Orchestral Music of the Canadian Centennial
! ! ORCHESTRAL MUSIC OF THE! CANADIAN CENTENNIAL ! ! ! ! ! ! Isaac !Page ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF! MUSIC May 2020 ! Committee: Emily Freeman Brown, Advisor Per Broman ! !ii ! ABSTRACT ! Emily Freeman Brown, Advisor ! In 1967, Canada celebrated its centennial anniversary of confederation. Celebrations were marked with many significant events in the decade leading up to the centennial, notably the adoption of a new Canadian flag, the construction of many cultural landmarks across the country, and Expo 67 in Montreal. In addition to these major cultural celebrations, there was a noticeable push to create and promote Canadian art. Approximately 130 compositions were written for the centennial year, with many commissions coming from Centennial Commission grants as well as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Of those works, 51 were orchestral compositions that were intended to be performed by orchestras across the country. These works form an important collection that is ripe for study into compositional trends of the time. I believe that composers, writing for such a significant cultural event in Canada, attempted, consciously or not, to codify a Canadian musical identity. I will look into whether shared compositional traits could be considered signifiers of a general Canadian style by looking at previous scholarship on Canadian identity and how it can relate to music. Specific works will be analyzed by Applebaum, Eckhardt-Gramatté, Freedman, Glick, Hétu, Morel, Surdin, and Weinzweig. !iii ! ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ! Thank you to my parents, Carolyn Ricketts and Steven Page. I am very aware that I would likely not be where I am, and able to write a document like this, if both of my parents had not been musicians and had not continued to encourage me through my education.
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