Editing Moondog (section)

==Biography and career==
===Early life===
Hardin was born in [[Marysville, Kansas]], to Louis Thomas Hardin, an [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalian]] minister, and Norma Alves.<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book |title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music]] |date=1997 |publisher=[[Virgin Books]] |isbn=1-85227-745-9 |editor=Colin Larkin |editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer) |edition=Concise |pages=869–870}}</ref><ref name="moondogscorner.de">{{Cite web |title=Outline of Robert Scotto´s Biography |url=https://www.moondogscorner.de/biography/scotto.html |access-date=2022-06-07 |website=www.moondogscorner.de}}</ref> Hardin started playing a set of drums that he made from a cardboard box at the age of five. His family relocated to [[Wyoming]], where his father opened a [[trading post]] at [[Fort Bridger]]. At one point, his father took him to an [[Arapaho]] [[Sun Dance]] where he sat on the lap of Chief Yellow Calf and played a [[Tom-tom drum|tom-tom]] made from [[Bison hunting|buffalo skin]]. He also played drums for the high school band in [[Hurley, Missouri]].

On July 4, 1932, the 16-year-old Hardin found an object in a field which he did not realise was a [[detonator|dynamite cap]]. While he was handling it, the explosive detonated in his face and permanently blinded him.<ref>{{cite web |author=Thomas Heinrich |url=http://moondogscorner.de/biography/scotto.html |title=Moondog (Louis Hardin) Biography |website=Moondogscorner.de |date=1916-05-26 |access-date=2017-12-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=Zachary Crockett |title=The Genius of Moondog, New York's Homeless Composer|url=https://priceonomics.com/the-legend-of-moondog-new-yorks-homeless-composer/ |website=priceonomics.com |date=22 January 2015|access-date=2 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171202122143/https://priceonomics.com/the-legend-of-moondog-new-yorks-homeless-composer/|archive-date=2 December 2017}}</ref><ref name="The marvellous life of Moondog">{{cite web |title=The marvellous life of Moondog |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/nov/17/classicalmusicandopera.usa |website=The Guardian|date=17 November 2003 }}</ref> His older sister, Ruth, would read to him daily after the accident for many years. Here he had his first encounters with philosophy, science and myth that formed his character. One book in particular, ''The First Violin'' by [[Jessie Fothergill]], inspired him to pursue music. Up to that point he had been interested mainly in [[Percussion instrument|percussion]] instruments, but from then on, he became obsessed with the desire to become a [[composer]].<ref name="moondogscorner.de"/>

After learning the principles of music in several schools for blind young men across middle America, he taught himself the skills of [[ear training]] and composition. He studied with [[Burnet Tuthill]] at the [[Iowa School for the Blind]].<ref name="Larkin" />

He then moved to [[Batesville, Arkansas]], where he lived until 1942, when he obtained a scholarship to study in [[Memphis, Tennessee]]. Although he was largely self-taught in music, learning predominantly by ear, he learned some music theory from books in [[braille]] during his time in Memphis.

In 1943, Hardin moved to New York, where he met [[classical music]]ians including [[Leonard Bernstein]] and [[Arturo Toscanini]], as well as jazz performers such as [[Charlie Parker]] and [[Benny Goodman]], whose upbeat tempos and often humorous compositions would influence Hardin's later work. One of his early street posts was near the [[52nd Street (Manhattan)|52nd Street]] nightclub strip, and he was known to jazz musicians. By 1947, Hardin had adopted the name "Moondog" in honor of a dog "who used to howl at the moon more than any dog I knew of."<ref name="Larkin"/>

===New York City===
From the late 1940s until 1972, Moondog lived as a composer and poet in New York City, occasionally playing in midtown Manhattan, eventually settling on the corner of 53rd or 54th Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan.<ref name="Larkin"/> He was rarely if ever homeless, and maintained an apartment in upper Manhattan and had a country retreat in [[Candor, New York]], to which he moved full-time in 1972.<ref name="Scotto, Robert 2007">Scotto, Robert. ''Moondog, The Viking of 6th Avenue: The Authorized Biography''. Process Music edition (22 November 2007) {{ISBN|978-0-9760822-8-6}}</ref> He partially supported himself by selling copies of his poetry, sheet music, records, and his musical philosophy. In addition to his music and poetry, he was also known for a distinctive "[[Viking]]" garb that he briefly wore during the 1960s. Already bearded and long-haired, he added a Viking-style horned helmet to avoid the occasional comparisons of his appearance with that of Christ or a monk,<ref name="furious.com">{{Cite web|url=http://www.furious.com/perfect/moondog.html|title=Moondog interview- Perfect Sound Forever|website=Furious.com}}</ref> as he had rejected Christianity in his late teens. He developed a lifelong interest in [[Norse mythology|Nordic mythology]], and maintained an altar to [[Thor]] in his country home in Candor.<ref name="Scotto, Robert 2007"/>

In 1949, he traveled to a [[Blackfoot]] Sun Dance in Idaho<ref name="Scotto, R. M. 2007 p. 45"/> where he performed on percussion and flute, returning to the Native American music he had first come in contact with as a child. It was this Native music, along with contemporary jazz and classical, mixed with the [[Ambient noise level|ambient]] sounds from his environment (city [[traffic]], [[Wind wave|ocean waves]], babies crying, etc.) that created the foundation of Moondog's music.

In 1954, he won a case in the [[New York State Supreme Court]] against disc jockey [[Alan Freed]], who had branded his radio show, "The Moondog [[Rock and Roll]] Matinee", around the name "Moondog", using "Moondog's Symphony" (the first record that Moondog ever cut) as his "calling card".<ref name="Larkin"/> Moondog believed he would not have won the case had it not been for the help of musicians such as [[Benny Goodman]] and [[Arturo Toscanini]], who testified that he was a serious composer. Freed had to apologize and stop using the nickname "Moondog" on air, on the basis that Hardin was known by the name long before Freed began using it.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=3442 |title=This Day in History |website=History.com |access-date=2013-08-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100211010728/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=3442 |archive-date=2010-02-11}}</ref><ref name="ttbook"/>

===Germany===
[[File:Moondog kopf.jpg|thumb|Moondog tomb at the Central Cemetery in Münster, designed by Ernst Fuchs after the death mask]]
Along with his passion for [[Germanic peoples|Nordic culture]], Moondog had an idealised view of Germany ("The Holy Land with the Holy River" — the [[Rhine]]), where he settled in 1974.<ref name="Larkin"/>

Moondog revisited the United States briefly in 1989, for a tribute at the [[New Music America Festival]] in Brooklyn, in which festival director [[Yale Evelev]] asked him to conduct the [[Brooklyn Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra]], stimulating a renewed interest in his music.

Eventually, a young German student<ref>{{cite web|last=Webb |first=Corey |url=http://webbspunideas.blogspot.com/2007/11/moondog-in-new-york.html |title=Webbspun Ideas: Moondog in New York |website=Webbspunideas.blogspot.com |date=2007-11-10 |access-date=2013-08-09}}</ref> named Ilona Goebel (later known as Ilona Sommer) helped Moondog set up the primary holding company for his artistic endeavors<ref>{{cite web|last=Dalachinsky |first=Steve |url=http://www.brooklynrail.org/2008/02/music/outtakes |title=Outtakes |publisher=[[The Brooklyn Rail]] |date=2008-02-06 |access-date=2013-08-09}}</ref> and hosted him, first in [[Oer-Erkenschwick]], and later on in [[Münster]] in [[Westphalia]]. Moondog lived with Sommer's family and they spent time together in Münster. During that period, Moondog created hundreds of compositions which were transferred from Braille to sheet music by Sommer. Moondog spent the remainder of his life in Germany.

On 8 September 1999, he died in Münster from [[heart failure]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Collins|first=Glenn|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/12/nyregion/louis-moondog-hardin-83-musician-dies.html|title=Louis (Moondog) Hardin, 83, Musician, Dies|newspaper=New York Times|date=September 12, 1999}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Thurber|first=Jon|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1999/09/20/composer-louis-moondog-hardin-dies/df43df44-ef25-42ca-a306-126eaf332a0f/|title=Composer Louis 'Moondog' Hardin Dies|newspaper=Washington Post|date=September 19, 1999}}</ref> He is buried at the Central Cemetery Münster. His tomb was designed by the artist [[Ernst Fuchs (artist)|Ernst Fuchs]] after the [[death mask]].

He recorded many albums and toured both in the U.S. and in Europe—France, Germany and Sweden.