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Lucien-Leon Guillaume Lambert, Jr.  (1858-1945) Afro-French Composer & Pianist Recorded Cylinders in 1905
Table of Contents   1 Success in France   2 Renown in Portugal   3 Cylinder Recordings	Ouverture de Broceliande (6:47) (Orchestrated by Rosenberg) Prelude, Fugue et Postlude (6:34) et al. Hot Springs Music Festival Richard Rosenberg, Conductor Cover Art: Creole Fantasy [detail]  by Carole Katchen Naxos 8.559037 (2000)

1 Success in France
Lucien-Leon Guillaume Lambert, Jr. was a French composer and pianist of African American descent.  His father, Charles Lucien Lambert, Sr., had emigrated from the U.S.  Lambert, Jr. was taught by his father, by Theodore Dubois and by Jules Massenet.  He enjoyed success as a composer and pianist first in France and later in Portugal.  His diverse output includes  Prelude, fugue et postlude  (6:34), which can be found on Naxos 8.559037 (2000).  Lester Sulivan writes in the liner notes:

The young Lambert's Promethee enchaine won the Concours Rossini in 1885.

2 Renown in Portugal
Lambert served as a pianist in the Royal court of Portugal in his later years. Sullivan notes:

Some time in the mid-1870s, he was decorated by the King, Dom Pedro, for a new piano method.  He later taught in Paris, where the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris now holds thirty-two of his pieces dating from 1866 to 1899.

3 Cylinder Recordings
Lambert is believed to be the first classical pianist of African descent to make recordings.  He recorded three cylinders for the Pathe Co. in Lisbon in 1905:

Gottschalk:  Hymno brazileiro- Variacoes (Pathe 37630) Gottschalk:  Tarantelle  (Pathe 37631) Schumann:  Prophet Bird, #7 from  Waldszenen, Op. 82 (Pathe 37632)

This information is found in a work by James Methuen-Campbell, Catalogue of Recordings by Classical Pianists, Volume 1,  published by Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, 1984.

 

This page was last updated on March 5, 2022