Louis Moreau Gottschalk--He was actually a rock star--but I'll put him here in the classical area.

About his lifestyle, in 1863 he wrote:

"I again began to live according to the customs of those primitive countries, which, if they are not strictly virtuous, are nonetheless terribly attractive. I saw again those beautiful triguenas, with red lips and brown bosoms, ignorant of evil, sinning with frankness, without fearing the bitterness of remorse. The moralists, I well know, condemn all this, and they are right. But poetry is often in antagonism with virtue; and now that I am shivering under the icy wind and grey sky of the north, now that I hear discussions about Erie, Prairie du Chien, Harlem and Cumberland, now that I read in the newspapers the lists of dead and wounded, the devastation of incendiaries, the abductions and assassinations that are committed on both sides under the name of retaliation, I find myself excusing the demisavages of the savannahs who prefer their poetic barbarism to our barbarous progress."

Here is one of his most famous pieces (another famous one is called "Bamboula," and Dr. John based his version of "Litanie Des Saintes" on a Gottschalk composition):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKDyYiCXlOg



My favorite work by Gottschalk is called "Night in the Tropics." It was written in Cuba and used a whole platoon of Cuban drummers. It starts slow, depicting the setting sun, and then it goes wild--evidently people in the tropics party better when the sun goes down and the temperature is not so sweltering.

"Night in the Tropics" reminds me of Gershwin's "Cuban Overture." And Gottschalk's piano miniatures Habanera time often sound like a precursor to ragtime and Scot Joplin.

Souvenir d'Andalousie

Celebrate the 4th of July with Gottschalk