Charles Neustedt: Le Chant du Gondolier (Barcarolle), Op.77 No.3
The French composer Charles Neustedt (1838-1908) seems to have written a few popular gavottes, tyroliennes and operatic fantasies, but I cannot find much information on his life. Probably born in Saumur, he was a sometime 'professor' at the Couvent des Oiseaux and College Rollin. The first of these institutions was a famous Parisian gaol of the French revolution, which was turned into a convent in 1824. The second was a private college in the Rue Lhomond. I guess he may have been what we would now call a peripatetic music teacher. He was obviously well regarded, as I have seen several works by other composers dedicated to him. In 1879, he took over the Flaxland piano manufacturing business for a few years. This piece - 'The Gondolier's Song' - comes from a set of Feuillets d'Album (album leaves). It is mildly Gounodian in style. Actually, set to words, it would not have been out of place in Gilbert & Sullivan's 'The Gondoliers' - especially the slightly syncopated middle section.
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