Moondog - Moondog's Music

Moondog's Music

Moondog's music took its inspiration from street sounds, such as the subway or a foghorn. It tended to be relatively simple but characterized by what he called "snaketime" and described as "a slithery rhythm, in times that are not ordinary I'm not gonna die in 4/4 time".

Moondog's work was early championed by Artur Rodziński, the conductor of New York Philharmonic in the 1940s. He released a number of 78s, 45s and EPs of his music in the 1950s, as well as several LPs on a number of notable jazz labels, including an unusual record of stories and songs for children with Julie Andrews and Martyn Green, in 1957, called Songs of Sense and Nonsense - Tell it Again. For ten years no new recordings were heard from Moondog until producer James William Guercio took him into the studio to record an album for Columbia Records in 1969.

A second album produced with Guercio featured one of Moondog's daughters as a vocalist and contained song compositions in canons and rounds. The album did not make as large an impression in popular music as the first had. The two CBS albums were re-released as a single CD in 1989.

Most of Moondog's works are published by Managarm Musikverlag in Germany. By his last will the heritage of Moondog is administered and owned by Ilona Sommer.

Ilona Sommer died in September 2011. In her will she appointed the German lawyer Alexander Duve (Berlin) as the executor of her estate including the copyrights in Moondog's works. Moondog's heritage is therefore now being administered by Alexander Duve, Berlin (Germany).