Bamboula, Op. 2, is a fantasy composition for piano written by American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk during a delirium of typhoid fever in the French town of Clermont-sur-l'Oise in the summer of 1848.[1] Dedicated "à sa Majesté Isabelle II, Reine des Espagnes",[2] it is the first of the so-called set of four "Louisiana Creole pieces" that Gottschalk composed between 1848 and 1851.
According to the Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago, the term "bamboula" refers to "a kind of vigorous African-based dance with singing and drumming", possibly from the Southern Kikongo (Congo) language, in which it means "a word which transfers the force of external things into oneself"; and in the Jola languages "", "war dance" (Eastern Kikongo: "ignite").[3]
An early 1950 Haitian Vodou ritual recording by Harold Courlander, "Baboule Dance (three drums)", shows a traditional rhythmic drum pattern very similar to the specific rhythm found in Gottschalk's Bamboula.[4] This is evidence that the bamboula was an old dance based on a particular rhythm that Gottschalk heard in his youth; many African Americans in New Orleans had come from Haiti and reference the term "bamboula"; this rhythm can also be found in various Caribbean islands.
A 1954 biguine-style recording, "Bamboula", made in April 1954 (with added lyrics in creole French) by Abel Beauregard Et l'Orchestre Créole Matou from Guadeloupe, is a cover version based on Gottschalk's Bamboula.
Being based on two Creole melodies (Musieu Bainjo and Quan' patate la cuite),[1] [5] Bamboula was published with the subtitle Danse des nègres at the Bureau Central de la Musique on 22 April 1849 by Escudier (a Paris publisher); many unauthorized copies were issued in Europe shortly thereafter.[6] [7] Its first concert performance occurred on the evening of 17 April 1849 at the Salle Pleyel during Gottschalk's second appearance as a professional pianist.[5] [8]
The composition—written in the key of D-flat major, with a strongly rhythmically marked melody—is organized into three sections (AAB). The introduction begins with a concluding gesture in the bass range, mimicking a drum beat. The second is a transposition of the first theme, while the third is underlined by a heavily syncopated melody in the relative minor (B-flat minor). With a duple time signature and an Allegro tempo marking, the composition features many shifting moods and virtuosic passages.