Giselle Galos

Who is Giselle Galos?

Giselle Galos, commonly known as C. Galos, was an obscure 19th century Italian or French musician and composer who is responsible for composing two popular pieces of salon music, 'Le chant du Berger' and 'Le Lac de Come'. Both pieces are in the form of easy nocturnes.

Galos' pieces are composed of stock salon clichés and often appear in collections of famous piano pieces.

Galos did not perform in public and her music was typically published under the pseudonym C. Galos. For many years there was debate regarding whether Galos was male or female. Music historians disagreed over what the composer's first name was, with suggestions from Celestino to Charles, based on the "C. Galos" pseudonym. Early publications of Galos' Le Lac de Como have subsequently been discovered under the names "Giselle Galos" and "Madmoiselle Giselle Galos", finally confirming the composer's full name.

It's quite possible that C. Galos and Giselle Galos might both be pseudonyms themselves. In that case, the real composer who used this name might never be known.