Moondog - Part Three Germany and Beyond

Updated: Jan 24, 2019

Moondog Promotes himself In Europe

In 1973 he has a desire to visit the home of his ancesters. Hardin’s time in Candor ended rather abruptly in 1974. Paul Jordan, a Binghamton University professor of music, had a former student in Frankfurt, Germany, who invited Moondog there to play on a program in “unclassifiable” music. Once in Europe, Hardin decided to stay. A family ended up taking him in and reforming him of wearing the Viking helmet and had loose tailored clothes made for him.He met an archeology student by the name of Ilona Goebel. Having recently discovered an album of Moondog's music in her local record shop, she convinced the fascinating composer to move in with her and her family in the nearby village of Oer-Erkenschwick, a "composer's paradise" according to Moondog. Goebel quickly put an end to her archeology studies to become his daily assistant, publisher, record producer, and eventually his companion. Together they founded the publishing company Managarm (a dog in Nordic mythology that chases the moon), to promote his music in Europe

Bracelli [1986] Moondog - As the earth turns

To A Seahorse

Moondog - Choo Choo Lullaby

Commits to Composing:

His childhood desire to not only become a composer, but the greatest composer, burned strong within Hardin his entire life, pushing him to compose increasingly ambitious works, entirely in Braille, often at a dizzying rate. As a resident composer in Vienna in 1983, Moondog wished to follow in the footsteps of the great Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (who composed his last three symphonies in the Austrian capital) by composing his first three symphonies. Not only did he do so in only six weeks, but by the following year, Moondog had composed a total of 20 symphonies! Many of his works were performed and published during his lifetime, and there still remain to this day many works by Moondog that have never been heard , let alone recorded, including works for 13 celestas, another for 76 trombones, Tree Tone, a work requiring eight conductors, and notably Cosmos, a nine-hour work calling for thousand musicians and singers!

Many of Hardin's sketches are still in Braille, meaning that it could be years before musical audiences are fully aware of the extent of Moondog’s musical accomplishments.

"You'll never be a composer unless you master counterpoint". Upon reading these words in a book as a teenager, Moondog naturally sought to learn more about contrapuntal writing. He quickly discovered (and fell in love with) the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. A great admirer of the German composer, he nonetheless unashamedly pointed out Bach's supposed mistakes:

"I love Bach but he never analysed his pieces - I'm sure he realised that there were a lot of mistakes in there. I'm sure he would have corrected them if he had the time but he had kids and wives to take care of.”

Moondog - Chaconne in C

Moondog - Bug on a Floating Leaf

Moondog - Barn Dance

Moondog - Wind River Powwow

Moondog - Introduction And Overtone Continuum

9 Is The Magic Number (I knew it!!!)

As if Moondog was not eccentric enough, he also showed a strong fascination for the number 9, believing the number to contain within it a universal code born through sound, derived from a superhuman intelligence reserved only for those capable of understanding it:

"I've found that in the first nine overtones [a principal of musical soundwaves] there's a code which can only have been conceived by a god - I call it a Megamind. That code not only proves that god exists [...] but I have found that there are secret laws in there referring to cosmic construction [...] These things are all there in the first nine overtones."

This fascination permeated many of his poems, written in iambic nonameter, and his compositions, as described by the composer himself: for example the Overtone Tree, a symphonic project for four conductors based upon the first nine overtones, a one-thousand-part canon nine hours in length, and Sax Pax for a Sax, composed for nine saxophones.

Sax Pax For A Sax – Quoted to say

“A lot of the jazz and rock did abuse the saxophone as far as I'm concerned. I think I gave the saxophone a better deal. It can do very noble things. They recorded it in Bath, England, mostly London musicians. We had been doing some concerts before so we had some music at our fingers and then we just put it together. Sax Pax is a play on the word 'pax,' meaning peace. Ironically, the sax was invented (Adolf) Sax to, what some would say, compete with the brass in military bands. So 'peace' and 'military,' that's a little play on words there. The oboes and flutes wouldn't compete with the trumpets and trombones in a military band. But the saxophone is very loud though it's been abused and misused a lot. Made it sounding almost comical at times by jazz musiciains but it has a serious side too.”

Surf Session

Caribea

Rabbit Hop

Pastoral Suite a. Before the Storm, b. The Storm c. After The Storm

In Germany, Moondog dropped his Viking persona and adopted a more conventional appearance. His music, however, continued to be resolutely out there, and H’art Songs – which contains the wonderful ‘Enough About Human Rights!’ – is among his finest recordings.

Hardin wrote the liner notes to Big Band, his first release on his own Trimba label in 1995. For the song “You Have to Have Hope,” he wrote:

“Bill Clinton lived in Hope, I lived in Batesville, Arkansas. We never met. I heard he played the sax, for which I wrote the piece he hasn’t heard, as yet. ‘Back in Arkansas’ are words that fit a falling bit of melody. I’m harking back sixty years to Batesville Bess and all she did for me,”

referring to his early Arkansas piano teacher, Bess Maxfield

You Have to have Hope …

He returned to New York briefly in 1989, for a New Music America Festival tribute at which Philip Glass had invited him to conduct the Brooklyn Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. Back in Germany, Moondog continued to record, releasing his final CD in 1996. The current Moondog revival can be traced back to 1998, when his music was used in the Coen brothers movie The Big Lebowski.

In the 1980s and 1990s, musicians such as John Fahey, Kronos Quartet, and NRBQ recorded Hardin’s songs. By then, with his lengthy beard turned white, his reputation amongst musical tastemakers was indelible: he had invented several esoteric musical instruments (the oo, trimba, and ooo-ya-tsu), played with everyone from Charles Mingus to Philip Glass, and influenced the likes of Tom Waits. In 1997, Atlantic issued Sax Pax for a Sax, his first major U.S. release in more than twenty-five years—and his last.

1991/05/26 - 75th Birthday

Moondog Live in Stuttgart 1992

1999 last concert

Beyond covers of his music, certain artists have drawn from the music of Moondog in more modern ways, using his music as the ground work for new musical compositions. Known as sampling, the process involves cutting a musical work into pieces, extracting desired passages and using them as themes for a new work. Unable to find, or perhaps to afford, accompanists, he devised a basic overdubbing technique using two tape recorders. Self-overdubbing remained at the core of his recordings. It’s essential to note that Moondog himself was a fan of sampler technology, having first discovered it in Germany during the 1980s and praising the technology's limitless possibilities (his album "Elpmas", released in 1991, is a simple anagram of the word sample). One notable example is by Mr Scruff, an English producer and DJ, using a sample of Moondog's Bird's Lament in 1999 for his track Get a Move on, which reaped great success and brought renewed attention to the music of Louis "Moondog" Hardin.

Get A Move On

Moondog died in Germany in 1999, but his music has lives on, rapidly gaining popularity as the years go by. Performed long after his death by countless classical and non-classical alike, including Jimmy McGriff, Marc Bolan, Moonshake, Stereolab, and more recently the Labèque Sisters to name but a few, the name Louis "Moondog" Hardin is far from forgotten, by all means.

Katia and Marielle Labèque; 4 movements (Philip Glass)