Thurlow Lieurance

Thurlow Weed Lieurance (March 21, 1878 – October 9, 1963) was an American composer, known primarily for his song "By the Waters of Minnetonka".

With the cessation of hostilities, he moved to Ohio and enrolled in the College of Music of Cincinnati, studying there until his savings from military service ran out.

Around 1905, Lieurance joined the Chautauqua Society, working in traveling tent schools teaching music to American Indians.

[4] He set it to a harp-like accompaniment,[1] and it was published by Theodore Presser in 1913 as "an Indian love song" with words by J. M. Cavanass, becoming an instant success and going through several editions; it was also frequently recorded in the years before 1950.

[6] The performance notes from Lieurance's 1921 edition suggest:[7] 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.

[5] Lieurance himself recognized how important to his career the song had been, later saying: That night marked an epoch in my life, opened to me a new world.

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-Heink, Julia Culp and Alice Nielson.

Later in the decade, he helped to found the Minisa Symphony Orchestra in Wichita; most of his orchestral music was written for this group.

Today the couple's papers may be found in the music library of Wichita State University, which has been named for the composer.

Included in his works were a number of orchestral pieces, with titles such as Trails Southwest, The Conquistadors, and Sad Moon on Falling Leaf.