In February 2015, we mounted as our Exhibition of the Month a large display of title pages of the music of Emile Waldteufel (1837-1915), the French dance composer whose dances became very popular in England.  We now supplement it with sixteen more title pages including some later editions, the complete text of a contemporary magazine article and a dance card.

The Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News, 14 January 1879.

Emile Waldteufel was born at Strasburg on December 9, 1837, and came with his family to Paris on April 9, 1849.  In his early years he suffered from the excessive poverty into which his parents had fallen.  He followed for a long time a course of instruction at a public school.  To this day the “Maestro” recalls with emotion this cruel beginning of his life, and he has preserved the most cordial and grateful recollections of his excellent professor, Mons Barbier.  A clever pianist from his youth, he was admitted as laureate at the Conservatoire of Music where his studies were brilliant.  Marmontel helped him with his precious advice, and the most complete success was not slow to crown his efforts when, being obliged to contribute by his talent to the necessities of his family, he found himself compelled to neglect his studies.  The Conservatoire, in a fit of ill-humour, withdrew their favour from the young deserter.  While still a pupil, Emile Waldteufel began to show himself a composer and a professor; in fact, at the age of fourteen years he had found a publisher for “Cadit[?a],” his first composition, and at the same period he imparted his art to a number of pupils, notably to the ladies of the family of the famous General Bourbaki.  He soon entered into a style of music in which he rapidly became master, and the applause which Meyerbeer lavished on one of his, “Joies et Peines,” at once decisively fixed his career.  The author of “Manolo,” of “Bien-Aimés,” of “Mon Rêve,” of “Les Lointaines,” of “Madeleine,” and several other chefs d’oeuvres of dance music, has however exercised, and not without éclat, his fertile imagination on classical music also.  At the request of His Excellency the Minister of State, he dedicated, in 1862, to His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, a march called, “Alexandre-Marche,” which created the greatest sensation.  The Russian sovereign honoured the composer with a magnificent present.  On the 7th of November, 1868, Her Majesty the Empress of the French appointed Waldteufel her pianist for all the Court soirées held in Paris and at all the Imperial residences.  The Emperor Napoleon III. greatly appreciated his talent, and made him come once all the way from Toulon to Compiégne (a distance of 200 leagues) for a few hours during a reception.  It happens that Waldteufel in German means “Devil of the Wood.”  “Ah!” gaily remarked the Emperor, seeing Waldteufel entering the ball-room, “there you are! Bravo!  If one can have a Waldteufel without a ball, it would be impossible to have a ball without a Waldteufel.”  A pleasant example of the relations existing between the composer and Napoleon III. is that Waldteufel, being an Alsation, speaks a very disagreeable German jargon, and the Emperor, who dearly loved to speak German, never failed to converse in that language, and Waldteufel never failed to reply in French.  It was the most curious dialogue that one could imagine.  When the war of 1870 broke out Waldteufel was at Biarritz.  His health was very feeble; he joined, however, the Garde Mobile, and bore all the hardships of a field life without once losing his inexhaustible spirits.  He was adored by his comrades, who concurred in the very natural desire to make him an officer.  He most emphatically refused this mark of honour, and remained the simple soldier until his regiment was disbanded, after the signing of peace.  In 1872 the King of Spain, Don Amadeus. conferred on Waldteufel the Order of Chevalier of the Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic.  He married a singer of great merit, Mad. Célestine Dufau, who had gathered abundant laurels in her too short theatrical career; she had gained, above all, very great notice in Brussels at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie.  Waldteufel had risen to the height of his reputation in Europe, when the publishers, Coote and Chappell, also became anxious to introduce his beautiful melodies into England.  The success was complete.  In less than a few months there was not a lady, young or old, who did not play by heart all his works – where mingled the liveliest with the softest strains of melancholy.  The summit which his reputation gained in this country was the patronage and favour of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, who permitted Waldteufel to dedicate one of his pretties waltzes, “Bien-Aimés,” to him.

As we wrote in our February 2015 Exhibition of the Month, the turning point in Waldteufel’s career came in 1874, with an introduction to the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and the subsequent publication in London of his waltzes Manolo and Bien Aimés.  On 10 November 1876, the Prince and Princess held a ball at Sandringham to celebrate his 35th birthday the previous day.  The programme listed no fewer than six dances by Waldteufel including the two waltzes mentioned above.

We would like to thank Yvon Waldteufel, a collateral descendant of Emile, for supplying us with a number of our images.