Thurlow Lieurance
Encyclopedia
Thurlow Weed Lieurance was an American
composer, known primarily for his song "By the Waters of Minnetonka". He is frequently classed with a number of his contemporaries, including Charles Wakefield Cadman
, Arthur Nevin
, Charles Sanford Skilton
, Preston Ware Orem
, and Arthur Farwell
, as a member of the Indianist movement
in American music.
, but his family relocated to Kansas
when he was very young. Little is recorded about his early education; it is known that his father encouraged him to be a pharmacist
, but that he preferred instead to follow a career in music. Upon the outbreak of the Spanish-American War
he enlisted as a musician. With the cessation of hostilities, he moved to Ohio
and enrolled in the Cincinnati College of Music, studying there until his savings from military service ran out. He was able to continue studying with Herman Bellstedt, a former cornet
player under John Philip Sousa
. Around 1905, Lieurance joined the Chautauqua Society, working in traveling tent schools teaching music to American Indians
. The contacts he made through this position led to an interest in Indian culture; he began to try and transcribe the songs that he heard, and began to teach himself the craft of making traditional Native American flute
s. At about this time polio left Lieurance disabled; though he had very little use of his legs he was quite vigorous and mobile.
Around 1909, Lieurance acquired a portable cylinder recording device from Edison Records
, and carried it with him whenever he went to visit Indian performers. In October 1911 he recorded a Crow (Apsalooke) (maybe Oglala
Lakota Sioux) singer, Sitting Eagle also known as Mortimer Dreamer, then living on the Crow Reservation in Montana
. From this recording he took the melody for his song
"By the Waters of the Minnetonka". He set it to a harp-like accompaniment, and it was published by Theodore Presser in 1913, becoming an instant success and going through several editions; it was also frequently recorded in the years before 1950.
The early editions of the published arrangements in 1915, 1917, and 1921 called for a violin or flute to echo the vocal melody, playing either a provided melody or ad. lib. Possibly because of this, the melody is often played on the Native American Flute
.
The performance notes from Lieurance's 1921 edition suggest:
A typewritten note found among the composer's papers describes the legend behind the song:
Lieurance himself recognized how important to his career the song had been, later saying that
Lieurance married, in 1917, Edna Woolley, and she took part in his recital tours thereafter. She would wear an Indian costume and play the part of "Princess Watahwaso". Such was the success of these recitals that Lieurance was able to return to school in Cincinnati, finally gaining his degree there in 1924. The couple retired from concertizing in 1926 and settled into teaching positions, working briefly at the University of Nebraska before coming to the University of Wichita
. Lieurance eventually became the school's Dean of Fine Arts. The couple retired from the university in 1945.
Lieurance and his wife were invited by Theodore Presser to travel to Europe
in the early 1930s. Upon their return, the composer was given support for his research into Native American music
when he received a grant from the Scientific Research Society of America. Later in the decade, he helped to found the Minisa Symphony Orchestra in Wichita; most of his orchestral music was written for this group. Upon retirement, Lieurance and his wife moved to Neosho Falls, Kansas
. Their house there was destroyed by flood in 1952, and the couple moved to Boulder, Colorado
, where Lieurance died in 1963. Today the couple's papers may be found in the music library of Wichita State University, which has been named for the composer. Much of Lieurance's research collection is housed in the Smithsonian Institution.
l pieces, with titles such as Trails Southwest, The Conquistadors, and Sad Moon on Falling Leaf. Much of the rest of his output consisted of song
s and works for choir
, but he also composed an opera
, The Drama of Yellowstone.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer, known primarily for his song "By the Waters of Minnetonka". He is frequently classed with a number of his contemporaries, including Charles Wakefield Cadman
Charles Wakefield Cadman
Charles Wakefield Cadman was an American composer.Cadman’s musical education, unlike that of most of his American contemporaries, was completely American. Born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, he began piano lessons at 13...
, Arthur Nevin
Arthur Nevin
Arthur Nevin was an American composer, conductor, teacher and musicologist. Along with Charles Wakefield Cadman, Blair Fairchild, Charles Sanford Skilton, and Arthur Farwell, among others, he was one of the leading Indianist composers of the early twentieth century.-Biography:Born in Edgeworth,...
, Charles Sanford Skilton
Charles Sanford Skilton
Charles Sanford Skilton was an American composer, teacher and musicologist. Along with Charles Wakefield Cadman, Blair Fairchild, Arthur Nevin, and Arthur Farwell, among others, he was one of the leading Indianist composers of the early twentieth century.-Life:Skilton was born in Northampton,...
, Preston Ware Orem
Preston Ware Orem
Preston Ware Orem was an American composer, pianist, and writer on music. He is frequently grouped with other composers as part of the Indianist movement in American music....
, and Arthur Farwell
Arthur Farwell
Arthur Farwell was an American composer, conductor, educationalist, lithographer, esoteric savant, and music publisher.- Biography :Farwell was born in St Paul, Minnesota...
, as a member of the Indianist movement
Indianist movement
The Indianist movement was a movement in American classical music that flourished from the 1880s until the 1920s. It was based on attempts to synthesize American Indian musical ideas with some of the basic principles of Western music...
in American music.
Life
Lieurance was a native of Oskaloosa, IowaOskaloosa, Iowa
Oskaloosa is the county seat of Mahaska County, Iowa, United States. The population was 11,463 in the 2010 census, an increase from 10,938 in the 2000 census. -History:...
, but his family relocated to Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
when he was very young. Little is recorded about his early education; it is known that his father encouraged him to be a pharmacist
Pharmacist
Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...
, but that he preferred instead to follow a career in music. Upon the outbreak of the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
he enlisted as a musician. With the cessation of hostilities, he moved to Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
and enrolled in the Cincinnati College of Music, studying there until his savings from military service ran out. He was able to continue studying with Herman Bellstedt, a former cornet
Cornet
The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...
player under John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....
. Around 1905, Lieurance joined the Chautauqua Society, working in traveling tent schools teaching music to American Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
. The contacts he made through this position led to an interest in Indian culture; he began to try and transcribe the songs that he heard, and began to teach himself the craft of making traditional Native American flute
Native American flute
The Native American flute has achieved some measure of fame for its distinctive sound, used in a variety of New Age and world music recordings. The instrument was originally very personal; its music was played without accompaniment in courtship, healing, meditation, and spiritual rituals. Now it...
s. At about this time polio left Lieurance disabled; though he had very little use of his legs he was quite vigorous and mobile.
Around 1909, Lieurance acquired a portable cylinder recording device from Edison Records
Edison Records
Edison Records was one of the earliest record labels which pioneered recorded sound and was an important player in the early recording industry.- Early phonographs before commercial mass produced records :...
, and carried it with him whenever he went to visit Indian performers. In October 1911 he recorded a Crow (Apsalooke) (maybe Oglala
Oglala
Oglala may refer to:* Oglala Lakota, or Oglala Sioux, a Sioux Nation sub-band of the Western division * The Oglala National Grassland of Nebraska* Oglala, South Dakota, a town located in Shannon County, South Dakota...
Lakota Sioux) singer, Sitting Eagle also known as Mortimer Dreamer, then living on the Crow Reservation in Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
. From this recording he took the melody for his song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
"By the Waters of the Minnetonka". He set it to a harp-like accompaniment, and it was published by Theodore Presser in 1913, becoming an instant success and going through several editions; it was also frequently recorded in the years before 1950.
The early editions of the published arrangements in 1915, 1917, and 1921 called for a violin or flute to echo the vocal melody, playing either a provided melody or ad. lib. Possibly because of this, the melody is often played on the Native American Flute
Native American flute
The Native American flute has achieved some measure of fame for its distinctive sound, used in a variety of New Age and world music recordings. The instrument was originally very personal; its music was played without accompaniment in courtship, healing, meditation, and spiritual rituals. Now it...
.
The performance notes from Lieurance's 1921 edition suggest:
A violin typifies the wind, if you choose, echoes the soft harmonies of the accompaniment which rocks to and fro on harp chords, between the major key and its relative minor, in and out of that singular domain musicians know as the “added Sixth” chord and its derivatives.
A typewritten note found among the composer's papers describes the legend behind the song:
Moon Deer, daughter of the Moon Clan, loved Sun Deer of the Sun Clan. Tribal law forbade marriage between the two clans. It was decreed that daughters of the Moon Clan must marry into the Eagle Clan. The two lovers, in tears, ran away far to the east and north. They came to a beautiful lake called Minnetonka (Minne means water; Tonka means large and round). Their happiness was disturbed because their traditional enemies, the Chippewa, lived on the north shore of this lake. They feared to return home and be separated, and finally in desperation they decided to end it all. The legend states that they disappeared beneath the waves and were no more. The waves moaned a rhythmic sound and the pines crooned their love song.
Many moons afterwards the warriors of the Sioux drove the Chippewa north to Lake Superior. One night while they were camped on the shores of Lake Minnetonka, they heard the waters singing a weird melody and, in the moon-path on the waters, two lilies appeared and grew to the skies. The lilies were the spirits of Moon Deer and Sun Deer.
Lieurance himself recognized how important to his career the song had been, later saying that
That night marked an epoch in my life, opened to me a new world. What work I have since done has been due chiefly to that song. Thousands of people have heard it, clothed with the harmonizing which our ears demand; it is lying upon music Tables all over the land, has been sung by many of the world's famous singers, including Schuman-HeinkErnestine Schumann-HeinkErnestine Schumann-Heink was a celebrated Austrian, later American, operatic contralto, noted for the size, beauty, tonal richness, flexibility and wide range of her voice.- Early life:...
, Julia Culp and Alice Nielson.
Lieurance married, in 1917, Edna Woolley, and she took part in his recital tours thereafter. She would wear an Indian costume and play the part of "Princess Watahwaso". Such was the success of these recitals that Lieurance was able to return to school in Cincinnati, finally gaining his degree there in 1924. The couple retired from concertizing in 1926 and settled into teaching positions, working briefly at the University of Nebraska before coming to the University of Wichita
Wichita State University
Wichita State University is a NCAA Division I public university in Wichita, Kansas with selective admissions. WSU is one of six state universities governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The current president is Dr. Donald Beggs....
. Lieurance eventually became the school's Dean of Fine Arts. The couple retired from the university in 1945.
Lieurance and his wife were invited by Theodore Presser to travel to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in the early 1930s. Upon their return, the composer was given support for his research into Native American music
Native American music
American Indian music is the music that is used, created or performed by Native North Americans, specifically traditional tribal music. In addition to the traditional music of the Native American groups, there now exist pan-tribal and inter-tribal genres as well as distinct Indian subgenres of...
when he received a grant from the Scientific Research Society of America. Later in the decade, he helped to found the Minisa Symphony Orchestra in Wichita; most of his orchestral music was written for this group. Upon retirement, Lieurance and his wife moved to Neosho Falls, Kansas
Neosho Falls, Kansas
Neosho Falls is a city in Woodson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 141.-History:The town was an inspiration for the album In the Spirit of Things by the band Kansas.-Geography:...
. Their house there was destroyed by flood in 1952, and the couple moved to Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
, where Lieurance died in 1963. Today the couple's papers may be found in the music library of Wichita State University, which has been named for the composer. Much of Lieurance's research collection is housed in the Smithsonian Institution.
Music
Apart from "By the Waters of Minnetonka", Lieurance wrote over 300 works. Included in them were a number of orchestraOrchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
l pieces, with titles such as Trails Southwest, The Conquistadors, and Sad Moon on Falling Leaf. Much of the rest of his output consisted of song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
s and works for choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
, but he also composed an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, The Drama of Yellowstone.