One of the so-called Creole Romantic musical dynasties of New Orleans, the Dédé family including father Edmond and son Edouard – were among the most noted of the city’s nineteenth-century free black community. Along with another father/son pair named Lambert, these pioneering African-American composers helped to develop the cross-cultural musical language that served as a link between European concert music, ragtime and jazz.
The alternately Gallic and Italianate Mon pauvre cœur (1852) was Edmond Dédé’s first local success and the earliest piece by a black person to be published in New Orleans. The zany Françoise et Tortillard (1877), dating from his Bordeaux years, is a lightning-fast comedy, while the orchestral Chicago Välse (1891) dates from Edmond’s later years in Paris and is by turns brassy and stentorian, dreamy and sentimental. The composer often maintains a certain dignity even in the midst of frivolity, an example being Méphisto masqué, a polka with a buzzing ensemble of mirlitons, or French kazoos.
Tracklist
Artist details
Dédé, Edmond
Chicago
1 Chicago 08:35
Tond les chiens, coup' les chats (Duo burlesque)
2 Tond les chiens, coup' les chats 03:59
Mirliton fin de siecle (Polka originale)
3 Mirliton fin de siècle 03:54
Reverie champetre
4 Rêverie champêtre 02:56
Dede, Eugene
Dédé, Edmond - Arranger
En chasse (Mazurka elegante)
5 En chasse (orch. by Edmond Dede) 04:12
Dédé, Edmond
Mephisto masque (Polka fantastique for piano)
6 Méphisto masqué (for piano) 04:22
Battez aux champs (Cantata)
7 Battez aux champs 05:40
El Pronunciatiamento (Marche espagnole)
8 El Pronunciatiamento 03:12
Cora La Bordelaise (Chansonnette)
9 Cora La Bordelaise 03:25
Mon pauvre coeur
10 Mon pauvre coeur 03:44
Chicago (for solo piano)
11 Chicago 05:28
Mon Sous Off! (Chansonnette)
12 Mon Sous Off! 04:32
Francoise et Tortillard (Saynete comique)
13 Ouverture 00:53
14 Rondeau 01:16
15 Duo 02:38
16 Quadrille et galop final 00:43
Mon Sous Off!cier (Quadrille brilliante)
17 Mon Sous Off!cier 07:18
Mephisto masque
18 Méphisto masqué (for orchestra) 05:28
