# great classical composers from quebec or canada?



## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

What are the best modern avant classical composer from this region, someone mention i should check them out.To be quite honest im almost absolutly ignorant of classical composer of canada
that are Worth the admittion.All iknow is montreal had a great chef called Dutois (if my spelling correct) as far has classical composer goes i really dont know them.

You know my taste for classic gloom n doom...
what is canada answer to music of arvo part or tavener
does canada has people in league whit penderecki


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

...not yet.... -----------------


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Whoever wrote "O Canada" the Canadian National anthem should be right up there.

Nobody did it better than just before Montreal Canadian home games in the 1960's.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I'm a big fan of Claude Vivier. It's a shame he died so young, I feel confident in saying he would be one of the great composers of our time if he was still alive.


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## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

He's only kind of Canadian, and I'd never heard of him until looking for an answer to your question, but *Nikolai Korndorf* was a Russian-Canadian composer of contemporary-style classical music. There's at least some of his music on Youtube.

His _Symphony No. 2_:


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

If you were to ask some guy, you'd get a list as high as a house. Unfortunately, I can name only R. Murray Schafer. Regrettably, I don't know any of his music, although I have listened to a few pieces a couple of times on YT. He has written about eight string quartets and lots of other music, but there are not many recordings available (a few on ATMA Classique).

I find it rather offensive to say Québec or Canada. Québec is in Canada. Would you say France or Lyon? Or USA or Texas?


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Celine Dion. She looks like Stravinsky and talks like Jean Chrétien.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

I'm rather a fan of the film composer Mychael Danna. Not that I know that many of his film scores, but I like the ones I do know.


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## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

sorry brotagonist, i did not ment it to be insulting i only wanted to know classical composer of canada including quebec .I know quebec in canada(is part of) dont worrie

:tiphat:


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

musicrom said:


> *He's only kind of Canadian*, _Nikolai Korndorf_ was a Russian-Canadian composer of contemporary-style classical music.
> His _Symphony No. 2_:


Korndorff's Hymns II and III
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=143113
are wonderful pieces, and I would recommend them to anyone.

I'm just fascinated and flabbergasted at the mentality which even half sorta demi-quasi thinks to claim an émigré composer -- whose entire training as well as a large body of their works which are a part of that composer developing their distinct style -- all took place in their native country prior their emigration!

England + Handel is the one that comes up _all the time._

No one ever says that Chopin "was a French composer," or that Stravinsky, with his post Russian emigration first French citizenship and then American citizenship, was other than a very Russian composer (though I lately did just that in wildly satiric jest)

Korndorff _emigrated to Canada when he was forty-four years old_. How that makes him even a partially "Canadian composer" is wildly beyond my imagination.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

brotagonist said:


> I find it rather offensive to say Québec or Canada. Québec is in Canada. Would you say France or Lyon? Or USA or Texas?


Québec is and has a very different culture (French) and the accompanying mind-set as opposed to the balance of rather to very 'British' Canada.

Everyone knows that Texans think of their state as a separate country, too.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

There's *Andre Mathieu,* who was like the Canadian Rachmaninov. His Symphonie Romantique "Concerto de Quebec" may be worth a try. I managed to track him down via an old thread on him here: http://www.talkclassical.com/8858-andr-mathieu-pls-read.html


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

My 'hunch' is there are a number of electronic composers, centered in and around Quebec... this is definitely via a strong interest and showing in the genre on the part of the French, and if anyone knows the "who's who" of that several generations it would very likely be Some Guy!


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## Guest (Sep 8, 2014)

A lot of people here seem to like Mathieu. I've only listened to his 4th piano concerto once. A bit derivative, but enjoyable.


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## Guest (Sep 8, 2014)

Instead of a list, I'll just give you a website. It contains practically everything I know about Canadian music and more.

http://www.empreintesdigitales.com/

These are not just Québécois composers. Montréal is an international centre of new music. As is Toronto. (The last thing I was aware of in Toronto was an installation by a Brit who lives in Norway.) As is Vancouver (which is where Schafer is--I think he's still there, anyway).

But on the site, you can easily find just the Québécois composers. (When I last checked, there were thirty of these. Thirty out of 107. There are thirty from Egypt as well.)


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Wikipedia of course has a list of names too
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_composers

I have some works by the relatively conservative Mathieu, Leo Smit, Arsenault and Colin McPhee. Also by the more well-known *Henry Brant, Michael Colgrass, Denys Bouliane and Murray Schafer*, these being somewhat interesting.

Henry Brant is probably the most original and ambitious, and there´s a lot by him on you-tube. At times, his music can give a "gothic" impression - as "sound cathedrals".

I probably have a few more too in my collection too.

Bouliane: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denys_Bouliane Comme une Silene ... ensemble work; piano concerto; Chinese Encyclopedia 



Schafer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Murray_Schafer String quartets
Colgrass: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Colgrass "As Quiet As"; "Deja Vu", Concerto for Percussion & Orchestra
Brant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Brant Lots of interesting orchestral works


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## cjvinthechair (Aug 6, 2012)

Some Canadian composers I enjoy - maybe you will too ?!
Vivian Fung - her violin concerto 



Malcolm Forsyth (has some SA background too !) - Sketches of Natal 



Marjan Mozetich - harp concerto The passion of Angels 



Larysa Kuzmenko - Piano Concerto no. 1 



Heather Schmidt - Double Concerto for viola, horn & orchestra 



Kelly-Marie Murphy - A Thousand natural Shocks 



Jean Coulthard - Symphony no. 1 



Murray Adaskin - Capriccio for piano & orchestra 




Good number of ladies amongst them ! Also happy to 'second' mentions of McPhee, Vivier, & Schafer.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

I don't know much about canadian composers, but I've liked everything I've heard of Barbara Pentland.





And when I first heard about granular synthesis I discovered Barry Truax 





And then there's Henry Brant who is a great composer but I don't know if it's possible to consider him Canadian just because he's born there.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

PetrB said:


> No one ever says that Chopin "was a French composer," or that Stravinsky, with his post Russian emigration first French citizenship and then American citizenship, was other than a very Russian composer (though I lately did just that in wildly satiric jest)


Was there ever a truer American?


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

deprofundis said:


> What are the best modern avant classical composer from this region, someone mention i should check them out.


I've recently received a set of four (five CD sets) volumes of Canadian music from the CMC (Canadian Music Center) titled "Ovation". The set promises a broad spectrum of recent Canadian music. The discs I've auditioned already have not disappointed.

http://www.musiccentre.ca/node/40307

I came across this while looking round for music by Claude Vivier, a Canadian composer of some note.









CD 4 of "Ovation" box set Number 1 features music by JACQUES HETU:

1-3. Symphonie no 3, Op.18
4-6. Concerto pour guitare et orchestre a cordes, Op.56
7-9. Concerto pour trompette et petit orchestre, Op.43
10. Antimonie, Op.23

This is "modern" music and should appeal to a fan of Penderecki and Part. And that's just one disc in the set.

I found the entire set affordable, and it offers a great sampler for one interested in peeking into music from the Maple Leaf "state".

At the very least, you can check out the names of the composers at the CMC link: http://www.musiccentre.ca/composers . The CMC website itself is a virtual grad-course in music and composers of Canada. Check it out.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Mahlerian said:


> Was there ever a truer American?


He offered to write a new tune to the old lyrics too, though that offer was not taken up

The melody of the U.S. anthem (which is a Scottish drinking song, LOL) as it is now, _is completely outside the working singing range of the pedestrian singer_ -- maybe the only national anthem in the world to be truly so 'user unfriendly.'


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## Radames (Feb 27, 2013)

I like John Estacio.


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## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

Crudblud excellent, Claudier Vivier work is awesome i really like zipangu and lettura di dante quite neato, i order a cd from mr. Vivier today at hmv, only one title available and its made in germany(import)


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## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

Jacque hétu seem fascinating thanks SONNET CLV


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## pjang23 (Oct 8, 2009)

Give Healey Willan a try too. He's considered the "Dean of Canadian composers".
Symphony No.2 



Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue for Organ


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Alexina Louie, Sophie Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté, Maya Badian, Barbara Pentland...

/ptr


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

PetrB said:


> No one ever says that Chopin "was a French composer,"


This just reminded me of back when I was in high school, I saw a poster for French club that was up during "Culture Week" or whatever, and it was of "3 Famous French Artists"; Claude Monet, Victor Hugo, and ... Frédéric Chopin. [emphasis on the accents they made sure to keep to show how French he was]

Why they picked him of all French composers, I'll never know


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