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”. He is frequently categorized 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. Life Lieurance was born in 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 College of Music of Cincinnati, 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 an