Louis Lavater


Louis Isidore Lavater was an Australian composer and author born in Victoria, of Swedish extraction.
He published more than a hundred musical works. He prepared musical settings of popular folklore by collaborating with well known Australian lyricists of his time, including Banjo Paterson, 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 Davis and Fanny Turbayne.

Notoriety

Lavater was regarded as a gifted leader of music in rural Victoria. He was fondly known for his direction of concerts held between 1890 and 1920. Several Photographs of Louis Lavater in circulation show him as literate or musical. An oil portrait of Louis Lavater by Rollo Thomson hangs in the State Library of Victoria. Lavater composed ballet orchestrations which played abroad and arranged light opera.
His piano miniatures have been recorded by Larry Sitsky The White Owl was revived in a 1961 recording by Jessica Dix and Arnold Matters.

Performances

Lavater's setting of The Old Bark Hut by Banjo Paterson was revived for a production of bush ballad musical Under the Coolibah Tree produced by the Waterside Worker's Union in 1956.

Musical works