Louis Lavater

Louis Isidore Lavater (2 March 1867 – 22 May 1953) was an Australian composer and author born in Victoria, of Swiss-Swedish extraction. Henry Lawson and Mary Gilmore. He was a leading proponent of the Australian bush ballad as a vehicle for music education. In 1938, Alfred Hill composed a musical setting of Lavater’s verse Mopoke. Lavater’s words were also set by Australian composers Doctor Ruby Davy and Fanny Turbayne. Early life Born in St Kilda, Melbourne, Lavater was the eldest child of Emily Challinor (née Swindells) and Swiss-born George Theodore Adams Lavater, a civil servant who had migrated to Victoria after the 1851 gold rush. He attended Grammar School in St Kilda and Wesley College. At the University of Melbourne from 1884 he began to study medicine. He later changed his enrolment to study music though did not finish the degree. While at the University Lavater joined the bohemian Buonarotti Club (1883–87), was active in its musical section and accompanied the artists on their painting camps. Much later he recalled lively experiences with the Club in a 1929 Argus interview. Notability Lavater was regarded as a gifted leader of music in rural Victoria. He was fondly known