# Canada's Soul In Classical Music: Is There Such A Thing?



## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Many nations like to use classical music as a symbol of national greatness, to describe the nation, culture and people, to evoke the landscape, grandeur, etc.

What about Canada? Is there any classical music (doesn't have to be written by Canadians) that expresses Canada and Canada's soul?

Why is there so little? There are countries with vastly smaller populations, but with far more composers of widespread repute and fame.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

They have some pretty fine orchestras though, with the Toronto and Montreal Symphony Orchestras.


----------



## Guest (Sep 19, 2014)

Pretty good Universities too. With good electroacoustic departments.


----------



## Guest (Sep 19, 2014)

But to respond to Brotagonist's query, I suggest transposing Dvorak's New World symphony up a tone or two (tonally/geographically) and call it the "Aqui-No-Esta-Nada" Symphony.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

They probably have a Hockey Concerto or symphony.


----------



## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

We have many great composers: Alannah Myles, Shania Twain, Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, Alanis Morissette, Rita MacNeil, etc. That's right, Canada's Contemporary Classical music scene is as frigid as a Manitoban winter, eh?


----------



## Guest (Sep 19, 2014)

And Barry Truax.


----------



## TresPicos (Mar 21, 2009)

I've only listened to a few Canadian composers - Glick, Pentland and Coulthard. They were all really good, but I can't say that they sounded very Canadian. Whatever that sounds like. 

Whither Canada?


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

To me Canadians create some of the best non-classical music on the planet, second only to England (Celine Dion notwithstanding).

For classical, can we count Howard Shore? I don't know if what he does is in essence Canadian though.


----------



## Guest (Sep 19, 2014)

Whither Canada,TresPicos? On the maps it is marked thus : *Here be dragons*.


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Quoted from the BBC live reporting last night: Star Trek star George Takei has the most popular tweet: "Well, if Scotland votes for independence from the U.K., what's to keep Canada from breaking off from the U.S.?"


----------



## Guest (Sep 19, 2014)

Wait, Canada? Don't you mean North Montana?


----------



## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

We were too busy developing our stable banking system to be fooling around with music like senseless Americans and Europeans.


----------



## Guest (Sep 19, 2014)

http://www.electrocd.com/en/bio/arcuri_se/

http://www.electrocd.com/en/oeuvres/select/?id=30449

http://www.electrocd.com/en/cat/imed_9838/

http://www.electrocd.com/en/oeuvres/select/?id=13944

I'd love to do the rest of the alphabet, but you can do that for yourselves @empreintesdigitales.com. Don't listen to any non-Canadian music, though. I forbid it.

OK, maybe some. There are as many composers from Egypt on that site as there are from Quebec.


----------



## Guest (Sep 19, 2014)

Couchie said:


> We were too busy developing our stable banking system to be fooling around with music like senseless Americans and Europeans.


Have they figured out, yet, how to make an ATM that a moose can use?


----------



## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Hockey Night in Canada theme.


----------



## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

I love Canada -- it's given me so much; schooling, healthcare, a love of nature, etc. But I've gotta say (with the exception of Quebec and perhaps BC), it's one of the blandest places on the face of the earth. You don't know what bland is until you've lived in cities like Barrie, Sault Ste. Marie, Port Perry, Winnipeg, etc. The list is endless. Has anyone been to the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE)? Never in my life have I seen so much drab, colorless trash under one roof. You wanna see cows, chickens and go on hopelessly rusty, dilapidated amusement rides, and pay obscene amounts of money for junk food? Go to the CNE.


----------



## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

I know of one work that kind of sounds Canadian, whatever that means.

Britten's _Canadian Carnival Overture_.

I don't know. Would it count?


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Sadly Copland (prairie), Grieg and Sibelius (pines and snow etc.) got there first. However diverse and beautiful Canada may be, I fear their potential soundscapes have already been done to death by composers from other nations which have geographical aspects in common.


----------



## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Wellington Winds*

I just discovered a fine Canadian Wind Ensemble (Band) on You Tube that appears to specialize in Canadian Composers.

Link to one of their You Tubes:


----------



## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Last year I saw the RCMP musical ride 
View attachment 51540

the best police uniforms anywhere in the world, IMO. But their choice of music was insipid. I couldn't tell you one thing that was played, it was all new pop music, canned music over speakers. Possibly Canadian, I don't know. This tells me we have some good images that identify as Canadian, but we have no music to identify us as Canadian. We have an identity problem. There certainly is some blandness to this country.


----------



## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

I guess the Naxos Canadian Classics series has gone unnoticed by many, since its launch three years ago. The initial hype was for 6 to 8 releases per year. In actuality, there have been 5 releases over 3 years.

http://www.straight.com/arts/naxos-records-launches-canadian-classics-cd-series-vancouver

http://www.colineatock.com/eatock-daily-blog/canadian-classics-on-naxos

http://www.naxos.com/series/Canadian_Classics.htm

Glenn Gould contributed to the Canada composer cause with recordings of works from himself, Pentland, Hetu, Anhalt, Morawetz, though the latter two were refugees from Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

CBC Records also contributed...

http://www.colineatock.com/six-canadian-composers.html

Analekta, too...

http://www.analekta.com/en/francois-dompierre-receives-the-order-of-canada/


----------



## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

senza sordino said:


> Last year I saw the RCMP musical ride
> View attachment 51540
> 
> the best police uniforms anywhere in the world, IMO. But their choice of music was insipid. I couldn't tell you one thing that was played, it was all new pop music, canned music over speakers. Possibly Canadian, I don't know. This tells me we have some good images that identify as Canadian, but we have no music to identify us as Canadian. We have an identity problem. There certainly is some blandness to this country.


Please tell me they played...


----------



## Guest (Sep 19, 2014)

elgars ghost said:


> ...I fear their potential soundscapes have already been done to death by composers from other nations which have geographical aspects in common.


Murray Schafer. Barry Truax. Hildegard Westerkamp. Christian Calon.

The (used as a technical term) soundscapes of these people had not been preceded by anyone. Well, maybe Luc Ferrari. But you probably weren't thinking of Ferrari, were you?


----------



## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I can't remember if the musical ride played Tom Cochran. 

My knowledge of Canadian composers is woefully inadequate. In situations like this, I say that 1) I'm not really Canadian, I'm an immigrant 2) I'm not a music major 3) I can't afford to buy Canadian music in addition to all the other music I want. 

I think the Vancouver Symphony under Bramwell Tovey is underrated. They play very well with good programs. The theatre they play in has pretty good accoustics.


----------



## Bruce (Jan 2, 2013)

The CBC used to broadcast on the web a station called Canadian composers, from which I became acquainted with quite a few really interesting works. Some of the composers I recall off hand are Gary Kulesha, whose chamber music I like a lot. There's also Christos Hatzis, Kelly-Marie Murphy and Chan Ka Nin, who have also written very attractive chamber works. Jacques Hétu is also a particular favorite of mine; I'm still hoping someday for a recording of his Images de la Révolution for chorus and Orchestra. I heard this broadcast way back in the 1980s, and thought it was very good.

I'd recommend checking out a site called Arts Alive, at http://artsalive.ca/en/ There is quite a bit of music by Canadian composers that can be downloaded.

All that said, however, I don't think that, if I were to hear any of the works of these composers, I'd recognize them as particularly Canadian. However, I don't think I'd recognize work by, say, Silvestrov or Nono as works written specifically by composers of their country, either.


----------



## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

This Canadian prodigy composed his first piece at the age of 3 and gave his first recital in Paris at the age of 7. The above Piano Concerto was composed when he was 12. I find the music nice, though not really distinctly Canadian in sound.


----------



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Canadians are probably just too damn polite to be truly top notch composers.


----------



## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

A recent discovery of mine is the Canadian composer Claude Vivier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Vivier

This is a great piece. Zipangu for String Orchestra.


----------



## Pyotr (Feb 26, 2013)

Orchestras have had problems, up there, with getting their instruments delivered.

From last month







.


----------

