Ketterer, Eugene

International Music Score Library Project [IMSLP] entry: Eugene Ketterer

Eugene Ketterer was born in Rouen, France in 1831, and died in Paris of smallpox during the siege of 1870. He wrote hundreds of pieces of salon music for piano, many of them transcriptions from operas of the period.

Piece	MP3	Midi	Genre
L'Argentine		MIDI	piano salon
	L'Argentine, Fantaisie-Mazurka, Op 21; Tempo di Mazurka, Scintillante. This is Ketterer's best-known piece. L'Argentine here is not the country, but a silver fish, represented here by the darting figuration in the RH. The piece was first published in 1856, by Bote u. Bock, and dedicated to Mademoiselle Helene Wilhelmine de St. Germain, the 12yo daughter of a French senator. Sequenced primarily from the First Star Folio, but also from the PD sources on IMSLP. Despite the instruction Tempo di Mazurka, Scintillante, there are only a few nods to actual mazurkas, and I haven't tried very hard to add any; but it definitely scincillates [in contrast to some very plodding versions on YouTube].
Gaetana		MIDI	piano salon
	Gaetana, Mazurka, Op 101, Tempo di Mazurka, published in 1862 by Schott (Mainz) and Colombier (Paris), and dedicated to Senorita Berta Garnier (at least in the Spanish edition featured by IMSLP). Primarily sequenced from the Second Star Folio, but also compared with versions available at IMSLP. The result is an elegant mazurka. This piece has somewhat of a resonance for me, as I learned it from a music collection of my mother's, from her childhood. Gaetana is a girl's name meaning from Gaete (Italy); the most famous Gaetana seems to be Maria Gaetana Agnesi, the mathematician who studied the witch (a mistranslation or perhaps a pun) of Agnesi, which describes the Cauchy distribution, y == 1/(x^2 + 1).
Chanson Napolitaine, Op. 248		MIDI	piano salon
	This piece is subtitled La Passariello, `The Sparrow', and marked Andantino. Sequenced in 2020 from a copy in my collection. Published by Leon Grus, of 31 Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, Paris, in 1869 [the year before the Prussian invasion, see below], and sold for 6F per copy. The piece is dedicated to Heloise Dutuit [1810-74], sister to Eugene Dutuit who was mayor of Rouen and a noted art collector, and fled to England during the invasion. There is much more about the Dutuits on the Web. There is a YouTube performance of a southern Italian folk song with the same name, but the tune is quite different. In this version, the piece is gently rocking and comes with two variations.
Mabel -- Danse de Godfrey, Op. 181		MIDI	piano salon
	This waltz is a transcription brillante of a piece for band by Daniel Godfrey qv, a fairly well-known English composer and bandmaster. Godfrey came to prominence by providing the music for the wedding of the then-Prince of Wales [later King Edward VII] and Princess [later Queen] Alexandra. On the back of that, his Mabel and Hilda Waltzes were wildly popular in the period 1863-65. Ketterer's version was composed around 1865. Sequenced in 2021 from a copy in my collection. The piece was published in Paris by Camille Prilipp, and dedicated to Mademoiselle Isabelle de Lallo [about whom Google knows nothing]. An introduction [marked, and here played, Andante, but TBH it works better played rather quickly], is followed by the waltz. The main theme has a catchy simplicity, which no doubt went down well in the pub and the music hall.
Caprice Hongrois, Op. 7		MIDI	piano salon virtuoso
	This piece is subtitled Etude de Concert, in Octaves. It is a fairly early piece, probably from 1853-56. Sequenced in 2024 from the version in the 6th Star Folio [Paxton, undated]. I have characterised it as a virtuoso piece, perhaps wrongly; it's not all that difficult, apart from some fast runs and lots of octaves that could prove tiring. I have followed the score as accurately as possible; this is less easy than it should be as the pedalling, the staccato indications, the phrasing and emphases are quite eccentric, and I suspect a number of printing/editorial errors. There is a piano duet version at IMSLP, pretty much the same notes but spread over four hands, which makes the piece much easier! There is a somewhat militaristic introduction, with an imitation of a drum, marked Allegro risoluto. This is followed by a jaunty Allegretto, which eventually turns into the plethora of octaves, marked MM = 100. This veers between loud and quiet, but finishes with a very loud [Tutta Forza] section. The actual ending is perhaps a little weak, finishing with a brief return to the drum beat. An IMSLP version indicates a dedication to Madame de Magnoncour, nee de Tracy. She seems to have no independent entry known to Google, but there are some references to her which I didn't follow up.

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Andy Walker, anw [at] cuboid4.me.uk [remove digit to construct address]