Music and Tivoli have belonged together since H.C. Lumbye's time (1810-1874). Lumbye wrote, among other pieces, The Champagne Galop for Tivoli, and played with his orchestra in the Tivoli Concert Hall at the City Moat (the site of The Glass Hall Theatre).
Tivoli's current Concert Hall (1956, architect Frits Schlegel) is an example of modern Tivoli architecture during that period.
The Columbine Garden (2001, Stig Lennart Andersson) is almost like a labyrinth.
The Harmony Pavilion was constructed in 1907 and was designed by Tivoli director and architect Knud Arne Petersen.
Throughout its good 100 years of existence, the Pavilion building has housed both a carousel and a fruit stall. For as long as anyone can remember, it has, however, been a venue for the Tivoli Harmony Orchestra followed by the Tivoli Big Band. Now, the Harmony Pavilion is used for alternating smaller orchestras, while the Tivoli Big Band has moved to the Open Air Stage.
Hans Christian Lumbye went to work at Tivoli from the start with the founder, Georg Carstensen, in 1843. The two men knew each other from Carstensen's big subscription parties, which he held for the readers of his two periodicals Figaro and Portefeuillen. Lumbye was in charge of the music at the parties, and was Tivoli's first music director. Conducting his large 18 piece orchestra, with the violin under his chin, he created the music tradition for Tivoli which remains to this day.
Lumbye began his career as a military musician, but then became a conductor and composer. During the summers (in the years 1843-72) he performed in Tivoli, while the winters offered him engagements overseas, for example in Berlin's Wintergarten with Herr Kroll, who lent his name to Lumbye's work, Kroll's Balklange (Echoes from Kroll's Ball).
THE CHAMPAGNE GALOP
The Champagne Galop is the most famous of all the works that Lumbye composed for Tivoli. It was created to mark Tivoli's second anniversary, which should have been celebrated on 15 August 1845. The party was postponed due to rain, so The Champagne Galop was first performed on 22 August.
Lumbye was incredibly popular in his lifetime and known as "The Strauss of the North". His popularity spread to his sons Carl and Georg, who were expected to take over their father's duties in Tivoli. However, that did not happen. Even his grandchild, Tippe Lumbye, did not become a Tivoli musician - instead he became the host at Grøften! His daughter, Caroline, wed the author Adolph von der Recke, artistic director at Tivoli from 1858 – 1867.