American
composer, musician, poet, and instrument inventor Moondog was born Louis Hardin
in Marysville, Kansas, in 1916.
Blind from age 16, he lived for about twenty years (between the late
1940's and mid 1970's) on the streets of Manhattan, dressed in Viking garb and
known as "The Viking of 6th Avenue." He composed his upbeat, melodic, contrapuntal, and
rhythmically intricate music in Braille, and recorded a series of albums during
the 1950's and 1960's for the Prestige and Columbia record labels. His sold and performed his music in the
street, along with his whimsical, philosophical rhymed couplets. He lived the last 25 years of his life
in Germany, where he wrote and recorded a vast amount of music, much of which
still has yet to be transcribed from Braille. He died in 1999. Back to Moondog Madrigal Puppet Show Home
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