Description
"To reduce the music of Louis Thomas Hardin (1916-1999) to the legendary figure of Moondog would be to pass over the real work of the composer. The melodic invention, the prodigious rhythms, and the mixture of genres, as original as they are obvious, all come together to form a music that merits consideration strictly as music."
This twenty-five piece selection is entitled Madrigal Book 1, and is a nod to the system Johann Sebastian Bach used for his Well-Tempered Clavier. Here, Moondog passes through all the major and minor tonalities, following the cycle of fourths.
The album spans twenty years of composing and bohemian life in the very heart of Manhattan, on its streets and under its porches. The record features pieces from the early 1950s (All Is Loneliness, Be a Hobo) as well as later canons written in June 1968. All are autobiographical, or at least reflect the state of mind of their author.
This collection constitutes a marvelous window on Moondog's universe.
