Thurlow Lieurance

Thurlow Weed Lieurance (March 21, 1878 – December 9, 1963) was an American composer, known primarily for his song "By the Waters of Minnetonka". He is frequently classed with a number of his contemporaries, including Charles Wakefield Cadman, Arthur Nevin, Charles Sanford Skilton, Preston Ware Orem, and Arthur Farwell, as a member of the Indianist movement in American music.

Lieurance was a native of Oskaloosa, Iowa, but his family relocated to Kansas when he was very young. Little is recorded about his early education; it is known that his father encouraged him to be a pharmacist, but that he preferred instead to follow a career in music. Upon the outbreak of the Spanish–American War he enlisted as a musician. With the cessation of hostilities, he moved to Ohio and enrolled in the Cincinnati College of Music, studying there until his savings from military service ran out. He was able to continue studying with Herman Bellstedt, a cornetist and bandmaster under John Philip Sousa. During his time at the Cincinnati College of Music, he studied theory, orchestration, harmony and arranging. In 1900 he sang with the chorus of Castle Square Garden Opera Company to learn of opera and its production. Around 1905, Lieurance joined the Chautauqua Society, working in traveling tent schools teaching music to American Indians. The contacts he made through this position led to an interest in Indian culture; he began to try to transcribe the songs that he heard, and began to teach himself the craft of making traditional Native American flutes. At about this time polio left Lieurance disabled; though he had very little use of his legs he was quite vigorous and mobile.

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