppliant that it would seem to me laughable if I' did not know the horrors of slavery and the fate reserved for the negroes of the North. .' . . Old; men and children are leaving the city. A train left this morning carrying 'off many thousand fugitives. , A militia regiment passes at quick step jit is going to the front. They are'for the most part young men, from fourteen to eighteen years old.' " {) Eventually G-ottschalk manages to find a seat in 1 one of' the over-crowded trains, and winds up -his experiences with an exclamation leas' elegant than natural under the circumstances. 'It is two o'clock in the morning. We are at Philadelphia. Fifteen hours a.nd a-half 'railroad in one day, without ' counting our^ emotions 1* The devil take 'the poets who dare sing the pleasures of an 'artist's life!'— Pafl Mall Gazette. *•'.• l „",'"