Want to listen to a FUN piece of #ClassicalMusic?
Number 33 in my Top 100 Favorites for a #ClassicSummer is just that — & you can listen to it played by a full orchestra OR on a single piano as originally composed.
Here’s the story: There’s an American composer named Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829 - 1869), and — as far as I know — he mainly wrote for piano.
In the early 1950s, the NY City Ballet commissioned a ballet, & a dude by the name of Hershy Kay orchestrated…
Continued…
Gottschalk’s piano music & turned it into a ballet called “Cakewalk.”
I have never seen the ballet — but I will add that the dance we all know as the Cakewalk has quite a racist history — dating back to southern plantations — & I have no idea what the ballet is like.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cakewalk
Anyway, today’s piece was written by Gottschalk, & he called it “Bamboula.” Kay orchestrated “Bamboula” as part of his ballet & called it the Grand Walkaround.
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Has a ballet ever made you laugh?
Pineapple Poll (I saw this show):
@grayman Well that was impressive!
Of course, the minute I heard the music I thought “Gilbert & Sullivan” — and I saw aspects of Pinafore & Pirates/Penzance in the show.
Then I heard portions of Sullivan’s “Overture di Ballo” at the end — one of my recommended pieces for a #ClassicSummer.
Interestingly, yesterday I recommended a piece by Gottschalk that was later used in a ballet that premiered in 1951 — and I looked up this ballet & saw that it too premiered in1951. 😃