Description
It is a fusion that has long played a role in popular music, apparent not only in commercial song and dance music using Latin American melodies and rhythms but also in early jazz and blues where tango rhythms are so often heard, as in W.C. Handy’s St. Louis Blues. And both Gottschalk in the 1850’s, close to the beginning of a creative American musical tradition, and Gould in the 1950’s when such a tradition has flowered considerably, show a combination of seriousness of approach with a popular touch. It is worth noting that Gottschalk, who was the first classically trained American musician to write works that are alive and interesting today quite apart from their historical significance, lived at a time when it was nothing out of the ordinary for a classical composer to write for the mass public. Gould has composed for Paul Whiteman’s band as well as for symphony orchestras, and for radio, films and the concert hall.