Canadian Composers, eh?

Started by snyprrr, June 18, 2009, 10:42:48 AM

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snyprrr

I just got the SQs 1-5 of R. Murray Schafer with the imfamous Orford Quartet.

I was interested in Schafer because I heard he used the same stuff as Lutoslawski, Penderecki, and Ligeti, and I put that together with the cult status of his SQ No.3 "Waves" (1975). Well, this was different than what I expected.

The best way for me to describe this music to you is as a soundtrack to a very bleak/magical film by fellow Canukker David Cronenberg, or, maybe even Tarkovsky. I think I hear Norgard, and Marco, and Sandstrom,... I guess, a 1960s heritage...

The tenor of his muse reminds me of Feldman's Cello and Orchestra, though in a greatly more varied way (again, Norgard)... perhaps, according to Schafer's research into soundscapes, this is what his rural home near Toronto sounds like. There is some of that Sibelian organicness. Perhaps also Lutoslawki, in the freedom.

So, there are "notes" and melodies, and "normal" sounding music, but it is wrapped in a very special atmosphere of color and smell (the Canadian wilderness). There are integral glissandi, and all manner of effects and affects, though this is not Xenakis; however, this music could not have been written before the 1970s. You've heard much of this elsewhere, but maybe not quite put together with such northern studio isolation. I do get a slight sense of a laboratory.

There are extra performance participation such as vocalizing, humming, and entering and leaving the stage. To this degree I prefer Schafer's more solid approach as opposed to Crumb's more tenuous and delicate one. I also hear Donald Erb.

I found I liked Schafer's music better as it went along. SQ No.1 (1970) I find a bit cynical and unconvincing in its avantishness... noisy but in no way over the top. By the time of No.5 "Rosalind" (1990), we have arrived at Schafer's atmospheric fingerprint. No.3 (1981) IS THE MOST OUT THERE AND INTERGRATED OF sCHAFER'S (woops!) SQs, with a high theatre quotient.

The competing Molinari Quartet (Atma?) have recorded 8 Schafer SQs, and other SQ pieces, and I'm quite curious as to how they would interpret some of these very interpretable works.

Not perhaps the A1 over the top masterpieces I might have been expecting (and, I shouldn't reaaallly like it that much), but this set really made me think. I'll probably be getting to know it for a while.

(At the same time I got a CRI cd by Charles Jones, the Elliot Carter of Canada as far as I can hear. His 1970 SQ No.6 I took to immediately, in stark contrast to Schafer: serial-Bartok insect music just the way I like it, but very well crafted with notes, not effects.)

some guy

I seem to recall using this line before on another thread, "in a word: electroacoustic."

Francis Dhomont was resident in Montreal for several decades. Give a listen to his Frankenstein Symphony for a short list of the Montreal crew. Barry Truax has been in Vancouver his entire professional career, taking over the soundscape project from his mentor, R. Murray Schafer.

Westercamp is one notable Canadian, to be sure. As are Gilles Gobeil, Robert Normandeau, Hélène Prévost, Christian Calon, any of several Tremblays, the Copeland who really does spell his name with an "e," .... Oh, just go to the emprientesDIGITALes site. You´ll see!!

Plus, John Oswald, eh?

snyprrr

Now that you mention it, Schafer's SQs do have a certain "electroacoustic" sound to them, though none employ electronics.

John Oswald? That's the guy with a very noisy spectral SQ on Kronos' "Short Stories"?

Take off, eh?

Mirror Image

Malcolm Forsyth, Jean Coulthard (a composer I'm very interested in as I heard her idiom is influenced by Impressionism), Harry Somers, Colin McPhee, Godfrey Ridout, John Beckwith, and Alexina Louie are a few names that I have ran across.

My knowledge of Canadian classical music is so limited. I don't have much a clue about it, but recordings of Canadian music are very hard to come by and quite expensive.

What I do know is not many Canadian composers are acknowledged outside of Canada. Why is this? It's really interesting when a vast country like Canada's classical music tradition is totally unknown to the rest of world.

some guy

Totally unknown to the U.S., maybe. The rest of the world is pretty savvy, actually.

The French/Canadian connection is very strong, for instance, probably largely owing to Francis Dhomont. The people who are featured on the Emprientes DIGITALes label are pretty well known in Europe. Are some of them Europeans, for that matter.

Martin Tetreault is very well known all over the world (except for the U.S.), partly because he collaborates with people from Japan (Otomo Yoshihide), France (eRikm), and Germany (Ignaz Schick), among others.

And, of course, none of these people is well-known by your typical classical listener, even outside the U.S. But that's another problem for another thread.

Mirror Image

Quote from: some guy on October 21, 2010, 12:34:09 PM
Totally unknown to the U.S., maybe. The rest of the world is pretty savvy, actually.

The French/Canadian connection is very strong, for instance, probably largely owing to Francis Dhomont. The people who are featured on the Emprientes DIGITALes label are pretty well known in Europe. Are some of them Europeans, for that matter.

Martin Tetreault is very well known all over the world (except for the U.S.), partly because he collaborates with people from Japan (Otomo Yoshihide), France (eRikm), and Germany (Ignaz Schick), among others.

And, of course, none of these people is well-known by your typical classical listener, even outside the U.S. But that's another problem for another thread.

I guess where I'm getting at Some Guy is how often, besides Canada, are Canadian composers performed in the concert halls?

some guy

And my answer was, and is, in Europe and Japan, quite often.


Mirror Image

Quote from: some guy on October 21, 2010, 08:36:20 PM
And my answer was, and is, in Europe and Japan, quite often.

Really? Point me to some European orchestras that have played Canadian music.

some guy

I was not talking about orchestral music. I don't know much of that. (And the little I know came from Canadian labels. And wasn't all that good, as I recall.)

Sorry for the mix-up. I was wondering after I thought about your reference to concert halls if you were thinking of orchestral music. The people I know who are known and played around the world are people who do electroacoustic music and live electronics.

Martin Tetreault, for example, is a prominent turntablist. (Hence the collaborations with eRikm, Schick, and Otomo Yoshihide. And Katsura Mouri, I should add.)

not edward

I don't know if it's still the case, but there was significant interest in Claude Vivier in Europe for quite a while. I remember several performances at the Huddersfield Festival, and so on.

Ligeti's strong advocacy of Vivier's music probably didn't hurt, of course.
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

not edward

A bit of the old thread necromancy to note that the Canadian Music Centre has put up online a large number of streaming recordings of music by Canadian composers. You do have to sign up, but it's free of charge.

http://www.musiccentre.ca/home.cfm
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

karlhenning

Say, Edward, have you heard any of Gary's music?

not edward

No--it's often surprised me that there's not more new Canadian music played in Toronto. Given the size of the place, I'd expect to hear a bit more promotion of Canadian composers; when I lived in Edinburgh (roughly one tenth of the population) there were probably more performances of music by living Scottish composers than there are of living Canadian composers here.
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

some guy

I know I'm not there, but I've had the impression for many years that Toronto thinks of itself as a rival of Montreal, and that it puts on new music stuff all the time. That its resident composers are just as active as the Montreal crowd. Maybe not quite as well-known all of them, but still pretty active.

I wish I had a flawless memory, but when I get notifications of Toronto stuff, I read and forget, not being able to get to its many offerings easily from Portland, OR. And not having managed to get to any of its festivals, yet. (I go to festivals over single concerts because that's a better concert to plane ticket ratio.) Sarah Peebles is in Toronto, though. And isn't Toronto where John Oswald hangs out?

Mirror Image

The problem with Canadian music is its simply not promoted or recorded. The recordings that do exist are so expensive that it makes it unreasonable to buy them. I've been wanting to get some of Jean Coulthard, Harry Somers, Malcolm Forsyth, and Harry Freedman, but the recordings that feature their music are just ridiculously high. There's a three volume set called Ovation released by CBC that features all Canadian music that I've been wanting for quite some time, but they're all out-of-print. >:(

chasmaniac

I saw L'Ensemble Denis Shingh once in Ottawa. Minimalism, I think.
If I have exhausted the justifications, I have reached bedrock and my spade is turned. Then I am inclined to say: "This is simply what I do."  --Wittgenstein, PI §217

snyprrr

Quote from: chasmaniac on June 27, 2011, 10:07:01 AM
I saw L'Ensemble Denis Shingh once in Ottawa. Minimalism, I think.

There seems to be a spectral/minimalist bent to a lot of Canadian Composers, eh?


Just thinking of how that Grisey piece made me think of Schafer. Just listening again to Schafer's SQ No.5, a very organic type of spectralism, very consonant and meditative, very 'normal music' sounding in a Riley wayward kind of way, improvisational.

lescamil

There is nothing minimal about Claude Vivier! Plenty of spectral influence, though. I think he is my favorite Canadian composer. I love that his music is complex, but very direct, much like many Dutch composers writing around his time, oddly enough. Orion is a work that is seeing more and more programming. The LA Phil will open up their next season with this work as the curtain raiser. I have also seen it performed at the Proms and various other places.

Another Canadian composer that seems to get a lot of attention is Jacques Hétu. Anyone else familiar with his work? He is one I would love to get to know more, especially his earlier work, which uses elements of 12 tone serialism. His early Variations for piano is a work that has endured from his early years, and is a work I hope to program myself later on. His later, more romantically bent music seems to get more playing time, though. I've heard a symphony or two and some concertos. It's really hard to figure out some of these works. They aren't inaccessible, but the musical material can be hard to understand. That's what makes me come back to them on occasion.

I've also wanted to look at some R. Murray Schafer. He is constantly touted by many of my Canadian friends, along with Christos Hatzis. Their music is tough to get here in the states, though.
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some guy

Where do people buy music?

I have hundreds of CDs of contemporary Canadian music, some from stores, some from the labels directly, some from other distributors online, some from travelling around and composers handing me CDs, but only a few.

Mostly I get them from the same places anyone could get them, stores and online.

snyprrr

Quote from: lescamil on June 27, 2011, 11:31:46 AM
much like many Dutch composers writing around his time, oddly enough

I have actually thought much on this topic, expanded, and I think I have come to the Unifying Answer: 1989.

I may be exactly off, but, if you get my drift, it was around this time that a certain, ahem, singularity occurred amongst the Composer Community,... I'm not hinting at anything, just saying that, mm, it 'all came together' as far as in a 'knowledge' area, and I notice a vast similarity in... dare I say... ALL Musics of THAT TIME period/frame (maybe it's 1991?).

All I can say is, I'm sure all of you could easily name lots and lots of stuff by everyone that just has that 'professional', smooth, sound, as if, no matter what the dissonance level, ALL,... The 'All'... has been,... haha... 'Assimilated'.

Can I get a witness?