Gustav Peter

{{Short description|Composer of popular music}}

Gustav Peter (c. 1833 – 1919) was a composer of popular music.

File:Souvenir-de-Cirque-Renz-Xylophon.svg

There is little known about the life of Gustav Peter.Ursula Hemetek, Rudolf Pietsch, Volksmusik, Wandel und Deutung. Böhlau Verlag Wien, 2000. {{ISBN|3-205-99238-5}}. Seite 585. [https://books.google.com/books?id=x_d3act_0KgC&q=Gustav+Heinrich+Peter&pg=PA586 Preview at Google-Books]

He is supposed to be Austrian or Hungarian but this is still unsure. Sometimes his name is also given as Gustav Heinrich Peter or Heinrich Gustav Peter.[http://www.swissbib.ch/TouchPoint/perma.do?v=nose&l=de&q=0="101510578" swissbib.ch: Heinrich Gustav Peter; Claus-Dieter Zimmer: Zirkus Renz (Arrangement)]

Gustav Peter is the composerEvidence of authorship is given by the fact of existing sheets of music notes [http://bvbm1.bib-bvb.de/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=2685188&custom_att_2=simple_viewer] together with the given record in Hofmeister [http://www.hofmeister.rhul.ac.uk/2008/content/monatshefte/1894_11.html#hofm_1894_11_0478_17]; the music notes show the melody that is known as Memory of Circus Renz (Erinnerungen an den Zirkus Renz, in German). Until now there are sources that give around 1905 as the date of publication of the widely popular piece of music Memory of Circus Renz that was published in 1894 with the original title Souvenir de Cirque Renz.[http://www.hofmeister.rhul.ac.uk/2008/content/monatshefte/1894_11.html#hofm_1894_11_0478_17 Hofmeister: Musikalisch-literarischer Monatsbericht über neue Musikalien, neue Schriften. Band: November 1894, Seite: 478, Musik für Schlaginstrumente]: „Peter, Gustav, Souvenir de Cirque Renz. Galopp f. Xylophon m. Orch. Mk 2 n. Leipzig, Seele. – Valse-Caprice f. Xylophon m. Orch. Mk 2 n. Leipzig, Seele.“ Its musical form is a Galop and primarily it was written for xylophone, but later adapted to various kinds of instruments. It is one of the best-known examples of circus music.

The work was composed at a time when fast dances such as the Galopp were popular in German light music, the xylophone was being rediscovered as an instrument, and Circus Renz was enjoying great popularity in Berlin. Thus, a number of Gustav Peter's contemporaries composed similar works, most of which, however, have been forgotten today.W. G. Oertel: Kunstreiter Galopp. ca. 1905, [http://www.dismarc.org/index.php?form=display&oaiid=GHT%3A001%2F000P556A1588&db=0 dismarc.org]J. Israel: Renz-Galopp f. Pfte. [http://hofmeister.rhul.ac.uk/2008/content/monatshefte/1879_07.html hofmeister.rhul.ac.uk], darin: S. 213: J. Israel, Op. 82. Renz-Galopp f. Pfte. Altona, Hinz Mk 0,60.Hermann Fliege: Fliege, H., Opus 105, Gavotte Circus Renz f. Klavier, 1872; [http://berkeley.worldcat.org/oclc/46766445 (worldcat)]