Performing North in Canadian Music for Solo Voice Composed Between 1950 and 2000", Sophie Bouffard, Ph.D., University of Regina, 2010
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PERFORMING NORTH IN CANADIAN MUSIC FOR SOLO VOICE COMPOSED BETWEEN 1950 AND 2000 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Special Case Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology University of Regina By Sophie Bouffard Regina, Saskatchewan June 2011 © Sophie Bouffard 2011 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-88599-4 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-88599-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada UNIVERSITY OF REGINA FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH SUPERVISORY AND EXAMINING COMMITTEE Sophie Bouffard, candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology, has presented a thesis titled, Preforming North in Canadian Music for Solo Voice Composed Between 1950 and 2000, in an oral examination held on April 18, 2011. The following committee members have found the thesis acceptable in form and content, and that the candidate demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of the subject material. External Examiner: Dr. Elaine Keillor, Carleton University Supervisor: Dr. Pauline Minevich, Department of Music Committee Member: Dr. James Pitsula, Department of History Committee Member: Dr. Barbara Reul, Department of Music Committee Member: Dr. Christine Vanderkooy, Department of Music Chair of Defense: Dr. W. Rod Dolmage, Faculty of Education "Performing North in Canadian Music for Solo Voice Composed Between 1950 and 2000", Sophie Bouffard, Ph.D., University of Regina, 2010. The northern landscape has shaped the collective representation of the Canadian nation and has proven to be a major facet of this country's cultural distinctiveness. For decades, the "idea of North" has been central to the Canadian imagination, from the Group of Seven's paintings, to Harold Innis' economic history Fur Trade in Canada (1930), and "the true north strong and free" of the national anthem. In "Naturalizing the Nation: The Rise of Naturalistic Nationalism in the United States and Canada," Eric Kaufmann concludes, it is because of its abundance of unsettled landscape that Canadians channeled into naturalistic nationalism and went through both the process of nationalization of nature and of naturalization of the nation, which explains the importance of the northern landscape in Canadian culture and intellectual history. More than a geographical place, the North portrayed by authors and artists constitutes a captivating multilayered discourse. The sound of the North is a component of this collective myth. In music, three Canadian musicians have made an important contribution in shaping the national northern narrative by using various media that do not qualify as examples of Western art music: Glenn Gould's radio documentary The Idea of North (1967), R. Murray Schafer's literary work Music in the Cold (1977), and, finally, Christos Hatzis's radio documentary The Idea of Canada (1992) and radiophonic work Footprints in New Snow (1995). Through these works, this study traces how the notion of Canada-as-North has developed within the discipline of music. This dissertation examines the representation of North in Canadian music for solo voice, regardless of the accompanying instrumentation, composed between 1950 and 2000. The choice of the second half of the twentieth century as the time frame of this research is motivated by the fact that by then, Canada had entered fully into the mainstream of Western art music: it is the era of the Massey Commission (1949-1951), the creation of the Canada Council for the Arts (1957) and of the Canadian Music Centre (1959). Accordingly, works examined in the context of this study were all written by composers affiliated with the Canadian Music Centre. Repertoire chosen for this study is based on texts about the North and represents aspects of the northern wilderness within the musical language. Interestingly, when correlated with Schafer's description of the music of the Northerner, presented in Music in the Cold, the comprehensive musical analysis of this selected repertoire permits crossing the boundary beyond the simple identification of the musical idioms used by Canadian composers to represent northern wilderness or Canada-as-North, towards the definition of a Canadian musical style that is especially relevant to this northern context. While there are a vast number of Canadian musical works inspired by the idea of North, to date there is no global research explaining the influence of nordicity in Canadian music. This detailed account of Canadian music representing the northern landscape, although limited to works for solo voice, is a ground breaking contribution to the subject as it provides broad applications to the discipline in general and to the larger field of Canadian cultural studies. It ultimately also offers the necessary aesthetic and theoretical underpinnings to undertake a comparative study approach with contemporary refined art music of other Nordic countries. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I extend sincere and heartfelt thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Pauline Minevich, for the incisive way she grasped my project halfway in the process and for the critical and engaged attention she has devoted to my work. Her faith in this dissertation renewed and strengthened my original impulse in undertaking this degree and led to the completion of this manuscript. My enduring appreciation also goes to Dr. James Pitsula for his indefectible generosity and constructive criticism. His assessment of several earlier drafts was enormously useful. I have been lucky to find an excellent reader in Dr. Barbara Reul who provided extremely thorough editorial guidance. I also thank Dr. Christine Vanderkooy for her assistance in the completion of this project. Thank you all for your considerate review of my work and for your willingness to act swiftly when required. I would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their support during two years of this degree (2006-08). Thanks also to the assistance of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, I benefited from a number of scholarships, teaching assistantships and travel awards. It is here too that I should thank Dr. Stephen McClatchie for his guidance as this project began to take shape. Finally, thanks to Dr. Alain Perron for his assistance with the preparation of the numerous musical examples. Acknowledgements are due to the following for permission to quote extracts from the sources indicated: Naxos Canada and Editions Hurtubise. iii DEDICATION A mes parents, Lise et Jean-Yves, qui m'ont sans cesse encouragee et soutenue dans tous mes projets. Merci de m'avoir insuffle la curiosite qui entretient le desir de decouvrir, le doute qui permet de questionner et le sens critique afin de mieux comprendre. A Alain, mon epoux, qui me pousse constamment a me depasser et qui, dans le cadre de ce projet, m'a enseigne a dedramatiser sans toutefois ne jamais laisser tomber l'ideal vise. Ces annees ont paru longues, maintenant je nous souhaite d'autres instants d'eternite... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii DEDICATION iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF FIGURES vii LIST OF EXAMPLES viii LIST OF APPENDICES xii INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1. FROM COLONY TO NATION 8 Musicological Considerations 9 Artistic Sovereignty 16 2. THE NORTH: A CANADIAN BONDING MYTH 40 Myth as an Instrument Towards Nation-Building 42 Place and Identity 49 Defining North 54 Canadian Discursive Formation of North 58 English-Canada's North versus French-Canada's North 72 Nordicity in Canadian Culture 75 3. FROM LANDSCAPE TO SOUNDSCAPE 82 Gould's Idea of North 83 Schafer's Music in the Cold 105 Hatzis' Idea of Canada and Footprints in New Snow 114 4. THE SOUND OF NORTH IN CANADIAN VOCAL REPERTOIRE 126 Selecting