Cover notes
LOUIS T. HARDIN (MOONDOG)
In the beginning was
tonality. Then came atonality which was revolutionary. Tonality
continued in folk music and popular music, in spite of atonality, but in
the case of serious composers, it was taboo to even think of writing
tonal on pain of being ignored and unperformed.
I persisted in
writing tonal music, and by opposing the atonal revolutionaries, I
became a counter-revolutionary. I maintained the tonal tradition,
unaware that the founder of atonality himself had repudiated the 12-tone
System, which he had conceived. But that was not the end of atonality,
for even though its founder gave it up, his pupils did not, and so, for
the time being, at least, it survives.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, Tonality!
I
write much keyboard music which can be played on piano, harpsichord or
even on the organ manuals. I did not start writing organ music until
1974 in Germany for my friend, the organist Paul Jordan. For the first
time I began writing music for the pedals, resulting in my first
LOGRUNDR Book. I combined two forms into one, the canon and the ground,
giving the ground to the pedals and the canon to the manuals. I coined
the word LOGRUNDR: Log meaning Law or Canon, Grundr means Ground.
