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Romantic French

LITOLFF, Henry

Henry Litolff, photographed in 1864 by Étienne Carjat.

Born in London, Aug 7, 1818
Died in Bois-Colombes, Aug 5, 1891

  • Litolff was a touring concert pianist, piano teacher and composer.
  • Litolff was born in London, and was based in a series of European cities throughout his career, eventually ending up in Paris.
  • At various times he worked as a conductor of the Warsaw National Theatre Orchestra; Kapellmeister of the court of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and owned a music publishing house.
  • Fun (Weird?) Fact: his father, Martin Louis Litolff, was a dance violinist from Alsace who ended up in London because he was taken prisoner by the British during the Peninsular War in Spain. Martin married a Scottish lady in London, so Litolff was Alsatian-Scottish.1

Sources

  1. Ted M. Blair and Thomas Cooper, “Litolff, Henry,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed November 7, 2019,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000016780.

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