Hubert Mouton (1872 - 1954)

Hubert Mouton (Henri François Hubert), born in Liège, was a composer and conductor, but chiefly an arranger active above all in France (and whose speciality was to arrange for ‘light’ orchestras the classical pieces of his contemporaries, such as Debussy or Ravel). His best-known work is La Dame de Monte-Carlo, an operetta in three acts (1918). As a professional entertainer, he knew how to produce admirable dances, such as Jumbo’s Two-Step (1911), the two-step being one of the sources for the fox-trot. Jumbo, it should be remembered, was one of the first African bush elephants (born in Sudan) exported to Europe. It was first an attraction at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris and also inspired Debussy’s Jimbo’s Lullaby (from the Children’s Corner suite, 1908).

Mauro Piccinini