H'art Songs by Moondog

Moondog’s jovial H’art Songs was the first release not to incorporate his name in the title, but the record that forever proved his genius. A rare vocal album recorded by Moondog when he was in his sixties, these ten art songs blur the boundaries between classical and pop music.

Moondog called this series of art songs “H’art songs” - Hardin’s art songs. The musical content is on a higher level than most popular music, but has an appeal to a wide range of tastes, from the pop to the classical listener.

This collection of piano popsongs written and recorded in 1977 made Moondogs’ stunningly eclectic discography even more chaotic musically, it also featured some of his most mesmerizing wordplay. Telling tales that can be interpreted as metaphors for how to live sometimes political, sometimes autobiographical, sometimes nature loving - they are always intriguingly poetic, and helped push
this album to the very top of all Moondog’s releases.

“My singing style is without vibrato, as is the singing style of most of the people in the world. The voice part I have kept simple, intentionally, so that I and many others who like to sing such songs, including the barbershop quartet people, would be able to sing them. As I did on the record, the voice part should be sung by one voice or in unison, but not in harmony, because the harmony is exclusively in the piano parts, which are more complicated than the voice parts, especially in the canons and the obligati, which carry the main melodic burden.”

“Moondog singing Moondog? Really! even goodness knows, Moondog doesn’t sing a song; he shows you how it goes.”
- Louis T Hardin aka Moondog

Louis Thomas Hardin (May 26, 1916 – September 8, 1999), also known as Moondog, was an American musician, composer, theoretician, poet and inventor of several musical instruments. From the late 1940s until 1972, Moondog lived as a street musician and poet in New York City, playing in midtown Manhattan. He relocated to Germany in 1974 where he continued to write, compose, and record until his death.