Horst, Louis
Horst, Louis
Horst, Louis, American composer; b. Kansas City, Mo., Jan. 12, 1884; d. N.Y., Jan. 23, 1964. He studied violin and piano in San Francisco, and composition with Richard Stöhr in Vienna, as well as with Max Persin and Riegger in N.Y. (1925). From 1915 to 1925 he was music director of the Denishawn Dance Co., and from 1926 to 1948, of Martha Graham’s dance company, for which he wrote a number of works that played a crucial role in the development of modern dance. He wrote extensively on the subject of music and dance; founded and ed. the journal Dance Observer (1934), and publ, the books Pre-classic Dance Forms (1940) and Modern Dance Forms (with C. Russell; 1961). He was also active as a teacher at Bennington (Vt.) Coll. (1934–45), Columbia Univ. Teachers Coll. (1938–41), and the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y. (1958–63).
Bibliography
E. Pease, L. H.: His Theories on Modern Dance Composition (diss., Univ. of Mich., 1953); J. Soares, L. H.: Musician in a Dancer’s World (Durham, N.C., 1992).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire