Moondog (1916-1999) is a fascinating figure in the history of music, resolutely outside the box, both in terms of his compositions and his atypical personality. This composer, who immersed himself in the music of the past, nurturing a passion for Johann Sebastian Bach and for polyphony, blended these influences with Amerindian music and jazz, inaugurating before anyone else the trend now known as "minimalist music".
The son of an Episcopalian pastor, Louis Thomas Hardin Jr. (real name) met many Indians as a child on the Apaho reservation where his father preached, and became familiar with their music, in particular their very particular use of drumming and singing. He also enjoyed the ragtimes and military marches of his father's discotheque, and was introduced to the keyboard by his mother, an organ teacher. The family moved around a lot, depending on the father's postings. At the age of sixteen, an accident with a stick of dynamite left along a railroad line deprived Louis Hardin of his sight, and also of his faith. After a period of despair, he immersed himself in music and benefited from extensive tuition at a school for the blind: violin, viola, piano, organ, choral singing and harmony. He decided to become the greatest living composer.
Moondog moved to New York in 1943, with very little money in his pocket, choosing a deliberately modest, even Spartan lifestyle. It was here, in 1947, that he adopted his artist's name, in homage to his childhood dog Lindy's howling at the moon. There, he assiduously attended the rehearsals and concerts of the Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, conducted by Artur Rodziński, with whom he became friends, as well as with Leonard Bernstein, his assistant, and the musicians of the orchestra, who would regularly perform his works. He also met the jazz avant-garde, including Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus and Charlie Parker, with whom he was to record an album. After the latter's death in 1955, he composed the famous "Bird's Lament" as a tribute to him, and this became his most famous piece, written in 1957 and released on Columbia in 1969, then covered and remixed extensively.
In the meantime, Moondog, a precursor of the beatniks, hit the road again between 1948 and 1949, notably to meet the Navajo Indians. Back in New York, he decided to live on the streets to get as close as possible to the nomadic life of the Plains Indians. This choice of lifestyle lasted 25 years, with a few stays in apartments where he was given lodgings. He gradually adopted a curious Viking get-up, complete with horned helmet and spear, imagining himself to have Nordic roots and, above all, fed up with the constant pointing at his Christ-like figure. It was against this backdrop that he wrote his poems and his numerous works, based on a constant rhythm of percussion, often using 5- or 7-beat rhythms and cultivating a refined art of canon.
For almost three decades, Moondog became a New York icon. The "Viking of 6th Avenue" was frequented by such luminaries as John Cage, Benny Goodman, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan, Ravi Shankar and many others. In 1968, Philip Glass took him in for a while, even recording with him and Steve Reich. Moondog built his own instruments, such as the trimba, and his growing fame led him to record two albums for Columbia in 1969 and 1971.
Moondog tired of life in New York and the streets. He went on tour in the United States in 1971. He dreamed of Europe, and took advantage of a trip to Frankfurt by his organist friend Paul Jordan in 1974 to settle permanently in Germany. He resumed a vagabond life, without knowing the language, but was supported by the young geology student Ilona Goebel, who took him in and helped him relaunch his new career. He recorded three excellent albums for Kopf: In Europe, 1977, H'art Songs, 1978, New Sound of an old Instrument, 1979).
Meetings and travels follow, such as those with composer and conductor Jean-Jacques Lemêtre in France in 1976, and with Swedish percussionist Stefan Lakatos in 1980. Moondog abandoned his horned helmet after learning at an exhibition in Sweden that it was a fanciful historical re-enactment. In 1983, he spent some time in Salzburg, Austria, the city of Mozart, where he composed three symphonies at a frenetic pace. After appearing at the TransMusicales in Rennes in 1988, Moondog returned to New York the following year at the invitation of Philip Glass for a triumphant concert with the Brooklyn Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. He is in demand by European pop artists: Stephan Eicher in 1989, Andi Tomas of German duo Mouse on Mars in 1991 for the Elpmas album, then Elvis Costello, who invited him in 1995 for the Meltdown Festival, which he programmed. During the decade, Moondog made four trips to England, where in 1993 he recorded Sax Pax for a Sax with the London Saxophonic (released in 1994).
Increasingly ill with diabetes, Moondog chose to perform only with pianist Dominique Ponty, whom he had met in 1995. It was with her that he gave his last concert in Arles, on August1, 1999, closing the MIMI festival. He died on September 8 in a hospital room in Münster.
Stefan Lakatos and Dominique Ponty, two loyal fans, play a duo in the same conditions as Moondog's last concerts.
Moondog has never been as popular as it is today. His rediscovery in France is thanks in particular to the work undertaken by Amaury Cornut, author of a book on the composer published in 2014 by Le mot et le reste. We also meet two passionate young musicians who bring Moondog's music to life through various stage and recording projects: Stéphane Garin (ensemble 0) and François Mardirossian. In particular, we take a look at the Elpmasproject, which has taken up the challenge of having instrumentalists play on stage a record entirely conceived for computer, reissuing this beautiful object in the form of a sumptuously illustrated book-disc.
Guillaume Kosmicki