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

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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 Musical Works: Defining Boundaries 129 Chosen Repertoire 130 Chronology 133 Review of Literary Elements 13 7 Recurrent Elements Illustrative of the North 140 Schafer' s Music in the Cold as a Benchmark 147 Selected Musical Analyses 155 Maurice Dela's "Hiver" from Les saisons (1954) 157 Clermont Pepin's Hymne au vent du nord (1960) 159 Harry Somers' Twelve Miniatures (1965) 162 Harry Somers' Evocations (1966) 167

v Jacques Hetu's "Soir d'hiver" from Les clartes 172 de la nuit (1972) Richard Henninger's The Three Songs of Winter (1972) 175 Robert Fleming's Of A Timeless Land (1974) 178 Andre Prevost's Hiver dans I 'ame (1978) 182 Violet Archer's Northern Landscape (1978) 189 Violet Archer's Prairie Profiles (1980) 191 Godfrey Ridout's "Winter" from The Seasons (1980) 195 Euphrosyne Keefer' s Polar Chrysalis (1981) 198 Peter Hatch's East From the Mountains (1984) 201 Barbara Pentland's Ice Age (1986) 204 Jean Papineau-Couture's Nuit polaire (1986) 208 Leon Zuckert' s Two Northern Nature Songs (1989) 214 Violet Archer's Northern Journey (1990) 217 Brent Lee's "Stopping for Northern Lights East of Priddis" 222 from Landscapes in a Luminous Night (1993) John Burge's Winter (1995) 224 John G. Armstrong's False Spring (1996) 227 V iolet Archer's Songs of North (1996) 229 Predominant Shared Musical Features or the Creation of 232 a Musical Style

CONCLUSION 238

BIBLIOGRAPHY 246

vi LIST OF FIGURES

Fig 2-1 Canadian nordic space 57

Fig 2-2 Lawren S. Harris, Lake and Mountains 80

vii LIST OF EXAMPLES

Example 4-1 Brebeuf mm. 98-104 150

Example 4-2 Brebeuf, m. 1 152

Example 4-3 Les saisons, "Hiver," m. 46 159

Example 4-4 Hymne au vent du nord, mm. 14-15 161

Example 4-5 Hymne au vent du nord, mm. 106 (strings) 162

Example 4-6 Twelve Miniatures, "Winter Night," mm. 1-5 163

Example 4-7 Twelve Miniatures, "Winter Night," mm. 8-10 164

Example 4-8 Twelve Miniatures, "Loneliness," mm. 1-6 165

Example 4-9 Twelve Miniatures, "Loneliness," mm. 5-9 166

Example 4-10 Evocations, "Loon," mm.1-3 169

Example 4-11 Evocations, "And the Day Spinning Away," m. 62 169

Example 4-12 Evocations, "Moon Cracks and Spreads Winter Night" 170

Example 4-13 Evocations, "And the Day Spinning Away," mm. 50-56 170

Example 4-14 Evocations, "And the Day Spinning Away," pitch content 171 of piano part

Example 4-15 Evocations, "And the Day Spinning Away," pitch content 171 of voice part

Example 4-16 Clartes de la nuit, "Soir d'hiver," mm. 164-168 (piano) 174

Example 4-17 Clartes de la nuit, "Soir d'hiver," m. 165-166 (voice) 174

Example 4-18 The Three Songs of Winter, "Winter Night," mm. 36-39 176

Example 4-19 The Three Songs of Winter, "Winter Night," mm. 47-50 176

Example 4-20 The Three Songs of Winter, "Winter Night," mm. 1-311 177

viii Example 4-21 Of a Timeless Land, mm. 240-243 179

Example 4-22 Of a Timeless Land, mm. 248-249 (bassoons) 180

Example 4-23 Of a Timeless Land, mm. 259-260 (flutes and oboes) 180

Example 4-24 Of a Timeless Land, mm. 272-281 181

Example 4-25 Hiver dans I 'ame, "II fait nuit lente," mm.1-3 182

Example 4-26 Hiver dans I 'ame, "II fait nuit lente," mm.5-6 183

Example 4-27 Hiver dans I 'ame, "II fait nuit lente," m.1 (violin I) 184

Example 4-28 Hiver dans I ame, "II fait nuit lente," mm. 20-23 184

Example 4-29 Hiver dans I 'ame, "Dernier parallele," mm. 1-10 185

Example 4-30 Hiver dans I 'ame, "Dernier parallele," mm. 88-93 187

Example 4-31 Hiver dans I 'ame, "Verte feuille," mm.1-8 188

Example 4-32 Northern Landscapes, "The Lonely Land," mm. 1-3 191

Example 4-33 Northern Landscapes, "The Lonely Land," mm. 20-22 191

Example 4-34 Prairie Profiles, "Have You Heard Snow Falling?," mm.1-5 192

Example 4-35 Prairie Profiles, "Have You Heard Snow Falling?," mm. 20-32 193

Example 4-36 Prairie Profiles, "Ground Blizzard," mm.1-6 194

Example 4-37 Prairie Profiles, "Ground Blizzard," mm. 71-77 195

Example 4-38 The Seasons, "Winter," mm. 6-9 196

Example 4-39 The Seasons, "Winter," mm. 33-37 197

Example 4-40 Polar Chrysalis, mm. 1-5 200

Example 4-41 Polar Chrysalis, mm. 14-19 200

Example 4-42 Polar Chrysalis, mm. 66-69 201

Example 4-43 East From the Mountains, mm. 1-19 202

ix Example 4-44 East From the Mountains, mm. 36-43 202

Example 4-45 East From the Mountains, mm. 44-49 203

Example 4-46 Ice Age, mm. 1-13 207

Example 4-47 Nuit polaire, mm. 1-24 209

Example 4-48 Nuit polaire, m. 41 211

Example 4-49 Nuit polaire, mm. 77-80 (piccolos) 212

Example 4-50 Nuit polaire, mm. 109-114 213

Example 4-51 Nuit polaire, m. 202 214

Example 4-52 Two Northern Nature Songs, "The Lonesome Loon," m. 2 (voice) 215

Example 4-53 Two Northern Nature Songs, "The Lonesome Loon," m. 3 215

Example 4-54, Two Northern Nature Songs, "The Lonesome Loon," mm. 19-21 216

Example 4-55 Northern Journey, "Auyuittuq," mm. 1-7 218

Example 4-56 Northern Journey, "Auyuittuq," m. 29 218

Example 4-57 Northern Journey, "Auyuittuq," mm. 25-26 219

Example 4-58 Northern Journey, "Auyuittuq," mm. 45-46 219

Example 4-59 Northern Journey, "Winter Sky," mm. 35-45 220

Example 4-60 Northern Journey, "Kluane Glacier," mm. 57-68 222

Example 4-61 Landscapes in a Luminous Night, "Stopping for Northern 223 Lights East of Priddis," m. 1

Example 4-62 Landscapes in a Luminous Night, "Stopping for Northern 224 Lights East of Priddis," mm. 36-43 (voice part)

Example 4-63 Winter, mm. 30-34 (voice) 226

Example 4-64 Winter, mm. 64-80 (flute) 226

Example 4-65 False Spring, "Pavane," mm. 1-9 228

x Example 4-66 Songs of North, "Seasons of North," mm. 5-6 230

Example 4-67 Songs of North, "Vows and Seasons," mm. 16-24 230

Example 4-68 Songs of North, "September Nativity," mm. 3-4 231

Example 4-69 Songs of North, "September Nativity," mm. 6-8 231

Example 4-70 Songs of North, "O Kingdom of Summer," mm. 42-45 231

xi LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX A 271 Canadian Music Courses Offered in Canadian Universities as in 2009

APPENDIX B 274 List of Solo Vocal Works Pertaining to the Idea of North

APPENDIX C 279 Chronology of the Selected Works

APPENDIX D 281 Links Between the Selected Repertoire and Allison Mitcham's Classification of the Representations of North in Canadian Literature

APPENDIX E 284 Recurrent Elements Illustrative of the Northern Landscape in the Selected Repertoire

xii INTRODUCTION

Canadians have long been concerned with questions of identity. Judging by the number of books published on the subject in recent years, this topic still actively remains under scrutiny.1 Since the 1990s, questions of identity have also arisen in the area of

Canadian music. To borrow the expression coined by Lydia Goehr, music scholars realized the Canadian imaginary museum of musical works is more than a collection of individual compositions.2 Compositions and all other works of art are historically contingent upon and entrenched within a culture. This was the argument expressed by the

Canadian painter Alexander Young Jackson in his address given to the Empire Club of

Canada on February 26,1925: "Art is what makes a nation articulate, not painting alone but literature, drama, music, sculpture and architecture, and every great nation must create these things for itself. Art is the voice of the nation speaking through time."3 As recently as 2009, Jonathan Vance has pointed out in his book A History of Canadian

Culture: "If there is one underlying notion that generations of artists and their supporters have agreed on, it's that a collective identity cannot exist without a distinct culture to

1 Numerous books on questions of identity within the Canadian context have been published, especially at the end of the 1990s and during the first decade of the twenty-first century. The following are notable examples published in the last four years: Andrew Cohen, The Unfinished Canadian: The People We Are (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2007); Norman Hillmer and Adam Chapnick, eds., Canadas of the Mind: The Making and Unmaking of Canadian Nationalisms in the Twentieth Century (Montreal: McGill- Queens's University Press, 2007); Martin Howard, Intercultural Dialogue: Canada and the Other (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2007); and Rudyard Griffiths, Who We Are: A Citizen's Manifesto (Vancouver: Douglas & Mclntyre, 2009). 2 Lydia Goehr, The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). 3 Alexander Young Jackson, 'Two Views of Canadian Art,' in The Empire Club of Canada Speeches 1925 (Toronto: The Empire Club of Canada, 1926), 113. 1 express it."4

The present research uses Ryan Edwardson's definition of national identity: "the constructed and contested embodiment, repository and/or representation of national essence." He goes on to note: "'Identity' is an inclusive way of dealing with the complexities of character and personality assigned to the national construct."5 The identity of a nation immediately brings to mind the concept of nationalism, which rests on the idea that the unity of a group of citizens is created through self-determinism and by a shared identity. As Beverley Diamond explains, because it is a significant symbol that can be "manipulated in the creation and contestation of nationhood and identity," music played and still plays an active role in fostering nationalism, which in turn had and still has a keen influence on the arts as well.6

The concept of nationalism became an important feature in music during the

Romantic era. It was first and foremost present in the operatic genre, which generally received more patronage support than other musical genres, perhaps because the libretto and staging could carry symbols of the nation or the nation-to-be, making it the perfect medium to convey political meaning and inspire the nation-building process. Convincing examples of nationalist operas are Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco (1842), I Lombardi (1843), and La battaglia di Legnano (1849), as well as Bedrich Smetana's The Bartered Bride

(1860). Nationalism was also present in other musical genres, for example, in Chopin's mazurkas and polonaises and Liszt's Hungarian rhapsodies. In the history of Western art

4 Jonathan Vance, A History of Canadian Culture (Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press, 2009), 456. 5 Ryan Edwardson, Canadian Content: Culture and the Quest for Nationhood (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), 8. 6 Beverley Diamond, "Canadian Music: Issues of Hegemony and Identity," in Canadian Music: Issues of Hegemony and Identity, eds. Beverley Diamond and Robert Witmer (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 1994), 16. 2 music, the definition of nationalism generally agreed upon has been the one fostered by the German scholarly diaspora, the dominant culture in musicology. It usually refers to the second half of the nineteenth century and is distinguished by an opposition to the domination of Austro-German music.7 The nationalist movement was particularly strong in Russia (Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov), Eastern Europe (especially in

Bohemia/Czechoslovakia with Smetana and Dvorak), and Northern Europe (namely in

Finland with Sibelius and in Norway with Grieg). Composers from these regions either chose subjects tied to their ethnic background, using folk songs and dance styles, or cultivated melodic, harmonic or rhythmic traits imitative of these dances and songs.

Unlike Finland, Norway and other countries mentioned, Canada never had its own

Sibelius or Grieg, and did not develop a national style of composition. Since Canada only entered fully into the mainstream of Western art music after the Second World War, a national style of composition was then an unsustainable concept in a modern and even post-modern era, or was it not? The use of folklore as a means of creating a Canadian national style is a Utopia, an illusion, for French-Canadians share the same folklore as the

French, and the English-Canadians with people of Great Britain, and by extension the

Americans. As well, an indigenous alternative to producing a Canadian musical style could not reside in borrowing from the First Peoples' culture and traditions. This would not be justifiable on historical and ethnic grounds and would imply a cleverly disguised form of colonization, better known in the arts under the term appropriation. One solution

7 See J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Jay Grout, and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, 8th ed. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2010), 725-726. 8 Accounts of colonizing, from the Jesuit Relations on, generally show there was an assumption that First Nations did not have a valid musical culture. In fact, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Marius Barbeau (1883-1969) was one of the first anthropologists to even bother collecting aboriginal songs. 3 to this quest for a Canadian musical style lies in the use of the northern landscape, a significant referent of the nation, as a source of inspiration.

In Canada, the northern landscape has played an important role in the articulation of national identity. Eric Kaufmann argues that, because of its abundance of unsettled landscape, Canadians channeled into naturalistic nationalism and went through both the process of nationalization of nature, "whereby a nation creates a homeland by settling, naming, and historically associating itself with a particular landscape" and of naturalization of the nation, "whereby a nation comes to view itself as the offspring of its natural landscape."9 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. This is still prevalent in 2010, one notable instance taking place during the opening ceremony of the 21st Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, where Canada presented itself to the world as "the true North."10

The idea of a Canadian musical style inspired by the landscape was already fostered in the writings of Rodolphe Mathieu, which date back to 1932.

For Canada, it is possible... to conceive of a music completely different [from folklore], far more Canadian perhaps; an immense music with expansive melodic lines, with buoyant rhythms, with rich and varied harmonies, with sonorities of the forest, giving a feeling of grandiose immensity, in quiet as in powerful moments. There would be, lastly, a special technical principle in the melody, harmony,

Important to note as well that up until the Second World War, there was absolutely no consciousness that the use of aboriginal material implied appropriation; it relates more to a postmodern concept, which emerged in the mid-1980s. 9 Eric Kaufmann, "Naturalizing the Nation: The Rise of Naturalistic Nationalism in the United States and Canada" in Comparative Studies in Society and History 40, no. 4 (October 1998), 690. 10 See Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, CTV Vancouver 2010: XXI Olympic Winter Games (Vancouver: CTV Television Network, 2010), 5 videodiscs. 4 rhythm and form; it would be an essentially musical creation, with a purely, and not literary, character."

The existence of a uniquely Canadian sound inspired by the landscape is also echoed in comments Darius Milhaud gave to Harry Freedman when he first heard the music of the latter, describing it as holding a gaunt and lonely quality like most of the Canadian music with which he was familiar.12 This anecdote holds a central place in the first chapter of

David Parsons' "Landscape Imagery in Canadian Music: A Survey of Compositions

Influenced by the Natural Environment."13 To date, Parsons' work is the most detailed account of Canadian orchestral works in relation to specific concepts tied to the landscape: North, natural soundscape, visual art, mountains, and the Arctic. Parsons uses

Deryck Cooke's methods to classify how music can represent physical elements in examining the Canadian works discussed in his thesis.14 Interestingly, in the chapter entitled "A Sense of North," Parsons concludes that when Canadian composers turn to the landscape as a source of inspiration, it is possible to identify some recurrent characteristics, which include "long high string lines, wide register spacing, delicate orchestration and thin textures."15

11 Rodolphe Mathieu cited in Lucien Poirier, "A Canadian Music Style: Illusion and Reality," in Canadian Music: Issues of Hegemony and Identity, eds. Beverley Diamond and Robert Witmer (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 1994), 264. 12 See John Beckwith, "What Every U.S. Musician Should Know About Contemporary Canadian Music," Musicanada 29 (November 1970): 13; and David Parsons, "Landscape Imagery in Canadian Music: A Survey of Composition Influenced by the Natural Environment" (MA Research Essay, Carieton University, 1987), 17. 13 David Parsons, "Landscape Imagery in Canadian Music: A Survey of Composition Influenced by the Natural Environment" (MA Research Essay, Carieton University, 1987). 14 Cooke identifies three strategies to musically illustrate physical objects. First by direct imitation, i.e. reproducing an entity that emits a sound of definite pitch, like a cuckoo. The second method is by approximate imitation, recreating something that produces a sound of indefinite pitch, such as thunderstorm. The last category for representing physical objects is suggestion or symbolization, which consists in using sounds to create the appearance of a strictly visual object, like lightning. See Deryck Cooke, The Language of Music (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1959), 3-6. " Parsons, "Landscape Imagery in Canadian Music," 13. 5 The purpose of this study is to examine the representation of North in Canadian music for solo voice to show that convincing depictions of it have taken shape in this musical genre. After tracing these works, the present research ultimately shows that the northern theme in Canadian vocal music bears specific essential literary and musical characteristics. These characteristics are demonstrated through analysis of the repertoire encompassing five decades.

Chapter 1 begins by summarizing the developments that have taken place in the field of musicology from 1990 to 2010, to situate the privileged approach for this research. It continues with a survey of the momentous changes that occurred in Canada in the second half of the 20th century en route towards the achieved status of an independent nation. This chapter then establishes terms of reference for discussing the evolution of the state of serious music in Canada after the Second World War.

Chapter 2 offers a chronological historical overview of the "Idea of North" in

Canada that gradually unfolds into a study of Canadian literature (in both languages) and culture from a northern perspective. In doing so the aesthetic and discursive use of the

North is examined as part of a general Canadian northern culture, which perpetuates the paradoxical ambivalence of simultaneously representing the real North as well as an imagined northern entity.

The focus then shifts to the representation of North in Canadian music, which is divided in the two following chapters that constitute the main body of this text. Chapter 3 exposes how the idea of North has also been a pivotal concept that permeates the imagination of Canadian composers and performers. In this area, the works of three musicians are highlighted, as each made an important contribution in shaping the national

6 northern narrative by using various media that are not specifically Western art music itself: Glenn Gould's iconic radio documentary The Idea of North (1967), R. Murray

Schafer's literary work Music in the Cold (1977), and finally Christos Hatzis' radio documentary Idea of Canada (1992) and radiophonic work Footprints in New Snow

(1995). In doing so, Chapter 3 traces the evolution of thought as well as the common threads and similarities shared by these works and consequently also by these three

Canadian musicians.

Chapter 4 then identifies how these works by Gould, Hatzis, and especially

Schafer inform the music of other Canadians, and, more precisely, the repertoire for solo voice. This chapter first presents a detailed description of the selected repertoire, which is followed by a thorough investigation of the literary content of these songs. Using the categories listed by Allison Mitcham in her study of northern Canadian literature (1983)16 as a starting point, the review of the poetry leads to the elaboration of a matrix enumerating the recurrence of key themes. A comprehensive musical analysis of the selected repertoire is then correlated with Schafer's description of the music of the

Northerner, presented in Music in the Cold (1977).17 Chapter 4 then brings the discussion to another level, 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, especially relevant within this northern context.

16 Allison Mitcham, The Northern Imagination: A Study of Northern Canadian Literature (Moonbeam, Ontario: Penumbra Press, 1983). 17 R. Murray Schafer, Music in the Cold (Bancroft, Ontario: Arcana Editions, 1977). 7 CHAPTERI

From Colony to Nation

Music, the most social of the arts, possesses supremely that unifying power which, given due support, will play a unique part in fostering and preserving the spirit of devotion that welds together a great nation.

Ernest MacMillan, cited in Ezra Schabas, Sir Ernest MacMillan: The Importance of Being Canadian.

The year 1967 brought many of these developments into sharp focus as Canada celebrated the 100th anniversary of confederation. Government agencies, local organizations, and independent groups all in turn commissioned performances and pieces: the repertoire expanded suddenly and impressively, and the country's consciousness of its musical vitality became newly stimulated.

John Beckwith, "A Festival of Canadian Music," MusiCanada.

8 Musicological Considerations

Any investigation of the musical history of a country or the repertoire composed in a specific country will inevitably imply dealing with the social context(s) and events that explain and facilitate musical composition in a given timeframe. The study of

Canadian music for solo voice pertaining to the idea of North is no exception. More specifically, the timeframe of 1950 to 2000 was consciously selected for this research as the intrinsic quality of the music composed in Canada during that period reached the level of international standards expected of a culturally sovereign state. While the main objective of this research is to offer a survey on the construction of nordicity in Canadian music, and more particularly in the vocal repertoire, it is imperative to begin this study by sketching the development of Canadian culture and the discourse on national identity during the second half of the twentieth century.

Over the last sixty-year period, Canadian culture has moved from the state of colonial culture to mature national culture. It is not implied here that Canada was a colony with no distinctive national identity, and then suddenly acquired one in the 1960s.

Transition from colony to nation did not happen in a straight linear movement, but rather as a part of an ongoing process. In fact, Ryan Edwardson's 2008 book Canadian Content:

Culture and the Quest for Nationhood1 makes the point that Canadian national identity, or Canadianization as the author names it, has gone through several stages of reconceptualization. Edwardson identifies three predominant stages during which culture

1 Ryan Edwardson, Canadian Content: Culture and the Quest for Nationhood (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008). 9 was used by Canadian nation-builders as a paradigm to imprint a sense of nationhood.

First, the "Masseyism" phase, spread from 1949 to the mid-1960s, during which support for the arts was perceived as a strategy to get past the upheavals of modernity. This was followed by, the 'new nationalism' phase that lasted from the mid-1960s to the mid-

1970s and employed quotas, subsidies, and ownership regulations to protect Canada against American imperialism. Finally, the 'cultural industrialism" phase, brought forward by Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government in 1968 (still ongoing today under the leadership of the Department of Canadian Heritage), which was first aimed at confronting and neutralizing Quebecois separatism. With time, the connection between the state and culture with the purpose of safeguarding federalism was reduced and redirected to the sole sake of protecting the beneficial economic end of producing and exporting goods, an activity incompatible with culture as the expression of a people. This state of transition towards a mature national culture is a condition without which it would be impossible to consider questions of identity in the arts. Therefore, the notion of culture revolves on the fact that it acts as a mirror of the social identity of a nation. As R. Murray Schafer argued so clearly: "[...] unless you let your culture mature, you will never mature; you will always remain someone else's clone."2 Northrop Frye, one of the most influential literary theorists of the twentieth century, expressed the same concerns in his article "Across the

River and Out of the Trees": "In an immature society culture is an import; for a mature one it is a native manufacture which eventually becomes an export."3

Northrop Frye commented extensively on Canadian literature. His observations

2 R. Murray Schafer, "Canadian Culture: Colonial Culture," in Canadian Music: Issues of Hegemony and Identity, eds. Beverley Diamond and Robert Witmer (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 1994), 222. 3 Northrop Frye, "Across the River and out of the Trees," in Northrop Frye on Canada, eds. Jean O'Grady and David Staines (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003), 551-552. 10 led him to affirm that:

Canadian literature since 1960 has become a real literature, and is recognized as one all over the world. [...] I doubt if there are any real causes for such a development, but there are some obvious conditioning factors. The Massey Report, published in 1951, was a landmark in the history of Canadian culture, not merely because it recommended a Canada Council, but because it signified the end of cultural laissez-faire and assumed that the country itself had a responsibility for fostering its own culture. [...] But the principle of social responsibility was established with the Massey Report, and without that principle Canadian literature would perhaps still be in its nonage.4

In this quotation, the word "literature" could be replaced by "music" and this preceding statement would still be completely accurate: the situation is analogous in both disciplines. As will be subsequently described, many events in the realm of culture, and more precisely in the sphere of music, have fashioned the state of this artistic field in

Canada to achieve the status of "real music," recognized as such internationally.

The promotion of indigenous culture is an important factor contributing to nation- building. Similarly, the study of various art forms, like music, can reveal much about the culture in which it was invented. As explained by Beverley Diamond in the introduction to the book Canadian Music: Issues of Hegemony and Identity, music reflects the values and ideologies of the people who create and consume it:

[...] people pay attention to sounds, choose sounds, or create sounds; they perform or listen to sounds in specific environments, interacting in codified ways which may be learned so well that the codes seem natural rather than constructed.5

To date, little research has brought Canadian music and Canadian cultural studies together.6 Again, Beverley Diamond questions:

4 Ibid. 5 Diamond, "Canadian Music: Issues of Hegemony and Identity," 2. 6 There is no other comprehensive work on Canadian music and Canadian cultural studies, only Beverley Diamond's and Robert Witmer's book. However, a good example of current interest is the formation of the Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Music in Canada (IPMC) working group in August 2009 at the University 11 It is interesting to query why power relationships or levels of identity have been debated in such a lively manner in fields such as history, literary criticism, sociology or anthropology but explored so little in music, an academic discipline which has continued to give greater prominence to interpretations grounded in the 19th-century, Euro-centered belief in the autonomy of musical language.7

An interdisciplinary approach is fundamental to this present research, as the juxtaposition of various intellectual perspectives can provide telling insight to understanding the aesthetic structures involved in the composition and performance of music. Thus, one of the goals of this study is to move beyond the formalist analysis of the repertoire selected by using, for example, text-music analysis, and proceeding past the limits of the simple identification of idioms towards Stuart Hall's politics of representation, i.e. approaching the latter as the medium through which the production of meaning happens.8 This does not imply that formalist analysis does not render substantial observations into the structure and the materials of musical composition, simply that it is only one of many musicological tools to be employed.

Musicology has undergone many changes since the 1980s. While historical studies have largely been at the core of the discipline since the early nineteenth century, scholars started to question fundamental assumptions of their discipline and also aimed at covering a wider scope in terms of topic and approach.9 Like their historian colleagues,

of Toronto. A second meeting of the group was held in Regina on June 2,2010, during which the discussion focused on the historiography of music in Canada. A publication is certainly pending. 7 Beverley Diamond and Robert Witmer, eds. Canadian Music: Issues of Hegemony and Identity, 1. 8 Stuart Hall, Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (London; Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage in association with the Open University, 1997), 15-64. 9 Some publications have surveyed the changes that musicological studies underwent in the twentieth century, especially during the 1990s. See Alastair Williams, Constructing Musicology (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2001) and Nicholas Cook and Mark Everist, eds., Rethinking Music (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1999). 12 some musicologists, such as Katherine Bergeron,10 Don Michael Randel," and Lydia

Goehr,12 questioned the established musical canon of master composers, master works, and great traditions. Others, such as Margaret Bent13 and Gary Tomlinson,14 objected to the real possibility of scientific objectivity and its value when studying music.

Consequently, this permitted the option of new approaches to the study of music as well as a broader range of issues. For instance, in Foundations of Music History, Carl

Dahlhaus proposed that accepted fields of study should also include structural and reception history.15 Some scholars following poststructuralist thinking, often sympathetic to the work of Michel Foucault, interrogated the authority of master narratives, such as the validity of the Western art music canon and the function of tonality as an exercise of power in music. It is notably the case of feminist writers such as Susan McClary16 and

Marcia J. Citron,17 and queer studies scholars, like Philip Brett.18 On the other hand, postmodernist notions have inspired many new questions about music-making, namely the function of the performer and of the listener in regards to the meaning of a musical

10 Katherine Bergeron, "Prologue: Disciplining Music," in Disciplining Music: Musicology and its Canons, ed. Katherine Bergeron and Philip V. Bohlman (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 1-9. 11 Don Michael Randel, "The Canons in the Musicological Toolbox," in Disciplining Music: Musicology and its Canons, ed. Katherine Bergeron and Philip V. Bohlman (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 10-22. 12 Lydia Goehr, "In the Shadow of the Canon," The Musical Quarterly 86, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 307-328. 13 Margaret Bent, "Fact and Value in Contemporary Musical Scholarship," in Fact and Value in Contemporary Musical Scholarship (Boulder: College Music Society, 1986), 1-7. 14 Gary Tomlinson, "The Web of Culture: A Context for Musicology," 19th-century Music 1 (1984): 350- 362. 15 Carl Dahlhaus, Foundations of Music History, trans. J.B. Robinson (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983). 129-165. Foundations of Music History was first published in 1977 under the title Grundlagen der Musikgeschichte. 16 Susan McClary, Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991). 17 Marcia J. Citron, Gender and the Musical Canon (Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993). 18 Philip Brett, Music and Sexuality in Britten: Selected Essays, ed. George E. Haggerty (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006); and Philip Brett, Elizabeth Wood, and Gary C. Thomas, eds., Queering the Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology (New York: Routledge, 1994). 13 composition, raised by Nicholas Cook19 and Jose A. Bowen,20 and the authenticity of historical performances, challenged by Laurence Dreyfus21 and Richard Taruskin.22 Thus some postmodernist musicologists, like Julian Hellaby,23 have tended to focus on the specificity of single performances and often largely embraced Roland Barthes' challenges to the concept that authors (or composers) held a monopoly over the signification of their work; rather, readers (or listeners), brought meanings to these works regardless of the author's intentions: "The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author."24 Another defining moment in the field of musicology was the publication of

Joseph Kerman's Contemplating Music: Musicology in Context which questioned whether music had its own independent meaning, free from the context it was either created, performed, or heard in, or whether it could only be understood within the context in which it was socially embedded.25 After that, many other different approaches to knowledge, such as hermeneutics, politics, and gender studies, were reflected in contemporary scholarly works.

Because scholars have realized that there is no real "History of Music" but rather

"histories of musics," consequently, there is now research being done on what were

19 Nicholas Cook, "Analysing Performance and Performing Analysis," in Rethinking Music, eds. Nicholas Cook and Mark Everist (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 239-261; and Nicholas Cook, Music, Imagination, and Culture (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990). 20 Jos6 A. Bowen, "The History of Remembered Innovation: Tradition and Its Role in the Relationship Between Musical Works and their Performances," Journal of Musicology 11 (1993): 139-168. 21 Laurence Dreyfus, "Early Music Defended Against Its Devotees: A Theory of Historical Performance in the Twentieth Century," Musical Quarterly 69 (1983): 297-322. 22 Richard Taruskin, "The Pastness of the Present and the Presence of the Past," In Authenticity and Early Music, ed. Nicholas Kenyon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), 137-207. 23 Julian Hellaby, Reading Musical Interpretation: Case Studies in Solo Piano Performance (Farnham, UK; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009). 24 See Roland Barthes, "The Death of the Author," in Image, Music, Text, trad. Stephen Heath (Glasgow: Fontana/Collins, 1977), 142-146. 25 Joseph Kerman, Contemplating Music: Musicology in Context (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985), 72-75. First published the same year in London under the original title of Musicology. 14 previously considered minor composers and "musics." The field of musicology has opened up to a pluralist inquiry in which cultural studies are overall definitively more widespread than before. As previously mentioned, prior to the 1980s there was a tendency to isolate music from its historical context. In fact, this concept of the autonomous musical work can mainly be explained as a response of musicologists to modernism, defined in music as an approach characterized by innovation that challenged compositional practice and traditions of the nineteenth-century, before and after the First

World War.26 Reacting strongly against Romanticism, but yet being unable to follow the modernists, they joined the majority of music theorists who generally tended to assertively adopt anti-modernist viewpoints. Thus, as Kerman demonstrated:

The emphasis was heavily on fact. New manuscripts were discovered and described, archives were reported on, dates were established [...] Musicologists dealt mainly in the verifiable, the objective, the uncontroversial, and the positive. The presentation of the texts of early music and of facts and figures about it, not their interpretation, was seen as musicology's most notable achievement. [...] Even historical interpretation was scanted. In this area, most of the activity consisted of arranging the events of music history, considered as an autonomous phenomenon, into simplistic evolutionary patterns. [...] Much less attention was paid to the interaction of music history with political, social, and intellectual history. And less attention yet was devoted to the attempt to understand music as an aspect of and in culture at large.27

This ideological positivism came under increasing scrutiny after World War II. The disposition to isolate a work of art from its historical context started to be examined as seriously questionable. As Maria Tippett, one of Canada's most prominent cultural historians, explains: "When it happens, the subject moves on its own orbit, touching

26 See Grove Music Online, s.v. "Modernism" (by Leon Botstein), http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com. liproxy.uregina.ca:2048/subscriber/article/grove/music/40625?q=modernism&hbutton search.x=0&hbutto n search.y=0&hbutton_search=search&source=omo_t237&source=omo_gmo&source=omo_tl 14&search =quick&pos= 1 &_start= 1 #firsthit / (accessed September 12, 2010). 27 Kerman, Contemplating Music: Musicology in Context, 42-43. 15 neither its neighbour nor the social, political, and economic 'ground' below."28

Musicologists, like historians, realized that rather than focusing only on the cultural product, they should also consider looking at the institutional framework, the social, the political, the cultural, and the economic contexts that permitted it to be produced. As

Tippett also expounds:

One must realize, then, that the cultural artifact, like the historical 'event,' is shaped both by circumstance and the intention of its creator, and that it is received, interpreted, and made functional in a society at a given point in time in ways largely determined by the political, economic, social, and institutional framework of that society. It is with the disentangling of these various strands, and with the specifying of their relationship to one another, that the cultural historian must be primarily concerned.29

Thus the choice of approach for this dissertation is typical of the development of musicology in the 1990s and the first decade of the twenty-first century.30

Artistic Sovereignty

In 1955, Vincent Massey, Governor General of Canada of the time, wrote the preface to Music in Canada edited by Sir Ernest MacMillan,31 the first comprehensive book of its kind in which the contributors to the nineteen chapters were all leaders in their respective fields in the Canadian music world. In this preface, Massey explains that in the history of music in Canada not only context(s) and events come into play, but he also

28 Maria Tippett, "The Writing of English-Canadian Cultural History, 1970-85," in Canadian Historical Review 67, no. 4 (Dec. 1986), 556. 29 Ibid., 549. 30 Three relevant books that address the question of music and cultural studies are John Shepherd, Music as Social Text (Oxford: Polity Press, 1991); Rose Rosengard Subotnik, Developing Variations: Style and Ideology in Western Music (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991) and Martin Clayton, Trevor Herbert, and Richard Middleton, eds., The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction (New York: Routledge, 2003). 31 In his biography of MacMillan entitled Sir Ernest MacMillan: The Importance of Being Canadian, Ezra Schabas acknowledges him as being twentieth-century Canada's major musical figure. 16 shows how, in his opinion at least, culture and national identity are closely linked:

[...] in this story of music in Canada, we can find a vivid reflection of a broader theme - the growth of Canadian nationality. At first came the varied threads of musical tradition from other countries; then were these strands slowly woven into fabric which could be looked on as Canadian. There followed the gradual recognition of the new pattern and growing determination to preserve it as something which was our own. Thus, the history of Canadian music can help to deepen our understanding of Canada itself.32

Many events fashioned the social and historical contexts in which Canadian music developed throughout the centuries. Slow beginnings, in the time of New France, were followed by the battle against many natural obstacles such as the hostile environment and climate, as well as human obstacles like territorial wars, the mental character of people living in a colony, and most of all, the lack of financial means to support the development of cultural production due to an economy mainly based on the axis of mother country and colony.33

At the outset, it again seems important to justify the choice of the second half of the twentieth century for the timeframe of this research. If the twentieth century was supposed to belong to Canada, as Sir Wilfrid Laurier so boldly predicted in 1898, one significant event in the history of Canadian autonomy as a country was undoubtedly the adoption of the Statute of Westminster on December 11, 1931. It formalized the Balfour

Report and gave Canada full independence from British legislation except for constitutional change. The Balfour Report of 1926, "a pivotal document in Canada's evolution to fully self-governing nationhood," gathered the conclusions of an Imperial

Conference committee under the chairmanship of Arthur James Balfour, a former

12 Vincent Massey in his foreword to Ernest MacMillan, Music in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1955), v. 33 For a detailed account of musical life in the time of New France, see Elisabeth Gallat-Morin and Jean- Pierre Pinson, eds. La vie musicale en Nouvelle-France (Sillery, Quebec: Septentrion, 2004), 441 -446. 17 conservative British prime minister.34 This report declared that Britain and the Dominions were constitutionally "equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations."35 The report resulted in the Statute of Westminster, giving Canada the legislative recognition of

Dominion autonomy.36 For many Canadians, this decree created a sense of national identity and autonomy, a new force in Canadian life.

Furthermore, in Canada, the years following the Second World War were certainly characterized by population growth, a wealthy and thriving economy, and a new and rising sense of independence in the country. It was also a time when national confidence increased partly due to a new sense of pride in Canada's wartime accomplishments, and was reinforced by events such as territorial expansion with the admission of Newfoundland into Confederation (1949), and on the legislative level by the establishment of the Supreme Court of Canada which replaced Britain's Judicial

Committee of the Privy Council as the final court of appeal in the country (also in 1949).

Accordingly, Canada was progressing from colony to national independence from the

British Empire, defending its own place on the world stage aside older nations, many of

34 The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Balfour Report" (by Norman Hillmer), http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE &Params=A IARTA0000482/ (accessed August 4,2010). Arthur James Balfour was the British prime minister from 1902 to 1905. 35 The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Statute of Westminster" (by Norman Hillmer), http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm? PgNm=TCE&Params=AlARTA0007675/(accessed August 4,2010). 36 The autonomy is, however, not complete as it excludes constitutional changes. On that aspect, Canadians have had to wait for the Constitutional Act of 1982, which repatriated the Constitution to Canada. However, one province, Quebec, has not ratified the agreement to date. 18 them with long-established cultural traditions and venerable institutions.37 This new national consciousness and prosperity inevitably had repercussions for the everyday way of life; people were more open to the world and had more leisure time. This is reflected in the state of the fine arts during this period, especially music, which went through impressive growth in terms of its institutions, performing ensembles and solo artists.

Indeed, according to George Proctor, "some momentous developments took place in

Canadian music in the 1950s," which brought Canadian art music to the level of international standards.38 Timothy McGee also acknowledges this fact in his book The

Music of Canada: "Since the end of World War II Canada has entered fully into the mainstream of Western music. [...] Canada now ranks with the rest of the Western world in all areas of music."39

In the late 1940s, after achieving constitutional, diplomatic, and military independence, there was a need for government action in the arts. The timing was also ideal as the post-war period was an era when a large number of Canadians were developing a very distinct national consciousness, and thought it was a good time to foster national culture and invigorate the national fervour in the country.40 The Royal

Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences (appointed in

1949 and dissolved in 1951 with the publication of the report) - also known as the

Massey Commission, after its chairman Vincent Massey - was the governmental answer to state intervention in the arts. The commissioners' assessment of the state of music at

37 See Paul Litt, The Muses, the Masses and the Massey Commission (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992), 17. 38 George Proctor, Canadian Music of the Twentieth-Century (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980), 61. 39 Timothy McGee, The Music of Canada (New York: Norton, 1985), 104-105. 40 See Litt, The Muses, the Masses and the Massey Commission, 16. 19 the time was fairly discouraging:

It is doubtful whether many Canadians could give the names of six Canadian composers, and the composers themselves, through lack of a Canadian periodical on music and of funds to establish an effective association, have little knowledge of what their fellow-composers in other parts of Canada are doing. There is no published history of Canadian music; there is no adequate library of music in Canada [...] Only a small fraction of Canadian composition is available in published form and we are told that the larger and usually more significant works are unlikely ever to be published [.. .]41

The Massey Commission has been regarded as the seed from which new cultural agencies were born and federal government support in the arts was finally granted.42 This is, of itself, something of a national myth. In fact, the Saskatchewan Arts Board was established in 1948 as the first arts agency of its kind in North America. So it precedes the Massey Commission and by extension the Canada Council for the Arts.43 Paul Litt relates:

The Massey Report is widely credited with ushering in a new era of significant government support for culture in Canada. As a result it has come to serve as something of a creationist myth for Canadian cultural nationalists in recent years. The essentials of the parable are simple: before Massey, barbarism; after Massey, civilization and arts subsidies for all.44

41 Canada Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences, Report of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences (Ottawa: King's Printer, 1951), 186. 42 The Massey Commission was a significant historical event in the cultural development of Canada. This opinion is widely shared by nationalists, intellectuals, and artists. 43 It is unclear whether or not Hilda Neatby, professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan and commissioner in the Massey Commission, played a role in the foundation of the Saskatchewan Arts Board. Assuming Dr. Neatby had anything to do with the creation of the Saskatchewan Arts Board, which was founded by the CCF government in 1948 and modeled after the British Arts Council, is quite improbable. At the time Dr. Neatby was teaching at the University of Saskatchewan and was not involved in anything outside the university, except serving as editor of Saskatchewan History. Furthermore, she most definitely was not a friend of the CCF. As a member of the Massey Commission between 1949 and 1951 she was involved in the establishment of the Canada Council and she was a strong advocate of the CBC, especially its Saturday opera broadcasts which she felt provided the one cultural outlet available to isolated farm women. Information was partly found in Michael Hayden, ed., So Much To Do, So Little Time: The Writings of Hilda Neatby (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1983). Further information was obtained in a personal interview on February 4, 2009. 44 Litt, The Muses, the Masses, and the Massey Commission, 5. 20 This opinion that the Massey Commission should be considered as a watershed has been contested by Maria Tippett in her article "The Writing of English-Canadian Cultural

History"45 and later in her book Making Culture: English-Canadian Institutions and the

Arts before the Massey Commission.46 Accordingly, people like

J.M. Bumsted and J.L. Granatstein have perpetuated the belief that English- Canadians wrote better plays, novels, and poems, composed better music, and produced better works of art after the Second World War than they did before it, thanks, they imply, to the emergence of government patronage, professional organizations, and a level of criticism which had not before existed.47

Tippett agrees that the Massey Commission and the Canada Council for the Arts changed the character of cultural production in the country, making it more professional and accomplished, and that the body of work increased significantly. Nonetheless, she warns us not to overlook and minimize the country's cultural life prior to the Massey

Commission, as the old institutions and the cultural production of the first half of the twentieth century were crucial in the shaping of the new government involvement in the arts. Nevertheless, the Massey Commission corresponds to the early stage of development of a new state-sponsored cultural action on the national scale after which musical life in Canada has flourished tremendously.

In 1992, Paul Litt published the first scholarly examination of that commission and explored its impact on cultural life in Canada in his book entitled The Muses, the

Masses, and the Massey Commission. As explained by Litt, largely inspired by liberal

45 Maria Tippett, "The Writing of English-Canadian Cultural History, 1970-1985," Canadian Historical Review 67, no. 4 (Dec. 1986): 548-561. 46 Maria Tippett, Making Culture: English-Canadian Institutions and the Arts Before the Massey Commission (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990), xii, 184-187. 47 Tippett, "The Writing of English-Canadian Cultural History, 1970-1985,"558. See also John M. Bumsted, "Canadian and American Culture in the 1950s," Bulletin of Canadian Studies 6 (April 1980): 54- 74; Jack Lawrence Granatstein, "Culture and Scholarship: The First Ten Years of the Canada Council," Canadian Historical Review 65 (Dec. 1984): 441-74. 21 humanism, the commissioners were interested in "encouraging a creative culture that would reflect a unique Canadian social culture."48 As the postwar economy was shifting to consumerism and the modern urban industrial way of life was increasing leisure time of individuals, the commissioners, who associated high culture with the acquisition of knowledge and insight leading to the intellectual freedom of individuals, were aiming at democratizing high culture, making it accessible to all, in a type of counterpoint to the influence of capitalism and mass culture coming mainly from the United States.

According to Litt, the Massey Commission "reflected a new stage of national development that would see a coarse, adolescent Canada mature into a civilized adult."49

As noted above, culture and national identity are a given in the Massey Commission

Report. In this state discourse, culture is directly linked to the preservation of a distinct

Canadian identity. The Massey commissioners firmly believed in the power of what they designated as "serious music," emphasizing its possible influence in the protection of a unique Canadian national identity.50 Without a doubt music is credited with having an impact on identity. In the late 1940s the commissioners were convinced that the privileging of high culture over forms of popular culture, in other words, classical music over popular music, would rescue the Canadian nation from the threat of American popular culture which was so successfully being disseminated on the radio, in written mediums such as magazines, and foremost in movies.51 Consequently, the hegemony of

48 Litt, The Muses, the Masses and the Massey Commission, 84. 49 Ibid., 5. On the subject, see also Arthur Lower, "The Massey Report," Canadian Banker 59, no.l (Winter 1952), 22-32; Robert Ayre, "The Press Debates the Massey Report," Canadian Art 9 (October 1951), 25- 38. 50 See Canada Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences, Report of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences, 184. 51 Today, Canadian popular music plays a comparable role in the preservation of our national culture as it is being showcased in such events as world exhibitions and the Olympics, rather than Canadian art music. 22 traditional European "serious music," and by extension Canadian "serious music," was asserted by the members of the Massey Commission, mainly to help consolidate a strong and unified Canadian identity.52

Finally, for the commissioners the cultural development of Canada was an absolute necessity. However, in their quest to make high culture available to all

Canadians, they were challenged by ongoing Canadian issues, namely Canada's modest population spread over a vast territory. Nevertheless, during its short history Canada had already taken outstanding actions to secure its unity, specifically in areas like transportation. The commissioners thought it was time to do the same in the realm of culture. It became quite clear to them that the electronic media was the solution to informing and educating the Canadian population, wherever it might be, and to ensure the dissemination of Canadian culture. Broadcasting has certainly provided new means in dealing with this isolation issue and proved to be an effective unifying force stretching over seven time zones and thousands of kilometers. It is particularly significant in the case of music. As a result, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) became the

"single greatest agency for national unity, understanding and enlightenment."53

Accordingly, the Broadcasting Act of 1968 specifies that the general objectives of

CBC/SRC are "to safeguard, enrich and strengthen the cultural, political, social and

52 In her article "Mood Music for a Nation: Reflections on Reflections of Canada: A Symphony of Sound and Light" Jennifer Gauthier explains how, in recent years, Reflections of Canada reconstructed the hegemony of traditional European serious music wished by the Massey commissioners decades ago. Conceived as a sound and light show of projected images on the facade of the Parliament buildings accompanied by a pre-recorded narrated story and orchestral music (music by J. Douglas Dodd and stories by Lindsay Bourne), Reflections of Canada played nightly from May to September of 1994 to 1998 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa and was sponsored by the National Capital Commission. See Jennifer Gauthier, "Mood Music for a Nation: Reflections on Reflections of Canada: A Symphony of Sound and Light," Topia: A Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies 6 (Fall 2001): 45-61. 53 Canada Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences, Report of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences, 279. 23 economic fabric of Canada."54 However, it could also be argued that our broadcasting

system has opened electronic channels to facilitate the penetration of external cultures, especially from our southern neighbour, the United States.

The CBC has had a significant and important effect on Canadian culture and music. Its activities have included commissioning and broadcasting Canadian works as well as creating and supporting the employment of musicians, and, finally, collecting recordings that now form an impressive archival library.55 As George A. Proctor describes, the CBC

[...] assumed an active role in the encouragement of Canadian musical composition in this period [the 1950s]. The formation of the CBC Symphony by Geoffrey Waddington, after he assumed the position of director of music for the government-owned radio network in 1952, provided a necessary spark for the writing of works for full orchestra. [...] In a few cases works were commissioned by the CBC and then broadcast and recorded for its International Service (later known as Radio Canada International), thus giving Canadian orchestral composers a hearing beyond the borders of Canada.56

It is important as well to emphasize that a large number of CBC/SRC serious music- broadcast producers were also composers. These include Norma Beecroft, Gabriel

Charpentier, Paul Crawford, Srul Irving Glick, Gary J. Hayes, David Jaeger, Larry Lake,

Pierre Mercure, and Robert Turner. Their input on programming, recording and commissioning Canadian compositions was certainly notable.

Parallel to this, it should not be forgotten that the action of the Canadian

Broadcasting Corporation at the beginning of the 1970s was also emphasized by the

54 The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Broadcasting" (by Keith MacMillan),http://www.thecanadian encyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=UlARTU0000445 / (accessed September 15, 2010). 55 The majority of CBC's national English-language holdings are found in the network's Broadcast Centre in Toronto. Similarly, French-language archives are found in Montreal at the Radio-Canada headquarters. Archives of regional content are also located across the country as well as in provincial archives and at the National Archives located in Ottawa. See CBC Digital Archives, http://archives.cbc.ca/info/archives/ archives en 02.asp?lDLan=l/ (accessed August 10, 2010). 56 Proctor, Canadian Music of the Twentieth-Century, 64. 24 condition imposed by the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications

Commission (CRTC) in 1971 to assure a minimum "Canadian content" to all programming, promoting the works of our artists on the local, provincial and national level, for better or for worse. In Virtual Sovereignty, Robert Wright argues that Canadian- content rules opened the doors of the music industry to many Canadians in the 1970s and beyond, which did not help in raising the quality of performers.57 Wright's comments are solely focused on Canadian popular musicians, not on art music; however, some of his comments are thought-provoking. He suggests that during the years following the highly celebrated centennial, which he refers to as the "golden age" (1968-1972), many of the most accomplished artists of the period such as Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot, and

Bruce Cockburn, were ambivalent about state-imposed "Canadian-content" or "Cancon" on commercial radio, and that most were reluctant to be idolized as national symbols.

After several decades, from Bryan Adams to Celine Dion, and Shania Twain, this legacy has been largely one of conformity to American pop standards.58 Unfortunately, to date no study has been conducted on the effects of the "Cancon" in regards to Canadian art music.

The role of the CBC, one of the key organizations promoting Canadian art music, has significantly changed over the last thirty years. As R. Murray Schafer explained in

1984:

First of all, CBC radio. By way of preface let me mention that all Canadian performers and composers of serious music who have been in the business for ten

57 Robert Wright, Virtual Sovereignty: Nationalism, Culture and the Canadian Question (Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press, 2004), 57-78. 58 See Robert Wright, "Dream, Comfort, Memory, Despair: Canadian Musicians and the Dilemma of Nationalism," in Virtual Sovereignty: Nationalism, Culture and the Canadian Question (Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press, 2004), 57-78. 25 or thirty years know that little by little CBC has reduced their employment possibilities. Gone are the house orchestras, gone are the commissions for composers, gone for the most part are the recitals for solo performers. In the survey I am about to present, which covers the first month of a new season, the CBC did not initiate a single musical program; the few that are live were picked up as remote broadcasts of events under other sponsorship.59

Granted, the corporation's varied role has changed over the years with the dismantling of the CBC Opera Company and the CBC house orchestras, such as the CBC

Quebec Chamber Orchestra, the CBC Symphony Orchestra, the CBC Vancouver

Orchestra, and the CBC Winnipeg Orchestra.60 However, CBC's contribution in terms of competitions remained more stable, namely with the CBC National Radio Competition for Young Performers (1959-2003) and CBC National Radio Competition for Young

Composers (1973-). Certainly one of the main changes in the 1970s and 1980s was the shift from studio broadcasts to the recording of public performances, whether organized by the CBC or independently. Notably, the CBC has taken a more passive role in the musical landscape of the country in recent years, and has lost its catalytic quality.61

Whether this is due to a lack of funding, a philosophical change, or easier access to recorded music, the outcome is regrettable.

59 Schafer, "Canadian Culture: Colonial Culture," 226. 60 The CBC Vancouver Radio Orchestra was disbanded on November 16,2008, its seventieth birthday. For more on the subject including how this event was perceived by the general public, see Vincent Spilchuk, "Changes at the CBC," Institute for Canadian Music Newsletter vol. 6, no. 1 (January 2008): 1. To fill the gap created by the dismantling of the CBC Radio Orchestra, conductor Alain Trudel and businessman Philippe Labelle co-founded the National Broadcast Orchestra of Canada (NBO), which is in residence in Vancouver, B.C. The NBO pursues a mission similar to the CBC Radio Orchestra, i.e. to commission and promote Canadian music from many different origins and styles, and to give a national stepping-stone to Canadian performers and composers. See National Broadcast Orchestra Canada, www.nboc.ca / (accessed August 4, 2010). 61 According to the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada entry on CBC, this passive role of the CBC "is due to many factors, among them the arrival of TV (with its primarily visual concerns), the increasing quantity of recorded music - which in some ways has made the live performance of standard classics unnecessary - and the growing support of musical activity by concert-giving organizations of all kinds and by universities, arts councils, and other governmental agencies." The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "CBC," www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cftn?PgNm=TCE&Params=U 1ARTU000063/ (accessed August 4, 2010). 26 On a more positive note, since the end of the Second World War we find many first-class performing ensembles, such as the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal, the

Festival Singers, the Orford Quartet in residence at the University of Toronto, and the

Canadian Brass, in the major urban centres. Canada also has more and more acclaimed artists performing internationally, such as Maureen Forrester, Raoul Jobin, and Teresa

Stratas, and more recently Ben Heppner, Louis Lortie, James Ehnes, and the St.

Lawrence String Quartet, to name a few. Since Schools of Music in universities and conservatories have more specialized programs to offer, students no longer need to leave the country to get a higher music education. As well, the body of music written by our composers has grown in size and quality. In fact, the music written in Canada since 1950 is surprisingly rich, all the modern trends being represented in the corpus of our composers. During the second half of the twentieth century Canada has developed a musical profile with quality and variety comparable to that found anywhere else in the western world, thanks to our composers and our high-level quality performers.

Through this process, Canadian performers were faster than composers to establish international careers for themselves.62 At the beginning of the twentieth century, performers and music teachers would compose music - no one thought of himself or herself solely as a professional composer. In fact, the first two major composers who had a significant impact on the Canadian national composition scene, because of their works and their profiles as teachers, were Claude Champagne (1891-1965) and Healey Willan

62 In fact, the following list is quite impressive considering the small population of Canada and the state of music education at the time: Emma Albani (born Marie-Louise-Emma-C6cile Lajeunesse), soprano (1847- 1930); Edward Johnson, tenor and director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York (1878-1959); Eva Gauthier, mezzo soprano (1885-1958); Kathleen Parlow, violinist (1890-1963); Raoul Jobin, tenor (1906- 1974); Leopold Simoneau (1916-2006); Pierrette Alarie (born in 1921); Jon Vickers, tenor (born in 1926); Joseph Rouleau, bass (born in 1929); Maureen Forrester, contralto (1930-2010); and Glenn Gould, pianist (1932-1982). Interestingly, singers greatly outnumber instrumentalists. 27 (1880-1968).63 Interestingly, their respective influence on the next generation of composers reflects Canada's historic struggle between its two founding nations: Willan perpetuated the English tradition and Champagne the French one. This is, of course, typical of the colonial attitude, the disposition characteristic of people living in a colony or a former colony to be dependent on or have esteem for the mother country or another dominant culture. At the time, this attitude pervaded the concept of Canadian identity and more specifically here, the history of music in Canada.

In the 1950s and 1960s important changes occurred in the realm of Canadian music that contributed to resisting this colonialist mentality.64 First, the Canadian League of Composers, founded in 1951, contributed immensely to changing the state of composition in our country.65 Since its beginnings, the League has presented concerts, awarded grants and scholarships, and continues generally to promote the interests of

63 Healey Willan was born in Balham (England) and immigrated to Canada in 1913 as he was appointed Head of the Theory Department of the Toronto Conservatory of Music. Technically his status as a Canadian composer could be questioned since he was not born in Canada. This matter will be further discussed in the following chapter. 64 On the subject of resisting the colonialist mentality where music, models of thought, culture in general, etc. are perceived as an imported commodity see R. Murray Schafer, "The Future for Music in Canada," in On Canadian Music (Bancroft, Ont.: Arcana Editions, 1984), 39-47. First published in Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, vol 5, June 1967. According to John Ralston Saul, in 2008 Canada is still struggling politically and economically because of the colonial mindset of its elites. See John Ralston Saul, A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada (Toronto: Penguin Group, 2008), 230-243. 65 According to the chronology of the League compiled by Helmut Kallmann, the seeds of the league were planted on February 3,1951 in the home of John Weinzweig in Toronto during an informal meeting between Weinzweig, Samuel Dolin, and Harry Somers. Other Toronto composers (Murray Adaskin, Louis Applebaum, Harry Freedman, Phil Nimmons, and Andrew Twa) were recruited shortly after and the first meeting of the league was held on April 1, 1951. See Helmut Kallmann, "Chronology," Canada Music Book 2 (Spring-Summer 1971): 83. As explained by Keillor, however, the idea of the League had already been germinating in Weinzweig mind for more than a decade. See Elaine Keillor, John Weinzweig and His Music: The Radical Romantic of Canada (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1994), 41.

28 Canadian composers.66 As John Weinzweig ironically explained in justifying the

formation of the league:

Canadian composers have the distinction of being the most unpublished, unheard and unpaid composers in the world. It will be a revelation that this country can produce something besides lumber and Hudson Bay blankets.67

Yet, an organization advocating for the interests of Canadian composers was much needed, and the fact that such an organization was created should be considered as a milestone in the history of Canadian music. George Proctor highlighted the significance of the creation of the League of Composers:

The formation of the league was really a phenomenon of a dawning of a new era in Canadian culture. Like the members of the Group of Seven over thirty years before in Canadian art, the composers came together not for the purpose of achieving a uniform or national style but rather as brothers (and, before long, sisters) to proclaim a common cause.68

After its first year, the League's membership included twenty composers from

Quebec to British Columbia. Highly selective, its membership slowly grew to 37 composers in 1957, 55 members in 1971, and to about 300 members in 2004.69 While its membership was increasing, the League was continually and actively militant on behalf of Canada's art music composers in order to positively influence the conditions that bore upon their livelihood and public image. Louis Applebaum, one of the directors of the

66 Interestingly enough, very shortly after the Canadian League of Composers was founded, Vincent Massey and the other commissioners of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences became patrons of this new professional organization. 67 Helmut Kallman, "First Fifteen Years Of Canadian League of Composers," in Canadian Composer, March 1966: 18. 68 Proctor, Canadian Music of the Twentieth Century, 61. 69 Always considered a great honour, membership in the Canadian League of Composers was initially granted by invitation from a member. Another membership process was later added so applications could be made directly, but in that case composers needed to submit scores to a selection committee and show that they had a list of works and performances to their credit. In 2010, composers do not need to submit scores, but are required to send their curriculum vitae, a complete list of their compositions as well as documentation of three professionally-presented performances of their works. Composers who are already Associate Composers of the Canadian Music Centre only need to send their personal information. See Canadian League of Composers, http://www.clc-lcc.ca/membership-join.php/ (accessed August 10, 2010). 29 League at the time of its twenty-fifth anniversary, was especially proud of the enormous progress accomplished in two specific areas: the validation of composition as a career, and the creation of the Canadian Music Centre as a service to its members.70

First established in Toronto in 1959, the Canadian Music Centre quickly became another vital element in the dissemination and promotion of Canadian concert music. Set up as a service to its associate composers and to performers, by 2009 the Centre held over fifteen thousand scores and four thousand recordings of Canadian contemporary music,

Canada's largest collection of music. The Canadian Music Centre has grown considerably since its beginnings and now manages five regional centres. In 1973, the regional centre in Montreal opened, followed in 1977 by one in Vancouver. In 1980, the

Prairie Region Centre in Calgary joined the CMC, and, finally, in 1996, a CMC Atlantic office opened at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick.71

The CMC was preceded by another organization which had a big impact on the development of the fine arts in Canada: the Canada Council for the Arts. Established in

1957 as a new federal cultural agency born out of the Massey Commission, the Canada

Council for the Arts has administered many music programs designed to provide funds, such as commissions for composers, as well as financial support for performances and recordings of both amateur and professional performers and ensembles.72

The democratization of culture was at the core of the establishment of the Canada

Council for the Arts. Inspired by their British counterparts, the commissioners believed a

70 "The League of Composers: How Hard Work Paid Off," The Canadian Composer 119 (March 1977): 6. 71 The Canadian Music Centre recently extended its outreach on the international scene as a sixth Canadian Music Centre opened its doors on May 6th, 2005 in Amsterdam's new Muziegebouw. This was offered by Jan Wolff, director of the Muziekgebouw and long time patron of Canadian music. 72 For detailed information on the various programs of the Canada Council for the Arts, please refer to their website. Canada Council for the Arts, www.canadacouncil.ca/ (accessed August 4, 2010). 30 modified version of the Arts Council of Great Britain, established in 1946, was the most suitable model for the new Canadian Crown Corporation. A model "which they claimed was most consistent with the general desire of those who had made submissions to them."73 In fact, in his book The Defiant Imagination, in which he recognizes Canada's long-standing commitment to the arts and calls for a renewed vision and engagement towards culture as a catalyst for national prosperity, Max Wyman acknowledges:

Throughout much of the twentieth century, we shaped our attitudes to culture in Canada largely according to European traditions. Our principal arts funding agency, the Canada Council for the Arts, drew on the English model for both its structure and its decision-making processes, and assessments of excellence were in great measure made according to established European standards.74

Thus, links between the Massey Commission and the Canada Council for the Arts with the Arts Council of Great Britain are easy to draw: the Arts Council of Great Britain is an independent body at arm's length from government; as well, its two original aims were to support the highest standards in the arts and increase access to the arts across the country.

This connection between the two arts funding agencies is not surprising since Vincent

Massey, high commissioner for Canada in the United Kingdom from 1935 until 1946, was in London during the years in which the British arts council was being conceived and finally founded on August 9,1946. Moreover, Massey was very much an Anglophile and,

73 Karen Findlay, The Force of Culture: Vincent Massey and Canadian Sovereignty (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004), 232. The Arts Council of Great Britain was first created in 1940 under the title "Committee for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts", with the objective of giving financial assistance to cultural societies struggling to maintain their activities during the War. Later the same year, the name was changed to "Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts" as the new organization began to receive direct government funding. In 1946 it was announced that the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts would continue as a permanent organization under the name Arts Council of Great Britain. Henceforth, now that the country was at peace, the Council's objectives shifted to increase the accessibility to and develop greater knowledge and practice of the fine arts. Finally, in 1994 the Arts Council of Great Britain was split into three sections: the Arts Council of England, Arts Council of Scotland and Arts Council of Wales. 74 Max Wyman, The Defiant Imagination: Why Culture Matters (Vancouver: Douglas and Mclntyre, 2004), IS. 31 as Finlay points out, he "relied on the example of the Arts Council of Great Britain, pointing out that, while it was funded by the British tax payer, it maintained independence from the civil service."75

In the wake of the foundation of the Canada Council for the Arts, other provinces soon followed suit: Ministere des Affaires culturelles du Quebec (1960), Ontario Arts

Council (1963), Manitoba Arts Council (1965), Yukon Arts Council (1971), Prince

Edward Island Council of the Arts (1974), British Columbia Cultural Services Branch

(1975), New Brunswick Cultural Development Branch (1975), Alberta Foundation for the Arts (1978), Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council (1980), Northwest Territories

Arts Council (1985), and Nova Scotia Department of Tourism and Culture (1988),76

Without a doubt, the Canada Council for the Arts and the provincial cultural agencies changed the context in the fine arts and fostered the growth of Canadian artists in many disciplines, including in music. This point of view is also shared by Louis Applebaum and Jacques Hebert in their 1982 Report of the Federal Cultural Policy Review

Committee:

In the past 25 years, the Canada Council has experienced dramatic growth parallel to the growth of the arts themselves. When considering this period in the arts in Canada, it is important to remember that the Council did not make the artistic explosion of the period happen. The energy, creativity and talent of artists, as well

75 Karen A. Finlay, The Force of Culture: Vincent Massey & Canadian Sovereignty (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004), 208. For more on Massey as an Anglophile, refer to Claude Thomas Bissell, The Young Vincent Massey (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981). 76 The province of Saskatchewan is not part of this list as the Saskatchewan Arts Board (1948) predates the Canada Council by nine years. Otherwise, in Quebec, the Ministere des Affaires culturelles du Quebec founded the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec in 1994 to take over the provincial responsibility in terms of arts funding in that province. In British Columbia, the Cultural Services Branch has administered the British Columbia Cultural Fund since 1967, and since 1974, acted as secretariat for the British Columbia Arts Board. In New Brunswick, the New Brunswick Cultural Development Branch was replaced by the New Brunswick Arts Board in 1990. The same year in Alberta, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts replaced the Alberta Foundation for the Performing Arts. Finally, in Nova Scotia the Nova Scotia Arts and Culture Partnership Council, a partnership between the cultural sector and the Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage began operating in 2003. 32 as what the Massey-Levesque Report termed the 'prevailing hunger' for what they could give, were out there in the land, and much fine work was already being done. But the Council served as a catalyst and an enabler, and in that supporting role it served well.77

As a whole, Canadian artists acquired greater cultural autonomy and a better sense of high-quality artistic endeavour, largely because they were nurtured and encouraged by the rising number of grants, awards and commissions available. Consequently, composers started to feel more appreciated and valued.78

One should not neglect the important role of performers in the interpretation and dissemination of Canadian compositions. The second half of the twentieth century saw the emergence and creation of many concert committees and ensembles. Concert associations and auxiliary organizations of the Canadian League of Composers, such as the Canadian Music Associates and la Societe de musique canadienne were first formed in Toronto and Montreal in the 1950s to perform and premiere the works of Canadian composers, which were generally not being included in concerts presented by existing ensembles such as symphony orchestras or other professional groups.79 The number of professional ensembles dedicated to Canadian new music has grown steadily since the

1960s. Solely in Montreal for example, the proliferation of new music ensembles, namely the Societe de musique contemporaine du Quebec (SMCQ), Les Evenements du neuf, the

77 Louis Applebaum and Jacques Hubert, Report of the Federal Cultural Policy Review Committee, 1982, 53. Emphasis in original. 78 See John Beckwith, "A Festival of Canadian Music," MusiCanada 33 (1977): 10. 79 The Canadian Music Associates based in Ontario was formed in 1952 at the behest of the Canadian League of Composers to ensure the performance of Canadian compositions. The group was dissolved in 1958. In Montreal, the Soci&d de musique canadienne was founded in December of 1953 at the request of the Canadian League of Composers; it ceased to operate in 1969. Furthermore, some soloists also became strong advocates of Canadian music. Two great examples are certainly soprano Mary Morrison (born in 1926) and mezzo-soprano Phyllis Mailing (1929-2004) who premiered many works by Canadian composers. Other singers come to mind as well, most importantly Pauline Vaillancourt (1945) and Marie- Danielle Parent (1954), two sopranos of a younger generation who established themselves professionally as specialists in this repertoire. 33 Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM), and the Ensemble contemporain de Montreal, is a significant indicator that shows the increasing interest of musicians and audience in this repertoire.80 Furthermore, since the 1990s new music ensembles have been founded in many faculties and departments of music in Canadian universities.

The field of Canadian music research has also come a long way in recent decades.

While professional music training in universities was still relatively rare in the late 1950s, fifty years later, the majority of Canadian universities are offering music programs, to a total of 39 universities in 2009.81 In terms of music history courses on Canadian music, it was around the time of the centennial celebrations of Confederation that the first such courses were taught. The Universite de Montreal was the first institution that offered such a class in 1966, taught by Maryvonne Kendergi; Carleton University soon followed in

1968 with Willy Amtmann. While it is interesting to note that the Universite de Montreal is now one of the 14 institutions out of the 39 that does not offer a course on Canadian music, courses on this topic presently form an integral part of the curriculum in many university music departments of this country, a telling example of the consequences of

80 The Soci£t6 de musique contemporaine du Quebec was founded in 1966 by Jean Papineau-Couture (president of the SMCQ from 1966 to 1972), Serge Garant, Hugh Davidson, and Maryvonne Kendergi, with the support of Wilfried Pelletier (at the time director of the music section of the MACQ). The society established the SMCQ Ensemble in 1968, although the ensemble was named "Groupe Instrumental de Montreal" from 1968 to 1971. In 1978, Les Ev6nements du neuf was created in Montreal by composers Jos6 Evangelista, John Rea, and Claude Vivier, and conductor Lorraine Vaillancourt. It ceased its activities in 1990 as other ensembles with analogous purpose were established in Montreal in the 1980s. For example, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, a chamber orchestra of fifteen musicians, began its activities in 1989 under the direction of Lorraine Vaillancourt; the NEM is in residence at the Music Faculty of the University de Montreal. Moreover, the Ensemble contemporain of Montreal was launched in 1987 as an ensemble mainly dedicated to the commissioning and premiering of Canadian new music. Since its beginning the ensemble has contributed to the creation of 140 new compositions, 115 of them being Canadian works. The ECM is in residence at the Conservatoire de musique de Montreal. 81 While the Conservatoire de musique du Quebec was founded in 1942, professional music training in Canadian universities was precarious during those years. Sir Ernest MacMillan was one of the leading advocates of art music in Canada who criticized this lack of training opportunities for musicians and argued that in the late 1950s Canadian universities needed to establish more music departments in this country. See Sir Ernest MacMillan, "Music in Canadian Universities," The Canadian Music Journal 2, no. 3 (Spring 1958): 3-11. 34 the growth of Canadian music research. In fact, of 39 universities offering a program in music, as many as 25 are providing their students with the opportunity of taking courses on aspects of Canadian music or music in Canada (see Appendix A). Two universities, the University of Ottawa and the University of Regina, distinguish themselves in being the only two institutions to require all their students to take a History of Canadian Music course, regardless of their music program.82

It is consequently not surprising to note that the in-depth study of the history of musical life in Canada begun just over fifty years ago, and that for the most part, due to a lack of historical distance, writers, such as Willy Amtmann,83 Helmut Kallmann,84 and

Arnold Walter,85 have focused on musical practice or musical composition before the

1950s. Only in the 1980s did the first textbooks on music in Canada during the twentieth century start to emerge. George A. Proctor's Canadian Music of the Twentieth Century

(1980)86 and Clifford Ford's Canada's Music: An Historical Survey (1982)87 both offer a broad survey of musical activity up to the 1970s. Another valuable book, basically oriented towards college and university use, is Timothy McGee's The Music of Canada

82 However, this is with the exception of students enrolled in the Bachelor of music education program at the University of Regina, which are not required to take this class. As well, at the University de Moncton, during their third or fourth year, all students are required to take MUSI 3013: Musique du 20e si6cle et Musique canadienne, which combines both the history of music in the twentieth century and Canadian music. At Carleton University, four classes are offered on aspects of music in Canada. These courses are optional except for students completing a B. Mus. Honours, for which it is mandatory to take at least one of these four classes. Finally, at Memorial University the course Music History IV, which includes the topic of music in Canada, is mandatory for completing a music history major. 83 Willy Amtmann, Music in Canada, 1600-1800 (Montreal: Habitex Books, 1975). 84 Helmut Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada, 1534-1914 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1960). 85 Arnold Walter, Aspects of Music in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969). 86 George A. Proctor, Canadian Music of the Twentieth Century (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980). 87 Clifford Ford, Canada's Music: An Historical Survey (Agincourt, Ontario: GLC Publishers Limited, 1982). (1985),88 which offers a comprehensive history of music in Canada from colonial days to

1984, with a very useful bibliography, anthology, and discography. Elaine Keillor's

Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity (2006)89 must also be added to this list as the most current and inclusive survey of music in Canada. Her work goes beyond the traditional music history to a vast exploration of the sounds of Canada in all their diversity, from production to consumption. Monographs and most of all articles on specific composers make up the largest part of the documentation on Canadian music, but these are still very limited in number. Parallel to the work that came out in book form are numerous valuable periodical articles, which largely came out in the 1980s and 1990s.90

To assist in locating these monographs and articles, Carl Morey, formerly of the Institute for Canadian Music at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, published

Music in Canada: A Research and Information Guide (1997),91 a useful bibliography listing 928 entries. A bibliographical update to Morey's book, which covers the period of

1996 to 2004, was issued in the Institute for Canadian Music Newsletter,92 During this short period, lasting less than a decade, 895 new references were added; a great indicator of the recent importance and growth of research conducted on Canadian music.

88 Timothy J. McGee, The Music of Canada (New York: Norton, 1985). 89 Elaine Keillor, Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity (Montreal; Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006). 90 Articles on Canadian music regularly appear in only a few periodicals such as the Canadian University Music Review published by the Canadian University Music Society since 1980 (the title of this publication changed to Intersections in 2005), Les Cahiers de la SQRM (previously known and published until 1983 as Les Cahiers de I'ARMuQ). now published by the Society Qu^becoise de la Recherche en Musique, and Circuit: Revue nord-americaine de musique duXXe siecle, issued since 1990 by the Presses de I'Universit^ de Montreal. 91 Carl Morey, Music in Canada: A Research and Information Guide (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1997). 92 Robin Elliott "A Canadian Music Bibliography, 1996-2004," Institute for Canadian Music Newsletter 2, no. 3 (September 2004): 1-28. 36 Finally, much of the most innovative work done on Canadian music remains in thesis form. According to Morey, the theses written for a university degree pose a problem: "There are relatively few at the doctoral level dealing with music in Canada

[...] there are, however, a number at the master's level, many of which contribute modestly but with originality to the study of important aspects of musical life. In some cases they are virtually the only source of important information on limited topics."93 One other major problem is that these theses are not published and can therefore not be accessed by the general public.

Still, the number of theses written about Canadian music during the twentieth century and the choices of topic for these theses are revealing indicators of the state of research, as well as a reflection of the trends and events that shaped the development of music in this country. In 1997, Diane E. Peters published an annotated bibliography of theses and dissertations on Canadian music and music education.94 In her work she identifies 1,204 theses or dissertations dealing with Canadian music or music education in Canada that were written between 1906 and 1996. Aligned chronologically, the number of theses per decade provides valuable insights on the state of research. Peters lists the number of theses and dissertations in different time periods throughout the century: in the first half of the century there are only 51 theses, 47 theses in the 1950s,

104 theses in the 1960s, 297 theses in the 1970s, and 496 theses in the 1980s.95 To these numbers, she also adds insightful comments about the choice of subject:

93 Morey, Music in Canada, xi. 94Diane E. Peters, Canadian Music and Music Education: An Annotated Bibliography of Theses and Dissertations (Lanham, Md., and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1997). 95 Ibid., x. 37 Most works produced before the 1960s were studies of folk music, French Canadian folksongs in particular. [...] Attempts to chronicle the general growth of music in Canada did not begin until the 1960s, a decade which witnessed such significant developments in the history of Canadian music as the beginning of the Canadian Music Journal (1956) and the founding of the Canadian Music Centre (1958) [sic]. Theses on Canadian music education also began to appear in the 1950s, following the introduction of graduate-level training in music at some universities. However, the majority of works listed in the bibliography appeared after the late 1960s, probably inspired initially by the interest in Canadian nationalism following the centennial celebrations.96

Significantly, up until the 1960s, the concept of music in Canada was generally related to the social aspect of music making in this country rather than the artistic or creative aspects of musical composition. This is also Kallmann's conclusion as he justifies his unconventional use of the expression "history of music" in the introduction to his A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914:

To entitle this description a 'history of music' requires an unorthodox approach, for customarily musical history relates the sequence of great composers and changing styles of composition and endeavours to demonstrate the continuity and cohesion of musical effort throughout a defined period and locale whereby mature nations assume a distinct musical character and unity. In Canada, these conditions do not yet prevail. To appreciate the fascination of the subject, one has to define musical history in different terms; such a history must deal with the planting of seeds rather than the harvesting of the fruits of a thousand years of civilization. The record of music in Canada's first three centuries takes as its subject not creative giants who determine the course of world music history but humble musicians who instil a taste for their art among pioneers preoccupied with establishing the physical and economic foundations of a new nation; instead of mirroring the entertainment of the elite in the world's musical capitals, it reflects the musical pastimes and aspirations of the many; and instead of noting the changing styles which express the spirit of the age and nation, it deals with the collecting and assimilating of traditional forms from outside sources. In short, the record is concerned more with social than artistic aspect of music.97

As such, before the second half of the twentieth century, music making in Canada was traditionally the performance of European art music, only rarely music by Canadian

96 Ibid., x-xi. 97 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 3. 38 composers. If the interest in Canadian nationalism in the years after the centennial celebration of Confederation has stimulated composers, performers, and scholars in the field of music, as is illustrated by the rising number of Canadian compositions, performances, and literature on this topic, it is certainly legitimate to assume that influenced by this new patriotic consciousness, and due to their symbolic quality, national dreams and myths have largely inspired composers in their artistic endeavours.

Finally, if attempts to chronicle the general growth of music in Canada did not begin until the 1960s, it is logical to deduce that before that decade Canadian music was still more or less in a colonial state. As was demonstrated in this chapter, since the 1950s many conditioning factors have contributed to change the state of affairs in Canadian cultural life. Because of these changes, from the 1950s onwards, Canadian music gradually reached a new level and began to arise out of our culture to define our identity as Canadians.

39 CHAPTER2

The North: A Canadian Bonding Myth

Against the present turpitude of this country it is exhilarating to read of the ardent idealism of Harris and his Group of Seven - the love of "the North," the landscape that to him would give birth to a unique and unprecedented northern culture. In contrast to the unbridled mercantilism of today his brief in the primary role of art in defining a culture returns us refreshingly to a more innocent time when we had statesmen, not politicians, to lead us, leaders who believed that, above all, the arts defined a people.

Arthur Erickson, preface to Peter Larisey, Light for a Cold Land: Lawren Harris's Work and Life - An Interpretation

Nordicity, after all, is one of the few things most Canadians (including today's Quebecois) have in common.

Sherrill E. Grace, Canada and The Idea of North

A British diplomatic official told me recently something I had never known about my own country, namely that Ottawa had the coldest winters of any national capital, not excluding Rekjavik, Moscow, or Helsinki.

John Beckwith, "A Festival of Canadian Music," MusiCanada

Well, the North is to Canada as the Outback is to Australia, and the sea was to Melville, and as ... let me see now, as Africa is, shall we say, to Heart of Darkness. It's the place of the unconscious. It's the place of the journey or the quest.

Margaret Atwood interviewed by Jim Davidson, "Where Were You When I Really Needed You," in Margaret Atwood: Conversations

40 The promotion of indigenous culture is an important factor contributing to nation- building; the reverse is also the case as the study of cultural products can highlight symbols and images that act as binding elements for a collectivity as a whole. This chapter traces the history of the "Canadian idea of North," especially through the cultural products, which are telling indicators that help to articulate the northernness of the

Canadian national identity. The first objective of this chapter is to define the properties of myth and how this dominant cultural narrative can become an effective tool contributing to nation-building. This leads to an examination of the crucial role of place within the assertion of an embodied Canadian identity and, ultimately, the demonstration that North is a powerful myth within the discourse of Canadian identity. At the outset, it is important to note that this study acknowledges the multifarious nature of nordicity, which will be explored through the last part of this chapter. The North and the concept of nordicity are first defined. This is followed by: a historical perspective on the identification of Canada with its northern reality; a description of the significant role of the North in the economic development of the country; the rise of a new northern discourse led by the northern people, namely the Inuit, Inuvialuit, and First Peoples; a comparative analysis of the

English-Canadian and the French-Canadian concept of North; and, finally, the North as a salient theme in Canadian culture (culture being used here in its narrower sense, i.e. as a synonym for the arts). Myth as an Instrument Towards Nation-Building

As Harry H. Hiller comments in his macro analysis of the Canadian society, nationalism or national identity implies that a sense of society "begins in the mind, where the image of a level of common identity produces an ephemeral unity that may never correspond to the hard facts of societal reality."1 This notion evokes what Benedict

Anderson refers to as an "imagined community":

It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion.2

Consequently, all nations are "imagined communities," groups of people who share the same illusions about themselves. According to George Grant, an influential thinker on the subject of Canadian nationalism especially following the publication of his

1965 book Lament for a Nation, which became a seminal work in Canadian political thought, Canadian nationalism was rooted on principles, not age-old tradition as in

Europe.3 To him, the notion at the core of Canadian nationalism was a refutation of the

United States and of the principles upon which that country was founded, and as specified by Barry Cooper, "especially the American principle of breaking with the past by means of a revolution."4 Grant was convinced that Canadian nationalism came from

"the danger of becoming a satellite of the USA" and strongly believed in the particular vocation of Canada within the British Commonwealth.5 Still according to Grant, Canada

1 Harry H. Hiller, Canadian Society: A Macro Analysis (Toronto: Prentice Hall Canada), 290. 2 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London & New York: Verso, 1991), 6. 3 George Grant, Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism (Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1995). 4 Barry Cooper. "Did George Grant's Canada Ever Exist?" in George Grant and the Future of Canada, ed. YusufK. Umar (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1992), 159. 5 George Grant, "Have We a Canadian Nation?" Public Affairs 8 (1945): 161-166. 42 ceased to be a nation as a result of the Liberal party's willingness to surrender to continentalism, which precluded the preservation of Canada's indigenous culture. As

Edward Grabb and James Curtis highlight in Regions Apart: The Four Societies of

Canada and the United States:

Leading Canadian intellectuals have played a significant role in promoting this acceptance. However, some of the most commonly held views and beliefs that Canadians have about themselves actually stem from ideas of noted scholars and observers from other countries, especially those writing in the United States. In fact, as we shall see, most of the best-known images of Canada have developed as counterpoints to several time-honoured myths about the United States, especially those surrounding the American Revolution. Almost from the beginning of the two societies, it seems, Canadians have largely been defined in comparison with, and often in contrast to, their neighbours to the south. As a result, many of the existing studies of Canada's history and culture, either explicitly or implicitly, have entailed hypothesizing about and testing for similarities and differences between Canadians and Americans.6

Following the line of thought of Grant, and these other intellectuals, Canada's processes of national assimilation show signs of lacking strength. A great indicator of this is commonly illustrated by the analogy of the American melting pot versus the Canadian mosaic. Canada is internationally recognized as a culturally diverse nation that highlights the concept and image of the mosaic as residents from various origins manifest strong allegiance towards Canada while preserving their cultural heritage. In contrast, the image of the American melting pot implies that new citizens must break ties with their countries and cultures of origin to become assimilated into the mould of the American way of life.

6 Edward Grabb and James Curtis, Regions Apart: The Four Societies of Canada and the United States (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2005), 2. 7 The use of "melting pot" to describe the American model of immigration and assimilation is inspired by Israel Zangwill's 1908 play The Melting Pot. See Denis Lacorne, La crise del'identite americaine : du melting-pot au multiculturalisme (Paris: Fayard, 1997); Charles Hirschman, "The American Melting Pot Reconsidered," Annual Review of Sociology 9 (1983): 397-423; and Howard Palmer, "Mosaic versus Melting Pot?: Immigration and Ethnicity in Canada and the United States," International Journal 31, no. 3 (Summer 1976): 488-528. 43 Surprisingly, the use of the word mosaic in relation to the Canadian population was first introduced by a British writer, Victoria Hayward, in her book Romantic

o Canada. Hayward depicts her view of the Prairies during a trip that took her across

Canada in 1922 as follows: "It is indeed a mosaic of vast dimensions and great breadth, essayed of the Prairies."9 Her use of "mosaic" describes the landscape filled with eclectic church architectural styles typical of and representing various religions, as some sort of patchwork. The term "mosaic" was employed again in 1926, this time by Kate Foster who wrote Our Canadian Mosaic, a survey of new Canadians as they were immigrating to Canada.10 The term "mosaic" was her objective way of illustrating the fact that the population of Canada was made up of people originating from diverse national backgrounds. The idea of using the word mosaic as a metaphor for multicultural Canada must however be credited to John Murray Gibbon, publicist for the Canadian Pacific

Railway." Used by the CPR in the 1920s as a promotional tool, which also comprised the sponsoring of pageants and folk festivals, to draw visitors to the company's hotels, the

Canadian mosaic also became the title of Gibbon's 1938 book, a survey of Canada's

"racial types," including their history and contribution to this country.12 Interestingly enough, Gibbon's book also bears the subtitle The Making of a Northern Nation, a northern nation which excluded some racial groups, judged by the author as incapable of

8 Victoria Hayward, Romantic Canada (Toronto: Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd., 1922), 187. 9 Ibid. 10 Kate A. Foster, Our Canadian Mosaic (Toronto: Dominion Council, YWCA, 1926). 1' See John Murray Gibbon, Canadian Mosaic: The Making of a Northern Nation (Toronto, McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 1938), viii-x; and Daniel Francis, National Dreams: Myth, Memory, and Canadian History (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1997), 79-83. 12 John Murray Gibbon, Canadian Mosaic: The Making of a Northern Nation (Toronto, McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 1938). 44 assimilating into mainstream white Canadian society. Finally, the idea of the mosaic was later echoed in Pierre Elliot Trudeau's 1971 national policy of multiculturalism.

In their article Multiculturalism in the Arts, Beverly Rasporich and Tamara P.

Seiler strongly express that

Canada does not have the mechanisms of national integration normally associated with strong nation-building. The federal government is weak and power is increasingly being dispersed to the provinces. Canada does not have a system of compulsory national service. Nor does it have a national education system that teaches the same curriculum from coast to coast. It does not have a common set of myths and heroes, a history of extraordinary collective sacrifices, or even a common language. Nor is the country linked by a single deeply held tradition of religious observance. Canadians watch mostly American TV, read mostly American magazines, and go almost exclusively to American films.13

Their comments follow closely some of Jack L. Granatstein's concerns in his 1998 book

Who Killed Canadian History ?14 Granatstein states that the lack of historical knowledge about our country is both a cause and result of a weak sense of national identity, consequently explaining why the concept of national unity has proven to be so elusive in

Canada. He blames bureaucrats who favour regional over national history, the absence of a national curriculum for history classes at the primary and secondary school levels, as well as Pierre Elliot Trudeau's divisive multiculturalism policy. Rasporich's and Sellers' comments concur with Granatstein's as they affirm that

[...] the official definition of Canadian culture that emerged in the policy announced by Pierre Trudeau in October 1971 was 'Multiculturalism within a bilingual framework," a phrase that arguably highlighted Canadian culture as the site of a complex transformative process (if not struggle) that has had and is continuing to have profound implications for Canadian identity and nationhood." 15

13 Beverly Rasporich and Tamara P. Seiler, "Multiculturalism in the Arts," in A Passion for Identity, eds. David Taras and Beverly Rasporich (Scarborough Ontario: International Thompson Publishing, 1997), 259 14 Jack Lawrence Granatstein, Who Killed Canadian History? (Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers, 1998). Granatstein's book has engendered a fierce debate, see, for example, A. B. McKillop's stiff rebuke "Who Killed Canadian History? A View From the Trenches," The Canadian Historical Review 79 (June 1999): 269-299. 15 See Rasporich and Seiler, "Multiculturalism in the Arts," 252. 45 However, Rasporich and Seiler seem to be mistaken as they affirm that

Canadians do not have a common set of myths. If their statement was to be true, then it begs the question as to whether Canada failed as a nation or should be considered a quasi-community. The answer partly lies in the fact that Canada, like other countries, has been erroneously described as a traditional nation-state. But then, what does really define a nation? If the answer is the existence of ethnic and racial homogeneity or obvious natural boundaries, then Canada can never be considered a nation. This is especially true at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, when Canada is facing new challenges, such as the integration of economic markets, new immigration patterns informed by recent ethnic conflicts, the expansion of information technologies, etc. All of these confront the traditional model of a civic nation with a homogeneous national identity. David Cannadine has argued that if Canada has few of the sentimental or cultural appurtenances customarily associated with nationhood, like a defining moment of independence or a central cathartic past event of importance, a national hero, a towering cultural figure or a national character, it is because Canada is a state rather than a nation.16

According to Cannadine. this is partially due to the fact that since the 1960s

Canadian historiography has shifted away from nation-building interpretation to economic and labour history, social history, regional history, history of women and so forth. In doing so, Canadian historians have largely contributed to giving

Canadians a " stronger sense of the diversity and pluralism of Canadian life" rather

16 David Cannadine, "Imperial Canada: Old History, New Problems," in Imperial Canada, 1867-1917, ed. Colin M. Coates (Edinburg: University of Edinburg, Centre of Canadian Studies, 1997), 1-19. 46 than nourishing the concept of Canadian nationhood.17 While some might argue

that the concept of nationhood does not accurately reflect the reality of Canada, it

is, however, imperative to acknowledge the fact that the Canadian state has been

exceptionally strong since Confederation. Cannadine further addresses this issue of nationhood by stating: "the Canadian nation has never been - and is not today - an autochthonous 'imagined community."'18 According to him, from 1867 to 1917 and beyond, the imagined community of Canada was the British Empire, better known as Imperial Canada.19 While Imperial Canada was never a state, as Cannadine further points out, for a period of time it was a powerful "state of mind, a state of being, a state of identity."20 Consequently, this absence of a Canadian indigenous imagined community does not imply that the majority of Canadians were and are still lacking an imagined life and nationhood. By definition, every society shares a set of common values and has these partly imaginative constructs that it agrees to embrace as a community. These constructs are known as myths, fittingly described by Canadian historian James Pitsula as a "sense of dominant cultural narrative."21

Returning to Rasporich and Seiler, both scholars have failed to acknowledge the fact that in Canada, the northern landscape has played that important role in the articulation of national identity. As stated in the introduction, Eric Kaufmann has argued that throughout its history, Canada, with its characteristic northern landscape, has channeled into naturalistic nationalism and went through both the

17 Ibid., 6. 18 Ibid., 7. 19 Ibid., 10-13. 20 Ibid., 14. 21 James M. Pitsula, For All We Have and Are: Regina and the Experience of the Great War (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2008), 1. 47 process of nationalization of nature and of naturalization of the nation.22 Thus the northern landscape has shaped the collective representation of the Canadian nation, and has become a major national Canadian myth.

A national myth, therefore, is an enduring image, impression and/or symbol that according to many observers provides the most compelling representations of a country.

It expresses the most fundamental beliefs a people holds about themselves. There are

"core myths" which are part of the master narrative that contain a country's ideals, the mainstream memory of a culture. These myths embody the important images and stories, which emanate from a country's history.

Still, one must be conscious that myths idealize. They are chosen because they appear to embody important cultural values, events, or institutions, but in doing so can be elevated to the status of legend. In this respect, it is crucial to refer to Roland Barthes's identification of the properties of myth. He notes:

Myth does not deny things, on the contrary, its function is to talk about them; simply, it purifies them, it makes them innocent, it gives them a natural and eternal justification, it gives them a clarity which is not that of an explanation but that of a statement of fact... it abolishes the complexity of human acts, it gives them the simplicity of essences, it does away with all dialectics, with any going back beyond what is immediately visible, it organizes a world which is without contradictions because it is without depth, a world wide open and wallowing in the evident, it establishes a blissful clarity: things appear to mean something by themselves.23

Canadian essayist and novelist John Ralston Saul has often written about myths, especially the founding myths within the Canadian context, most recently in his book A

Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada (2008).24 Saul asserts that people cannot live

22 Kaufmann, "Naturalizing the Nation: The Rise of Naturalistic Nationalism in the United States and Canada," 690. 23 Roland Barthes, Mythologies, trans. Annette Lavers (London: J. Cape, 1972), 143. 24 John Ralston Saul, A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada (Toronto: Penguin Group, 2008). 48 without myth or various expressions of myth, as we need a reasonable level of nationalism and identity. Still Saul issues the warning that "taken beyond the reasonable, these identification marks become the tools of deformed mythology and victimization.

This is the territory not so much of mythology or even of false mythology, if such a concept can exist, but of mystification."25

Thus a myth is a usable narrative or idea that suits the needs of a people.

Consequently, myths are usually quite familiar and well known by a considerable portion of the nation's population. As Barry Cooper notes, a myth is not a cognitive or analytical means to describe a political community, but rather a "story that provides a meaning to our being together, to help us distinguish ourselves from them, from the others, to indicate that this place is here and everywhere else is there."26 Myths are built on a binary structure established on the form "us/them" and are typically based on a shared belief expressed by a symbol or set of symbols. Because of their simple characteristics, myths hold a high level of evocative power. As Cooper points out, these symbols or myths concentrate "an emotional and volitional substance or meaning that, if examined empirically and from the outside, in a scientific rather than participatory mode, appears as a complex configuration of human activity of highly questionable unity."27

Place and Identity

Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye has defined Canada's national identity dilemma as the familiar existential search:

25 John Ralston Saul, Reflections of a Siamese Twin: Canada at the End of the Twentieth Century (Toronto: Penguin Books Ltd., 1997), 6. 26 Cooper. "Did George Grant's Canada Ever Exist", 154. 27 Ibid. 49 It seems to me that Canadian sensibility has been profoundly disturbed not so much by our famous problem of identity, important as that is, as by a series of paradoxes in what confronts that identity. It is less perplexed by the question 'Who am I?' than by some such riddle as 'Where is here?'28

Thus it seems reasonable to think like John Luther Adams who concludes that, "as we come to understand better where we are, we come to understand more fully who we are."29 Moreover, Frye suggests that Canadian identity could be more a regional question than a national one. In his opinion, we should beware of assimilating identity to unity, which is generally associated with the political sense of unity that produced the provincial isolation called separatism in the last part of the twentieth century:

Identity is local and regional, rooted in the imagination and in the works of culture; unity is national in reference, international in perspective, and rooted in a political feeling.30

Nevertheless, works inspired by the Canadian landscape are common in the production of Canadian artists, whether poets, painters or composers, as there seems to be a widespread belief in this country that the natural environment defines, at least in part, who we are as a people. It is then fair to affirm that "much of the Canadian identity is tied to the land itself."31 This connection is emphasized by Rasporich and Seiler who point out:

Many agree with Northrop Frye's observation that the basic question of human identity, 'Who am I?' was usurped in Canada by "Where is here?" and the latter, as articulated by "national" artists such as the Group of Seven was accepted by art

28 Northrop Frye, The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian Imagination (Toronto: Anansi, 1971), 220. 29 John Luther Adams, "Resonance of Place" in Music: Composing the North (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 2004), 30. 10 Frye, The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian Imagination, xxii. 31 Elspeth Cameron, 'Introduction," in Canadian Culture: an Introductory Reader, ed. Elspeth Cameron (Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press, 1997), 9. 50 historians and the art public. This concept of a land-based national identity has been at the heart of the fine arts tradition in Canada.32

The quotation marks surrounding the term "national" in Rasporich's and Seiler's comment give rise to another debate: whether or not a landscape could truly be national.

In his article "There are no Universal Landscapes" George Woodcock argued that the

Group of Seven was a great example of regional art rather than national art, although the group undoubtedly saw themselves in protonationalist terms.33 According to Woodcock, regionalism is not a very old concept in relation to Canadian art or literature, which had first to be defined in colonial and then national terms before a thorough understanding of the land made a regional definition possible. Consequently, a great deal that has passed for nationalist in post-Confederation Canadian arts is, in fact, regionalist. Thus, any landscape would inevitably be localized and regional, not universal or national. This informed Woodcock's judgment when asserting that the Group of Seven was in fact a group of regionalist painters, which should also contribute to destroy the Group's claim of having created a Canadian school of painting.34 It is crucial to point out that this is a minority view, since the landscapes painted by the members of the Group of Seven, although representing specific landscapes, were perceived by the public as representing the essence of the northern character of the country.35 Furthermore, while the Group's paintings were generally representative of the Ontario landscape, mostly the rugged northern Ontario one, they were not solely limited to this region. In fact, Lawren Harris

32 Rasporich and Seiler, "Multiculturalism in the Arts," 259. For more on the subject of land-based national identity in the fine arts and biculturalism see Terrence Heath, Visions (Toronto: Douglas and Mclntyre, 1983), 51. 33 George Woodcock, "There Are No Universal Landscapes," in Documents in Canadian Art, ed. Doug Fetherling (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 1987), 257-269. 34 George Woodcock, "There are no Universal Landscapes" in Documents in Canadian Art, ed. Doug Fetherling (Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 1987), 257-269. 35 See Peter Mellen, The Group of Seven (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1970), 200-201. 51 painted scenes from the Rocky Mountains and the Arctic. In addition, during the mid-

1920s, the Group also addressed this issue by welcoming new painters into their organization after realizing they could not truly label themselves a national school of painters as long as they all resided in Toronto. The group gradually gained a wider geographic scope as Montreal painter, Edwin Holgate, and Winnipeg-based painter,

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, joined them in 1930 and 1932.

The northern landscape has most definitely shaped the collective representation of the Canadian nation and proves to be a major facet of this country's cultural distinctiveness. The best argument in support of this affirmation was put forward by

Kaufmann in his article "Naturalizing the Nation The Rise of Naturalistic Nationalism in the United States and Canada earlier cited. Kaufmann argues that, because of its abundance of unsettled landscape, Canada has channeled more vigorously than other

» • Xf\ nations into naturalistic nationalism. The northern landscape played a significant and essential role in the articulation of the Canadian identity. In general, the treatment of the

North, and by extension the Canadian northern landscape, first went through the process of nationalization of nature and later metamorphosed into the naturalization of the nation.

The following quotation from J.E.H. MacDonald37 about the importance of landscape in the Canadian imagination and identity is one of many examples:

Canada's vast and varied landscape has shaped our history and defines our identity as a people. Even though most of us now live in cities and towns, the natural world is never far from our thoughts. From earliest days, our artists have drawn

36 Kaufmann, "Naturalizing the Nation: The Rise of Naturalistic Nationalism in the United States and Canada," 668. 37 Landscape painter and member of the famous Group of Seven (1920s), James Edward Hervey MacDonald (1873-1932), was born in the UK to an English mother and Canadian father. He moved to Canada when he was thirteen. 52 inspiration and delight from Canada's landscape and their images tell us much about what it is to be a Canadian.38

Pierre Berton expressed the same opinion as he addressed the Empire Club of Canada in

Toronto on October 11,1973:

We are all shaped by our environment and it is a theory of mine that one of the things that makes us a distinctive people, and I am certain that we are different from any other people in the world, is the presence of this great northern wilderness bearing down on us. Ninety per cent of us live within 200 miles of the American border, but there is not one of us who is not aware of the presence of the North. Every foreign observer who has come here has made that point. Andre Siegfried, years ago, called it 'a window out onto infinity.'39

If human beings are influenced by the social, cultural, and economic context in which they live, they are without a doubt also affected by their immediate physical environment.

People react to what surrounds them, whether it is space, climate, season change, amount of daylight, etc. All these various aspects of the local environment inform our perceptions of the world, from colours to timing and shapes to sounds. In the area of music, the industrial revolution and the electric revolution, for example, have changed the way composers perceive and use pitches, rhythms, dynamics, and timbre. Consequently, it is only fair to deduce that the physical environment in which composers live has the same effect upon them as well.

Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer, internationally known in the field of soundscape studies and for encouraging other artists to follow his example by drawing on the riches of their local surroundings for inspiration, has composed works that are

38 This quote was found during the summer of 2004 in a Parks Canada exhibit presented at Canada Place in Banff, located downtown just across the Bow River. This exposition, which celebrated Canada's land, culture, and achievements, closed permanently in 2009. 39 John Robert Colombo, ed., The Dictionary of Canadian Quotations (Don Mills, Ontario: Stoddart, 1991), 381 .Pierre Berton is a Canadian journalist and author of non-fiction who popularized Canadian history, born in Whitehorse, Yukon. Andr6 Siegfried (1875-1959) was a French political scientist and geographer, who traveled nine times to Canada between 1898 and 1945. 53 uniquely Canadian by using the beauty of Canada's wilderness for the setting of many of his compositions. In an interview conducted by Ulla Colgrass, Schafer explicitly described how the natural environment we live in as Canadians, defines who we are:

I'm shaped by the Canadian climate and ecology, as I think we all will be. Ultimately that's the thing that will give the real character of the country. We will, of course, be influenced by different peoples, but in the end we'll be shaped by living in this cold climate and coming to terms with it.40

During the last century, the Canadian North has been portrayed by historians, politicians, authors, and artists as an elusive land of endless possibilities. More than mere descriptions of this geographic place, all these representations of the Canadian North constitute a captivating discourse, specially enriched by the fact that the North depicted in narrative texts and art works can never be a fixed entity, but a variable whose meaning changes according to the period in history.

Defining North

One fundamental problem with this "idea of North" lies in the fact that the North is a somewhat vague concept having more than one definition. The North can be either a place, like the Northwest Territories, or a direction, like north of Montreal. Quebec geographer Louis-Edmond Hamelin provides the most complete answer with his concept of nordicity.41 Nordicity is first and foremost the measure of the degree of northernness of a high-latitude place, but it is also a notion that refers to the totality of facts of

40 Ulla Colgrass, For the Love of Music: Interviews with Ulla Colgrass (Toronto and New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 149. 41 Louis-Edmond Hamelin, Canadian Nordicity: It's Your North, Too (Montreal: Harvest House, 1979). Professor of geography at the University Laval where he also founded the Centre for Northern Studies in 1961, Louis-Edmond Hamelin is known for coining numerous neologisms to better put into words various aspects of the Qu^becois geographic reality. Dr. Hamelin was a prolific researcher who worked in almost all the sub-fields of geography, covering a wide scope of issues from physical to human geography. 54 nature/culture within a circumpolar zone. It expresses the reality of the cold zone of the northern hemisphere as well as how it is perceived, conceptualized, lived, inhabited, and imagined. The concept of nordicity encompasses all the themes of the natural and human sciences that can lead to a better understanding and assessment of ideas, phenomena, projects, and interventions in the North. The notion of nordicity emerged from the word

Nordic, which began to be used around 1955 in a global sense, not exclusively of

Scandinavia or Finland.42 Nicknamed the "father of Canadian nordicity," and perhaps the greatest reference to date on the subject, Hamelin divides Canadian nordicity in two distinct categories: nordicity of the fine arts and literature; and the nordicity revealed by the realities of geography and natural sciences:

Une rare question consiste a jeter un regard comparatif entre, d'une part, la nordicite vue par les arts et les lettres et, d'autre part, la nordicite revelee par les realites les plus verifiables. De ces deux mondes, interesse, non la decouverte et la mesure d'un ecart de verite, mais la reconnaissance d'une double existence pleine et egale en dignite. La nordicite considere aussi les echanges, pas trop frequents d'ailleurs, entre la sphere scientifique et la sphere poetique.43

So there is more than one reality that coexists: the geographic North, as well as the

North which "is also and concurrently a region of the mind," according to D. A.

West.44

The geophysical North is composed of Nunavut, the Yukon, and the

42 The notion of nordicity was widely accepted outside Canada around 1965. Nevertheless, it is still considered a Canadianism in many dictionaries such as the Canadian Oxford Dictionary and Le petit Larousse. 43 Louis-Edmond Hamelin, Discours du nord, Collection recherche 35 (Qudbec: Gdtic, University Laval, 2002), 39: "A rare question consists in giving a comparative look between, on one side, nordicity seen through the arts and literature, and on the other side, nordicity revealed by realities more easily verifiable. From these two worlds, interest, not the discovery and the true measure of discrepancy, but the acknowledgement of a double existence, full and equal in dignity. Nordicity ponders as well the exchanges, not too frequent in fact, between the scientific sphere and the poetic one." Unless otherwise indicated, all translations in this dissertation are mine. 44 Douglas A. West, "Re-searching the North in Canada: An Introduction to the Canadian Northern Discourse," Journal of Canadian Studies 26, 2 (Summer 1991): 109. 55 Northwest Territories, which make up more than one third of Canada's landmass.

By adding the northern areas of seven provinces (British Columbia, Alberta,

Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland), the internal and peripheral waters, as well as the waters covered by ice, more than 70% of Canada is northern. According to Hamelin, what matters is the "indice nordique" ("northern index"), which is calculated by evaluating such criteria as latitude, summer heat, overall annual cold, types of ice, total precipitation, natural vegetation cover, accessibility, accessibility other than by air, residing or wintering population, and degree of economic activity.45

45 Hamelin, Canadian Nordicity: It's Your North, Too, 19-21. 56 L'tJPACE RQROIQUf 0 U CANADA

/////////, CiiMn U|ili It fMtetUM W///W. tlltll It HtllM IMtfifft ffiBttfttBt hthtguutt M«litk!« I m wm«M

Figure 2-1 Canadian nordic space46

Geographically, with the middle, far, and extreme North covering an important portion of its landmass, Canada is without a doubt a northern nation. Moreover, climatically the country is shaped by its longest season - winter. Life in Canada has always been synonymous with living in a northern environment and coming to terms with it.

So how does this geographical reality impinge upon the way Canada defines its

46 Louis-Edmond Hamelin, Nordicite canadienne (Montreal; Editions Hurtubise, 1975), 20. Permission to reproduce this map was granted by Editions Hurtubise. 57 identity, or what really is this North described as a region of the mind? There are undeniably many different ways of representing the North as well as numerous manners in which Canada is imagined as North. It is also safe to assert that, because of the difference in the actual physical experience of the "real North" and for cultural reasons, the southerners' representation of North cannot correspond to the northerners' portrayal of themselves. In recent years the northerners have been more prolific in writing about the North and in translating it into various art forms. However, as will be explained further in this chapter, it is essential to affirm that this research will be limited to the southerners' representation of the North mainly because the purpose of this study is neither ethnographic nor centered on the performance of music stemming from these traditions, but rather based on musical repertoire which consists solely in the output of southerners.

Canadian Discursive Formation of North

The identification of Canada with its "northland" is old. Even in the time of the

British conquest of New France, centuries ago, the area that was to become the Canada that we now know, was associated with snow, and of course with that, the idea of North and cold. Already in 1759, Voltaire wrote in Candide, ou I'Optimisme (Candide, or

Optimism) about France's struggle with Great Britain over the mastery of Quebec:

You know that these two nations are at war over a few acres of snow out around Canada, and that they are spending on this fine war much more than all of Canada is worth.47

The North has certainly been a salient theme in Canadian culture from the

47 Voltaire, Voltaire's Candide, and the Critics, ed. Milton P. Foster (Belmont, Calif., Wadsworth Pub. Co., 1962), 51. Voltaire is the pseudonym of Francois-Marie Arouet (1694-1778). 58 creation of the country until the present day. In the 1960s, historian W.L. Morton wrote that from the beginning, "Canada had a distinct, a unique, a northern destiny."48 For

Sherrill E. Grace, the North "is a part of the imagined community called Canada and a defining characteristic, a crucial metonymy, of the whole."49 In his book National

Dreams (1997), Daniel Francis concurred: "since at least Confederation there have been people - writers, politicians, intellectuals - who believed that it was its northernness which made Canada distinct."50 Therefore, Canadians have often used ideas of Canada- as-North to define our national identity and to promote national unity. Further on the subject, Francis argues that the importance of the idea of North in the Canadian identity discourse is fundamental and justified due to the reality that "because we lack a common religion, language or ethnicity, because we are spread out so sparsely across such a huge piece of real estate, Canadians depend on this habit of 'consensual hallucination' more than any other people."51

Even if only a very small number of Canadians live in the far North and regardless of the fact that only a few ever visit it, that region of Canada's geography exerts a strong hold on the Canadian imagination and continues to have a defining influence on the nation's identity. The theme of nordicity is certainly an enduring mythical geographic image in Canada. Douglas A. West argues in his article Re­ searching the North in Canada that this identification with our northerness can be

48 William Lewis Morton, The Canadian Identity (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972), 4. 49 Sherrill E. Grace, Canada and The Idea of North (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001), 50. 50 Francis, National Dreams: Myth, Memory, and Canadian History, 152. 51 Ibid., 10. 59 witnessed in many spheres of knowledge and activity, and that it provides a bridge that links us to our European roots:

If Canadian identity is to have any meaning, it must be found in the expression of our northern mythology in science, the economy, the arts, and culture. It is our northernness that connects us; the mental map of Canada is in the northern part of the world. Our northernness also connects us to the past, to Europe and our Nordic roots in England and France. As Canadians we are placed between the traditions of the Old World and the ravenous technology of the New. We participate in both, but as the Northmen of the New World we really have the best of both. 2

As will be subsequently shown, there are several reasons to justify this importance of the northern myth in Canadian culture. For instance, Elspeth Cameron, in her introduction to

Canadian Culture: An Introductory Reader, suggests:

[...] it is partly because the%north is the most marginal area of our marginal country that it has always been a significant repository for Canadian's sense of themselves. It is, by analogy, the blank white sheet upon which we project many of our characteristics.53

And whatever the motives may be, the image of the North proves to be a persistent theme in Canadian history, a theme whose meaning shifted throughout the years. Historian

Michael Bliss was correct in stating that:

The image of the North in Canadian history oscillates wildly. In one period, the North is pregnant with possibilities. In another, it is a barren wasteland, thinly peopled, the land God gave Cain. Similarly, the image of Canada as a whole shifts from being a northern giant in the making to taking on the appearance of an outlying northern suburb of the United States - a U.S. that, thanks to air conditioning and irrigation, turned out to be able to conquer its extremes of climate in the 20th century and make its southern and western territories livable and immensely productive.54

His opinion that Canadians have long held ambivalent feelings about the North is also shared by Kerry Abel and Ken S. Coates in their introduction to Northern Visions: New

52 West, "Re-searching the North in Canada: An Introduction to the Canadian Northern Discourse," Journal of Canadian Studies 26, no. 2 (Summer 1991): 111. 53 Cameron, Canadian Culture: An Introductory Reader, 11-12. 54 Michael Bliss, "Has Canada failed?," Literary Review of Canada 14, no. 2 (March 2006): 4. 60 Perspectives on the North in Canadian History:

At times we have celebrated our northerness as a key part of what makes us unique. At other times, the North has been a symbol of sterility or danger lurking at the margins of our complacency. For many Canadians, the North is a treasure chest of natural resources riches ripe for removal. For others, it is a homeland to protect and cherish. It is hardly surprising that Canadian historians have reflected this ambivalence in their work.55

Politically, very shortly after Confederation, the idea of North was already fostered in the work of ambitious nationalists of the "Canada First" movement, who aspired to nurture nationalist sentiment and establish the basis of Canadian nationality.56

According to them, one of the main characteristics of the Dominion was its northern climate, which gave to people living there a strength of character shared only by other northern races. According to Carl Berger, the members of this movement "turned the

Canadian climate into a dynamic element of national greatness."57 In agreement with

Berger's analysis, West added that the members' "rhetoric was intended to support the imperialism of a truly Canadian politics, economics, culture, and literature. In the process, the northern heritage of Canada became the country's most distinguishing feature."58 Author Stephen Leacock shared these sentiments as well, which were typical of the times, according to Margaret MacMillan.59 Leacock believed that black people were not suited to Canada because of the climate. He was also against Asian immigration

- the "Asiatic peril" - which he thought was not good for Canadian society.

55 Kerry Abel and Ken S. Coates, "The North and the Nation," in Northern Visions: New Perspectives on the North in Canadian History (Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 2001), 7. 56 The Canada First Movement was founded in 1868 by Ontarians George Denison, William Foster, Charles Mair, Henry Morgan, and Robert Grant Haliburton (a native of Nova Scotia then living in Ottawa). 57 Carl Berger, "The True North Strong and Free," in Nationalism in Canada, ed. Peter Russell (Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 1971), 13-14. See also chapter five, "The Canadian Character," in Carl Berger, Sense of Power: Studies in the Ideas of Canadian Imperialism, 1867-1914 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1970), 128-152. 58 West, "Re-searching the North in Canada: An Introduction to the Canadian Northern Discourse," 110. 59 See Margaret MacMillan, Stephen Leacock (Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2009), 114-116. 61 By the turn of the twentieth-century, the progressively urban character of the population provoked a renewed emphasis on the values of an agrarian society. For a certain number of Canadians, the land guaranteed salvation from mounting industrialization, from which they felt resulted moral laxity, one of the many pejorative symptoms of a materialistic and urban society. This urban way of life was strongly critiqued by James Shaver Woodsworth (1874-1942) and Salem Bland (1859-1950) in the social gospel, a Protestant Christian movement, and also by the Imperialists who were in favour of the idea that Canada should continue to develop without separating from the

British Empire.60 Both groups were convinced that an industrial and urban way of life would destroy the robustness of the body and righteousness of morality.

Obviously there are clear racist implications here. In fact, before the First World

War the myth of North and the myth of the master race were widely used to secure the pre-eminence of Canada's British heritage.61 The federal government strongly advertised

f\) Canada's northern wilderness to attract immigrants. Again, as Carl Berger has shown, for nineteenth-century white European immigrants, Canada's northern location and the distinctive northern character derived from that climate all conveniently stood for and represented such virtues as good health, moral integrity and strength, as well as chastity, purity, and spirituality, all predominantly Christian in essence. The concept of Canadians as a northern people, that is to say settled by immigrants from northern Europe,

60 For more on Woodsworth and Bland, see Salem Goldworth Bland, The New Christianity, or, The Religion of the New Age (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1920); Ramsay Cook, The Regenerators: Social Criticism in Late Victorian English Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985); and Nancy Christie and Michael Gauvreau, A Full-Orbed Christianity: The Protestant Churches and Social Welfare in Canada, 1900-1940 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1995). 61 See Berger, "The True North Strong and Free," 3-26. See also chapter five. "The Canadian Character," in Berger, Sense of Power: Studies in the Ideas of Canadian Imperialism, 1867-1914, 128-152. 62 Ibid. 62 constituted an obvious and absolute distinction from the southern people portrayed as

hedonistic and immoral races. In other words, it was thought that Canada, due to its cold

climate, was safeguarded from the "Negro problem" and the immigration from Italy and other countries of Southern Europe that the American society to the south had to endure.

Elspeth Cameron further denounces the racist implications of this Canadian northern character:

This concept was not only a distortion of immigration patterns, which were varied and complex, it was also unmistakably racist. Founded on the then-popular notions of Darwin's concepts of 'survival of the fittest' and Kiplingesque bravado about the glory of the British Empire as it imposed its 'superior' traditions and genes on the colonies, Canadians attributed to their northern geography (much of which few Canadians then and now actually experienced first-hand) moral, physical and spiritual virtues. That this was an imaginative construct is obvious in the virtual absence of reference to the real northern inhabitants who for generations had certainly proved they were fit to survive a harsh climate, the Inuit and others who were neither white nor European.63

Still in the political realm, the postwar interest in Canadian northern mythology is embodied in the figure of John Diefenbaker. During the federal election campaign of

1958 he claimed:

I see a new Canada - not oriented east and west, but looking northward, responding to the challenges of that hinterland, its energies focused on the exploration and exploitation of the Arctic - 'A Canada of the North!'64

His "northern vision" galvanized voters; obviously he appealed to Canadians' fascination with the North by promising roads to the North that would have a significant impact by developing new economic opportunities.65 A few decades later, it was former Prime

63 Cameron, Canadian Culture: An Introductory Reader, 12. 64 Berger, "The True North Strong and Free," 98. 65 For more on the Diefenbaker years see Denis Smith, Rogue Tory: The Life and Legend of John G. Diefenbaker (Toronto: Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 1995). See also Patrick Kyba's biography of Alvin Hamilton, the Diefenbaker cabinet minister who was influential in formulating the "Northern Vision", Alvin: A Biography of the Honourable Alvin Hamilton, P.C. (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre, 1989). 63 Minister Joe Clark's turn to take part in the Canadian northern discourse by describing

Canada as "The winter half of North America."66 More recently, Stephen Harper won the 2006 federal election partly on the basis of a campaign promising more attention to the protection of Canada's sovereignty in the North. His government's renewal of the northern theme was again at the core of the 2008 election with one of the main

Conservative slogans being "True North Strong and Free."67 In fact, just before the campaign leading to this election, during a speech in Inuvik (Northwest Territories)

Stephen Harper affirmed: "We are a northern country. The True North is our destiny - for our explorers, for our entrepreneurs, for our artists. To not embrace the promise of the

True North, now, at the dawn of its ascendancy, would be to turn our backs on what it is to be Canadian."68 A year later, these comments are at the core of the federal government's new northern strategy Canada's Northern Strategy: Our North, Our

Heritage, Our Future, revealed in October 2009.69 Conservatives are claiming their interest in reinforcing four areas: the Arctic sovereignty of Canada; promoting economic and social development; protecting the environmental heritage; and improving northern governance. Only time will tell if this new strategy will allow the northerners to play an active role and prove to be a long-term initiative that shall not slip back into disinterest once the sovereignty panic has passed.

66 Joe Clark, speech quoted in David Olive, Canada Inside Out: How We See Ourselves, How Others See Us (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1996), 26. 67 For an effective summary of the northern sovereignty issue, see chapter 5 ("True North: Strong, Free, Ours?") in J.L. Granatstein, Whose War Is It?: How Canada Can Survive in the Post-9/1 / World (Toronto: Harper Collins Publishers, 2007), 109-135. 68 See Canada's Northern Strategy: Our North, Our Heritage, Our Future (by the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and the Federal Interlocutor for M&is and Non-Status Indians), http://www.northernstrategy.ca/cns/cns-eng.asp/ (accessed August 18, 2010). 69 Ibid. 64 As well, the North played a significant role in Canada's economic development, even before confederation, from the seventeenth-century fur trading posts established in the time of New France until the present day. The importance of the economic potential of the North has been largely overlooked in Canadian history. Chronologically, it progressed from the 1896 discovery of gold in the Klondike, to the finding of oil in the

Mackenzie Valley in the early 1900s, the discovery of gold and other precious minerals in the provincial north throughout the first half of the twentieth century, as well as the exploitation of oil and natural gas in the high Arctic which started in the 1960s, and, finally, the lucrative exploitation of diamond mines in the Northwest Territories beginning in 1991.70 Another staple generally neglected in regards to the economic importance of the north is the fur trade. It dates back as early as the beginning of the sixteenth-century, even before the French traders established permanent shore bases in the early seventeenth-century, and continued to be an indispensable part of the northern economy until the end of World War Two.71

70 To give some examples on the subject of precious minerals found in the provincial northern regions: in 1903 silver was discovered at Cobalt (Northern Ontario) and more than a hundred mines opened on the vein; in 1934 gold was discovered in the Northwest Territories (known as Yellowknife at present-day); coal deposits were mined from Tantalus Butte at Carmacks from the early 1900s onward; and a silver and lead mine went into production in 1913 at Keno Hill. For a complete chronology of minerals development in Canada, the reader is referred to the website of Natural Resources Canada (www.nrcan.gc.ca/ms/stude- etudi/chroe.htm) which contains the list of discoveries of minerals, including the opening and closing of mines, collieries, mills, smelters, and petroleum fields. Archival sources such as the Chronological Record of Canadian Mining Events from 1608 to 1943 and Historical Tables of the Mineral Production of Canada from The Annual Report of the Mineral Production of Canada, 1942 (www.nrcan.gc.ca/ms/cmy/archive/ 1608-1943.pdf) and yearly editions of the Canadian Minerals Yearbook published since 1944 (example: www.nrcan.gc.ca/ms/cmy/archive/1944.pdf) are also available through that same governmental website. 71 See Arthur J. Ray, The Canadian Fur Trade in the Industrial Age, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990), xv. 65 These previous examples corroborate some of economic historian Harold Innis' observations in his famous book The Fur Trade in Canada (1930).72 In fact, Canadian geography was recognized by historians like Innis "as one of the more viable axes on which national historical theories could be based."73 In the 1930s, Innis argued that

Canada was an independent geographic and economic entity, meaning that major geographic features facilitating unity, such as water systems, operated in Canada on an east-west axis rather than on a north-south one. By doing so, he clearly elucidated the interdependence of Canadian and European economies rather than Canadian and

American economies. His theory, often referred to as the "northern vision of Harold

Innis," was brilliantly summarized in the classic statement: "the present Dominion emerged not in spite of geography but because of it."74 This theory about the geographic and economic independence of the Dominion of the North from its neighbour to the south had undeniable effects in building a stronger sense of national consciousness. The geographic theme has subsequently attracted many followers as others have built on

Innis' foundations, such as Donald Creighton with his Empire of the St. Lawrence,15 published in 1937. In this work, he explained that Canada and the United States were essentially different because they depended on two distinct trade systems: east-west along the St. Lawrence River in Canada and north-south along the eastern Atlantic seaboard in the United States. Creighton, who had a significant impact on English-Canadian

72 Harold Adam Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada: An Introduction to Canadian Economic History (New Haven: Yale University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1930). 73 Ann Davis, "Image as Identity: Aspects of Twentieth-Century Canadian Art," in A Passion for Identity, 3rd ed., eds. David Taras and Beverly Rasporich (Scarborough Ontario: International Thomson Publishing, 1997): 230. 74 Harold Adam Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada: An Introduction to Canadian Economic History (New Haven: Yale University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1930), 379. See also Matthew Evenden, "The Northern Vision of Harold Innis," Journal of Canadian Studies 34, no. 3 (Fall 1999): 162-186. 75 Donald Creighton, The Empire of the St. Lawrence (Toronto: Macmillan, 1937). 66 historiography from the 1930s to the 1950s, later acknowledged the Laurentian trading system was weakened by twentieth-century developments, namely that of the railroad system in the United States which proved to be more economical.76

While the geography of a country impacts its economy, yet another aspect of

Canada's geographical northernness, which is largely disregarded, is the fact that in terms of territorial authority, this country might be the largest colonizing power of the twentieth and now twenty-first centuries due to the size of the Yukon and the Northwest

Territories. Within Canada itself, there is a revealing phenomenon of internal political and economic colonization. Under Ottawa's control, the Nunavut,77 the Yukon, and the

Northwest Territories, are all colonies of the federal state. Surprisingly, Ottawa was the territorial capital of the Northwest Territories until 1967 and of the Yukon until 1979.

Until then, both territories were administered by commissioners appointed by the federal

Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Through the process of devolution these territories have slowly acquired powers and responsibilities that are typical of provincial jurisdiction, like education, social services, and health care.

Consequently, this northern Canadian discourse has only recently been questioned by the emergence of a new voice, that of the aboriginal, Inuit and Inuvialuit peoples of the North. Northerners have their own independent perceptions of North and of themselves, to be discussed further below. Since the North of the northerners is manifold and inhabited by many diverse aboriginal peoples, who speak a great variety of languages and are shaped by their own histories, it is challenging to present a comprehensive picture

76 For more information about Creighton's influence on English-Canadian historiography, see Carl Berger, "Donald Creighton and the Artistry of History," in The Writting of Canadian History: Aspects of English- Canadian Historical Writing since 1900 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1986), 208. 77 Nunavut was established on April 1st, 1999. 67 of the diversity of self-representations produced by these northern people. The fact that oral tradition is at the core of northern peoples' culture also complicates the task but must be considered in documenting such culture. While it proves to be impossible, in the scope of this study, to account fully of this multiplicity, it is still important to highlight the works of esteemed scholars and specialized historians who have contributed in undertaking that task: Julie Cruikshank's Life Lived Like a Story, written in collaboration with three Yukon elders;78 Nancy Wachowich's Saqiyuq: Stories from the Lives of Three

Inuit Women, a type of autobiography of one Baffin Island family;79 and Flora Beardy's and Robert Coutts' Voices from Hudson Bay: Cree Stories from York Factory, a collection of translated "life histories."80 Other scholars have carried out extensive research in the area of ethnographic studies describing, interpreting, or analyzing cultures and artifacts of these northern communities, they include: Dorothy Harley Eber, Images of Justice: A Legal History of the Northwest Territories as Traced through the

Yellowknife Courthouse Collection of Inuit Sculpture;81 Robin McGrath, Canadian Inuit

Literature: The Development of a Tradition;82 and Penny Petrone, ed., Northern Voices:

Inuit Writing in English,83 The northern communities of Canada have also played a pivotal role in collecting and preserving many cultural artifacts, the latter being easily

78 Julie Cruikshank, Angela Sidney, Kitty Smith, and Annie Ned, Life Lived Like a Story: Life Stories of Three Yukon Native Elders (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1990). 79 Nancy Wachowich, Apphia Agalati Awa, Rhoda Kaukjak Katsak, and Sandra Pikujak Katsak, Saqiyuq: Stories from the Lives of Three Inuit Women (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999). 80 Flora Beardy and Robert Coutts, eds. Voices from Hudson Bay: Cree Stories from York Factory (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996). 81 Dorothy Harley Eber, Images of Justice: A Legal History of the Northwest Territories as Traced through the Yellowknife Courthouse Collection of Inuit Sculpture (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1997). 82 Robin McGrath, Canadian Inuit Literature: The Development of a Tradition (Ottawa, National Museums of Canada, 1984). 83 Penny Petrone, ed., Northern Voices: Inuit Writing in English (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988). 68 confirmed by the increasing number of heritage centres, museum, historic sites, and private galleries.84

While the cultural and artistic productions of the Aboriginal and Inuit peoples of the North have been disseminated,85 the political impact of these nations in terms of decision-making was limited up until recently.86 As a noteworthy initiative, in May 2007

Canada's three territorial premiers jointly released a collaborative pamphlet describing their common vision for the future of the North, a document entitled A Northern Vision: 8"7 A Stronger North and a Better Canada. The governments of the three territories outlined their priorities in building a more prosperous, secure and sustainable North.

According to these governments, it is imperative that Canadian and international northern matters are addressed by northern voices. More specifically, they denounce the fact that their small communities residing far from the majority of Canadians were and still are imposed on by national programs designed for other regions of the country. As a result, these programs often proved to be inappropriate for the northern reality.88 A fitting solution would logically be to consider all the infrastructure requirements for energy,

84 A good example of a heritage centre is the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, which encourages research and provides visitors knowledge about the people and places in the North. 85 In recent years, there has been a proliferation of northern indigenous art, especially soapstone carvings. Two examples of Inuit visual artists who have been able to establish themselves are Judas Ullulaq, master sculptor, and Kananginak Pootoogook, a sprcialist in drawing and printmaking. 86 According to West's article Re-searching the North in Canada published in 1991, in order to create Nunavut, its people first needed to understand the southern Canadian's northern discourse in order to defend the northern vision they had for their own territory. See West, Re-searching the North in Canada, 117. West fails to acknowledge that this appropriation of the southerner's discursive style was two-fold, since the northerners first had to learn English, the language of the colonizing southern power. 87 A Northern Vision: A Stronger North and a Better Canada (by the Government of Yukon, the Government of the Northwest Territories, and the Government of Nunavut), www.anorthernvision.ca/pdf/newvision_english.pdf/ (accessed August 18, 2010). 88 This absence of northern voice in the decision-making process, as well as the lack of sustained economic commitment from the federal government is denounced by Louis-Edmond Hamelin and John Ralston Saul. See Hamelin, Canadian Nordicity: It's Your North, Too, 197-280; and John Ralston Saul, "Listen to the North: Cramming Northerner's Needs Into a Southern Model Just isn't Working," http://reviewcanada.ca/essays/2009/10/01/listen-to-the-north/ (accessed August 18, 2010). 69 telecommunications, and transportation, as well as the community and social facilities and services from a northern perspective.89 According to the three premiers, it is mandatory to build prosperous and sustainable communities in the North in order to assert Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic region: "Northerners are the embodiment - the human dimension - of Canada's Arctic sovereignty."90

To add to this problem, climactic change is occuring in the North as its fragile environment rapidly undergoes worrying transformation. Adapting to climate change inevitably impacts on the northern lifestyle, including namely the economy and infrastructure. Encouragingly, there is actual clear evidence of dialogue between the

Aboriginal and Inuit peoples of the Canadian North and the southern Canadians as well as the international community. As an example, the International Polar Year (2007-2008) was a valuable platform in which northern communities and governments, including the

Canadian ones, as well as international researchers from universities took part in a comprehensive scientific program centered on the Arctic and the Antarctic regions, to share knowledge about the cultural, social, and economic realities of these places and to advance our understanding of the geophysical, climate, and biological processes taking place in these polar regions.91

The "Northern Vision" of the three territorial premiers is inscribed in a dynamic action plan to acknowledge and showcase the existence of strong and healthy northern

89 A convincing example of such initiative is the development of the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) in the 1980s. For more on its history, mandate, and goals, see Inuit Broadcasting Corporation, http://www.inuitbroadcasting.ca/ (accessed August 18,2010). 90 A Northern Vision: A Stronger North and a Better Canada (by the Government of Yukon, the Government of the Northwest Territories, and the Government of Nunavut), www.anorthernvision.ca/pdf/newvision_english.pdf/(accessed August 18, 2010). 91 For more information on the vast scientific programme of the International Polar Year see International Polar Year 2007-2008, http://www.ipy.org/about-ipy/ (accessed August 12, 2010). 70 communities in the Canadian North. Energized by the presentation of the 2007 Canada

Winter Games in Whitehorse, which displayed the cooperation of the three territories in

hosting the first edition of the Canada Games in the Far North, the focus is now on developing their new marketing program "Look Up North" to attract tourism and enhance the economic opportunities for that region.92

Ironically, the Canadian commitment to the North is not comparable to many of the seven other countries whose borders stretch into the far North.93 Even if winter is the most prominent season of this country, Canadians do not truly and fully embrace their nordicity. Over the years, the federal government's rationale to justify its lack of engagement towards the North has mainly been the small population that would benefit and the expensive and logistically extremely difficult task of building a permanent society with all necessary infrastructure and services. So unlike some of its circumpolar neighbours, Canada did not settle the land like Russia, which built large industrial cities in its northern regions. As well, the support for northern scientific research in Canada is not comparable to other nations like Norway with its University of Tromso located north of the Arctic Circle and the United States with its University of Alaska in Fairbanks, both important research centres. In fact, Canada had no full-fledged university mainly dedicated to northern studies until the foundation of the University of Northern British

Columbia in Prince George in 1994.94

92 Look Up North (by the Government of Yukon, the Government of the Northwest Territories, and the Government of Nunavut), www.lookupnorth.ca/ (accessed August 18,2010). 93 The eight circumpolar countries are Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, USA, and Canada. 94 John Ralston Saul denounces this absence of a university in the Canadian North, which is a direct proof that Canada treats northern higher education in a colonial manner. He argues that having such an institution would create an intellectual and physical infrastructure that would help in building fully rounded northern communities. See John Ralston Saul, "Listen to the North: Cramming Northerner's Needs Into a Southern 71 English-Canada's North versus French-Canada's North

Whether among English - or French - speaking Canadians, the theme of nordicity is a mythical geographic image in Canada, and this is precisely what makes this myth so strong.95 Allison Mitcham in her recent study of Canadian northern literature even suggests that: "Perhaps the most exciting creative force in contemporary Canadian fiction

- French and English - is the Northern Imagination."96 But since culture is conveyed in a specific linguistic form, it is clear that both language groups will each have their own literature. The concept of the "idea of North" will inevitably be somewhat different depending on the linguistic tradition it comes out of. Even if the idea of North is shared by both English and French Canadians, the fact that each language group has its own literature may reinforce the idea of the two solitudes, notes Hiller.97 Laserre explains further: "In the English part, the myth stresses the vastness of Nature, the fight against

Nature, whereas French Canadians saw the failure of their political struggles."98 For

English-Canada it is also a way to distinguish themselves from their neighbour to the

South, according to Rob Shields:

[...] such a dualism provides a foundation for Canadian nationalists because it provides the possibility of setting a 'Canadian nature' (The 'True North') off

Model Just isn't Working," http://reviewcanada.ca/essays/2009/10/01/listen-to-the-north/ (accessed August 18, 2010). On the other hand, the University of Regina, as well as some other Canadian universities, such as Memorial University and the University of Alberta, is a member of the University of the Arctic, a decentralized organization sustained by a cooperative network of institutions (universities, colleges, etc.) in the circumpolar North that share the responsibility of hosting programs to promote higher education and research in the North. See University of the Arctic, www.uarctic.org/ (accessed August 18,2010). 95 Fr6d6ric Laserre, "Le mythe du nord," Geographie et cultures 21 (1997): 60. "Ce qui fait la force de ce mythe au Canada, c'est aussi son universality tant les Anglophones que les francophones y sont sensibles." 96 Mitcham, The Northern Imagination: A Study of Northern Canadian Literature, 9. She adds: "It is, however, the far North - the still vast and deserted wild places - which increasingly dominates the Canadian literary imagination." 97 Hiller, Canadian Society: A Macro Analysis, 290. 98 Laserre, "Le mythe du nord," 59. 72 against 'American mass culture' entirely originating or so we are asked to believe, south of the border."

In Divisions on a Ground, Northrop Frye goes as far as to argue that "Canada has been steadily building up something like a North American counter-culture against the United

States."100 The North as a symbol of Canada is certainly an essential part of the national discourse aiming at distinguishing this country from its southern neighbour. Otto

Friedrich brings this argument further as he brilliantly compares the duality between the two countries by drawing an intriguing analogy between Canada and the idea of North, and the United States and its western frontier:

The North is everything beyond the horizon, beyond the comfortable and the familiar, everything frozen and dark, treeless and windswept. It is a little like the American image of the western frontier, but unlike the compliant West, the hostile Arctic still presents an enormous wilderness. It has no San Diego, no Las Vegas, no Disneyland. 'The North is always there,' as Andre Siegfried once wrote. It is the background of the picture without which Canada would not be Canada.101

Granted, Canada's northern character is enhanced by mainly English-Canadians as a way to assert its uniqueness in contrast to the United States, but there are other

Norths. "In French Canada the northern wilderness has long symbolized escape from dreary settlements and conventional responsibilities. Thus in French Canada a myth has grown up around the 'bucheron' and the 'voyageur' and their exploits in 'le pays d'en haut'", notes Allison Mitcham.102

In his book La Terre promise: Le Mythe du nord quebecois (1978), Christian

Morissonneau adds a second component to the French-Canadian northern myth. After the

99 Rob Shields, Places on the Margin: Alternative Geographies of Modernity (London & New York: Routledge, 1991), 163. 100 Northrop Frye, Divisions on a Ground (Toronto: House of Anansi Press Ltd., 1982), 85. 101 Otto Friedrich, "The Idea of North," in Canadian Culture: an Introductory Reader, ed. Elspeth Cameron (Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press, 1997), 135-136. 102 Mitcham, The Northern Imagination: A Study of Northern Canadian Literature, 9. 73 British conquest of New France, the French territory of North America had shrunk

drastically. The inhabitants of the previous French colony thus had to withdraw to the

restricted territory of Lower Canada, a province of the British Empire created with The

Constitutional Act of 1791 and which dissolved in 1841 with the Act of Union. During that period, many French-Canadians felt trapped in the enclave of the feudal regime, which was also often reducing their chances for economic prosperity. There followed the inevitable exodus of half a million French-Canadians to the United States from 1851 to

1901. To counterbalance this migration caused by insufficient space, the second half of

the nineteenth-century saw the emergence of a great epic effort led by the legendary

"Cure [Antoine] Labelle" (1833-1891), and others like Arthur Buies (1840-1901), to settle new land within the territory, to colonize "le Pays d'en haut" ("upper country").

Propagandist pamphlets and brochures suggested this relocation of the population through a northern expansion in a type of ethnic messianism, like a departure towards a new promised land - in response to a lost continent. Morissonneau's reasoning, however, dismisses Jack Warwick's 1968 argument in The Long Journey; Literary Themes of

French Canada,103 in which he assessed that it was chiefly the French-Canadian novelists that mystified the North. Morissonneau disputes it was rather the promoters, the people who fostered this northern expansion to "le Pays d'en haut."104

The difference between both English and French Canadians' identification with the idea of North is thus undeniable - and clearly evident, for example, in the verses of the national anthem which are very different in both languages. The nation is celebrated as

103 Jack Warwick, The Long Journey; Literary Themes of French Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1968). 104 Christian Morissonneau, La Terrepromise: Le Mythe du nordquebecois (Montreal: Hurtubise, 1978), 26. 74 "the true North, strong and free" only in the English version.105 Yet, the interpretation of the national anthem is a unifying experience. Benedict Anderson explains:

[...] there is in this singing an experience of simultaneity. At precisely such moments, people wholly unknown to each other utter the same verses of the same melody.10

Consequently, through this experience of performing the anthem many conclusions can be drawn, which are extremely relevant in the context of this study. First, the synchronous aspect of performance binds people to a common idea or ideology. Second, the repetitive aspect of anthem chanting gives it an accumulative temporality rather than just ephemeral meaning. But third and foremost, it makes it possible to deduce that without a doubt, music, whether in the form of a national anthem, popular music, or art music, is enlisted in the search and articulation of national identity.

Nordicity in Canadian Culture

This identification of Canadians with the North also played a significant role in the formation of Canada's popular culture. Many popular cultural elements and activities contribute to mythologize Canada as a country of the North. These range from the numerous winter sports that can be practiced - first and foremost our national and most prevalent winter sport, ice-hockey - to the fact that every year Quebec City hosts the world's oldest and biggest winter carnival.107 The vocabulary used by Canadians to

105 The corresponding French lyrics of "II sait porter la croix" are "It knows how to carry the cross." 106 Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, 145. 107 Canada faces serious competition in regards to the promotion of winter tourism to its citizens and potential visitors. Sweden, for example, has long been a leader in that domain offering visitors the possibility of sleeping in an ice hotel; in Rovanemi, Finland, it is possible to shop in a huge Santa Claus commercial centre. However, in 2001 the little municipality of Duchesnay near Quebec City followed in their footsteps - each winter they build an ice hotel, which usually operates at full capacity. In 2011 the ice hotel moved from Duchesnay to an urban site in Quebec City. 75 describe their northernness is very evocative: from blizzards to ice-sculpture, igloos, northern lights, polar bears, snow angels, snowbirds and snowmen as well as the imaginary characters like Nelvana of the northern lights and Ookpik.108 Moreover, the equation between northern and Canadian has time and again been exploited in Canadian fiction and movie making. As Canadians who have come to terms with the life conditions imposed on them due to the northern climate, we "listen to adventurous tales of the beauty and danger of the northern wilderness that hovers over our complacent urban lifestyles, we celebrate the resource potential of the northern environment, and we protect our claim to be a northern people in the face of an expanding southern empire," notes

D.A. West.109 These tales are wonderfully rendered in music and poetry, for example by

Quebecois poet and musician Gilles Vigneault in Mon pays ce n 'est pas un pays c 'est

I 'hiver (1965), Ah! que I 'hiver (1968), and Le Nord du nord (1968) as well as in Robert

Service's humorous popular verse The Cremation of Sam McGee (1970).

Many contemporary Canadian novelists - French and English - have also focused on the northern wilderness in the belief that it is what makes Canada distinctive and original. For Gabrielle Roy, Margaret Atwood, Harold Horwood, Henry Kreisel, Yves

Theriault, and many others, the northern wilderness is a dominant Canadian myth.110

However, most of their writings can be characterized as the work of southerners speaking

108 Ookpik, Inuktitut word meaning "snowy" or "Arctic owl," is the name of a popular Inuit handicraft. Traditionally made of wrong preposition sealskin, this owl-like figurine has a large head and big eyes. First created in 1963 at the Fort Chimo Eskimo Co-operative in Quebec (now Kuujjuaq), it has become an international symbol of Canadian handicrafts. 109 West, "Re-searching the North in Canada: An Introduction to the Canadian Northern Discourse," 111. 1,0 For example, see Margaret Atwood, Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (Toronto: House of Anansi Press Ltd., 1972), 65: "It is in their attitudes towards winter that Canadians reveal most fully their stance towards Nature - since, as I said at the beginning of this chapter, winter for us is the 'real' season. You can use winter themes and images as a kind of touchstone; collecting snow, ice and blizzards, and different ways of coping with them, can be instructive as well as alarming. [...] snow is not a death- image but the container and preserver of dormant life." 76 to a southern audience, which consequently could imply that the Canadian northern society and landscape might have been presented in stereotypical terms.111

The 1896 discovery of gold in the Klondike was another great event that propelled Canada's identification as a northern country causing one specific literary genre to come into vogue: the memoirs of adventurers. The work of explorer and anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879-1962), for instance, captivated readers.112

Many writers and filmmakers'13 were drawn to the Klondike, which consequently affirmed Canada's northernness, a place portrayed so many times as an immense land covered with ice and snow.

The Canadian northern wilderness is also the ground of Canadian identity which greatly fascinated visual artists such as Lawren Harris (1885-1970), other members of the

Group of Seven, others before them, such as William Blair Bruce (1859-1906) and Tom

Thomson (1877-1917), and afterwards as well, notably Emily Carr (1871-1945) and

Edwin Holgate (1892-1977).114 The Group of Seven transformed into a national icon as

111 For more on the subject, see K.S. Coates and W.R. Morrison, "Writing the North: A Survey of Contemporary Canadian Writing on Northern Regions" Essays on Canadian Writing 59 (Fall 1996): 5-25. 112 Other examples include Stefansson's My Life with the Eskimo (1913), The Friendly Arctic: TheStoryof Five Years in Polar Regions (1921), and Hunters of the Great North (1923). 113 Writers drawn to the Klondike include Canadians Robert W. Service and Warburton Pike, as well as the American novelist Jack London. Another author is James Oliver Curwood, also an American, who, aside from his novels on the North, was hired by the federal immigration department to help the Canadian government attracting settlers in the northern regions of the country. As for filmmakers, the most noteworthy example is the Canadian producer Ernest Shipman. For a complete account of literature see chapter 5 "Fictions of North" of Grace, Canada and the Idea of North, 168-225. 114 See chapter 9 "Canada: The Group of Seven, Tom Thomson, and Emily Carr" in Roald Nasgaard, The Mystic North: Symbolist Landscape Painting in Northern Europe and North America, 1890-1940 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984), 158-202. Furthermore, although their influence is sometimes hard to pinpoint precisely, the members of the Group of Seven inspired the next generation of Canadian painters through their works. Some members were also influential through their teachings, it is especially the case of James Edward Hervey MacDonald during his teaching appointment at the Ontario College of Art (1922- 1932). For more on MacDonald's influence as a professor see Bruce Whiteman, J.E.H. MacDonald (Kingston, Ontario: Quarry Press, 1995), 87-88. Arthur Lismer also worked at the Ontario College of Arts where he was vice-principal (1919-1927). However, his influence over the younger generations is more notable through his work as the Art Gallery of Toronto's educational supervisor (1927-1938), for which he 77 the northern wilderness became their major symbol and subject tied with their second main theme: Canadian nationalism. "Our art is founded on a long and growing love and understanding of the North," wrote Harris in 1929.'15 Recognized as a theosophist, Harris believed that:

The Canadian artist serves the spirit of his land and people. He is aware of the spiritual flow from the replenishing North and believes that this should ever shed clarity into the growing race of America and that this, working in creative individuals, will give rise to an art quite different from that of any European people. He believes in the power and the glory, for the North to him is a single, simple vision of high things and can, through its transmuting agency, shape our souls into its own spiritual expressiveness.116

The Group of Seven's theories were based on their conviction that the land was central to

Canadian development. In their first catalogue published in 1920, the Group of Seven wrote that they were all imbued with the idea that an "art must grow and flower in the land before the country will be a real home for its people."117 It is important to remember that at that time the painting of landscapes was fashionable in Europe under the general concept of romanticism and that Lawren Harris, for example, was inspired by the northern landscapes of Norwegian painter Harald Sohlberg. The members of the Group

achieved recognition due to his innovations in teaching art to children. For more on the subject see the on Arthur Lismer's ideas in education in Angela Nairne Grigor, Arthur Lismer, Visionary Art Educator (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002), 221-346. 115 Lawren Harris, "Revelation of Art in Canada" Canadian Theosophist 7.5 (1926): 85. Cited by Paul Hjartarson, "Of Inward Journeys and Interior Landscapes: Glenn Gould, Lawren Harris, and 'The Idea of North'," Essays on Canadian Writing 59 (Fall 1996): 70. 116 Lawren Harris, "Creative Art and Canada," in Yearbook of the Arts in Canada 1928-1929, ed. Bertram Brooker (Toronto: Macmillan, 1929), 184. 117 The Group of Seven, catalogue, Art Museum of Toronto, May 7-27, 1920 reproduced in Peter Mellen, The Group of Seven (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1970), 216. In the foreword to this catalogue, we also learn that the members of the Group of Seven agreed with A.E. Russell, the Irish writer, amateur painter and active member of the Irish nationalist movement, "that no country can ever hope to rise beyond a vulgar mediocrity where there is no unbounded confidence in what its humanity can do." They also share his opinion to the fact that "if a people do not believe they can equal or surpass the stature of any humanity which has been upon this world then they had better emigrate and become servants to some superior people." 78 of Seven traveled north, especially in the 1920s,118 to discover a sense of place and in doing so, to create the symbols for the Canadian nation. According to them, "the land made Canadians different, both from the colonial mother countries and from the people of the dominating neighbour to the south."119 Thus, the Group of Seven saw the northern

Canadian wilderness as a powerful symbol of a strong and sovereign country.120

However, as Northrop Frye "explained in respect to Canadian culture in general, the

Group were attempting to unite the political sense of unity with the imaginative and local sense of identity."121

As described throughout this chapter, the idea of North is a shared myth at the core of Canadian identity. To paraphrase Harold Innis, because of its geography, not in spite of it, the North has been a central theme in Canadian history, politics, literature, art, and popular culture.122 Consequently, it can only be logical to assume that this myth is also a recurring theme in Canadian art music. In fact, Canadian art music was often times associated with the idea of North. One great example is the fact that Lawren Harris'

118 The Group of Seven did not travel north together, but individually or in pairs. Here is a brief summary of their travels north: MacDonald: Rockies (1924-1930); Lismer: Rockies (1928); Harris: Jasper Park (1924), Rockies (1925-1928), Arctic (1930); and Jackson: Jasper Park (1914 and 1924), Arctic (1927 and 1930), Yellowknife and Great Slave Lake (1928). See Mellen, The Group of Seven, 204-215. 119 Line Reeh, "National Material, Modern Methods: The Group of Seven and English-Canadian Identity" in The Nordic Association for Canadian Studies Text Series vol 16, Rediscovering Canada - Image, Place, Text, ed. Gudrun Bjdrk Gudsteins (Reykjavik: Nordic Association for Canadian Studies & the Institute for Foreign Languages, University of Iceland, 2001), 91. 120 Since 1997, the Group of Seven has somewhat of a French-Canadian counterpart with the "Peintres de la Norditude." Its six companion painters (Bruno C6t6, Marcel Fecteau, Jacques Hubert, Paul Tex Lecor, St- Gilles, and Louis Tremblay) decided to create the "Fondation La Nortitude" in 2002, a foundation that safeguards the northern environment at the source of these painters' art: the Pare des Grands Jardins (Charlevoix, Quebec). But more than a contribution for the environment, the Peintres de la Norditude's hope is also to enrich the great Canadian tradition of landscape painting. See Brigitte Lacroix, "Les Peintres de la Norditude," Revue d'histoire de Charlevoix 59 (June 2008): 8-22; and Christian Harvey, "Les Grands- Jardins, territoire de creation des peintres de la Norditude," Revue d'histoire de Charlevoix 59 (June 2008): 6-7. 121 Davis, "Image as Identity: Aspects of Twentieth-Century Canadian Art," 232. 122 Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada: An Introduction to Canadian Economic History, 379. 79 painting Lake and Mountains (1928) was chosen by the Naxos recording company as the cover illustration for their CDs Introduction to Canadian Music (Figure 2-2).123

*,556171-2

Figure 2-2 Lawren S. Harris, Lake and Mountains (original in color) Reproduction of the Naxos CD cover Introduction to Canadian Music124

While it is easier to observe and understand the role and impact of literature and the visual arts, such as landscape art, within the northern Canadian discourse, Sherrill

123 This choice of Harris' Lake and Mountains for the cover of Naxos' Introduction to Canadian Music could be justified by the fact that this painting inspired Canadian composer Harry Freedman for Blue Mountain, the first movement of his orchestral composition entitled Images (1958), however, this work by Freedman is not included in the Naxos recording. 124 CD Cover to Introduction to Canadian Music (Scarborough, Ont.: Naxos 8.550171-2, 1996). Permission to reproduce this CD cover was granted by Naxos Canada. 80 Grace and Stefan Haag's study "From Landscape to Soundscape: The Northern Arts of

Canada" offers an interdisciplinary approach to the challenge of situating Canadian art music in a context of northern imagery and nationalist rhetoric by investigating ties between music and painting, poetry and installation art.125 After considering a number of

Canadian art works from all the disciplines above mentioned, with a sustained musical interest in Harry Freedman's Tableau for string orchestra (1952) and Images for orchestra

(1958), Violet Archer's Northern Landscape for mezzo and piano (1978), Diana

Mcintosh's Kiviuq, an Inuit Legend for narrator and orchestra (1985), and Alexina

Louie's Winter Music for viola and chamber ensemble (1989), Grace and Haag unanimously deduced: "When viewed in an inter-artistic context and with a northern topos as the unifying element, such compositions suggest not only that music is representational but that it can and does participate fully with the other arts in the cultural discourse of the nation."

Music is an artistic discipline which holds a powerful capacity to symbolize or signify, thus it ought to be seriously considered as a compelling means of expression in the performance of a national discourse. The idea of North has been largely presented as a pivotal concept that permeates the imagination of Canadians. Consequently, Canadian composers should not be considered as outsiders, but as active members of society, whose art contribute to enrich the collective vision and identity of a people, in the present case, as a northern one.

125 Sherrill Grace and Stefan Haag, "From Landscape to Soundscape: The Northern Arts in Canada," Mosaic 31, no. 2 (June 1998): 101-122. 126 Grace and Haag, "From Landscape to Soundscape: The Northern Arts in Canada," 118. 81 CHAPTER3

From Landscape to SoundScape

Art does not require a definition of purpose, but if it did, the place to begin might be the search for ways to express not the north, but the northern sensibility through a northern eye.

John Ralston Saul, Reflections of a Siamese Twin, 200

82 As illustrated in Chapter 2, the idea of North has been used by Canadians to both

define their national identity and promote national unity. Canadians have time and again

characterized themselves as a northern people in terms of geography, politics, literature,

art, and popular culture. This northern identity has also been a fundamental leitmotiv in

the field of music. In this area, the work of three musicians should be highlighted, as each

has 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). The purpose of this chapter

is to trace how this notion of Canada-as-North has developed within the discipline, as

well as outline the disparities and similarities between the four works, and consequently also these three musicians, to show how they inform the northern narrative in Canadian music.

Gould's Idea of North

With his ground-breaking work The Idea of North Glenn Gould certainly sets a

precedent for the Canadian northern discourse in music.1 Because he was born in 1932, the beginning of Gould's professional career coincided with the post Second World War

1 Several book chapters deal with the topic of Gould's inclination for the North. See Otto Friedrich, "The Idea of North," in Glenn Gould: A Life in Variations (Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1989), 173-206; Geoffrey Payzant, "Radio as Music," in Glenn Gould, Music & Mind (Toronto: Key Porter, 1992), 128- 139; and Kevin Bazzana, "Renaissance Man" in Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2003), 231-313. Gould's propensity towards the North also inspired many artists, most importantly an exhibition of new works by sculptors and painters inspired by Gould entitled The Idea of North and presented in New York in 1987 as well as a book containing works by various poets from around the world published in 2001, J. D. Smith, ed. Northern Music: Poems About and Inspired by Glenn Gould (Evanston 11.: John Gordon Burke Publisher, 2001). 83 period, a time of economic prosperity, national consciousness and great artistic development in Canada. As Bazzana points out:

The beginning of his [Gould's] professional career coincided with a period of great artistic ferment in Canada and the burgeoning of cultural institutions in which he found venues and support for his increasingly multifarious work. Economic prosperity and newly invigorated nationalistic sentiments combined to create widespread optimism about Canada's future as an independent nation of enormous potential rather than a colony. [...] These were fertile conditions for Canadian culture. The years from the Second World War to 1960 were a heady time for the younger Canadian artists who sought to move beyond the parochialism of the past toward a more personal and professional brand of art that was both distinctly Canadian and in touch with international movements.2

Thus Gould the pianist, but also Gould the thinker and recording specialist found great support for all the various mediums he mastered in the growing cultural institutions of this country.

A seminal work on the subject, Glenn Gould's Idea of North was commissioned as a centennial project for the CBC radio program "Ideas."3 For many, such as Peter

Dickinson, Paul Hjartarson, Kevin McNeilly, and Howard Fink, Gould's The Idea of

North has earned a quasi-iconic status.4 In the realm of radio, Gould's work is also admired and was influential in both Europe and North America. As an example, Klaus

Schoning, founder of the Studio of Acoustic Art of the German television and radio

2 Kevin Bazzana, Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2003), 116-117. See also pp. 43-44, where Bazanna describes the primitive state of musical life in Toronto when Gould was a young boy. 3 Interestingly, a television adaptation of The Idea of North was prepared in 1970 as a co-production of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the National Educational Television. It was aired on August 5, 1970. The radio program serves as the soundtrack to which images were added. Gould, who appears only at the beginning for a short introduction, was apparently satisfied with the production. See Bazzana, Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould, 297. 4 See Peter Dickinson, "Documenting 'North' in Canadian Poetry and Music," Essays on Canadian Writing 59 (Fall 1996): 105-122; Paul Hjartarson, "Of Inward Journeys and Interior Landscapes: Glenn Gould, Lawren Harris, and 'The Idea of North'," Essays on Canadian Writing 59 (Fall 1996): 65-86; Kevin McNeilly, "Listening, Nordicity, Community: Glenn Gould's 'The Idea of North'," Essays on Canadian Writing 59 (Fall 1996): 87-104; Howard Fink, "Glenn Gould's Idea of North: The Arctic Archetype and the Creation of a Syncretic Genre," Glenn Gould 3, no. 2 (Fall 1997): 35-42. 84 network Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne, believes Gould's Idea of North to be a

significant early specimen of this newer art form.5 First broadcast on December 28,1967,

this fifty-two minute radio documentary is not only the first of seven full-length

programmes in this radio genre, but also the first part of what Gould called his "Solitude

Trilogy," also comprising The Latecomers, a documentary about Newfoundland, the last province to enter Confederation, and Quiet in the Land, which examines Mennonite communities in Canada.6 The Idea of North is a mix of intercut interviews with five

participants, each of whom brings some personal experience of the North. These

individuals were anthropologist and geographer James Lotz, nurse Marianne Schroeder,

author Robert A.J. Phillips, sociologist Frank Vallee, and Wally V. Maclean, described

by Gould as both a pragmatic idealist and a disillusioned enthusiast. All interviews are

presented without the interviewer's voice.

Defining to what genre The Idea of North belongs, whether it is a radio documentary, a radio drama, or a composition, is difficult. The initial project presented to

Gould by Janet Somerville, producer of the Ideas series at CBC at the time, was in the form of a commission to produce a documentary about Canada's northern territories. The

Solitude Trilogy recording released in 1992 identifies the three works as sound documentaries.7 However, the generic category to which this work belongs is not so easily captured. For example, during a panel session dedicated to Gould's radio

5 See Fink, "Glenn Gould's Idea of North: The Arctic Archetype and the Creation of a Syncretic Genre," 35. 6 The Solitude Trilogy, almost became a quartet as shared by Gould in a letter dated July 4, 1978, to John Fraser, the Peking correspondent of the Globe and Mail from October 1977 to October 1979. This fourth work about China and political isolation would have been entitled The Last Puritans. However, it never went further than the project state. See John P.L Roberts and Ghyslaine Guertin, Glenn Gould: Selected Letters (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1992), 237. 7 Glenn Gould, "The Idea of North," in Solitude Trilogy, PSCD 2003-3 (Toronto: CBS Records, 1992). 85 documentaries held at the Glenn Gould Gathering, an international symposium presented

in Toronto in September 1999, Somerville described The Idea of North as a "sonar

mosaic" and admitted that at first she had difficulties with this new musical brand of

radio and with Gould's "brilliant aestheticism."8 Otto Friedrich, the first biographer of the

famous pianist, dismissed all possibilities of this work being any type of musical

composition: "Instead of composing a piece of verbal music, [...] Gould was simply

playing the role of editor, and succumbing, as editors often do, to the idea that what he

had edited has become his own creation."9 Others have embraced The Idea of North's

multiplicity of identities: for Geoffrey Payzant, it is a hybrid work mixing "music, drama

and several other strains, including essay, journalism, anthropology, ethics, social

commentary, contemporary history."10 Kevin Bazzana concurs by defining it as an effective combination of documentary, drama, and music.11 Bazzana then proceeds to give credit to Gould for creating a new genre - the contrapuntal radio documentary,

noting that, while based on a specific theme, it convincingly mixed music, sound effects, and spoken voices, to the extent that it should be considered an actual musical composition.12 For The Idea of North and his later contrapuntal radio documentaries,

Gould played with the discursive content of the interviews by editing, cutting and

rearranging the recorded excerpts. This caused great skepticism on Friedrich's part about the real musical nature and value of these radio documentaries at first, but he still acknowledged the pioneer work being done: "Gould was nonetheless the first

8 Kevin Bazzana, "Aspects of Glenn Gould: Glenn Gould and the Radio Documentaries," Glenn Gould 6, no. 2 (Fall 2000): 65. 9 Otto Friedrich, Glenn Gould: A Life and Variations (Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1989), 184. 10 Geoffrey Payzant, Glenn Gould, Music & Mind (Toronto: Key Porter, 1992), 131. 11 Kevin Bazzana, Glenn Gould: The Performer in the Work: A Study in Performance Practice (Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 301. 12 Ibid., 3. 86 professional musician to edit the tapes of spoken words as though they were the notes in a contrapuntal composition."13

Probably unintentionally, Gould fed the confusion about the identity of this work

by acknowledging that he was influenced by the CBC radio dramas of the 1940s and

1950s, but also asserting on many occasions that it was a musical composition in conformity to the standards of his day, i.e., partly analogous to works of musique concrete and electronic sounds, such as Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gesang der Junglinge

(1955-6), which incorporated a boy's voice.14 Arnold Schoenberg was certainly another significant influence on Gould's choice of musical techniques used in The Idea of North.

In a 1960 radio programme recorded during the Vancouver International Festival, he indicated his sustained interest in Schoenberg's spoken-word compositions.15 The first work of Schoenberg that comes to mind is his famous Pierrot lunaire op. 21, which uses the Sprechgesang technique. Perhaps Gould was also influenced by the work of Pierre

Schaeffer in acousmatics, in Paris, for Gould noted:

The whole idea of what music is has changed so much in the last five years. I feel something quite remarkable happening because I think that much of the new music has a lot to do with the spoken word, with the rhythms and patterns, the rise and fall and inclination, the ordering of phrase and regulation of cadence in human speech. I've been doing radio documentaries - taking, let us say, an interview like this one to the studio, on tape, and pulling on this phrase, and accentuating that one, and throwing some reverb in, and adding a compressor here and a filter there - it's unrealistic to think of that as anything but composition. It really is, in fact, composition. I think our whole notion of what music is has forever merged with all the sounds that are around us, everything that the environment makes available.16

13 Friedrich, Glenn Gould: A Life and Variations, 144. 14 See Howard Fink, "Glenn Gould's Idea of North: The Arctic Archetype and the Creation of a Syncretic Genre," Glenn Gould 3, no. 2 (Fall 1997): 38 and Bazzana, Glenn Gould: The Performer in the Work, 74. 15 See Fink, "Glenn Gould's Idea of North: The Arctic Archetype and the Creation of a Syncretic Genre," 38. 16 From "The Well-Tempered Listener" (telecast), CBC (March 22, 1970) cited in Payzant, Glenn Gould, Music & Mind, 130. For further information on Pierre Schaffer's work on acousmatics see Pierre Schaeffer, 87 Although the commission was to produce a radio-documentary, it is clear that

Gould conceived The Idea of North as a musical composition since he borrowed various

musical techniques that formed the basis of his "contrapuntal radio" program. Gould's

use of musically derived techniques is very straight forward: the prologue is a type of

trio-sonata with nurse Schroeder, sociologist Vallee, and government official Phillips as

treble instruments above a basso continuo, which in this case is the sound of the train

(present throughout most of the program and more apparently during a scene which seems to take place in a dining-car aboard a train), and finally the complex counterpoint

between the voices of the five participants is a type of fugue.17 Friedemann Sallis also

agrees that Gould's The Idea of North should be defined as a musical work: "North is a

polyphonic composition, performed directly to the audience via electronic media

(initially the radio and now on commercially available CDs)."18 Sallis adds that, in his view, part of the challenge in understanding this work is the absence of a score, "making the musical aspect of the work difficult to grasp both analytically and conceptually, a condition North shares with other types of twentieth-century music such as jazz and electro-acoustic music."19 As Bazzana accurately mentions, the difficulty in understanding all aspects of this work clearly also rests on the fact that it "obviously demanded a new kind of radio audience, closer to the audience of contemporary music

Traite des objets musicaux : essai interdisciplines (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1966); and Pierre Schaeffer, La musique concrete, Que sais-je? 1287 (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1967). 17 See Glenn Gould, liner notes to Glenn Gould, Solitude Trilogy (Toronto: CBC Records, 1992). Glenn Gould's fascination with listening to simultaneous conversations compelled him several times to visit a truck stop outside Toronto, where he used to sit by himself and eat, while listening to the various conversations swirling around him. 18 Friedemann Sallis, "Glenn Gould's Idea of North and the Production of Place in Music," Intersections 25, no. 1-2(2005): 116. 19 Ibid. 88 than news and entertainment."20 Granted, The Idea of North as well as Gould's subsequent radio documentaries are too complex to be completely grasped by the listener at a first hearing. But, according to a generally accepted principle in narrative theory, can one ever understand something as it unfolds, i.e., without knowledge of the end?

According to Bazzana, Gould "clearly thought of them [the radio documentaries] as works that would outlive their original function as radio specials and survive as recordings, to be enjoyed and studied like pieces of music."21

The general title Gould gave to this trilogy is, however, insightful as it highlights the concept of solitude, isolation, and aloneness as the leitmotiv or main subject that ties the three works together. Thus for Gould, the North has nothing to do with the latitudinal factor; it is not about a specific place, but about a particular experience that "takes place in solitude, outside the social and historical frameworks of art," as Markus Mantere points out. In the liner notes to the Solitude Trilogy, Gould candidly explains how the

North became a concept that permeated his whole aesthetic.

The north has fascinated me since childhood. In my school days, I used to pore over whichever maps of that region I could get my hands on, though I found it exceedingly difficult to remember whether Great Bear or Great Slave was farther north - and in the case you've had the same problem, it's Great Bear. The idea of the country intrigued me, but my notion of what it looked like was pretty much restricted to the romanticized, art-nouveau-tinged, Group of Seven paintings which, in my day, adorned virtually every second schoolroom, and which probably served as a pictorial introduction to the north for a great many people of my generation. A bit later on, I began to examine aerial photographs and to look through geological surveys, and came to realize that the north was possessed of qualities more elusive than even a magician like A. Y. Jackson could define with oils. At about this time, I made a few tentative forays into the north and began to make use of it, metaphorically, in my writing. There was a curious kind of literary fall-out there, as

20 Bazzana, Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould, 312. 21 Ibid. 22 Markus Mantere, "Northern Ways to Think About Music: Glenn Gould's Idea of North as an Aesthetic Category," Intersections 25/1-2 (2005): 92. 89 a matter of fact. When I went to the north, I had no intention of writing about it, or of referring to it, even parenthetically, in anything that I wrote. And yet, almost despite myself, I began to draw all sorts of metaphorical allusions based on what was really a very limited knowledge of the country and a very casual exposure to it. I found myself writing musical critiques, for instance, in which the north - the idea of north - began to serve as a foil for other ideas and values that seemed to me depressingly urban-oriented and spiritually limited thereby.23

From a childhood attraction to the North, Gould came to idealize Canada's North as an escape from our southern urban civilization. In a letter to anthropologist James Lotz, dated September 1,1967, Gould explains his intentions for The Idea of North project was to explore the impact of solitude and isolation on people who have experienced life in the

Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions.24 Clearly, for Gould it was an opportunity to explore that

"condition of solitude which is neither exclusive to the north nor the prerogative of those who go north but which does, perhaps, appear, with all its ramifications, a bit more clearly to those who have made, if only in their imagination, the journey north."25

Paul Hjartarson's article "Of Inward Journeys and Interior Landscapes: Glenn

Gould, Lawren Harris, and 'The Idea of North"' provides a clear comparative overview of Gould's and Harris' fascination with the North.26 Both artists were southerners born and raised in Toronto and they had a similar attraction to the North without any real experience of it. Also, their interest in the North was not about the geographical place; rather, both looked to the North as a transforming experience. As Hjartarson further

23 Glenn Gould, liner notes to Glenn Gould, Solitude Trilogy, (Toronto: CBS Records, 1992). Besides giving insight into Gould's psychology, this quotation additionally suggests that the fascination with the North was a shared experience of his generation ("the Group of Seven paintings in every second classroom"). 24 Glenn Gould, Glenn Gould: Selected Letters, eds. John P.L. Roberts and Ghyslaine Guertin (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1992), 105. 25 Gould, quoted in William Littler, "The Quest for Solitude" in Glenn Gould: By Himself and his Friends, ed. John McGreevy (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1983), 221. 26 Hjartarson, "Of Inward Journeys and Interior Landscapes: Glenn Gould, Lawren Harris, and 'The Idea of North'," 65-86. 90 points out, the difference, however, was that for Harris, a self-declared nationalist and theosophist, the "northern landscape was the source of Canadian culture and the gateway to higher spiritual truths."27 By contrast, Gould was not drawn to the North because of the landscape, but because it was a great image for the solitude and isolation he craved. He did not share Harris' beliefs and feelings on Canadian nationalism. In fact, when Ulla

Colgrass asked him in 1980 to share his thoughts on Canadian nationalism, he simply responded:

Well, this is the 'in' topic. I think it is rather silly. I really haven't much sympathy with barriers, maybe because I haven't found any objections to my own participation in the musical life of other countries. I think there are tremendous virtues within the country and I personally am more at home with the somewhat reserved, quieter Canadian spirit than with the more energetic American spirit, and being Canadian I therefore understand the wish to preserve it. But I don't think that you necessarily preserve it by keeping those who didn't happen to be born here out of the country.28

Furthermore, when questioned on whether he could identify any artistic elements that were uniquely Canadian he answered with his well-known sarcasm:

Except for Eskimo carvings? I don't know. I think that in Canadian films - not necessarily films of particular distinction - there is a kind of unwillingness to be embarrassed by the cliche, which I find to be less true in America. Maybe the trait is also Finlandish or Upper Voltaish [laughs], so I wouldn't be willing to say that it is specific to this country and no other. But one tends to look for distinctions between this country and the one south of the border, and I think this might be one and it is valuable29

According to Howard Fink, who authored the first comprehensive history of

American and Canadian radio drama,30 The Idea of North

27 Ibid., 66. 28 Ulla Colgrass, For the Love of Music: Interviews with Vila Colgrass (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1988), 81. The interview took place in 1980, but was published in 1988. 29 Ibid. 30 Howard Fink, "The Sponsor's v. the Nation's Choice: North American Radio Drama," in Radio Drama, ed. Peter Lewis (London & New York: Longman, 1981), 185-243. 91 [...] was clearly autobiographical for Gould, in the sense of playing out his own development: he abandoned the definition of himself as a stage performer, a definition forced on him by our urban civilization; he left the concert stage and turned inward, to the solitude of the studio, which led him to fulfill his urge to create by means of his contrapuntal documentaries.31

Markus Mantere concurs, adding that for Gould the North was a powerful allegory of his

philosophy about music and of the imperative necessities of artistic creation:

Gould cared not so much about the geography, history, population, or economy of the Canadian North, but rather about the symbolic and metaphorical meanings that the idea of North implied for him. The North, in his aesthetic thought, served from the very beginning as a metaphor for things Gould regarded as indispensable to his music-making: isolation, loneliness, and the idea of artistic creation as an activity taking place outside institutions, canons and conventions of the art-world.32

Gould's quest for solitude and especially his interest in the extreme psychological

archetype of the North - a powerful archetype in the Canadian psyche - is no accident

according to William Littler:

Being a loner, being self-absorbed, being a citizen of a country whose very history and geography have adopted isolation as a liturgical theme, he naturally gravitated toward subjects whose exploration would help him understand his own condition. For there is a sense in which all these documentaries are aspects of a portrait of Glenn Gould.33

Oddly enough, however, Gould never really went North. Even though he actually had taken the 1630-km train ride from Winnipeg to Fort Churchill in 1964, his fear of flying prevented him from experiencing a direct comprehensive view of

Canada's immense far-North. As he admits, despite his attraction towards that region, the North remained for him an imagined entity:

I've long been intrigued by that incredible tapestry of tundra and taiga which constitutes the Arctic and Sub-Arctic of our country. I've read about it, written

31 Fink, "Glenn Gould's Idea of North: The Arctic Archetype and the Creation of a Syncretic Genre," 37. 32 Mantere, "Northern Ways to Think About Music: Glenn Gould's Idea of North as an Aesthetic Category," 86. 33 Littler, "The Quest for Solitude," 220. 92 about it, and even pulled up my parka once, and gone there. Yet, like all but a very few Canadians, I've had no real experience of the North - I've remained, of necessity, an outsider. And the North has remained, for me, a convenient place to dream about, spin tall tales about and, in the end, avoid.34

Nonetheless, in an interview conducted by Jonathan Cott in 1974, Gould confessed his desire to be in the North for winter.35 During the same interview, Cott further suggested that Gould's feelings about solitude possibly came from the fact that he had a "Nordic temperament," which Gould acknowledged was certainly part of the answer.36

What still remains difficult to understand, however, is Gould's rather neurotic reaction to cold temperatures, one major aspect of life in the North. His close friend and collaborator, Leonard Bernstein, affectionately recalled: "As you know, Glenn had a 'cold complex.' He had a fur hat on all the time, several pairs of gloves and I don't know how many mufflers, and coat upon coat."37 Being aware of

Gould's "cold complex," Keith MacMillan remembered with amusement having lunch with Gould at the Royal York Hotel in the mid-1960s, shortly after Gould had returned from a drive through the North Shore country above Lake Superior.

Although MacMillan did not recall Gould mentioning any radio documentary, he admitted "it was a shock to experience such a wave of enthusiasm for the rugged

North emanating with such fervour from the most indoor person I have ever known!"38

34 Hjartarson, "Of Inward Journeys and Interior Landscapes: Glenn Gould, Lawren Harris, and 'The Idea of North'," 65. 35 Jonathan Cott, Conversations with Glenn Gould (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 104. 36 Ibid. 37 Leonard Bernstein, "The Truth about a Legend" in Glenn Gould: By Himself and his Friends, ed. John McGreevy (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1983), 20. 38 Keith MacMillan, "Me and Glenn Gould," Glenn Gould 8, no. 2 (Fall 2002): 63. 93 The fact that Gould preferred "northern climates to tepid ones" had profound implications for him on more than the climatic level.39 Bazzana effectively sums up how

Gould's musical and non-musical beliefs influenced his aesthetic philosophy with respect to his own performances and his preference among composers, genres, and works:

Some of the non-musical beliefs that directly influenced his preferences among composers and genres, as well as his performances, have already been discussed in the Gould literature: his placing of reason above sensuality; his anti-materialism; his belief that solitude, isolation, and anonymity are important prerequisites for creativity; his insistence that recording technology had important ethical implications. The influence of the Canadian North on his aesthetic has also been much discussed. Images of the Canadian North, as represented in, for example, the paintings of Canada's Group of Seven, influenced Gould from his youth, and he always strongly favoured Nordic attitudes and behaviour. His musical tastes leaned heavily towards the work of Nordic composers, and one might even make some connections between a Nordic outlook and certain characteristics of his style of performance: the importance of silence and repose; an openness and mystery in some of his slow-moving contrapuntal textures; a frequent reticent, brooding quality of emotion.40

The literature on Gould also offers many examples of his musical preferences being

"strongly influenced by northerliness."41 Interestingly, Gould's choice of repertoire and his opinion of composers were developed around the use of binary oppositions, namely

North versus South. Bazzana concurs by pointing out that "an idealist premise is apparent in many of his comments on repertoire, and he tended to divide composers into two camps according to their perceived sympathy with his standards."42 In fact, as a young musician Gould preferred complex and demanding music, music rigorously constructed and built on the omnipresence of variations, creating in turn a sense of profound unity.

He was interested in works that exhibited such features as contrapuntal, motivic, and

39 Richard Kostelanetz, "Glenn Gould: Back in the Electronic Age," in Glenn Gould: By Himself and his Friends, ed. John McGreevy (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1983), 138. 40 Bazzana, Glenn Gould: The Performer in the Work, 120. 41 Payzant, Glenn Gould, Music & Mind, 55. 42 Bazzana, Glenn Gould: The Performer in the Work, 32. 94 harmonic complexity, as well as twelve-tone works. By contrast, Gould had a great aversion for programmatic musical works, and compositions largely based on the idiomatic possibilities of a specific instrumentation or pure virtuosity and improvisation.

He also openly despised works contingent upon the theatrical interplay of divergent components, such as the soloist versus the orchestra in a concerto setting.43

Consequently, as Bazzana points out:

[...] he [Gould] was relatively uninterested in idiomatic keyboard music of many types: Couperin and Scarlatti, Debussy and Ravel, and those early modern composers (Bartok, Stravinsky, Prokofiev) who exploited the percussive possibilities of the piano. He was most notoriously disparaging about early- Romantic piano music: Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt. On many occasions he expressed a disdain for such 'resolutely and ostentatiously pianistic' music, which, in his view, was determined 'to flatter the resources of the keyboard' at the expense of the musical values he preferred. He accused these composers of 4fall[ing] into the trap of the instrument and forget [ing] the abstract world outside of it.'4

Thus Gould's appraisal of repertoire was strongly based on binary thinking.45 His reasoning was consistently influenced by simplistic binarisms such as German musical style versus Italian style, and North versus South. His Austro-German predilection corresponded in equal proportion to his lack of regard for French and Italian music. As

Payzant mentions: "He [Gould] is ill at ease with the passionate, sunny Mediterranean temperament in all its manifestations, but particularly the Spanish bullfight and the Italian opera. He thinks these depend equally upon herd responses to violent spectacle, and upon

43 Ibid., 33. 44 Ibid. See also Tim Page, "Glenn Gould in Conversation with Tim Page," in Glenn Gould Reader, ed. Tim Page (New York: Knopf, 1984), 453; and Vincent Tovell, "At Home with Glenn Gould: Gould in Conversation with Vincent Tovell," in The Art of Glenn Gould: Reflections of a Musical Genius, ed. John P.L. Roberts (Toronto: Malcolm Lester Books, 1999), 84-85. 45 See Bazzana, Glenn Gould: The Performer in the Work, 48. 95 flashy personal display."46 Gould explained in an interview with CBC television producer

Vincent Tovell that "the thing that is absolute anathema to me is Italian opera. I squirm

with Verdi and wriggle with Puccini. I'm intensely uncomfortable with this music."47

Gould justified his complete avoidance of French music, except for his own transcription of Ravel's La Valse and Debussy's Premiere Rhapsodie, by his "general francophobia."48

However, as asserted by Mantere, "the "Mediterranean" element that Gould so despised in Ravel and Debussy, is not geographically defined. It rather functions as a description for a group of stylistic criteria in his judgment of various works, even of music composed outside the actual geographical area to which the word "Mediterranean" refers.49

Friedrich also acknowledges this North - South axis in Gould's choice of repertoire to be performed and recorded:

Gould, with his Scottish origins, felt an almost mystical sense of that Canadian North and of its connections to the rest of the northern world. If you look at the globe from the North Pole rather than the Equator, Canada joins Russia, Scandinavia, Britain, and Germany on the peripheries of that frozen Mare Nostrum. This international idea of North was never fully articulated in Gould's writings, but it is hardly accidental that he not only loved Bach and Beethoven and Wagner but also recorded less universally admired Scandinavian composers like Grieg and Sibelius and even performed the music of the reclusive and eccentric Norwegian

46 Payzant, Glenn Gould, Music & Mind, 55. See also Glenn Gould, "Let's Ban Applause!" Musical America 82 (February 1962), 11. 47 Vincent Tovell, "At Home with Glenn Gould: Gould in Conversation with Vincent Tovell," in The Art of Glenn Gould: Reflections of a Musical Genius, ed. John P.L. Roberts (Toronto: Malcolm Lester Books, 1999), 87. See also Friedrich, Glenn Gould: A Life and Variations, 141. 48 Gould, Glenn Gould: Selected Letters, 216. Dated December 6, 1974, this letter was sent to Mrs. Sylvia Morris Hochberg, a fellow pianist who wished Gould recorded his transcription of Maurice Ravel's La Valse. In it Gould explains how he cleansed Ravel's score from unnecessary elements and made a few discreet alterations in voice-leading, for instance. 49 Markus Mantere, "Northern Ways to Think About Music: Glenn Gould's Idea of North as an Aesthetic Category," 95. According to Mantere, "the music of Mozart - a composer who, in Gould's mind, "died rather too late than too early" - is a case in point. For Gould, it represented a "pretension to self- sufficiency" and displays, in addition to its "totalitarian" homophonic style, "hedonistic" elements, which he abhorred. On a more detailed level, Mozart's sforzandi are, in Gould's eyes, musical representations of theatricality to which "my puritan soul strenuously objects." See also Bruno Monsaingeon, "Of Mozart and Related Matters: Glenn Gould in Conversation with Bruno Monsaingeon," in Glenn Gould Reader, ed. Tim Page (New York: Knopf, 1984), 32-43. 96 atonalist Fartein Valen. He thoroughly disapproved of the French, Debussy and Ravel, and he seems to have known very little of the great Italian opera composers.50

Another aspect of Gould's northern aesthetic resides in his actual piano playing.

Again Bazzana accurately sums up what Gould's "sound," his performance style, and his technical approach to the keyboard is all about:

There is a peculiar tension in Gould's non-legato playing that is compelling - that literally compels listening; often, indeed, that tension is more powerful and pregnant than the most sweeping legato, legato on the piano being more 'sonorous' but also more banal. Silence plays a crucial role in this perception. The background of silence, of stillness, is palpable 'between the cracks' in Gould's non-legato playing, especially in his super-slow performances; one 'hears' the open space surrounding the sounds. (Needless to say, I am not referring here to reverberation or hall ambiance.) Gould was not concerned that 'clarity could be an enemy of mystery'; in his non-legato playing, at least, clarity was in fact the source of mystery. Gould's was certainly a distinctive sort of piano poetry: no shimmering kaleidoscope of pedaled sonorities, but instead the bracing clarity of tones cleanly etched against a background of vast open spaces. (A poetry of the North, one is tempted to say.) 'Dehumanized' is not really an appropriate term for piano playing so personal, so deeply (albeit strangely) expressive. The exaggerating of lower parts in many Gould performances suggests an awareness that 'strong counter-signals' are needed to break conventional listening habits.51

If Gould's "sound" can be described as an allegory that symbolizes his whole philosophy about the North, then his northern aestheticism certainly has other aspects.

According to Payzant, Gould made a questionable equation between northerliness and morality:

50 Friedrich, Glenn Gould: A Life and Variations, 175. Gould's mother, Florence Gould (n6e Grieg) claimed a distant connection to composer Edward Grieg. See Friedrich, Glenn Gould: A Life and Variations, 13-14. Glenn Gould himself mentioned this connection in Glenn Gould, "Piano Music by Grieg and Bizet, With a Confidential Caution to Critics," in Glenn Gould Reader, ed. Tim Page, (New York: Knopf, 1984), 79. Moreover, in a letter to Ronald Wilford of Columbia Artists Management dated of June 8, 1971, Gould refers to Grieg's Piano Concerto in a minor as "Uncle Edvard's opus 16." See Glenn Gould, Glenn Gould: Selected Letters, John P.L. Roberts and Ghyslaine Guertin, eds. (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1992), 148-9. 51 Bazzana, Glenn Gould: The Performer in the Work, 227. See also Kevin Bazzana, David Dubai and George Steiner cited in Bazzana, Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould, 293. 97 He associates northerliness with moral rectitude, adherence to law (including the laws of God and counterpoint, and hence J.S. Bach), and blue-nosed Protestantism. In an article published in 1974 Gould hints that he equates 'separation from the world' with latitude: the higher the latitude the greater the degree of separation or isolation. It is possible to quote all his many remarks on these connections between North, solitude, the music he prefers, and the moral conduct he esteems.52

Nevertheless, it is clear that Gould associated his concept of the North with isolation, which is reflected in his choice of the studio environment for his Solitude Trilogy and indisputably the perfect medium for The Idea of North. Gould once said: "For every hour you spend in the company of other human beings you need X number of hours alone ... isolation is the indispensable component of human happiness."53 Consequently, his decision to retire from the stage at the age of thirty-one to focus on studio work - whether as a pianist or as a radio documentary producer - is an understandably logical decision for a northerner like him. As a result, Gould spent half of his professional career in isolation, away from the public eye, but still clearly present through the electronic media.

As previously mentioned, Littler referred to "the notion of isolation as a liturgical

Canadian theme, which in a sense makes Gould's preoccupation with solitude a validation of his citizenship. He was, in fact, quite at home in the country that Canadian hoboes familiarly refer to as Big Lonely."54 Paul Theberge concurs as he explains that the idiosyncratic theme of isolation permeating Gould's thought and lifestyle places him within this Canadian tradition.55 Moreover, Gould's conscious decision to isolate himself from direct contact with society to pursue a career in recording technology and media,

52 Payzant, Glenn Gould, Music & Mind, 55-56. The quotation Payzant refers to is found in Glenn Gould, "Glenn Gould Interviews Glenn Gould about Glenn Gould," High Fidelity Magazine 24, no.2 (February 1974), 77. No other comment corroborating this equation between northerliness and morality appears in both primary and secondary literature about Gould. 53 Glenn Gould, Glenn Gould: A Life in Pictures, ed. Tim Page (Toronto: Doubleday, 2002), 6. 54 Littler, "The Quest for Solitude," 222. 55 Paul Theberge, "Counterpoint: Glenn Gould & Marshall McLuhan," Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory 10 (Jan-Feb 1986), 124. 98 places him also within another Canadian tradition at the heart of Canadian intellectual history: communication technology. In Canada, just after the Second World War, "the history of communications and the psychological, social, political, and cultural effects of the mass media were hot topics in intellectual circles, subjects of scientific research as well as philosophical speculation, and Gould absorbed the theorizing no less enthusiastically than he took the machines themselves," notes Bazzana.56 Gould is without a doubt one of the first classical performers in history to have considered broadcasting and recording as more than just an extra form or extension of the concert venue; for him, the fascination encompassed both the mechanical and technical aspects of the electronic medium as well as its theoretical and philosophical significance. With his work and philosophical essays on recording, Gould must be included in a select group of

Canadian intellectuals who focused on this topic, such as media theorist Harold Innis, communication theorist Marshall McLuhan, the latter one whom he knew personally.

Gould's radio documentary The Idea of North is certainly a significant production linking concepts of the North with music. However, one important aspect of the work remains something of an enigma: the choice to end it with the last movement of Jean

Sibelius' Fifth Symphony in E flat major, opus 82. Payzant suggests that for Gould listening to this symphony was the musical equivalence of experiencing the rugged

56 Bazzana, Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould, 257-258. 57 See also Robert E. Babe, Canadian Communication Thought: Ten Foundational Writers (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000); Arthur Kroker, Technology and the Canadian Mind: Innis/McLuhan/Grant (Montreal: New World Perspectives, 1984); and Timothy S. Maloney, "Marshall McLuhan, Northrop Frye, and Glenn Gould: Three Canadian Legacies to the World of Ideas," Australian Canadian Studies: A Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ACS) 19, no. 2 (2001): 49-79. 99 northern Ontario terrain, where he traveled a few times and was inspired by the self- reliant people living in isolated communities.58

Gould's choice of recorded performance of Sibelius' symphony is also significant. He selected Herbert von Karajan's recording with the Berlin Philharmonic

Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon 415 107-2, February 1965). In his 1970 article "A

Desert Island Discography," Gould explains that Karajan's performance of the work strikes him

[...] as the ideal realization of Sibelius as a passionate but antisensual composer - precisely the dichotomy that endears the great Finn to me and that makes his scores, with their unique ability to ride out the more mundane ramifications of their material without embarrassment, the ideal backdrop for the transcendent regularity of isolation. (Besides, since I am an Arctic buff, my own notion of isolation involves, at the very least, a Helsinki-like latitude; the Aleutians, for example, would be quite acceptable, but if consigned to Devil's Island, I'd be the first prisoner to try an escape, swimming north.)59

It is also relevant that Sibelius has been widely recognized both in and outside

Scandinavia as having expressed something quintessential about the Nordic spirit in his music. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Sibelius became known as a national figure in the formation of a Finnish musical identity and in the emergence of a distinctively Nordic modernism in music. As Tomi Makela explains: "Elsewhere - in

England no less than in New England and Germany - he was widely thought to represent the nature and people of the North. Instead of being regarded as an individual artist on his

58 Payzant, Glenn Gould, Music & Mind, 55. Gould traveled a few times to Wawa where he liked to seclude himself to write or work on a project. Interestingly, this is in Wawa, more specifically in room 102 of the Wawa Motor Inn, that he wrote the script for The Idea of North. Unfortunately, after a visit in Wawa in August 2008, it was surprising and disappointing to find out that nobody in the small municipality, whether at the tourist information office or at the motel, knew anything about the solitary visitor. 59 Glenn Gould, "A Desert Island Discography" in The Glenn Gould Reader, ed. Tim Page (New York: Knopf, 1984), 438. 100 own terms, Sibelius attracted superficial nationalist headlines from an early stage."60

Similar assessments highlighting the unbreakable connection between Sibelius and

Finnish Nordic inspiration and expression can be found in the writings of American critic

Olin Downes as well as several other musicologists.61 Robert Layton has also convincingly commented on the importance of the northern landscape for Sibelius:

Sibelius's acutely developed [a] sense of identification with nature, and his preoccupation with myth, constitute both a unique strength and a profound limitation. For these preoccupations seem often to override his involvement in the human condition, except in so far as man's relationship with nature is concerned. The regional flavour of much of his art, the icy, northern intensity of his inspiration, often obscures its inner warmth; and yet the sense of nature's power, which is the theme of Tapiola and the Seventh Symphony, is a universal, not a regional, experience.62

Nevertheless, it is not out of the question to consider that in the context of the

Idea of North, Gould could have composed something himself or even selected a work by a Canadian composer.63 In an unscripted CBC radio conversation with Vincent Tovell, dating from 1960, Gould had already expressed his view on the subject:

Tovell: Some day, I hope, somebody's going to write some music that is right for our north country, in the sense in which Sibelius has been right for Finland. Do you know of any? Do you know...? Gould: No, not really. Harry Somers wrote a remarkably nice piece some years ago about the north country.... But... Sibelius is remarkably right for me. I play Sibelius a great deal when I'm up there in the country.

60 See Tomi Makela, "Sibelius and Germany: Wahrhaftigkeit Beyond Allnatur" in The Cambridge Companion to Sibelius, ed. Daniel M. Grimley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 173. 61 See Glenda D. Goss, Jean Sibelius and Olin Downes: Music, Friendship, Criticism (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1995), 39-121. See also Matti Huttunen, "The National Composer and the Idea of Finnishness: Sibelius and the Formation of Finnish Musical Style," in The Cambridge Companion to Sibelius, ed. Daniel M. Grimley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 7-21; and Daniel M. Grimley, "The Tone Poems: Genre, Landscape and Structural Perspective," in The Cambridge Companion to Sibelius, ed. Daniel M. Grimley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 95-116. 62 Robert Layton, Sibelius and His World (New York: Viking Press, 1970), 108-110. 63 Although Gould composed from early childhood to 1964, he never devoted himself to composition. His only notable work is a one-movement string quartet composed between 1953 and 1955. He did, however, write piano transcriptions of dramatic and orchestral music by Wagner and Ravel, such as Siegfried- Idyll from the former and La Valse from the latter. 101 Tovell: You do? Gould: Oh yes. Music like this. [Gould plays an extract of his piano transcription of the Symphony No.5 by Sibelius]64

Furthermore, when asked about his view of Canadian music in an interview conducted by

Toronto journalist Ulla Colgrass in 1981, Gould genuinely admitted that although he recorded one Canadian album in 1967, the same year as the Idea of North, he was not at all up-to-date on what Canadian composers were writing at that time.65 It is thus useful here to remember that, as indicated above, Gould was not concerned about the national or patriotic aspect of "the idea of North." In fact, in a short foreword to a 1977 CBC radio broadcast of Gould on Finnish composers Jean Sibelius and Aulis Sallinen, John P.L.

Roberts pointed out that Gould's curiosity and regard for the North largely exceeded the

Canadian borders. Accordingly, aside from Sibelius, he had a deep interest in the music of Fartein Valen (1887-1952) and Edward Grieg (1843-1907), both Norwegian composers.66

Consequently, for Gould, the North did not have exclusively Canadian nationalist implications; he saw it more as a circumpolar reality and a concept shared by other nations. For him, articulating the North implied a multiplicity of voices. Obviously, the concept of North in Gould's documentary is portrayed as a pluralistic notion, as seen, for example, in the fact that Gould edited the recorded comments of five participants about

64 Vincent Tovell, "At Home with Glenn Gould: Gould in Conversation with Vincent Tovell," in The Art of Glenn Gould: Reflections of a Musical Genius, ed. John P.L. Roberts (Toronto: Malcolm Lester Books, 1999), 88. Vincent Tovell was a CBC television producer and active in the Canadian cultural community. The work by Somers that Gould refers to is Harry Somers, North Country: Four Movements for String Orchestra (Toronto: BMI Canada, 1960). 65 See Colgrass, For the Love of Music: Interviews with Ulla Colgrass, 81. Gould's only Canadian recording is Glenn Gould, Canadian Music in the 20th Century. Morawetz, Fantasy in £>; Anhalt, Fantasia; and H&u, Variations pour piano (Toronto: CBS Masterworks, 1966-67). 66 John P.L. Roberts, ed. The Art of Glenn Gould: Reflections of a Musical Genius (Toronto: Malcolm Lester Books, 1999), 180-181. Gould's assessment of Fartein Valen's music is found in Gould, Glenn Gould: Selected Letters, 171. 102 their respective experiences of the North. But the most interesting aspect of this multiplicity of voices in Gould's Idea of North is the unbreakable link that ties the fragments of recorded interviews to their musical manipulation. Indeed, while analyzing the content of this documentary, isolating the text and the musical treatment becomes practically impossible in the end and not desirable at all, mainly because of the very nature of this work, which crosses boundaries. Finally, this intimate relationship between the recorded text and its musical treatment ultimately generates one last essential feature of Gould's Idea of North-, this work's ability to produce a sense of place. Howard Fink explains how Gould's work produces this through the combination of text and music:

This dramatic setting is reinforced throughout by the sounds of the train wheels and steam whistle: Gould referred to these sounds as his musical bassline - his basso continuo - but also as a major dramatic sound effect, which sets the scene in a moving train and maintains that scene throughout the piece. This locus-in-imagination is reinforced by the sounds of other passengers and in several scenes by dining-car sounds like rattling cutlery and crockery. Of course, this locus is not simply realistic: the listener - that silent newcomer - can be moved from mind to mind, place to place, and character to character, with an ease and speed available only to radio drama.67

Thus The Idea of North constructs an ephemeral sense of place, a "dramatic locus in imagination - the 'sense of area, the sense of space and proximity' - in which the voices do more than just articulate ideas, but become physical personae in a three-dimensional scene called up in the listener's mind."68 This ability to produce a sense of place is particularly interesting since research on this topic within the musical discipline has been very prolific in recent years.69 Therefore, the presence of this component in The Idea of

67 Fink, "Glenn Gould's Idea of North: The Arctic Archetype and the Creation of a Syncretic Genre," 40. 68 Ibid., 41. 69 Since the mid-1980s, the notion of place has received increasing consideration in the social sciences. Although it has always been a fundamental concept in ethnomusicology, place in relation to music has begun to inform historical and cultural studies in the field of musicology. Place can influence musical 103 North highlights once more the true avant-garde status of Gould, as well as his innovative and progressive approach.

To sum up, Glenn Gould, Canada's most renowned classical musician of the twentieth century, was the first Canadian musician to articulate a comprehensive discourse about the North. Although his Idea of North connects to the circumpolar reality because of the inner use of Sibelius' music, it should be regarded as an iconic work that portrays Canada's North as an escape from southern urban civilization, and as a place synonymous with solitude and isolation, in itself a powerful archetype of the Canadian psyche. Moreover, this study of the Idea of North shows that Gould's concept of North pervaded his whole aesthetic philosophy, a key element that, as a performer, immensely influenced both his choice of repertoire as well as his interpretative style. That aspect alone cannot be bypassed when studying the concept of North in Canadian music.

Accordingly, Gould ranked the music of the North at a higher level of artistic achievement than the music of the South. For him northern music was rigorously constructed, based on extensive development of musical materials, most often built on a contrapuntal or 12-tone treatment, not based on virtuosity, improvisation, or orchestration. In fact, he was the first Canadian musician to describe northern music, thus implicitly defining terms of reference for Canadian music. These include giving prominence to form and structure, being grounded in motivic development and reception and periodization, but foremost, it can have a great impact on fostering specific musical genres and styles. For example, see Andrew Leyshon, David Matless and George Revill, eds. The Place of Music (New York and London: Guilford Press, 1998). Examples of publications dealing with place and music include: Tia DeNora, Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna, 1792-1803 (Berkley and London: University of California Press, 1997); Fiona Kisby, ed. Music and Musicians in Renaissance Cities and Towns (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001); David B. Knight, Landscapes in Music: Space, Place, and Time in the World's Greatest Music (Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Ltd., 2006); Adam Krims, Music and Urban Geography (New York: Routledge, 2007). 104 showcasing harmonic complexity. But more than a mere description, this concept of northern music is also epitomized by Gould in his piano playing, typically non-legato, leading to a great clarity of tone and precision that leaves a significant place to silence and stillness. Clarity, silence, and stillness are three fundamental characteristic features of the North, and consequently of northern music as well, according to Gould.

Schafer's Music in the Cold

As argued in the previous chapter, Canada's northern landscape has fascinated visual artists such as the Group of Seven painters and became a defining characteristic of

Canadian identity. The same can be asserted about many Canadian composers. R. Murray

Schafer certainly takes the lead position as the most eloquent composer on the relevance of North in Canadian music.70 Besides his compositions, Schafer has made significant contributions to the humanities as a musicologist, writer, music educator, and finally also in the field of soundscape studies. The note he wrote about his 1973 composition

North/White,71 for full orchestra and snowmobile, is a convincing example that shows how, as an artist and scholar, he takes part in representing the Canadian northern identity:

The idea of North is a Canadian myth. Without a myth a nation dies. This piece is dedicated to the splendid and Indestructible idea of North.

Contrary to the last sentence of the program note, which is clearly more a hopeful statement rather than an affirmation, Schafer's concern with this work is about the

70 Mantere also refers to R. Murray Schafer as "the most articulate contemporary Canadian composer on the significance of the North in music." See Mantere, "Northern Ways to Think About Music," 89. 71 The orchestra consists of four flutes including piccolo, four oboes, four clarinets, four bassoons including contrabassoon, six French horns, four trumpets, four trombones, tuba, six percussionists, harp, piano, snowmobile, and strings (minimum 22 violin 1,20 violin II, 16 violas, 15 cellos, 10 double basses). 105 destruction of the northern wilderness and moreover the resulting annihilation of the power of the northern myth and all it represents for Canadians in terms of place and identity. Schafer fears that the integrity of the northern myth will be shattered by the ongoing industrialization of the North, musically symbolized by the addition of the snowmobile to the orchestra.

But more than the environment is being destroyed by these actions, for, just as the moon excursions destroyed the mythogenic power of the moon (it ceased to be poetry and became property), Canadians are about to be deprived of the 'idea of the North,' which is at the core of the Canadian identity. The North is a place of austerity, of spaciousness and loneliness; the North is pure; the North is temptationless. These qualities are forged into the mind of the Northerner; his temperament is synonymous with them.72

The importance of the North in Schafer's art opens up quite a fascinating parallel between him and Gould. Aside from the fact that both musicians were born in Ontario and studied piano with Chilean-Canadian pianist Alberto Guerrero at the Toronto

Conservatory of Music, they also shared many common beliefs.73 According to Angilette, one common conviction relates to the rethinking of the sociomusical model with its hierarchical status structures, traditional roles and pre-set parameters for performers, composers, and public, as well as an over-emphasis on the public concert hall, the ultimate centre of our conventional musical societies. "Gould was not alone in sounding death knells for the traditional sociomusical groups," said Angilette, "other Canadian musicians of note have expressed similar viewpoints (e.g. R. Murray Schafer commented that the composer's traditional role will no longer be needed in the future since the

72 R. Murray Schafer, On Canadian Music (Bancroft, Ontario: Arcana Editions, 1984), 62-63. 73 The Toronto Conservatory of Music is now known as the Royal Conservatory of Music, which includes the Glenn Gould School, an internationally recognized institution dedicated to the training of professional performers in classical music. 106 availability of mass repertoire through recording has changed musical society)."74

Accordingly, it seems fitting that the first Glenn Gould Prize in Music and

Communication was awarded to R. Murray Schafer.75

To add to this resemblance, it is crucial here to note that Gould's assessment of environmental sound is also similar to Schafer's view on the subject. Indeed, because of his remarkable work with radio and the recording media, Gould gained such credibility that he was asked to head the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.76 However, as

Angilette explains, Gould "declined this offer in order to continue a life of musical creation entrenched in technology and the use of environmental sound."77 The latter part of Angilette's statement might seem questionable, however, since as early as 1969 Gould expressed the opinion that music had "become inextricably connected with all the sounds of the environment."78 In fact, Gould seems to have been very interested in the work of

American composer and theorist John Cage (1912-1992) whose views of music as environment, such as his 1952 composition 4 '33, " had strong philosophical implications for the definition of music itself.79 This is also in accordance with Schafer's assessment

74 Elizabeth Angilette, Philosopher at the Keyboard: Glenn Gould(Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1992), 85. 75 The prize was established by the Glenn Gould Foundation in Toronto and was first awarded in 1987. Following the recommendation of an international jury, the prize is awarded every three years to a living individual who has made an exceptional contribution to music and to its communication to the public. Additional information can be found on the Glenn Gould Foundation website at www.glenngould.ca. 76 Robert Hurwitz relates: "His [Gould's] involvement with radio and television was so significant, in fact, that a few years ago Gould told me that he had been asked to head the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (he turned it down)." See Robert Hurwitz, "Towards a Contrapuntal Radio," in Glenn Gould by Himself and His Friends, ed. John McGreevy (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1983), 254. 77 Angilette, Philosopher at the Keyboard: Glenn Gould, 32-33. 78 Ibid. Angilette found this information in the media script of The Well-tempered Listener, Glenn Gould interviewed by C. Davis (1969) consulted at the Glenn Gould Collection of the National Library of Canada, Ottawa. 79 Aside from their great admiration of McLuhan, both Gould and Cage shared common beliefs such as the idea that speech and all sounds were valid as musical material. They also strongly questioned the established hierarchy between the role of composer, performer and audience as well as the classical canon 107 of environmental sound. In 1977, a decade after The Idea of North, Schafer published The

Tuning of the World in which he explained his theories in detail; for instance the idea that

the world is a macrocosmic musical composition and that environmental sounds are

symbolic and have referential meaning, rather than just being plain acoustical events.80

Finally, the resemblance between Gould and Schafer is particularly striking when comparing their views about the North. According to Mantere,

Gould's views of the North in music have peculiar similarities with those of other Canadian composers, notably R. Murray Schafer. Compare, for instance, Schafer's view of the purpose of art being 'to affect change in our existential condition' with Gould's oft-cited goal of art as the 'gradual, life-long construction of a state of wonder and serenity.' Both men also wished to do away with the distinction between life and art: Gould because of the artificiality of the canons and conventions and the emancipation of everyone's creative potential outside the art- institution; Schafer because he wanted to widen the concept of art to cover all human life.81

This affinity is especially noticeable in Schafer's manifesto, Music in the Cold82

In 1977, four years after his composition North/White, inspired by the rural environment of the Monteagle Valley (Ontario), Schafer pursued his work on the concept of North and published a poetic essay entitled Music in the Cold. Here is the genesis of that work in the words of the writer himself:

In 1975 I moved with my wife to an abandoned farm in south-central Ontario near Algonquin Park. This was a dramatic change of life for me. Not only was my income suddenly cut to about one third of what it had been in my university job, but the natural and social environment of my life changed completely. We began to raise a garden, failing the first year, but gradually becoming experienced enough to with all its implications. Finally, they both saw the ground-breaking effects of electronics in music, however on this subject their respective position differs, as Gould saw the recording medium as a way to fix musical interpretations while Cage saw it as a type of musical instrument. For more on the subject see Kevin Bazzana, Glenn Gould: The Performer in the Work, 74-79. 80 R Murray Schafer, The Tuning of the World (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977). 81 Mantere, "Northern Ways to Think About Music: Glenn Gould's Idea of North as an Aesthetic Category," 100. 82 R. Murray Schafer, Music in the Cold (Bancroft, Ontario: Arcana Editions, 1977). Music in the Cold was later published in On Canadian Music (Bancroft, Ontario: Arcana Editions, 1984), 64-74. 108 become almost completely self-sufficient in vegetables. We heated with wood, much of which we cut ourselves. We shared the fields and forest around the house with birds and wild animals, often not seeing people for days. The soundscape was ideal. The rhythms of this life were beginning to affect my musical thinking even though the influence was not yet precisely evident in the works I was writing. Music in the Cold was written as a kind of manifesto in advance of the work I knew would follow.83

Sherrill E. Grace describes Schafer's Music in the Cold as "a lyrical lament for a lost northern ideal and an aggressive political challenge to the status quo of 'slack-jawed indifference' and creeping Americanization"; it is a story "of a northern nation run amok by becoming its opposite: the South."84 Her assessment is quite accurate with the exception of her description of Schafer's work as a lament. Lament expresses sorrow or grief for something lost. Music in the Cold rather resembles a serious warning. Schafer himself explains his work the following way:

The basic argument of Music in the Cold is that culture is shaped by climate and geography, that as the product of a northern territory Canadian art has a wildness and vigour not evident in the hot-house effusions of more civilized centres. I tried to show that the essential difference between Canadian and European landscapes is that ours are not peoplescapes and that the viewpoint (i.e., the painter's position) of a Canadian landscape suggests hardship (cold, rough terrain, black flies, etc.). I tried to show how the real culture of the North is tough in this way, and that to appreciate it takes special techniques which are unknown to the aesthetes and hearties of hotter tropicalities.85

Thus, in this essay, Schafer clearly establishes, in his mind at least, a direct link between Canadian nordicity and music. So how should or does the North influence the music of Canadian composers? What are its musical repercussions? As a partial answer, here is an excerpt from the beginning of Schafer's essay that describes the northern

83 Ibid., 64. 84 Sherrill Grace and Stefan Haag, "From Landscape to Soundscape: The Northern Arts in Canada," Mosaic 31, no. 2 (June 1998): 137. 85 R. Murray Schafer, "Canadian Culture: Colonial Culture," in Canadian Music: Issues of Hegemony and Identity, eds. Beverley Diamond and Robert Witmer (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 1994), 224. 109 soundscape:

The snows came early this year. It is the beginning of a new ice age. The wind howls at our ears as we dig for wood in the snow, and I wonder what this will do for music? It'll toughen it up. It'll reduce it to the lean shape, maybe even bare bones. And its form will become clear as an icicle.

Northern geography is all form. Southern geography is colour and texture. A northern glacier is a brute form. A southern jungle is juicy. Between them, rolling masses become formal in winter and technicolour in summer as the claw of the arctic stretches south then leaps back to escape the flatulence of the tropics.

The art of the North is the art of restraint. The art of the South is the art of excess. [...]

The art of North is composed of tiny events magnified. Those accustomed to fat events that don't matter, or too many events, miss these details. To them the winter soundscape is 'silent' as snow is merely 'white.'86

This text, at least this portion, is all based on the binary opposition of

North/South. It thus brings us back to one of the essential characteristics of myths as described by Barry Cooper in the previous chapter: myths provide a meaning to explain what ties a group of people together, and they distinguish ourselves from the "other."

Schafer uses this structure of oppositions to establish boundaries between "us," the North, and the "other," the South. What is so ingenious about this text is that Schafer employs this comparative strategy to give a description of the northerner as opposed to the southerner and the northerner's art versus the southerner's art, and dramatically builds up

86 Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 64-65. 110 to a finale where the North would lose its identity because of a southern invasion (way of

life, values, etc). Shafer's binarisms can be illustrated in chart form:

North South

form colour and texture art of restraint art of excess tiny events magnified fat events

As already discussed at length, this binary opposition of North versus South at the core of

Schafer's manifesto strongly recalls some of Gould's aesthetic ideas and convictions. The fact that Schafer gives the "otherness" a north/south dimension is also typical of much of

Canadian nationalism, which rests on the idea that the United States is the "other." They do not have medicare, they bomb Iraq, they possess guns, etc.

The next part of Schafer's essay could be quickly summarized as his eulogy of the

Northerner. It is not about music at all, but about the wonderful attributes of the

Northerner's race:

I am a Northerner. With my axe I resist the environment, shape a log house, and cut firewood to warm it. The strident clap of my axe rings against the forest by day, And by night my fire plays tunes in the stove. I say prayers for the souls of the animals I eat. My heart is pure. My mind is as cool as an ice-box. 'And the cold of the forest will be in me until my extinction.'

The northern stretch in which I wander is nameless. Between me and the North Pole there may be a few dozen people. But I meet them rarely. Mostly I wander alone, occasionally talking to myself, making my peace with the northern lights and the deities.

Ill My landscape is not a peoplescape. I am afraid of people. My head is a thousand acres of wilderness. Behind my squinting eyes are tangled trees and rocks and streams, and at night my imagination howls with the wolves. To onlookers I remain impassive.

I am the unpainted observer in a Group of Seven painting, squatting behind the painter in the snow. I know the physical delights and discomforts of holding my position before the First Snow in Algoma or Above Lake Superior, and I know that what makes Harris or Thomson great painters is that they could hack it in the bush. I slap my hands together, partly in appreciation, partly to keep warm.

And so I remained for centuries. My life was simple. My artifacts were few.87

The first paragraph of this section, about the physically strong, pure-hearted, and composed Northerner, can easily be interpreted as a type of reference to William Hales

Hingston's and George Parkin's ideas about the Northern pure race, abridged in Carl

Berger's article The True North Strong and Freen On the other hand, Schafer's strong

Northerner resisting his hostile environment can also be seen as a reference to Margaret

on Atwood's concept of survival, a recurring theme omnipresent in Canadian literature. In addition, other comments in this section of the essay are also very interesting when considered within the Canadian northern narrative. First, Schafer talks about the aloneness of the Northerner: "my landscape is not a peoplescape," which draws a direct link to the concept of solitude permeating Glenn Gould's Idea of North. Then Schafer

87 Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 66. 88 Carl Berger, "The True North Strong and Free," in Nationalism in Canada, ed. Peter Russell (Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 1971), 3-26. 89 Margaret Atwood, Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (Toronto: House of Anansi Press Ltd., 1972), 32-33. According to Atwood, the central preoccupation in our poetry and fiction is survival or "la survivance," the main symbol for Canada, which is based on numerous instances of its occurrence in both French and English Canadian literature. For Atwood, survival is a multi-faceted and adaptable idea meaning bare survival as staying alive in a hostile environment, survival of a crisis or disaster, cultural survival, etc. 112 immediately winks at another icon perpetuating the Canadian northern image: the Group of Seven's paintings: "I am the unpainted observer in a Group of Seven painting."

Furthermore, with the assertion "I am a Northerner" Schafer identifies himself as part of the North. As such, he highlights the existence and importance of what Sherrill

Grace and Stefan Haag call Schafer's "northern triad of meaning - survival, soundscape, art:"90

With my axe I resist the environment, shape a log House, and cut firewood to warm it. The strident clap of my axe rings against the forest By day, and by night my fire plays tunes in the stove.91

Still according to Grace and Haag, in Music in the Cold, Schafer demonstrates that building an urban way of life in the North, on the model of southern cities, would completely shatter this environment, as survival would be replaced by a thriving economy and the soundscape would totally be substituted by urban sounds, ultimately leading to complete extinction.92 This potential extinction of the North due to a southern invasion is a powerful nationalist statement coming from Schafer, and is one aspect of

Music in the Cold that diverges from Gould's perspective. Contrary to Gould, the issue of

"Canadianism" has concerned Schafer throughout his life. His feelings on the topic were quite ambivalent, but he seems to have resolved the question with his soundscape theories. As Stephen Adams clarifies:

If the Canadian composer is prevented from expressing a simple nationalism, both by the problematic nature of the nation itself and by the international colour of current affairs, nothing prevents him from responding to his physical environment

90 Sherrill Grace and Stefan Haag. "From Landscape to Soundscape: The Northern Arts in Canada," Mosaic 31, no. 2 (June 1998): 116. 91 Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 66. 92 Sherrill Grace and Stefan Haag. "From Landscape to Soundscape: The Northern Arts in Canada," Mosaic 31, no. 2 (June 1998): 116. 113 without reference to political boundaries. [...] The right question is not whether Canadian composers are better than other, but what makes them different. The answer lies in the soundscape.93

According to Schafer, "if you are looking for Canadian identity in music, you have to ask yourself what we have in our total acoustic environment that makes us different from other people in the world."94 Therefore, Schafer's description of the northerner's music and environmental soundscape, found in his Music in the Cold, gives a good indication of what his concept of Canadian identity in music is all about, how it differs from "others" and ultimately what the music should sound like. The following chapter will draw extensively on Schafer's assertions about the North's music in order to identify in great detail specific aspects of the performance of North present in Canadian art music for solo voice.

Hatzis' Idea of Canada and Footprints in New Snow

The notions of Canadian nationalism and nordicity meet again later in the work of

Greek-Canadian composer Christos Hatzis, who was naturalized as a Canadian citizen in

1985. Accepting the invitation of CBC Radio documentary producer Steve Wadhams,

Hatzis became involved in a radio documentary/composition project that was to be a tribute commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of Glenn Gould's birth, as well as the tenth anniversary of his death. The new project would of course need to draw from

Gould's own contrapuntal radio documentaries, which, as Payzant mentioned in his 1992 book Glenn Gould, Music & Mind, "belong to a genre of which he can be said to be the

93 Stephen Adams, R. Murray Schafer (Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1983), 58-59. 94 From R. Murray Schafer, "Schafer Sees Music Reflecting Country's Characteristics" Music Scene 293 (Jan/Feb 1977): 6, quoted in Adams, R. Murray Schafer, 58. 114 inventor and, thus far, the only practitioner."95 This 1992 radio documentary/composition project was actually Hatzis' first attempt in the genre of soundscape composition. As he recalls, this "radio documentary/composition was titled The Idea of Canada, in reference to Glenn Gould's The Idea of North, but also to the fact that in mid-1992 the country's collective psyche was occupied by the Meech Lake Accord and the national referendum on the nature of Canada's Confederation that was soon to follow."96 Clearly, the parallel between the two works does not reside in the choice of topic since the only glimpse about the North is present in the third movement of Idea of Canada, "Northern Reflections," which contains a rather intriguing comment in relation to everything else found so far in the literature and art on the topic: "You have to go to the North before you can imagine the North." This isolated sentence is left unquestioned and, by the end of this movement, nothing more can be concluded on the subject. While this affirmation does not invalidate the whole concept of Canada-as-North, it does, however, expose its mythic qualities as a construct of mostly southern Canadians who only seldom have traveled to the North. The main resemblance between both radio documentaries actually resides in the contrapuntal treatment of the recorded interviews. Following Gould's work process, Hatzis and

Wadhams hand-picked individuals who were invited into CBC studios, where they were asked questions about their country. Throughout the work, the voices of six interviewees are presented as individual viewpoints and, in one section, four voices are amalgamated

95 Payzant, Glenn Gould, Music & Mind, 128. 96 Christos Hatzis, "77ie Idea of Canada: Conceptual and Creative Approaches to the Human Soundscape," http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/-hatzis/ (accessed October 31,2009). Hatzis is most likely meaning that Canadians were thinking about the failed Meech Lake Accord in the context of the Charlottetown one that was to follow. The Charlottetown Accord, submitted to a public referendum, was ultimately defeated in October 1992. 115 into a four-part fugal treatment inspired by Gould's Idea of North?1 While Hatzis thought that Gould's idea of people speaking in counterpoint was conceptually flawed, because according to him it could only result in semantic noise, the idea of textual counterpoint intrigued him as being pregnant with potential. While processing parallel layers of text seemed practically impossible for the brain, Hatzis saw the possibility of achieving this through the use of text-sound associations, a process reminiscent of the use of leitmotiv, in itself a method extensively discussed in music, particularly in regards to works by

Richard Wagner.

After some experimentation, Hatzis and Wadhams came to the realization that while the human brain could process a multiplicity of simultaneous musical lines, whether melodic or rhythmic, it could only handle a single line of text at a time.

Consequently, their solution was to bypass the issue by establishing a strong link between a musical sample and a short text, to the extent that after enough repetitions, the listener would immediately be able to connect the sole presentation of the musical excerpt or motif to its associated "hidden" text.98 To achieve this, Hatzis took advantage of one of the relatively new technologies available in the early 1990s: pitch-to-MIDI conversion, which allowed the conversion of spoken language into its MIDI "sound shadow."99 This technology was effective in capturing the rhythmic and melodic contour of a spoken text, its "prosody," permitting omission of the words and even the pitch content of the verbal

97 Ibid., 11. 98 Ibid., 10. 99 MIDI, which stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, is an industry-standard protocol for communication between electronic musical equipment like synthesizers, samplers, computers and other devices. The core function of the MIDI interface is to allow information describing musical performance (such as pitch, volume, vibrato, etc.) to be transmitted from one electronic device to another, to be either re­ created or manipulated to create new sounds. 116 utterance.100 Hatzis was amazed by the recognizable quality of the spoken language after its conversion into "sound shadow" and by the potential use of this technique. He explains:

In the second movement, for example, the phrase "Do you believe in Canada?" was transformed via this method into an electric guitar and big band sound sample which repeats together with the phrase for a while before it is introduced repeatedly on its own without its textual equivalent. During these latter repetitions, when the same voice goes on making other statements, the "Do you believe in Canada?" sound sample is juxtaposed against the newer statements, attributing the unique meaning to them, as if someone was actually interjecting by saying "Do you believe in Canada?" at that point. It is a case of juxtaposing a textual statement and a musical statement that has specific textual meaning, thus creating the textual counterpoint that Glenn Gould was after, but without multiple threads of text obscuring the meaning of each other, but rather applying semantically enriched sound comment on text and enriching the meaning of the text through this process. This technique of extrapolating prosody established a bridge between the purely textual and the purely musical aspects of the work and by establishing a continuum between the two, it prevented the music from devolving into a soundtrack to a documentary as opposed to a central contributor to the articulation of the work's structure.101

Three years later, commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Ontario Arts Council, Christos Hatzis composed his radio documentary Footprints in

New Snow.102 He was still following in Gould's footsteps, however this time with an actual northern thematic content, since the basic framework of this recording is the representation of Nunavut, the new homeland of the Inuit people.103 Hatzis took for his work the title given to the first policy paper of the Nunavut Implementation Commission, which described the commission's vision for this new territory as a political, social, and cultural entity.

100 Christos Hatzis, "The Idea of Canada: Conceptual and Creative Approaches to the Human Soundscape," http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/-hatzis/ (accessed October 31,2009), 10. 101 Ibid. 102 Footprints in New Snow was awarded the 1996 Prix Italia Special Prize in the Radio Music category (Hatzis is the first Canadian composer to receive this international broadcasting award) and the 1998 Prix Bohemia Radio Special Prize. 103 Nunavut (the Inuktitut word for "our land") came into being on April 1, 1999. 117 Contrary to Gould, Hatzis experienced the real North as he collected the recorded materials for Footprints in New Snow, his third work in a series of compositions inspired by Inuit culture created between 1994 and 1997.104 Hatzis traveled to Iqaluit and Cape

Dorset in June 1995 to record throat singing, which is the connecting element between the sections of this work, as well as interviews with four members of the community along with samples of the environmental soundscape of the North.105

Hatzis is very articulate when it comes to defining the specific category of work to which Footsteps in New Snow belongs. It is not a documentary about throat singing

(katajjaq), although the general structure of the work belongs to this category, but rather

Hatzis' creative response to this genre.106 As he explains: "the creative and technical challenge for the composer in such a work is to constantly keep in mind that the work itself has an amphibian existence and it has to exist naturally and meaningfully in both of its habitats: the realm of musical composition and that of radio documentary."107 As

Hatzis further points out:

There was no doubt in my mind that, under the best of circumstances, the end result of this project would be a personal statement, a southern Canadian's view of the north and its culture. This view would be expressed both musically and literally. The challenge of creating a composition, which was structurally coherent according

104 It follows Nunavut (1994) for string quartet and tape, renamed String Quartet no. 1 (The Awakening), and Hunter's Dream for flute sample and tape (1995). Interestingly, in Nunavut, Hatzis combines the sounds of locomotive engines and trains, which have a personal reference to his own childhood as he traveled with his father, a railway engineer, aboard steam engines. This could be seen as an important reference to the train in Gould's Idea of North, since Hatzis conceives the train as a unifying element in Canada. 105 The throat singers included two high school students, Angela Atagootak and Pauline Kyak; two professional singers: Elisha Kilabuk and Koomoo Noveyak; and four elders: Eligah Maggitak, Napachie Pootoogook, Timagiak Petautassie and Haunak Mikigak. The interviews were conducted with Elisapee Davidee (the communications liaison of the Nunavut Implementation Commission), Jonah Kelly (a broadcaster), Winston White (a broadcaster with CBC North), and Bishop Robert Williams (of the Anglican church of the Northwest Territories). 106 Christos Hatzis, "The Idea of Canada: Conceptual and Creative Approaches to the Human Soundscape," http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/-hatzis/ (accessed October 31,2009), 15. 107 Ibid., 16. 118 to musical and documentary criteria, had been already taken on by Glenn Gould, the great Canadian pianist, in his groundbreaking trilogy of radio documentaries called The Idea of North, which he produced for CBC Radio. I, too, had experimented with this amphibian art form in The Idea of Canada in 1992, also for CBC Radio. 108

However, Hatzis argues that his hybrid work Footprints in New Snow had to be original and based on a new approach if he wanted to distinguish his new work from the numerous recordings of throat singing and various productions already available depicting the Inuit culture.109 He felt that his goal of combining northern cultural elements in a hybrid work mixing documentary with pure artistic creation, although an innovative endeavour, would be seen as highly contentious, mainly due to moral and aesthetic considerations arising from the use and manipulation of aboriginal sonic material.110

Footprints in New Snow is divided into six sections made up of throat singing, excerpts of interviews, and recorded environmental sounds, as well as synthesized sounds.111 Hatzis' note accompanying the CD reveals his overall concept for this work, and demonstrates how all these recorded excerpts collide together to reproduce what

Canada's North sounds like according to him, and to carry the listener through a journey

North:

I hope the music and its ability to transport and engage the imagination will take you to Canada's north, the stark, clear and limitless vistas of the arctic, and let you experience a society in transformation, one which has managed to strike a balance between wisdom of the past with the vision of a future.112

108 Christos Hatzis, "Footprints in New Snow: Postmodernism or Cultural Appropriation?," http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~hatzis/ (accessed October 31,2009), 5. 109 Ibid., 3. 110 Ibid. 111 The movements of Footsteps in New Snow are : (1) Welcoming Song (2' 13"), (2) Winds of Change (6'00"), (3) Voices of the Land (6'35"), (4) Katajjaq (9'03"), (5) In the Name of God (5'34"), and (6) Footprints in New Snow (8'44"). 112 Liner notes to Christos Hatzis, Footprints in New Snow (Toronto: CBC Records/Les Disques SRC 119 In Footsteps in New Snow, the first comment of great interest about the sound of the North is inserted into the second movement entitled Winds of Change. The remark relates to the fact that the first thing one notices about the North is the wind; whether a soft breeze or gust, the wind is everywhere in the North. The third movement, Voices of the Land, completes the description of what you hear, see, and smell in the North: you can smell the land (a combined aroma of flowers and lichens), you can see the expanse of the North (from any vantage point you witness the vastness of the landscape) and rock forms, but foremost, you can see the tempo of the North as seasons and days come and go quickly. Interestingly, this comment about the fast tempo of the North created by the quick pace of passing days and seasons found in this movement of Footsteps in New

Snow is somewhat in conflict with what Gould sees as the eternal unchanging North. This should probably be seen as an instance of reality versus myth since Hatzis actually flew to Baffin Island, to have a first-hand experience of Canada's arctic as well as to record environmental sounds, throat singing and the interviews with the leaders of the Inuit community. The voice of the interviewee for this second movement most likely belongs to Winston White, a broadcaster with CBC North. Whether it is he or not, none of the interviewees could really offer any scientifically grounded comment about the fast pace of changing seasons in the North. Additionally, no scientific literature or data is available on the subject. It all seems to be a matter of perception.

Footprints in New Snow also gives prominence to the people of the North who went from a traditional way of life to technology and modern things in the span of one lifetime. It also highlights how missionaries wanted the First Peoples of the North to

MVCD 1156-2, p2002), 1. 120 completely change their way of living, to put away things of their culture and thus lose part of their identity.113 However, the documentary is not a lament; it acknowledges what happened but does not blame the missionaries and other white Europeans for what they did.

The sixth and last movement ends this documentary on a very positive and hopeful note as the comment "Nunavut: our land" is stated many times, symbolically voicing the First Peoples' reclamation of their own place and traditions. The very evocative soundscape is composed of the sounds of people walking on hard snow, the sound of the wind, and women's laughter as they stop the throat singing. This part of the radio documentary composition is greatly informed by Hatzis' "desire to depict the vastness of the arctic north and the sense of suspended time one experiences there," which again shows the importance of the tempo component in this work, as well as a distinctive feature of the northern soundscape.114

Oddly enough, the strongest contribution of Footprints in New Snow seems to be its counterbalanced answer to the main critique addressed to Gould's Idea of North: the absence of native content. McNeilly notes that in Gould's version of the North, native concerns and issues are absent so that the region is transformed into a Utopian vision that leaves space only for the complacency of white, urban, and southern Canadian life:

Gould's five subjects, supposedly multiple voices representing the many divergent attitudes of typical Canadians, share much the same background and ideology: they are largely white, urban professionals. Standards of education and sophistication are those of the white, urban mainstream of Canadian civilization. There are no Native

113 Although missionaries primarily wanted to infuse the existing culture with Christianity, not to destroy it, Bishop Chris Williams from the Anglican cathedral in Iqaluit (whose comments are used in this movement) does state that in the first years missionaries judged quite severely anything considered remotely similar to shamanism. 114 Hatzis, "Footprints in New Snow: Postmodernism or Cultural Appropriation?," 17. 121 voices here; Gould appears deliberately to ignore the Native perspective, in as much as his own interest lies in exploring those very white, urban, middle-class, schoolboy imaginings of what the North means to him as such a Canadian.115

Janet Somerville voiced the same concern in regards to Gould's work during the "Glenn

Gould and the Radio Documentaries" session of the 1999 Glenn Gould Gathering.

I'm very conscious of what is not in North. Not one indigenous voice. Not one word in Innu [sic] or any of the aboriginal languages. Not one hint of the beginnings of the huge debate about the land claims and about the meaning of land claims and about the whole relationship of the political life of the First Nations with the construct called "Canada," which was then already growing. I mean, the leaders who gave it its present shape were already doing their first work, and Mel Watkins' graduate students were already up there tracing hunting lines and trap lines and translating them into Western concepts of ownership and land rights. That whole enormous social debate was already beginning, but The Idea of North doesn't contain a hint of it. It's not about that at all: it's another kind of human enterprise.116

Additionally, while Hatzis addresses the issue of highlighting the presence of the First

Peoples in the Canadian northern discourse by giving them a prominent role in Footprints in New Snow, he is also the only one of these three artists who includes the French half of the Canadian solitudes in his work The Idea of Canada, by means of a recorded interview. However, it must be remembered that the verbal content for this work are the voices of Canadians speaking about what Canada means to them, it is not about the idea of North. Consequently, this representation of the French-Canadian in The Idea of

Canada does not have any direct implication on the Canadian northern discourse.

However, the fact that the French-Canadian perspective is not represented in the works of

Gould, Schafer, and in Hatzis' Footprints in New Snow should not be wrongly interpreted or seen as an omission. These works are in English and were created by English-speaking

115 Kevin McNeilly, "Listening, Nordicity, Community: Glenn Gould's 'The Idea of North'," Essays on Canadian Writing 59 (Fall 1996): 95. 116 Janet Somerville, quoted in Kevin Bazzana, "Aspects of Glenn Gould: Glenn Gould and the Radio Documentaries," Glenn Gould 6, no. 2 (Fall 2000): 65. 122 Canadians. In his book A Fair Country, John Ralston Saul illustrates with wit the heterogeneous state of Canadian literature, always divided by language.117 Even after 400 years, this country still functions in closed-language cultures, either English-Canadian or

French-Canadian. Taking literature as an example, Saul exposes how the likelihood of a common imagination is structurally inconceivable, since English-Canadian and French-

Canadian literature are never read nor studied in conjunction. By extension, what Saul proposes applies to the works of Gould, Schafer, and Hatzis. However, going back to the idea of colonialism, Canadians need to realize that this language division perpetuates the colonial old empires.

The contribution of French-Canadian musicians to the topic is absent so far. No

French-Canadian musician has produced a work equivalent to those of Gould, Schafer, or

Hatzis. The most plausible hypothesis to explain this absence is based on Jose Igartua's thesis118 that, largely located in the province of Quebec, French-Canadians did not experience the same type of national identity crisis as English-Canadians during the second half of the twentieth-century. While during the 1960s, Quebec was going through its quiet revolution characterized by citizens' claims to do away with Catholicism as the main referent of Quebec identity, which led to the rise of a viable separatist movement, simultaneously English-Canada was going through a quieter revolution of de- ethnicisation, where British referents, which occupied a dominant place in definitions of

English-Canadian identity, were also replaced. It is possible to speculate that, because

English-Canadians and Americans shared a common language and a type of secession

117 See Saul, A Fair Country, 235. 118 Josd Eduardo Igartua, The Other Quiet Revolution: National Identities in English Canada, 1945-71 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2006). 1-15. 123 from the British Empire, English-Canadians felt a stronger need to define a distinct non-

Americanized Canadian identity. Since national identities are shaped in the realm of public discourse and exist only to the extent that conceptions of it are voiced collectively, the "idea of North" became an important national identity referent in English-Canada, which needed to be represented, hence the work of artists like Gould, Schafer and Hatzis.

It is also worth mentioning that following the quieter English-Canadian revolution, many symbols of the old empire and Britishness were eliminated. Canada adopted its own flag on February 15,1965, with a new symbol that did not include the Union Jack. As well, on this path to national independence the country officially proclaimed O Canada its national anthem on July 1st 1980. This same national anthem brings us back once more to the dichotomy between concepts of national identity as portrayed in the two sets of lyrics, which differ greatly from one official language to the other, and solely celebrate

Canada as the true North strong and free in the English version.

Perhaps Hatzis' position in this northern discourse is different from Gould's and

Schafer's because he is the only immigrant of the three, (and furthermore an immigrant from Greece, a Southern thus lazy country according to Gould's standards). Being an outsider, Hatzis could possibly have a more objective view of the structure of Canada, which would explain his inclusive approach towards First Peoples and French-Canadians.

Schafer and Gould on the other hand are both products of Canada's dominant Anglo society, even if they do not seem to be consciously aware of that heritage and its influence. Perhaps Hatzis' perspective is also distinct from Gould's and Schafer's because he is the only one of the three who actually went North. Gould did not venture beyond Fort Churchill and it seems that Schafer never traveled to the far North either, his

124 experience of that region being apparently limited to flying over Greenland and the North on his way back from Europe.119 Perhaps he and Gould were afraid of shattering their idealistic myths by actually traveling there.

In retrospect, it becomes obvious that the northern Canadian identity as well as the northern Canadian territories and people are not truly and completely documented in

Gould's Idea of North, Schafer's Music in the Cold, or Hatzis' Idea of Canada and

Footprints in New Snow. But it should be remembered that the purpose of these works is not to reflect reality; they are works of art that take part in the discursive representation of

North, not scientific scholarly works on the subject presenting verifiable data

Nevertheless, this northern geographic space and its soundscape are both described at length in Schafer's text while also being evoked in the radio documentaries through the combination of sounds, the manipulation of voices, whether spoken or sung, and the reciprocal influence between all the various musical elements and the semantic content of the text. The challenge now consists in identifying if and how these works of Gould,

Schafer, and Hatzis inform the music of other Canadians. The four works studied in this chapter share many common characteristics in regards to the musical description of the

North. In the next chapter we will observe the extent to which they are being echoed in the Canadian art music repertoire and how the various musical components, such as pitch content, duration, phrasing, tempo, dynamics, etc., interplay to enrich, in music, the

Canadian northern discourse.

119 In the note accompanying the score of Snowforms, composed in 1983, Schafer relates: "In 1971 I flew the polar route from Europe to Vancouver over Greenland. Clear weather provided an excellent opportunity to study the forms of that spectacular and terrifying geography. Immediately I had an idea for a symphonic work in which sustained bulks of sound would be fractured by occasional splinters of colour. The work that resulted was the orchestral composition North-White." See R. Murray Schafer, Snowforms (Indian River, Ontario: Arcana Editions, 1983), 1. 125 CHAPTER 4

The Sound of North in Canadian Vocal Repertoire

But it is with human beings as with birds: the creative instinct has a great deal to do with the assertion of territorial rights.

Northrop Frye, The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian Imagination.

126 The sound of the North is a component of the Canadian collective myth of

Canada-as-North. It may be possible to hear elements that suggest a northern identity, whether in a Canadian musical work or in a work by a composer from another Nordic country. This chapter takes for point of departure Sherrill E. Grace's theoretical framework, from her remarkable book Canada and the Idea of North, that nordicity is a distinctive trait of Canada's culture, especially in the arts and notably in music.1

Canadian "classical" composers are part of a long tradition of southern Canadian activists, artists and scholars who contributed to this idea of Canada-as-North. The music of our composers is enlisted in the search for national identity, whether or not these composers were aiming "to represent the nation or to perform a northern identity" through their musical production.2 When interviewed by Gilles Potvin in 1980 for the fifth volume of the Anthology of Canadian Music, Quebecois composer Clermont Pepin

(1926-2006) was asked to explain how he conceived the role or the place of the creative musician in the province of Quebec or in the Canadian society at large. His response corroborates that artists do play an active role in society and that their art is a reflection, a mirror of the community to which they belong:

I would reply to that by saying that in every society the artist, whether he is a musician, composer, painter or poet, is always a witness... a witness of the life around him... a witness of his environment... whether it be the human environment or the sonic environment. The artist is a witness... and he delivers to his people, the citizens, or his public, a reflection of what that public lives, of the environment in which it lives or the citizens live. Very often, of course, the citizens, the public, don't recognize the messages that are sent [.. .]3

1 Grace, Canada and The Idea of North, 124-140. 2 Ibid., 125. 3 From the liner notes of Clermont P^pin, Anthology of Canadian Music, vol. 5, Clermont P6pin. Radio Canada International, 1980.4 sound discs 33 1/3 rpm., 20. 127 Further on the subject, but from a scientist's point of view, Louis-Edmond Hamelin argues:

La musique du Canada comme pays froid - plusieurs compositeurs, notamment Murray Schafer, Harry Somers et John Weinzweig, alimentent nordiquement le Canadien SoundScape. En vue du centenaire de 1967, Glenn Gould cree The Idea of North, une oeuvre multimedia incorporant le temoignage de cinq nordistes. Dans l'ensemble, les productions musicales canadiennes portent une idee nationale, font 1'eloge de Yite du Nord, vehiculent un differentiel Nord-Sud et sont liees a la peinture, les ecritures et la chanson. L'experience emotive oriente les artistes vers un nouveau self.4

The most direct way in which composers can take part in the discursive formation of North is by choosing texts written about the North to use as song lyrics expressed by the human voice. As Grace suggests, composers can also try to capture the northern wilderness in the musical language itself, translating into music "the qualities of snow, ice, extremes of cold, isolation, space, silence, austere beauty, and dread - all qualities we experience as northern and uniquely Canadian."5 In his text Music in the Cold, extensively commented upon in the previous chapter, Murray Schafer also acknowledges the possibility of translating northern wilderness elements into music. However his basic argument goes beyond this possibility of musical illustration to the assertion that culture is shaped by climate and geography.6 Additionally, in his article "Canadian Culture,

Colonial Culture," he also recalls the story of how Istvan Anhalt, a Canadian composer who emigrated from Hungary in 1949, first became acquainted with Canadian musical

4 Louis-Edmond Hamelin, Discours du nord (Quebec: G6tic, University Laval, 2002), 37-38: "The music of Canada as a cold country - many composers, namely Murray Schafer, Harry Somers and John Weinzweig, nordically feed the Canadian SoundScape. In sight of the upcoming centenary of 1967, Glenn Gould creates The Idea of North, a multimedia work integrating the testimony of five nordists. As a whole, the Canadian musical productions carry a national idea, praise the ity of the North, convey a distinct North- South and are linked to painting, writings, and songs. The emotional experience directs the artists towards a new self." 5 Grace, Canada and The Idea of North, 125. 6 See Schafer, "Canadian Culture: Colonial Culture," 224. 128 style. When he settled in Canada, Anhalt wanted to discover his new country, so he

decided to take the train from Halifax to Montreal. The journey took him mainly through

the woods seeing nothing but trees, occasionally a gas station or a few houses, and then trees again. Apparently when Anhalt first heard the music of John Beckwith, he immediately remembered this railway excursion, while listening to repetitive ostinati followed by a sudden modulation, followed again by repetitions.7

Taking Schafer's comment that culture is shaped by climate and geography as a starting point while also acknowledging that Canada is northern, the stage is then set for the following investigation into how the North might be represented in Canadian vocal

music, how various aspects of performance can come into play in the case of musical

interpretation, and finally how this northernness can potentially be perceived by the

listener.

Selecting Musical Works: Defining Boundaries

At the beginning of this investigation, the boundaries which guided the choice of

musical works for this study need to be defined. The vocal repertoire used for this project

is limited to compositions for solo voice written by composers affiliated with the

Canadian Music Centre. 'Solo voice' implies a work written for one voice that must be

sung by a soloist either a cappella or accompanied by one or more instruments. By

limiting the repertoire to works of composers associated with the Canadian Music Centre,

this study complies with the Centre's definition of a "Canadian composer." Thus, a

"Canadian composer" is a practicing composer who is either a Canadian citizen or a

7 Ibid., 225. 129 landed immigrant and has achieved professional status in the field of concert music.

Furthermore, to be considered for membership as Associate composer of the Canadian

Music Centre, candidates are required to have independently written at least five works and to have had at least five professional performances or broadcasts of their compositions.8

Chosen Repertoire

After a thorough search of the Canadian Music Centre Library online catalogue and systematic browsing at both Prairie Region and BC Region Centres, 30 post-1950 works for solo voice were identified as pertaining to this "idea of North." The first criteria that helped narrowing down the repertoire list was the scoring for only one solo voice, leaving aside many works for more than one voice and works with choir.9 A score was mandatory for a composition to be included in this study; works only available in a recorded format were eliminated. Finally, folksong arrangements were also deleted from the potential catalogue as well as works intended for beginning singers or suited for young performers, like Jon Washburn's song "Snow, Steep" from his cycle Six

Songscapes for medium voice and piano. The resulting list of selected repertoire is found in Appendix B, which also provides dates for each composer, title of compositions and titles of songs within a cycle, authors' names, instrumentation, and the call number in order to find the scores at the Canadian Music Centre Library.

8 The following website address provides the criteria to become an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre: http://www.musiccentre.ca/abo.cfm?subsection=bec 9 This abundance of repertoire scored for more than one voice will be discussed further in the conclusive chapter. 130 Since a text chosen as song lyrics is the most obvious way a composition can take part in any discourse, in this case the discursive formation of North, it is quite relevant to notice that with the exception of seven works, the texts chosen by the 26 Canadian composers identified in this research were written by Canadian authors and poets.10 Four composers opted to write both the text and the music for their compositions; such is the case with Harry Somers (Evocations), Mark Mitchell ("Summer Evening Thunderstorm" from Season Songs), Brent Lee (Landscapes in a Luminous Night), and Richard

Henninger (Three Songs of Winter). R. Murray Schafer could also be added to this short list, as he wrote the text for his work Brebeuf, although it is strongly inspired by The

Jesuit Relations.n Another common trend, considering the relatively small number of selected works, is the fact that some composers chose poetry from their significant other: hence Maurice Dela selected poems from his wife (Simone Phaneuf), as did Robert

Fleming (Margaret Fleming), and Jean Papineau-Couture (Isabelle Papineau-Couture).

The texts used come from a wide range of historical periods, from an eighth-century author to today's contemporaries. Moreover, some composers, such as Mark Mitchell, selected poems by many different poets for one song cycle rather than poems by the same author. No one or two poets are particularly predominant. The only two recurring poets are Claire Pratt, in the works of Patricia Bloomfield-Holt and Euphrosyne Keefer, and

10 The seven exceptions are Archer's Songs of North, Burritt's Four Winter Haiku, Giron's Ten Songs, Komorous' Cold Mountain Songs, the last song of Mitchell's Seasons Songs, Ridout's The Seasons, and Somers' Twelve Miniatures. 11 The Jesuit Relations (1632-72), known as the Relations des Jesuites de la Nouvelle-France, are ethnographic chronicles written by Jesuit missionaries and sent yearly by the Canadian Jesuit mission to the Society of Jesus office in Paris to be printed. Since the Jesuits were enlisted in colonizing New France, they took on the task of systematically documenting the early history of French settlement in North America as well as their attempts to convert the native people, in the hope of gaining support in France for their mission. 131 Emile Nelligan, in the compositions by Jacques Hetu and Jean Coulthard.12 As well, only six of these works are on French texts. This follows proportionally the tendency already acknowledged in the literary aspect of Canada-as-North. The greater representation of

North in English-Canadian literature versus French-Canadian literature is similar in the realm of music.

Finally, one last general trend should be highlighted in terms of literary choices, which is the use of poems written in the haiku format. Four works fall into this category:

Lloyd Burritt's Four Winter Haiku, Patricia Bloomfield Holt's Polar Chrysalis: Ten

Haiku Poems, Euphrosyne Keefer's Polar Chrysalis, and Harry Somers' Twelve

Miniatures. A haiku is a type of very short Japanese poem, often about a subject in nature, and has three parts, and usually seventeen syllables. It can also be an imitation of this previous definition in another language.13 Harry Somers, who composed a cycle of songs based on haiku poems, said:

One of the great beauties of the haiku, which appealed to me, was that, like the Japanese ink drawings, they evoke an entire world of perception with only a few strokes. With haiku there are a few underlining principles by which this is achieved: for centuries the great creators of this form of poetry have made use of the association of ideas, the common experiences which reverberate on many levels of our conscious and sub-conscious selves, - a season as a time of life, as a memory, as an age, for example. Another important element is onomatopoeia, - using words whose sounds suggest what they represent.14

12 Jacques H&u and Jean Coulthard both selected Nelligan's poem Soir d'hiver. Another composer, Maurice Blackburn, also composed a work for solo voice and piano on the same poem. This work, composed in 1949, is listed in the CMC catalogue, however; it is not available for consultation. 13 The first Canadian to publish haiku was Jean-Aubert Loranger (1896-1942) with his book of Poemes in 1922. The second was Simone Routier (1901-1987) from Quebec, in her collection of poetry entitled L'lmmortel adolescent, in 1929. Credit for the first haiku book published in Canada after the war goes to Claire Pratt (1921-1995) with Haiku, first published in 1965 and later reprinted by the Haiku Society of Canada in 1979. 14 From the liner notes of Harry Somers, Anthology of Canadian Music, vol. 4, Harry Somers. Radio Canada International, 1980. 10 sound discs 33 1/3 rpm., 11. 132 The haiku is then a type of minimalist text well suited to the bare character imagined or

associated with the idea of North. In fact, this preference for the haiku corresponds to

many comments offered by Murray Schafer in his Music in the Cold, to the effect that the

music of the North is an art of restraint, an art of tiny events magnified, for which the

form or structure is simple and clear as an icicle.15 This description also seems like a

good definition for a haiku poem. Moreover, the idea of nature present in a haiku

coincides with the concept of North, another reason why this type of poetry is well suited

to Canadian vocal music based on the northern theme.

Chronology

Another insightful way of looking at the selected works is through a chronological perspective, decade by decade. Trends are then more easily identified and put into context. Appendix C offers a chronological overview of the selected works divided by decade, from the 1950s to 2000.

For the 1950s, the first decade of this survey, only two works were found. This is a small quantity taking into account the numerous extremely talented Canadian singers who established national and international careers for themselves during that decade, a decade that could be qualified as decas mirabilis. In his book Canadian Music of the

Twentieth-Century, George Proctor also acknowledges that a rather small number of solo songs were composed during that period in proportion to the large number of remarkable singers who emerged throughout that decade. According to him, composers seemed more

15 Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 64-65. 133 interested in experimenting with instrumental sonorities and with various combinations of

voices and instruments.16

However, as stressed throughout the previous chapters, this was the decade of changes, for instance, a new and stronger national mindset, new agencies for arts funding,

post-secondary level music education, the founding of important organizations such as

the Canadian Music Centre and the League of Composers, etc. Thus not all the

mechanisms were yet in place to document and more specifically to build a library of

scores that would hold the majority of works composed throughout that decade.

Referring again to Appendix C, it is striking to observe that, while works based on

French poetry are rare throughout the list, the group of works composed between 1950

and 1959 are all set to French poetry.

The 1960s saw a steady rise of national consciousness and recognition, which was especially marked in music by the celebrations of Canada's centennial in 1967. For the occasion, many compositions were commissioned from members of the Canadian League of Composers.17 Historically, national awareness or nationalism has been associated with

Romanticism, of which one of the main features is a fascination with nature. The

assertion of nationalism as one of Romanticism's key concepts was strongly inspired by the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and Johann Gottfried von Herder

(1744-1803), who argued in favour of the idealization of nature and of the people, "the

16 Proctor, Canadian Music of the Twentieth-Century, 87. 17 The list of works commissioned for the centennial year is published in a special issue of Musicanada. See "New Canadian Music Commissioned or Especially Written for the Canadian Centennial Year, 1967," Musicanada 7 (December 1967): 3-15. 134 folk."18 The Romantic period thus became focused on the development of national

folklore, traditions, and languages. During that era, this increasing interest in self-

determination of nations played an important role in art, namely in music, and political philosophy. Thus using elements of nature as a point of departure for a work of art is an aesthetic concept deeply associated with Romanticism. Consequently, it can be argued that the idea of North as a bonding element, a collective myth, is a nationalist romantic concept in itself. Thus, the growing number of vocal works based on this theme throughout the 1960s is in accordance with the witnessed growth of nationalism. Proctor concurs that nationalism has been prevalent in Canadian music after 1960, a period during which an increasing number of works were based on text, subjects, or extramusical concepts of Canadian nature, especially in connection to First Peoples.19

The last part of Proctor's argument is particularly fitting since one work from this period is centered on the figure of Jean de Brebeuf (1593-1649), a missionary in New France who lived among the Wendate/Huron and died after being captured and tortured by the

Iroquois.20

According to Proctor, however, this new national awareness did not bring the expected combination of Canadian vocal composition based on Canadian poetry. In his

18 See Grove Music Online, s.v. "Romanticism" (by Jim Samson), http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/2375 l?q=romanticism&hbutton_search. x=0&hbutton_search.y=0&hbutton_search=search&source=omo_t237&source=omo_gmo&source=omo_t 114&search=quick&pos=l&_start=l#firsthit / (accessed September 1,2010). See also Maurice Cranston, The Romantic Movement (Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1994) 1-47. 19 Proctor, Canadian Music of the Twentieth-Century, 176. For more on the subject, see Elaine Keillor, "The Emergence of Postcolonial Musical Expressions of Aboriginal Peoples within Canada," Cultural Studies 9, no. 1 (1995): 106-24. 20 During the search through the catalogue of the Canadian Music Centre Library, one other work post- 1950 based on the central figure of Brebeuf was found: Jean de Brebeuf, for bass and orchestra, composed by Paul Mclntyre (b. 1931) in 1962. The work was not added to the selected repertoire since the text used by Mclntyre only focuses on the religious aspect of Brebeuf s mission and life, to the point that this composition could be considered sacred music; there is no allusion to the natural environment. 135 opinion, the 1960s song texts were rarely Canadian due to two major reasons: copyrights issues preventing composers to freely use Canadian poetry and the sheer preference of many composers to select a subject matter from a distant time and place, with the exception of Harry Somers and Murray Schafer, who often wrote their own texts. Still, of the ten vocal works composed in the 1960s or 1970s, eight are musical settings of

Canadian poetry or texts. The exceptions are Somers' Twelve Miniatures, which are based on translations of the American author Harold G. Henderson (1889-1974), and

Lloyd Burritt's Four Winter Haiku based on translations of Asian authors.

As Proctor also accurately points out, since 1960 composers often showed a preference towards the experimentation with new sound materials (both acoustic and electronic), and for some composers an inclination to add a visual aspect to their compositions such as particular lighting effect, the synchronized display of slides, or movement, whether improvised or choreographed, of the performers on stage or in the concert venue.22 In the selected repertoire, this added visual dimension is particularly obvious in Lloyd Burritt's Four Winter Haiku (1969), for which the composer's performance directions read: "illuminate the Baritone's [sic.] face with a baby spot light.

Stage and hall total BLACKOUT during the performance. Try to avoid light spill from singer's face."23

In the realm of performance, it is worth pointing out that, while artists such as soprano Lois Marshall (1926-1997), contralto Maureen Forrester (1930-2010) and tenor

Jon Vickers (b.1926) were occasionally singing works by Canadian composers, during

21 ibid., 133. 22 Ibid, 178. 23 Lloyd Burritt, Four Winter Haiku (Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1969), 1. 136 the 1960s and 1970s two remarkable Canadian singers, soprano Mary Morrison (b. 1926) and mezzo-soprano Phyllis Mailing (1929-2004), were the first lyrical artists to establish considerable reputations for themselves owing to their specialization in the premiering and interpretation of Canadian works.

With ten works listed in the 1980s and eight in the 1990s, it is clear that the number of works based on the northern theme increased significantly over these two decades. Combined, they make up almost 60 per cent of the repertoire identified in this research. Interestingly as well, only one work is set to French poetry: Papineau-Couture's

1986 composition Nuit polaire (poetry by his wife Isabelle Papineau-Couture). Aside from the fact that almost all works of that period are set to English poetry, no other generalization can be made at this point, since all these compositions emanate from a variety of stylistic approaches.

Review of Literary Elements

One central approach to the study of the idea of North in the classical Canadian repertoire for solo voice lies in the recurrence of literary common themes. The selected repertoire for solo voice is pervaded by key northern subjects, such as silence, survival, wind, whiteness, and isolation. In 1983 Allison Mitcham published The Northern

Imagination: A Study of Northern Canadian Literature, listing all the various ways the

North is portrayed in Canadian literature. Because her survey includes both English and

French Canadian authors, it offers a comprehensive perspective on the topic of Canadian northern literature. Mitcham identified a total of nine categories:

137 1. Northern Utopia, working towards achieving an ideal, both physical and spiritual 2. Wild creatures, native people, and us 3. Northern mission: priest, parson, and prophet in the North 4. Northern towns - in contrast and in conflict with the land 5. Violence of isolation 6. Canadian Siberia 7. Gabrielle Roy' s northern innocents 8. Yves Theriault: The Conscience of Contemporary Canada 9. Margaret Atwood: Woman in the North24

With the exception of the last three categories, all these ways of conceiving the North are present in the repertoire studied. The absence of the last three is justified by the fact that the works of none of these authors are used as text for the selected repertoire. In order to provide a general overview, a table displaying the various links between the selected repertoire and Mitcham's classification of the representations of North in Canadian literature can be found in Appendix D. Margaret Atwood did bring this thematic argument further in Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature.25

Consisting in four lectures she delivered at Oxford University in the spring of 1991,

Atwood presents what she qualifies as excessive items found in Canadian literature, all relating to the North: (1) Concerning Franklin and his Gallant Crew, (2) The Grey Owl

Syndrome, (3) Eyes of Blood, Heart of Ice: The Wendigo, and (4) Linoleum Caves.26

However, the categories she created are not pertinent to the present discussion.

Because text used as song lyrics is such an important part of any vocal composition, it was fitting to decide on appropriate categories regarding the literary element, which apply in the context of this study. Mitcham's relevant categories were

24 Mitcham, The Northern Imagination, 5. 25 Margaret Atwood, Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature (Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). 26 Ibid., vii. 138 very useful as a starting point. Although her ideas are set forth in the context of novels, they apply equally well to poetry. As previously mentioned, the majority of her themes appear in the texts of the compositions selected for this study. However, some of

Mitcham's categories such as "Northern towns - in contrast and in conflict with the land" and "In search of the North: Grove's Canadian Siberia" were eliminated from the final classification. In each case only one composition presented these themes: Peter Hatch's setting of John Newlove's East From the Mountains for the former and Barbara

Pentland's Ice Age, based on a text by Dorothy Livesay, for the latter. Some additional categories became clear during the research, while other ones were partly inspired by

Atwood, Schafer, and Hatzis. This results in an original classification divided into 11 themes:

1. Northern Utopia 2. The Wild Creatures, the Native People and Us 3. Northern Mission 4. Isolation 5. Frozen Landscape 6. Huge Space 7. Snow 8. Nighttime 9. Luminous Landscape 10. Wind 11. Silence

Appendix E lists the works according to these themes. They shall now be adopted as the criteria through which the literary content of the chosen repertoire will be reviewed.

Consequently, what follows is a summary for each category, supported by precise examples from the repertoire list.

139 Recurrent Elements Illustrative of the North

In the northern Utopia thematic, the North symbolizes a vast and authentic, yet a simultaneously cold and terrifying source of pure delight and fascination in which the disillusioned soul can break free from the unbearable world it feels confined to or ambushed in. As further explained by Mitcham, in Canadian fiction, the North - a new

Utopia - repeatedly showcases the distinctive trait of being the last place in the Western world, let alone Canada, where an individual can aspire in finding his true self or achieving a personal dream.27 It is also important to bear in mind that, while the farther

North a protagonist goes, the better his likelihood of fulfilling his dream; the northern

Utopia does not necessarily imply actual northward travels, but can be attained through the imagination. As previously stated in chapter two, the North is often seen as an imaginary construct, not only a physical place. Furthermore, in keeping with the comments from the second chapter about the idea of North being used as a strategy for

English-Canada to assert its distinctiveness from the United States, Mitcham stresses that

"the force which several of our novelists find in strongest opposition to the Utopian northern dream is the American intrusion into Canada," an intrusion which irritates

Canadian authors as "American forays into Canada result in deconstruction of the natural environment and disruption of established patterns of life."28 This northern Utopia pervades the repertoire inasmuch as seven works pertain to this sub-category.

Mitcham's category named "The Wild Creatures, the Native People and Us" refers to the idea that animals and the native people are in tune with their natural environment. They live in harmony with nature as illustrated by the fact that they do not

27 Ibid., 17. 28 Ibid., 20. 140 kill for fun, unlike the "civilized" man who goes hunting for business or leisure. This

behavior of the southerners is severely judged in Dorothy Livesay's poem Ice Age, set to music by Barbara Pentland: "worse than an animal man tortures his prey."29

According to Mitcham, much of Canadian literature is based on the conflict

between the natural (the wild and the natives) and the artificial (the civilized), although a

representative of the First Nations occasionally acts as a guide for the white southerners.

The only parallel example in the selected repertoire is found in Schafer's Brebeuf, in which the missionary is escorted through the wilderness by a Wendate/Huron guide. This work is also the only composition of the list highlighting the presence of First Nations, in this case, the Wendate/Huron.

On the other hand, the wild animals are more often represented in the repertoire, perhaps because they are more likely to retain their wild essence and not be corrupted by civilization. Powerful reminders of the wilderness typical of the northern landscape, the northern breeds presented in Lorna Crozier's Study in White, set to music by Roberta

Stephens, are faced with the challenge of survival. In Crozier's text, "only those pale as winter"30 can survive. Whiteness, evoked by snow, becomes a useful survival tool for northern animals, such as the snowy owl, the silver fox, and the albino wolf, which can potentially hide from a predator because of their white fur or plumage. Here one cannot help but think about Margaret Atwood's 1972 Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian

Literature, with its excellent introduction on what is Canadian about Canadian literature, in which she identifies "Survival" as the central symbol of Canada and "winter" as its

29 Barbara Pentland, Ice Age (Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1986), 5. 30 Lorna Crozier, The Weather (Moose Jaw, SK: Coteau Books, 1983), 40. 141 true and only season.31 The idea of survival also connects to Schafer's Music in the Cold, since it is one essential element in his triad of meanings related to being a northerner.

Of all wild creatures, the loon is the most often represented animal in the selected repertoire, for a total of three works: Somer's Evocations, Archer's Northern Journey, and Leon Zuckert's Two Northern Nature Songs. Each composer's interpretation of the loon's song will be demonstrated in the analyses found in the remaining part of this chapter. Stressing the importance of the call of the loon in the Canadian soundscape,

Schafer identifies it as the most appropriate natural sound representative of the country. It is a sound typically and exclusively Canadian, that also feeds the national distinction with the American neighbours:

The loon is not a U.S. citizen; it does not pass the winter in Florida or Hawaii, nor is it heard in Brazil, Somalia or Korea. The call of the common loon is a truly uncounterfeiting and uncounterfeitable soundmark of Canada. It is recognized by all Canadians who have spent time at cottages or have undertaken canoe trips during summer months and belongs to that select class of natural utterances that once heard will never be forgotten. The call consists of two parts: a slow, hunting yodel and a maniacal laugh that can make a listener's hair stand on end by its suddenness and its resemblance to a woman's voice.32

Significantly, from the three examples listed above, the works by Somers and Zuckert focus on the first part of the call, while Archer's depiction centers on the second part.

The third category refers to what Mitcham calls "Northern Mission: Priest, Parson and Prophet in the North." If, according to Mitcham, the priest, the parson and the prophet lead the way in this northward journey undertaken by protagonists of contemporary Canadian novels, whether it is a character distinguished by courage and of outstanding achievement or one with less virtue, their presence is certainly not pervasive

31 Atwood, Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, 25-43, 49. 32 R. Murray Schafer, Voices of Tyranny: Temples of Silence (Indian River, Ontario: Arcana Editions, 1993), 83. 142 in the selected repertoire.33 No parson or prophet is found in the repertoire, only one missionary: Jean de Brebeuf, in Schafer's works, a cleric who seems particularly out of place in the daunting yet pure Canadian northern wilderness.

While not strictly connected to the concept of a northern mission as conceived by

Mitcham, it is worth mentioning that three other works have Christian connotations. One example is Archer's song "September Nativity" from the cycle Songs of North, in which the poem by Lisa Harbo features red high bush berries as a reminder of Christmas. The narrative voice in September Nativity further acknowledges that there is more in this northern landscape than just nature and human beings, but Christ is somehow hidden as well.

The high bush berries shine So red against a sea of leaves, Yellow and green. Brilliant as holly berries heralding Another season.

This is not winter. Yet, when I see them blaze so clear, It seems There must be some Christ hidden here. Not only you, and nature, and the fall.

The second example is John Burge's song Winter on a poem by Bliss Carman, in which the northern landscape at wintertime becomes analogous to a sanctuary. The poem features many words and concepts tied to Christianity, which have been underscored here to highlight their presence.

When winter comes along the river line And Earth has put away her green attire, With all the pomp of her autumnal pride,

31 Mitcham, The Northern Imagination, 33. 143 The world is made a sanctuary old, Where Gothic trees uphold the arch of gray, And gaunt stone fences on the ridge's crest Stand like carved screens before a crimson shrine. Showing the sunset glory through the chinks. There, like a nun with frosty breath, the soul. Uplift in adoration, sees the world Transfigured to a temple of her Lord: While down the soft blue-shadowed aisles of snow Night, like a sacristan with silent step, Passes to light the tapers of the stars.

The last example is found in "Kluane Glaciers," the concluding song of Archer's cycle

Northern Journey on a text by Inge Israel, which also explores vocabulary tied with

Christianity, such as penitence, confessor, devil, hell, and resurrection.

The fourth category regroups concepts associated with isolation. In the sixth chapter of her book, Mitcham points out that isolation in the wilderness is a common theme in recent French and English Canadian literature, an isolation that virtually always results into violence.34 According to her survey of Canadian literature, this violence is

usually the result of physical isolation within an overpowering natural habitat perceived

as inhospitable or caused by social isolation within this unwelcoming social

environment.35 Likewise, the concept identified as isolation, solitude, and aloneness is

strongly present in the repertoire, since 14 works convey it. However, contrary to

Mitcham's assertion, in the selected works the confining power of North never results in a build-up of emotional tensions leading to violence, it is rather seen as a positive experience such as the idea of solitude acknowledged and praised in Gould's northern aesthetic.

34 Ibid., 53. 35 iu:J 144 Aside from Mitcham's categories, the selected repertoire is also filled with other salient key subjects representative of the North, such as frozen landscape, huge space, snow, nighttime, and luminous landscape. Unsurprisingly, the northern landscape is represented as a frozen one in 11 works. Six works also portray the northern landscape as a huge bare space. One other essential element symbolizing the North is the presence of snow, whether snowflakes, falling snow, or snow that covers the land. Certainly due to its poetic potential in imaging the North and winter, 11 works showcase the word snow under many of its variations. As well, and this is not mentioned elsewhere as part of the common features found in Canadian northern literature, the North presented in the selected vocal repertoire is often associated with nighttime. In fact, 13 works depict the northern landscape at night. Perhaps there is a natural correlation between the white nothingness of the northern landscape and the experience of quiet nighttime, since much of the year in the North is nighttime. Perhaps as well, the nightscape allows us to see the northern lights and the luminous sky lightened by a multitude of stars, a vista that can be seen clearly because the northern landscape is a deserted place, without the light pollution produced by the towns and cities of the civilized South. Tied to this prominence of the northern nightscape is the concept of a luminous northern landscape illustrated by light refracting from the snow and the ice. Six works also embody this aspect of the northern scenery.

Two more categories should be added to this discussion about recurrent themes or elements illustrative of the North. Both categories inform how the northern soundscape is perceived in northern poetry, an important element considering that this literature is being set to music. The first of these two elements is wind, in all of its variations from a light

145 breeze to a violent blizzard. It is mentioned in 14 works. This is noteworthy especially as it corroborates the comments found in "Winds of Change," the second movement of

Hatzis' Footsteps in New Snow, about the fact that the first thing one notices about the

North is the omnipresence of the wind.

The second element in relation to the northern soundscape is silence, an extremely thought-provoking concept when considered in the realm of music. As many as 12 works out of 30 feature the concept of silence. John Luther Adams (b.1953), an American composer living in Alaska, has published some thought-provoking comments about silence in his recent book Winter Music.36 Inspired by Schafer's concept of the keynote, meaning the sonic background of a particular place and time, the sound against which all other sounds are perceived, Adams concluded:

The keynote of the northern interior is silence. The rivers are frozen much of the year. Snow mutes the land. And the wind is calm more often than not. With human and animal life spread sparsely over sprawling distances, sound is the exception. This pervasive stillness can attune the ear in extraordinary ways. As Schafer observes: "In the special darkness of the northern winter... the ear is super- sensitized and the air stands poised to beat with the subtle vibration of a strange tale or ethereal music." Listening carefully we realize (as John Cage reminded us) that silence doesn't literally exist. Still, silence is a powerful and mysterious sound image. And in a world going deaf amid a technological din, silence is a profound metaphor of the spirit. Much of Alaska is still filled with silence and one of the most pervasive arguments for the preservation of the original landscape here may be its spiritual value as a great reservoir of silence.37

If Alaska's landscape should be valued as "a great reservoir of silence," the metaphor of silence is exponentially far more powerful considering the vastness of the Canadian northern landscape.

36 John Luther Adams, Winter Music: Composing the North (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 2004). 37 Adams, Winter Music: Composing the North, 8-9. For further details on Schafer's keynote concept see R. Murray Schafer, The Tuning of the World (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977), 9-10. 146 This review of recurrent literary elements found in the selected repertoire logically unfolds into an examination of the music. The next section thus surveys the musical settings of these northern poems selected by Canadian composers. Consequently, what follows is a comprehensive musical analysis of the repertoire using musical criteria based on Schafer's concept of a northerner's music as presented in Music in the Cold.

Schafer's Music in the Cold as a Benchmark

As discussed earlier, in his 1977 nationalist manifesto Music in the Cold, Schafer clarifies his concept of representation in music, especially in the context of Canada-as-

North. There are clear links between his description of northern music in Music in the

Cold and his own music about the North. A careful study of some of his scores, namely

Brebeuf North White (1973) for orchestra, and Snowforms (1983) for SA choir, shows that Schafer seems to follow his own theories regarding the importance of form and the reduction of the material to a minimum, so tiny elements become magnified.38

For argument's sake, let us now turn to Schafer's only work for solo voice pertaining to the idea of North: Brebeuf, for baritone and full orchestra. In Schafer's most complete biography to date, Stephen Adams describes the context from which this composition emerged. After spending almost six years in Europe, Schafer's

[...] return to Canada is celebrated in a cantata for baritone and orchestra Brebeuf (1961), one of his few pieces on a self-consciously national theme, a sort of Canadian Erwartung that ranks with the best of his works. Brebeuf did not mean, however, that Schafer had become a nationalist composer. Soon after his return, he published in Tamarack Review 'The Limits of Nationalism in Canadian Music,' an article explaining reasons, musical and cultural, why the obvious avenues to a

38 Schafer has composed other works tied to the North or the northern landscape: Miniwanka (1973) for SATB or SSAA choir, Music for Wilderness Lake (1979) for 12 trombones, Once on a Windy Night (1995) for SATB choir, and Winter Solstice (2001) for TTBB or SATB choir are some examples. 147 national music are closed in Canada. The article was not Schafer's definitive statement, but seems more self-defense against Canadian pressures on his homecoming.39

According to the program note accompanying the score, Schafer was looking for a subject with Canadian feeling, his first attempt at tackling a Canadian theme. It was apparently Harry Somers who suggested the idea of Jean de Brebeuf to him when the two composers met in Paris sometime in I960.40 Schafer turned immediately to Brebeuf s own writings in volume 8 of the Jesuit Relations. This cantata corresponds to a snapshot in the life of Brebeuf: his first Canadian winter in 1625 followed by his entry into the land of the Wendate/Huron. The narrative is comprised of a spring canoe trip disrupted by dramatic hallucinatory episodes of Brebeuf s premonitions of his own martyrdom.

Brebeuf is an early work, which precedes Music in the Cold by about 16 years.

Despite this, it is worth looking more closely at this work because it shows many stylistic elements and connections to ideas later developed by Schafer in his famous manifesto.

The first element that is immediately noticeable is the choice of St-Jean de

Brebeuf as the sole character of this composition. Strongly prefiguring some of Schafer's later protagonists in his Patria cycle, Brebeuf is the perfect prototype of the idealistic solitary, a model often found in northern Canadian literature. The first strophe of the text conveys the aloneness of the missionary as well as many characteristic features of the

Canadian winter, with significant details about the landscape and indicators of the soundscape:

39 Stephen Adams, R. Murray Schafer (Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1983), 19. 40 R. Murray Schafer, Brebeuf (Bancroft, Ontario: Arcana Editions, 1981), i.

148 The winter will soon pass, and I look forward to the spring. But how the winter is cold in this new land: the lonely crystalline nights, the cruel wind, the ice, the snow, isolating one's thoughts.

With this work Schafer was trying to capture something of the mood of the

Canadian landscape. In fact, the cold and the impression of isolation caused by the

Canadian vastness, both experienced by Brebeuf, are really well depicted in this work. As

Adams describes:

Brebeuf s antagonists are not just the Indians, savages and mistrustful as they are, but also the Canadian vastness itself, cold and isolating. The brief first section represents Brebeuf s call: 'Last night in a dream I saw a great cross in the winter sky large enough to hold many people. I fell to my knees and prayed to God: 'What Lord would thou have me do?" Winter is suggested by glittering tremolo scales in the violins' highest register over sizzle cymbals, while the interlude leading to section II represents the 'sudden dramatic break-up of ice on the St Lawrence River' during the Canadian spring, which requires not 'a delicate flutter of sound' but a 'quite brutal strength.'4

The sound of the orchestration conveys cold, ice, and the crystalline nights through the use of bow tremolando in the extremely high register of the violins, the cold timbre of the piccolo, and finally the percussion section, with the metallic sound of rolled cymbals and tam-tam as well as the clear sound of the celesta. The cold Canadian vastness is especially well illustrated from mm. 98 to 104, where the baritone is singing accompanied by four solo cellos joined by the first violin section divided into six parts. In this passage, the cellos hold a static pianissimo dominant chord on B played with mutes in the low register, while the violin I section plays a high pianissimo tremolo chord becoming gradually louder and moving sul ponticello, which produces a harsher sound evocative of the biting cold (example 4-1). The wide distance between the two distinct

41 Ibid., 76. 149 registers, covered by the violin section on one side and the cellos on the other, contributes to create the effect of vastness of the landscape.

Example 4-1 Brebeuf, mm. 98-104

Voice

pot o u pa'

PP

div.

As mentioned earlier, Schafer argued that music of the North is all form, as opposed to colour and texture, and that it is an art of restraint and of tiny events magnified.42 His description does apply to Brebeuf, as follows. First, the text is divided into seventeen paragraphs, themselves regrouped in three sections: Winter near Kebec,

The Journey, and The Arrival. The longest section is the central one (The Journey), which is also divided into three sections. Each of these three subsections ends with a hallucinatory episode followed by an intense and loud orchestral interlude. What makes

42 Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 65. 150 the form less clear than an icicle, however, is that the musical textures as well as the

tempo changes are recurrent and irregular, with an abundance of accelerando and

ritardando markings, which Adams associates with Schafer's long-term attempt to

achieve the meterless idiom found in later works.43 Consequently Brebeuf although divided in a series of dramatic scenes, is given a sense of cohesion through the continuity of the text, the short and well managed orchestral transitions, and the "derivation of the musical material from a single cell of six notes."44

Indeed, this "single cell of six notes" is one of the really prominent elements of this work, which seems to belong to a type of free serialism. The six-note cell at the core of Brebeuf could be interpreted as an instance of Schafer's assertion about the art of

North as an art of tiny events magnified. All the material of Brebeuf is derived from this hexachord (C, D, E, F#, G, G#), first stated in the opening bar of the work (example 4-2), with the exception of the harp.

43 Stephen Adams, R. Murray Schafer, 77. 44 Ibid. 151 Example 4-2 Brebeuf, m. 1

i Ofceo,

Timpani

152 As it is the case in any serial work, this hexachord provides the essential material from which the melodic and harmonic contents of the works are drawn. In its original form (C,

D, E, F#, G, G#), this hexachord presents an almost tonal root, a heavily anchored sense of stability on C due to the presence of the C major triad within the hexachord. This impression is weakened by the presence of two tritones (C-F# and D-G#), but can also be seen as a C major triad superimposed by two major thirds (D-F# and E-G#) alluding to major triads on D and E.

One critical issue needs to be addressed at this point, as part of the preceding analysis could be contested. The fact that Schafer's Brebeuf, built on a hexachord, is

being interpreted as an instance of the composer's idea that a northerner's art is based on tiny events magnified could be considered a slightly dangerous example. One could equally argue that the young and largely self-taught Schafer was inspired by Schoenberg,

Berg, and Webern, and wanted to emulate them by experimenting with techniques they used.

It is clear that several features of analyses can be accounted for other reasons than the construction of a Canadian northern musical style. For example, the whole-tone scale, often used in the selected repertoire and interpreted as illustrative of a frozen landscape because of the absence of tension normally associated with another type of scale, such as the diatonic one, could be rather perceived as a conscious imitation of French style. For instance, the French composer Claude Debussy used whole-tone scales in his music, but never with the goal of portraying the cold or to show freezing. As well, certain features could also be accounted for as characteristic of a specific period.

153 While this fact alone could cast a shadow on Schafer's essentialist claims about the music of the North, because even if, as later demonstrated, Canadian composers seem to share Schafer's ideas, it is impossible to affirm that only musical works of Northerners bear these essential elements, they are not the sole privilege of or restricted to Canadian composers. These elements can still surely be identified as important characteristic features extensively present in Canadian music representing the northern landscape or the

"idea of North," and actively contribute toward a definition of northern music.

Furthermore, in the present context, e.g. vocal music, one crucial element must be asserted as a key starting point in interpreting the representation of North: the unbreakable link between words and music. Using landscape painting as an example, it is not so much what the landscape looks like, but how it is viewed and expressed by the painter. In vocal music, this analogy translates as: it is not only about the text and how this text is being set to music, but how it is imagined and conveyed musically by the composer.

Therefore, such a long description of Brebeuf was provided, first and foremost to showcase Schafer's own strategies on how the North affects the music, but also because it is Schafer's only work composed for solo voice that relates to the idea of North. By extension, it is interesting to observe that Schafer's concept of a northerner's music is also shared by other Canadian composers who selected the topic of North for some of their compositions for solo voice. This will be expanded upon in the remaining part of the present chapter.

154 Selected Musical Analyses

Throughout the following analyses, the links between the Canadian

landscape/soundscape and Canadian classical music for solo voice either a cappella or

accompanied by one or many instruments will be examined to show how they relate to

the idea of Canada-as-North. These musical analyses will rest on the fundamental elements asserted by R. Murray Schafer in his essay Music in the Cold, as he prescribes what Canadian music should be and/or sound like if Canadians are truly authentic northern people. Consequently, the music should be inspired by the northern soundscape, display clarity of form to the extent that it becomes all form (not about texture and colour), and manifest itself as the art of restraint, of tiny events magnified.

The question then arises as to why Schafer's definition of northern music should be accepted as a benchmark. First, Schafer's Music in the Cold has the peculiar quality of embracing almost all the fundamental elements typical of Canadian northern literature, as identified by Mitcham. Schafer's essay is set in the northern wilderness, where his main character is a strong individual who chooses to flee northward in order to escape the unwanted and unnecessary pretence of civilization, a choice which requires that the individual has or acquires the inner resources and experience to cope with isolation and the aloneness of the terrifying northern geography. Schafer's northerner pursues the quest of living in harmony with nature, to the point that his main character says prayers for the animals he eats. This strong awareness of the natural environment and man's relationship to it is associated with disenchantment towards contemporary urban civilization and its sophistries, as well as an alarming realization that the destruction of the northern wilderness ultimately signals our own destruction. Mitcham also noted that many

155 Canadian authors, like Atwood, question the encroachment of southern values in the

North, primarily American ones, i.e. money-oriented industrial development as well as

capitalist and materialistic principles.45 Schafer belongs to that group of authors. In

Music in the Cold, he imagines a North invaded by the southern civilization, an invasion characterized by industrialization, and the overwhelming presence of skyscrapers and pollution, which gradually provokes the destruction of the northern environment and ultimately leads to a new ice age. Luckily with time, much time, the North starts regenerating itself again. The northern wilderness according to Schafer's view is thus portrayed as a place filled with unmaterialistic regenerative potential, not only for the few who live there, but also as a force of nature at the core of this environment, a feature which dominates the Canadian literary imagination, and according to Mitcham, distinguishes it from that of other countries.46 Additionally, as mentioned in the previous chapter, Schafer has been characterized by Mantere as "the most articulate contemporary

Canadian composer on the significance of the North in music."47 Grace corroborates, as according to her,

Schafer's national, ecological, and musicological position is interesting in the context of an investigation of the wider parameters of Canadian identity, but in the context of the discursive formation of North his position is especially illuminating [...] It is evident from his essays (and from a work like North/White) that he is highly self-conscious about his Canadian context and his participation in and contribution to the discourse of North.48

Schafer provides insights on the northern soundscape as well as a detailed description of how northern music should be constructed and what it should sound like. Above all, in

45 Mitcham, The Northern Imagination, 11. 46 Ibid. 47 Mantere, "Northern Ways to Think About Music: Glenn Gould's Idea of North as an Aesthetic Category," 89. 48 Grace, Canada and the Idea of North, 136. 156 the context of this study it would be irrelevant and inappropriate to use a framework that would not be Canadian. Thus it is pertinent to use Schafer's criteria as the principal reference point in studying the selected repertoire.

The following analyses are presented in chronological order to show new trends in composition as they are being translated into depictions of North. Not all the works listed in the group of selected repertoire (Appendix B) are analyzed in this section. The decision to present analyses of 80 percent of the repertoire is motivated by the fact that these works best exemplify the important commonalities found in this repertoire. These analyses, conducted by using various techniques, namely text-music analysis, formal analysis, harmonic analysis, and analysis based on set theory method, serve as a means to sustain the argument about the representation of North in Canadian solo vocal literature.

As will later be described, these analyses have led to the identification of several common traits shared by these works, in particular elements mentioned by Schafer in

Music in the Cold This results in a musical thematic listing that shows the predominant shared features of this Canadian northern repertoire for solo voice.

Maurice Dela's "Hiver" from Les saisons (1954)

To exemplify Schafer's assertions, let us first turn to "Hiver", a song from Les

Saisons, composed by Maurice Dela in 1954; the earliest excerpt found in the list of compositions selected for this research.

The short and simple poem featured in this song glorifies the reign of winter, in itself one possible axis of representation of Canadian nordicity. In fact, Canadian

157 geographer Louis-Edmond Hamelin in his 2002 book Discours du nord refers to this season as "nordicite temporaire" or "nordicite saisonniere."49

Composer, organist and pianist, Albert Phaneuf, known under the pseudonym

Maurice Dela, is mostly remembered as an arranger and composer for Radio-Canada from 1951 to 1965. Stylistically, he was apparently never attracted by avant-garde music, and never adhered to any particular doctrine: "As far as composition goes, I have always relied on my intuition," he once said.50 For "Hiver," Dela chose to compose in a neo­ classical aesthetic. Neo-classicism refers here to a trend at the beginning of the twentieth century in which composers imitated or evoked the genres, forms, and styles of pre- romantic music or of specific pre-romantic composers.51 With its use of scales, octaves, and arpeggio patterns in the piano accompaniment, as well as a form based on the repetition of two musical phrases (A A B B A coda), "Hiver" is very neo-classical in style and form. Adding to this, Dela pairs each musical phrase with a specific key signature: phrase A in F major and phrase B in f minor. "Hiver" is also built on the concept of bitonality, the simultaneous use of two keys, a compositional technique often employed by Dela in his later compositions. Example 4-3 shows one instance of bitonality at m. 46. In this measure, the left hand of the piano part consists in a F major arpeggio in eighth-notes while the right hand plays a B major arpeggio in sixteenth-notes.

49 "Temporary nordicity" or "seasonal nordicity." See Louis-Edmond Hamelin, Discours du nord (Quebec: G6tic, 2002), 57. Hamelin also uses the expression "piurimensuelle nordicitd" translating to "plurimonthly nordicity." 50 Canadian Music Centre, s.v. "Dela, Maurice," http://www.musiccentre.ca/apps/index.cfm?fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography&authpeopleid=147& by=D / (accessed August 24,2010). 51 For a comprehensive definition see Grove Music Online, s.v. "Neo-classicism" (by Arnold Whittall), http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.libproxy.uregina.ca:2048/subscriber/article/grove/music/19723?q=neo- classicism&hbutton_search.x=0&hbutton_search.y=0&hbutton_search=search&source=omo_t237&source =omo_gmo&source=omo tl 14&search=quick&pos=l&_start=l#firsthit / (accessed September 6, 2010). 158 The voice follows the left hand as it holds a C, the dominant in F major. There are many

other examples, such as at m. 34 where the left hand of the piano part is playing an

arpeggiated dominant chord on Gb while the right hand plays an arpeggiated A minor

chord.

Example 4-3 Les saisons, "Hiver," m. 46

a Tempo

Tenor

- queur

a Tempo

at

Piano

This very short song of 1 '50" duration seems to correspond to Schafer's idea that music of the North should be "all form" and "as clear as an icicle."52 In addition, the text, which describes a round dance of snowflakes and whirling winter winds, is aptly depicted by the use of a fast tempo and a mix of ascending and descending scales and arpeggios.

Clermont Pepin's Hvmne au vent du nord (1960)

In his Hymne au vent du nord, the poet Alfred Desrochers (1901-1978) expresses with epic inspiration the calling of Quebecois lumbeijacks, loggers, and woodsmen towards the North and its spaciousness. A poem comprised of alexandrines, French verses of 12 syllables, Hymne au vent du nord reveals, with compelling nostalgia, the

52 Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 64-65. 159 force and courage of those who defied the Laurentian Shield and surveyed the land to

Hudson Bay:

O vent, emporte-moi vers la grande Aventure. Je veux boire la force apre de la Nature, Loin, par dela l'encerclement des horizons Que souille la fumee etroite des maisons!53

Regardless of the powerful and expressive quality of the poem, the interest in this work does not lie in the vocal part, often monochromatic (i.e. with large sections based on the repetition of a single pitch), assigned to a tenor voice, but rather in the orchestral treatment. It is through the art of orchestration, of a standard classical orchestra with the addition of two trombones and percussion, that Pepin conveys the strong impressions of nordicity and spaciousness from Desrochers's text.

The most striking feature of Clermont Pepin's Hymne au vent du nord is its construction built in blocks of sounds. Pepin's composition is perhaps the best specimen in its musical translation of Schafer's analogies between the northern landscape and the northerner's music, as stated in Music in the Cold: "A northern glacier is a brute form" and "rolling land masses become formal in winter."54 These images are presented in the form of multi-layered homogeneous and homorhythmic groups of instruments creating superimposed masses of sound. Example 4-4, taken from the 23 measures of orchestral introduction, shows one of many instances of these simultaneous sound aggregates.

Flutes and oboes are combined and play a repeated chord in quarter-note values in the high register. They are doubled by violins and violas, which play the same pitches, but

53 "O wind, take me to the great Adventure. /1 want to drink the bitter force of Nature / Far, beyond the encircling horizon / Soiled by thin streams of chimney smoke!" 54 Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 65. 160 with an impetuous rhythm. The third and last block is made up of bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, cellos and double basses.

Example 4-4 Hymne au vent du nord, mm. 14-15

* 2 Flutes

2 Oboes

2 Clarinets in

2 Bassoons

2 Mores

2 Trumpets

2 Trombones ff

Timpani

Tenor t"

tgget ffff f • gff f fff^f iff f f ' ' ff f-' ~?f-~f Violin I

Violin 2

>• » > ^ *• a» >• f-f - d^ffff^fff ffrf *f Viola ffffr.ff.rrr

div.

Violoncello ^=:r:r;,=,#:=i-

Contrabass

161 One more element worth mentioning is that Pepin sometimes uses a harmonic treatment that makes reference to the whole-tone scale. As will be highlighted in several other works, this use of the whole-tone scale can be interpreted as having clear implications in creating a static, thus frozen musical impression, because of the absence of the tension normally produced by a diatonic scale. Example 4-5 presents one case where all strings play a sforzando chord evoking the whole-tone scale (Ab, Bb, C, D), with the exception of the double bass.

Example 4-5 Hymne au vent du nord, mm. 106 (strings)

Violin I ¥p

Violin 2

Viola IH iE35E

—j»;» Violoncello EE#E

Gmtrabass 3E= zsf' &

Harrv Somers' Twelve Miniatures C1965)

Only two of Harry Somers' Twelve Miniatures fall into the scope of this research:

Winter Night (10) and Loneliness (11). Scored for voice, recorder (or flute), viola da gamba (or cello), and spinet (or piano), these twelve songs are settings of haiku poems.

Typical of this literary style, described earlier, the texts are short and evocative. The role of the text and text painting in these mini-movements is exquisite, especially in Winter

Night. The text reads as follows: 162 To raging winds companion: In the sky, the moon.

In his setting, Somers uses only the spinet and the voice for the first six measures to

brilliantly illustrate the winds. Example 4-6 shows that in order to do so, the miniature

starts Moderato-Allegro, with a frequently-changing meter and unpredictable rhythm for

both the voice and the spinet parts. As for the raging quality, the spinet part, filled with clusters, is to be played marcato and the very syncopated voice line to be sung with many accents.

Example 4-6 Twelve Miniatures, "Winter Night," mm. 1-5

* 1- •• ' ,*p: p* fji :f' #1 ! !» rs| utf »»xh «un pan «w in

j!|s I I • 4 || | « *4 I * » ||

..*[»»..<*** "A*. !•- I

Following the fury of the winds, on the word "the" leading to "moon," the voice is

suddenly a cappella and the tempo is marked rallentendo. This short transition leads to

the last two measures, marked lento, which showcase the word "moon" in a sustained and

soft setting ending on the highest pitch given to the voice part (see example 4-7). The

accompaniment by the recorder, cello and spinet also end this miniature with soft whole

notes. Visually, the moon even seems present in the score through this use of the whole

note.

163 Example 4-7 Twelve Miniatures, "Winter Night," mm. 8-10

Voice

moon Rcc. (R)

V. (i. (Cello)

Lento

Spinet (piano)

In terms of pitch content, Somers' choices are scaled down to the essential. With the exception of the last chord, the left hand of the spinet part constantly repeats the same aggregate (D, Eb, Fb, Gb) while the right hand oscillates between a three-note aggregate

(G, Ab, B) and a five-note one (G, A, Bb, C, Db), the two aggregates only sharing G as common pitch. The voice, on the other hand, is built on the principle of interval extension, where the register of the melody, starting on a descending major third (B-G) becomes gradually wider to an ultimate climax at the end on the word "moon" on a high

G#. Stylistically, this play of intensity has a strong dramatic effect in terms of expressiveness and is reminiscent of the second Viennese school, particularly Alban

Berg.

The following miniature, Loneliness, bears a title that connects strongly with the concept of solitude, a concept tied to the idea of North, as described in the last chapter.

Musically, this song brilliantly produces the impression of loneliness, which is conveyed in the text by the visual absence of sky and earth and by the sense of isolation created by the unending accumulation of snowflakes.

164 No sky at all; no earth at all and still the snowflakes fall.

Example 4-8 shows that musically, the texture is very fragmented as all the notes of the instrumental parts are to be delivered as sixteenths in a pianissimo dynamic, the combination of both elements being imitative of falling snow.

Example 4-8 Twelve Miniatures, "Loneliness," mm. 1-6

N.4*: note* to he

V.Ci (C'cIIM)

PP

As for the pitch content, Somers chooses once more to reduce the material to a minimum.

This song is based on a twelve-tone row (B, G, C, C#, D#, F#, G#, A, Bb, D, E, F). In keeping with the idea of falling snow, the accompaniment is written in a type of counterpoint in which the spinet plays first, followed by the viola da gamba, and finally by the recorder. The first two instruments are playing the row in its prime form, while the recorder plays the retrograde of the prime. Once the recorder finishes the statement of the row, the three instruments combine together to simultaneously each play four last notes, thus harmonically covering all twelve pitches of the row (see example 4-9). The analysis also shows two other instances, from the last sixteenth-note of m. 5 to the first beat of m.

8, where the three instruments harmonically cover the row, while still playing their respective lines.

165 Example 4-9 Twelve Miniatures, "Loneliness," mm. 5-9

!mL^7^4~::z::Tzz Voice 3 l 1 p *• / p jt- Hp ' • i

and Mill the snow-flakes fall.

* 7 6 5 | 4 10 II =$•= Rec. (R) It 1 K~ ilte: m

3 4 6 7 I 5 9 V . Ci (Cello) !E3jS0E as pisp5* jFy *ty <

9 10 n^J2 10 II 12 7 12 Spinet (piano) ssp=isgp

As in Winter Night, the rhythm is very unpredictable (see example 4-6). However at each entry, all instruments joining this short song in fugal style are synchronized, and are thus required to play homorhythmically throughout. This fugal treatment adds something to the idea of falling snow; it can be seen as creating the impression of accumulation. Technically, each new entry is another layer of sound, or of snow, and the register used at each successive entry is constantly higher, creating an ascending motion that can be interpreted as a snow build-up.

The voice part on the other hand is not delivered in sixteenths and does not follow the rhythmic pattern of the instrumental parts. In fact, not a single note of the voice part is ever synchronized with any instrument, except on the syllable "snow" of snowflakes, which suddenly brings a strong focus to that word. The voice part also stands out as it is required to be sung legato with longer pitch durations, no pitch being shorter than an eighth-note and mostly scored with quarter-notes, dotted quarter-notes and half-notes. As well, contrary to the instruments, the voice is not serialized, so it does not follow any specific version of the prime. It is rather given a fractured setting, oscillating between

166 statements of two or three pitches with no connection to the prime, until the final two

notes (F and B), a descending tritone on the word "fall," the first and last notes of the

prime in reverse order. With its individual treatment, the voice part truly illustrates the title of this miniature: Loneliness.

Harry Somers' Evocations (1966)

Harry Somers' Evocations was recorded in The Somers Recording Project "A

Window on Somers," initiated by friends and colleagues of the composer after his death on March 9,1999. This series of CDs commemorates the life's work of this prominent

Canadian composer. A note from friends and colleagues is inscribed in the collection of

CDs: "Somers left Canada, and the world of music, an inestimable legacy of some of the most original and dramatically powerful scores of the century. His work has embodied

Canadian music for the last half century and is truly a major part of Canada's artistic heritage."55

If Somers' music truly embodied Canadian music for the last half century, it is most obvious with his work Evocations, a cycle of four songs. Among works composed to commemorate the centennial of Confederation in 1967, Evocations was commissioned

55 Liner notes to Harry Somers, Songs from the Heart ofSomers, CMC Centrediscs CMCCD 7001, 2001, compact disc. In support of this generally shared opinion of Harry Somers' place in the pantheon of Canadian music, The Canadian Encyclopedia presents him as "one of Canada's most important composers." See The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Somers, Harry" (by Brian Cherney, John Beckwith and Betty Nygaard King), http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params =U 1ARTU0003267 / (accessed August 24,2010). In his article on Somers, published in the Grove Music Online, Brian Cherney also points out that "Somers was one of the most significant composers to emerge in Canada after World War II," a composer who "left a rich legacy; many of his works have become mainstays of the contemporary Canadian repertory." See Grove Music Online, s.v. "Somers, Harry" (by Brian Cherney), http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.libproxy.uregina.ca:2048/subscriber/article/grove/ music/26175?q=somers&hbutton_search.x=0&hbutton_search.y=0&hbutton_search=search&source=omo_ t237&source=omo_gmo&source=omo_tl 14&search=quick&pos= 1 &_start= 1 #firsthit / (accessed August 24, 2010). 167 by CBC in 1966 and was first performed on January 26 of the following year. Somers wrote the text as well as the music and played the piano part at the premiere performance.56

The title Evocations refers to the gathering of sounds and ambiances typical of the

Canadian northern wilderness soundscape, from the cry of the loon to the winter nightscape. Somers achieves this through various means, such as onomatopoeic manipulations and by instrumental and vocal techniques and approaches that were still uncommon in the mid-sixties. For example, in the first song Loon, the singer sings into the piano with the damper pedal depressed. The voice produces a sympathetic reaction in the strings of the piano, which in turn produce a resonance filled with harmonics, creating an eerie effect. In the fourth and final song, "Moon Cracks and Spreads Winter Night," the pianist improvises by playing on the frame of the piano with rubber mallets or knuckles of fingers, while the singer sings again into the piano.

Somers' Evocations could be summarized as a major example of the representation of the northern soundscape as well as an archetype of the art of restraint, both fundamental elements asserted by R. Murray Schafer in Music in the Cold As

Proctor describes:

Somers's Evocations also make use of aleatoric elements and free-rhythm and graphic notation, but it adds another element which represents a growing trend, that of seeking new sound possibilities for the human voice. Composers had been doing this with instruments for most of the century, but except for certain pioneer works such as Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire (1912), the idea of extending the sound potentialities of the human voice did not come into vogue until the 1960s. At this time sounds expressing the nuances of the words became preeminent while organizational technique remained secondary. Somers' four songs (with texts by the composer) are 'sound' pieces with the words themselves being picturesque and

56 The singer for the premiere was Patricia Rideout (1931-2006), contralto. 168 onomatopoeic. There are strong associations with nature - 'loon, night... mist... water... stillness... shattered... shimmers... spinning... moon... womb... tomb.'57

The first striking element in Somers' Evocations is his setting of the word "loon" at the very beginning of the work. The composer skilfully uses this word to portray the actual cry of the loon. Example 4-10 shows the setting of this word. Vocally, this piece requires new unexploited technical possibilities from the trained singer's abilities. The triple appoggiaturas on a single pitch, as a musical idiom to represent the cry of the loon, are a convincing example.

Example 4-10 Evocations, "Loon," mm.1-3

very long very long mto pinno

A <•> P «low glut. r\ /r\ vV v~, £• - - JS*. .- jJ-fflf'W -r-QLt-J55Tjf2"v_- f--f I

Another inventive musical setting of a word, that exploits its special onomatopeic quality as well as unexpected vocal technique, occurs on "spinning" at the end of the third song.

As highlighted in example 4-11, the singer must sustain and simultaneously repeat the ending "n" sound, while oscillating between decelerating decrescendos and accelerating crescendos ad libitum, consequently creating a kind of whirling effect.

Example 4-11 Evocations, "And the Day Spinning Away," m. 62

Voice ftL * - T- Spin-n-n-n~n-n-n-n (simile) (Into tongue sou ml alone)

S7 Proctor, Canadian Music of the Twentieth-Century, 135. On the topic see also Istvan Anhalt, "The Making of Cento," Canada Music Book 1 (Spring-Summer 1970): 81-89. 169 One more sample of musically illustrative setting of words, shown in example 4-12, is found in the fourth song, "Moon Cracks and Spreads Winter Night," where the impression of emptiness from the words "cold heart of emptiness" is conveyed through a slow descending glissando starting on B. This phrase needs to be performed in one breath, ending in a type of vacuum effect as the voice disappears in a range and dynamic in which it becomes inaudible, leaving an impression of nothingness or complete void.

Example 4-12 Evocations, "Moon Cracks and Spreads Winter Night"

Very slow glifts. continuous but fast enough to perforin in one bicath

Voice

CoW hcorl emp

On many grounds, this entire work can be classified as an archetype of "the art of restraint and of tiny events magnified."58 First, there are several sections where the voice is strictly a cappella. These songs also offer many instances of light harmonic treatment in the piano part, in fact aside from rare clusters and tremolos it is essentially melodic and played without the use of the sustaining pedal. One convincing example of this melodic treatment of the piano part is found in the third song, "And the Day Spinning Away."

Example 4-13 Evocations, "And the Day Spinning Away," mm. 50-56

regular - spuken following pitth contour 1-

I ran-nctf cip - lure ttmc* rap-tun**

fast piaito accvl through voice f if ir f if f f ft* if f tr h> 1f ?i IfI ft.> fI Jf\ I5 l' : •Pi iK 3 V -pi-

58 Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 65. 170 Only one pitch is played at a time, a setting absolutely not idiomatic of that instrument. In

fact, what is even more unusual is that the pitch content of the voice part exceeds that of the piano part (see examples 4-14 and 4-15). Furthermore, the piano part of this third song is essentially elaborated on the cumulative building up of a small germinal motif of four initial pitches (F#-G-G#-A), comprised within a minor third, building up to twelve pitches (and their enharmonic equivalents) encompassing a minor tenth.

Example 4-14 Evocations, "And the Day Spinning Away," pitch content of piano part

I*. l-o - Ho If "¥• 1° «° b" ^ -J&=

Example 4-15 Evocations, "And the Day Spinning Away," pitch content of voice part

4==zrr"^ri3" *° l^xr Hcr H

There is another similar example of use of a germinal motif in the piano part of the fourth song, "Moon Cracks and Spreads Winter Night." The initial cluster of four pitches (Eb5, E5, F5, Gb5) gradually thickens, one or two pitches at a time, while accompanying the voice on "moon cracks and spreads winter night" where it ultimately reaches a full cluster of twelve pitches (G4 to Gb5) and then progressively mirrors back to the initial cluster on the words "cold heart of emptiness." More examples could be supplied since all four movements of this cycle are stripped down to a minimum. In fact, in making stylistic choices for this work, Somers opted to notate precisely all pitches from a melodic standpoint, but left the performers much freedom in terms of the rhythmic

171 content.59 Consequently, there is no meter and, as stated by the composer, time values as well as pause durations are only relative and can vary according to 'feel.' Tempo changes are also extremely frequent; in fact, they occur almost every measure in the third song.

Somers even adds the following comment: "once time values learned, only use them as guidelines, then forget them retaining asymmetrical character."60

Jacques Hetu's "Soir d'hiver" from Les claries de la nuit. op.20 (1972)

In 1972, Jacques Hetu composed the cycle Les clartes de la nuit, opus 20 on poems by Emile Nelligan (1879-1941), in which the last song is "Soir d'hiver." Like

Dela, Hetu selected a poem relating to the seasonal nordicity. About this song-cycle, Hetu says:

The poetry of Emile Nelligan is music. With an interval of ten years in between, I have twice set the poems of Nelligan to music, under the titles of Les Clartes de la nuit (The Illuminated Night) and Les abimes du reve (The Abyss of Dreams). The two song cycles, the first of a rather impressionistic nature, the second rather expressionistic, give a vision in sound of certain landscapes of the soul in the dream world of Emile Nelligan.61

As with the other works studied, it is possible to associate Hetu's "Soir d'hiver" with some of Schafer's essential elements defining music of the North. Hetu's style has often been described as neo-classical, at least from the formal point of view, with a

59 In his concern with precision in terms of pitch content, Somers makes one exception: the ending of the whole cycle where the voice has to sing an appoggiated sustained high note marked "low to very high" and a graphic notation in the piano part, ironically followed by an afterthought proposition of a precise melodic figuration which he entitled "suggestion for tired pianists." 60 Harry Somers, Evocations (Don Mills, Ontario: BMI Canada, 1968), 5. 61 Liner notes to Jacques Hetu, CMC Centrediscs CMCCD 8302,2002. H6tu has been inspired by Nelligan at least four times, with Les clartes de la nuit for soprano and piano or soprano and orchestra (1972), Abimes du reve for bass and orchestra (1982), Illusions fanees for an a capella choir (1988), and Le tombeau de Nelligan for orchestra (1991) for the 50th anniversary of the poet's death. 172 musical language based on twentieth-century techniques.62 For the song "Soir d'hiver,"

Hetu lives up to his reputation, as he selected an ABA form for this piece. Referring again to Schafer's criteria for form, for musicians this ABA form is "clear as an icicle."63

This neo-classical aesthetic has already been acknowledged with regards to Dela's work

"Hiver." However, contrary to Dela, Hetu's reference to neo-classicism is solely limited to the formal aspect. In Hetu's "Soir d'hiver," the various musical parameters, based on twentieth-century techniques, are reduced to a minimum. For example, the B section

(mm. 181-188) is almost entirely set a cappella with the voice having for sole harmonic support a partly arpeggiated aggregate played in a style imitative of improvisation and sustained for a few measures with the pedal. As well, the left hand of the piano part is almost entirely limited to playing octaves, more often than not in a whole-note rhythm on the first beat of most measures, while the right hand plays a quasi-continuous rhythm in sixteenths. Furthermore, as a composer, Hetu is generally preoccupied with simplifying his language through rigorous writing and a constant search for unity, which he achieves in "Soir d'hiver" through the use of thematic material.64 Through a set theory analysis, we observe that this song is based on a repeated motif built on the pitch class set in integer notation of (01234589). This motif, or its first half (0134), is repeated as a type of ostinato pattern in the right hand part of the piano in a sixteenth-note pattern, transposed to various pitch-classes, so it always keeps the pattern succession of the prime form

(example 4-16). In his search for unity however, the amalgamation of Hetu's octachord

62 See the section about style in the article in The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, s.v. "H&u, Jacques" (by lrfcne Brisson), http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE& Params=UlARTU0001607 / (accessed August 23,2010). 63 Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 64. 64 See Canadian Music Centre, s.v. "H6tu, Jacques," http://www.musiccentre.ca/apps/index.cfm? fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography&authpeopleid=417&by=H / (accessed August 23,2010). 173 and tetrachord is only one pitch short of a perfect combination of complementary set classes, one pitch away from perfect unity, at least in set theory terms according to Allen

Forte's The Structure of Atonal Music.65

Example 4-16 Clartes de la nuit, "Soir d'hiver," mm. 164-168 (piano)

(QJ2US**» (012M5W.

1fc I ft* i S* fa - i

As shown in example 4-17, this motif is also the basic material used in the voice part.

Here the verse "Ah! Comme la neige a neige!"66 which is repeated many times throughout this poem is essentially constructed on the first portion of the pitch-class set

(0134).

Example 4-17 Clartes de la nuit, "Soir d'hiver," m. 165-166 (voice)

Soprano

Ah! com - me )a neiftc a net - gc! Ma

This seems to be a good instance of Schafer's comment: "The art of the North is the art of

restraint. [...] The art of the North is composed of tiny events magnified."67 In a more

poetic description, it could be said that this repetitive pattern of the accompaniment

produces both the impression of sparkling snow of "Ah! Comme la neige a neige" as well

65 Allen Forte, The Structure of Atonal Music (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973), 179. In this precise case, the perfect combination of complementary set classes would have been (0134) and (01234569). 66 "Ah! How the snow has snowed!" 67 Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 65. 174 as a static motion effect corresponding to the verse "ma vitre est un jardin de givre,"68

which in turn translates the idea of whiteness, eternally frozen.

Richard Henninger's The Three Sones of Winter (1972)

The only excerpt of this work available in print at the Canadian Music Centre is the first song "Winter Night," set for soprano, flute, piano, and IBM 370 (on tape). It evokes an abstract northern night during the winter season. The text, also by the composer, is primarily a working out of the words "winter night" from vowel sounds and random syllables until the center of the piece, where the words become clear and meaningful. In terms of form, the structure of this work closely follows the text, being a type of arch shape from an incoherent text metamorphosing through intensification, both in register and dynamic, to the climax where the words are clear and the tessitura stretches to the highest peak, then slowly diminishing progressively back to the inarticulate text, similar to the beginning, as if the voice was just an instrument again.

Example 4-18 shows the first statement of "winter night" which happens at m. 36 on a F# and G# a cappella, at the transition point (also known as break) between the middle and high range of a soprano voice. The singer is expected here to produce a clear sound. The flute and piano quickly follow on the same pitches and in the same range as the voice, creating a shimmery and silvery sound. This effect is especially obvious in the flute part as the instrument oscillates between the two pitches, a motif imitative of a trill.

68 "My window is a garden of frost." 175 Example 4-18 The Three Songs of Winter, "Winter Night," mm. 36-39

fmt t* yy- U m f ffTttfffr, f f f

vrry i ^ : tf : f ."•" . .{f- t I I > *f WHi tvr mfM

9' *#r: Z!f" jr * flP 9» *f :>-

•£*

After ten measures focused on the words "winter night," at mm. 47-48 the flute then produces a freezing cold effect with the use of multiphonics. Multiphonics are well- known coloristic effects used in the latter part of the twentieth century. Obtained through a special technique, which allows simultaneous sounding of more than one note of a typically melodic instrument, they are especially apt for evoking the cold because of their inherent non vibrato timbre quality. As can be witnessed in Example 4-19, this effect is quickly followed by the imitation of the wind, as the flutist blows into the flute while moving keys, but without producing a tone. There the flute is also joined by the voice, which is expected to whisper, thus the airflow is very audible.

Example 4-19 The Three Songs of Winter, "Winter Night," mm. 47-50

At/ tii/ iih) Jch)

wf~~.== pp KUtr) wcr fpm0) (whisper) pp 'J H- win • tct ftiflH *K> ter night—

_ f m -f - is 1 «< 1 * *?.. i

176 The cold winter night can also be perceived through the harmonic density produced by

the initial treatment with clusters, as well as by the presence of the electronic sounds

projecting from the tape, and finally the use of quarter-tones dispersed in the flute part.

Example 4-20 shows the initial clusters present in the piano part. Scored in the extreme

low range of the instrument, each cluster must be played softer than the preceding one,

from pp to ppp to pppp. Additionally, the pitch content of these clusters progressively

spreads from a cluster of five pitches a semitone apart (F-F#-G-G#-A), the most dense

cluster possible, to the second one with a whole tone between each pitch (F-G-A-B-C#),

and to the third one still based on the idea of the whole-tone scale but with repeated

pitches at the octave (F-G-B-Db-F-G).

Example 4-20 The Three Songs of Winter, "Winter Night," mm. 1-3"

.*60*1 sec.

:P

Piano

Si*. ®w>_

One last element worth mentioning in this very effective piece is the fact that

again, like in so many other works identified in this research, the protagonist is alone:

"lone, alone, I walk alone."

177 Robert Fleming's Of A Timeless Land (1974)

For the purpose of this study, the comments on Fleming's Of a Timeless Land for contralto and orchestra will be limited to the last section of this work (mm. 240 to 296) which is centered on the winter season, the rest of the work having the other seasons for its subject. Accordingly, Fleming marks this section with the indication "Quiet - Cold."

The first four measures of this section, notated in example 4-21, are illustrative of the snow-covered days of winter when the cold invades the northern landscape of this land.

The suspended cymbal roll with crescendos and decrescendos every measure could easily be interpreted as symbolizing the icy winter breeze. The strings with mutes also contribute to creating this cold atmosphere. The compositional process used in these four introductory measures will later be acknowledged in other works, namely in Andre

Prevost's Hiver dans I'ame, i.e., the use of melodic patterns in octaves set in extreme registers, which conveys an impression of cold but also of immensity in terms of space.

The last important element from these four measures is the timpani intervention with a short motif based on a perfect fifth, F# and C#, another interval often exploited in this northern repertoire, as in Prairie Profiles and Northern Journey by Violet Archer.

178 Example 4-21 Of a Timeless Land, mm. 240-243

Quttt - Cold . V SUSPENDED CYMBAL =«»»==- pp I i'crausiou m TIMPANI

Voice 11 1 i Quiet - Cold - n itiv. con itord. gm- ikKO i i= Vmlm I :1k P div. con sord. urns ^ ^' Violin li £fe W ' ?- Si con sord. f Viola if P St"-*'---=-"I JP ^==4 «

In fact, as in many works selected for this research, the fifth is a core element in this composition, especially in the last section. The following examples will show this abundance of fifths. Example 4-22 presents the bassoon parts at measures 248-249, where the two instruments play at a distance of a fifth. Example 4-23 presents also a passage in superimposed fifths, this time in the flute and oboe parts. The two oboes are easily identified as playing in fifths. The second flute part on the other hand uses pitches that are present in both oboe parts while flute I plays a fifth above the oboe I part.

Consequently, there are two superimposed fifths on the second half of the first beat of m.

259 (A-E-B), another group of superimposed fifths on the second beat of m. 259 (G-D-

A), and so on.

179 Example 4-22 Of a Timeless Land, mm. 248-249 (bassoons)

Vtt: 9" \ t* m

Example 4-23 Of a Timeless Land, mm. 259-260 (flutes and oboes)

IMB5. £ -J- |t """ <—3 ' Fliite i77?He J ? i - dx £_JT~ - p" > Oboe F^j5" ~ 3 J ~"~i 2" y

While many more examples of fifths could be highlighted, two other essential elements of this work must be acknowledged: first the excessively spare orchestration and secondly the fact that this spare orchestration is based on the use of blocks of sound.

To exemplify both elements, example 4-24 corresponds to the poco meno mosso section from mm. 272 to 281, where the contralto is first solely accompanied by the strings in a homorhythmic pattern largely built on half-notes and dotted half-notes. This gives prominence to the voice part in declamatory style where the verses underline "the solitude of isolation," a recurrent theme tied to the North. Finally, at the end of m. 278, the block of strings is silenced and the accompaniment shifts to the brass section. During these three measures (mm. 279-282), the brass section plays a homorhythmic accompaniment with mutes starting with an accent, combined with the recurrence of the icy winter wind represented by the cymbal, while the voice sings "battling the cold, the wind, the ice." 180 Example 4-24 Of a Timeless Land, mm. 272-281

m-u-

181 Andre Provost's Hiver dans I'ame (1978)

Andre Prevost's Hiver dans I 'ame for baritone and orchestra is a truly remarkable

work, a type of majestic epitome of what a northerner's music should sound like. Divided

into three movements, this work is a convincing example of "the art of restraint and of

tiny events magnified,"69 even with its 16'40" duration. The rationale for this statement is

that the whole work is based on a four-note motif, used both as a melodic contour and as

harmonic content. This motif is a tetrachord on the set class (0167). In all of its

permutations, this motif has a very symmetrical and static quality, as it combines perfect

fourths or tritones linked by an interval of a minor second. This set class has an interval

vector of 200022, meaning that the intervallic content comprises two semitones, two

perfect fourths, and two tritones. Example 4-25 presents the first statement of the motif as stated in mm. 1 to 3.

Example 4-25 Hiver dans I'ame, "II fait nuit lente," mm.1-3

LcOtO . * a\ 48 sord.

This is quickly followed by another statement of the motif in a modified setting played melodically by the bass clarinet and harmonically doubled by the cellos.

69 Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 65. 182 Example 4-26 Hiver dans I 'ame, "II fait nuit lente," mm.5-6

Ban* Clarinet in m pp

WM ~.fr- Violoncello sord. -4..- - I

& i hs|I

Prevost's orchestration is also a strong factor in giving this work a palpably cold feel associated with the concepts of North and winter. One very evocative element is present right at the beginning, which is played pianissimo by the first violin. It is a long and sustained Eb played non-stop for the first 35 measures with artificial harmonics

(ex.4-27).70 Because it has to be played non-vibrato to get the harmonic, the resulting pitch is extremely high and cold, actually sounding two octaves higher. The cold impression is also duplicated by the combination of these artificial harmonics with statements of the core motif played very softly by the other violins with tremolando sul ponticello. In this technique the musician plays a tremolo very near or right on the bridge, producing upper harmonics of a tone that are usually unheard and consequently giving to pitches an eerie and somewhat glassy timbre. This is probably by far the coldest effect that can be produced by string instruments. Finally, this violin I part is repeated mm. 42-

51 accompanied by harmonic statements of the initial motif presented in the viola and cello sections, alternately with or without mutes and sul ponticello or normal.

70 Contrary to natural harmonics, artificial harmonics require manipulation of the fingers by lightly touching the open string. 183 Example 4-27 Hiver dans 1'ame, "II fait nuit lente," m.1 (violin I)

sounding pitch

&" written pitch

2. • Violin 1 &—

Another strikingly cold and frozen moment starts at m. 20, where the solo

baritone is accompanied by sustained high harmonics in the violin I part and a

homorhythmic pattern in the three violin II parts. Example 4-28 shows four measures of

this section, which are all based on the initial motif. The fact that strings are playing with

mutes yet again contributes to the cold and static feel. This setting is also a good example

of a bare musical treatment, another instance of the northerner's art of restraint.

Example 4-28 Hiver dans I 'ame, "II fait nuit lente," mm. 20-23

j B j A Tempo t Voicc & -

II fori nuit Ien sur (on a - nn>tir (sord.) r.\f£ Violin I mi wird. c ord. >-s solo f • ?- ¥ f:: f. surd, c ord.

Violin il 2 mm m *ord. e ord. fy Solo .r~r •

As in other compositions analyzed in this study, in particular so far in Fleming's

Of a Timeless Land, Prevost gives a special importance to octave doublings. For example,

in the first movement, "II fait nuit lente," double octaves are found in the violin section at mm. 40 and 41, and in the celesta part at the end of the movement (mm. 129-136).

184 As do other composers, such as Fleming, Keefer, and Burge, Prevost also conveys the impression of a spacious frozen winter scene by scoring the orchestra parts with the combination of widely spaced registers. An example of this is located in m. 40, where the violins are playing octave doublings in the high register while the cellos and double basses are also playing octave doublings, but in the low register. Another convincing example is found from mm. 106-16, where the violin I and II sections play a sustained pianissimo Eb in octave doublings in the extremely high register with mutes and the cello and double bass sections simultaneously play a pianissimo Eb in octave doublings in the low register.

Example 4-29 shows the beginning of the second movement "Dernier parallele" in which many elements are reminiscent of the previous section.

Example 4-29 Hiver dans I 'ame, "Dernier parallele," mm. 1-10

LeMo ," ca 44-48 iiberament* e rcvitutivo a tempo

... 3=¥ Marimba lllr fli pp

Voice l> t,.. 5 I If >J"1 ny a rtcn. au-dc-la ikcct-tc vil-lc a-bso-lue aunortiex-tre- mc..... dcnos

a tempo M..-Ifi- ¥ fl Ipi;

Voice

ni vil-ia-ge m.—.. pa-y - sa - ni cour-tt" res-pi-ra-tkm

The texture is again very bare, especially in the first ten measures where the baritone is accompanied only by the marimba. The latter is to be played with a roll on a single pitch, in this case, an Eb, similar to the beginning of the first movement (see ex. 4-25). The

185 static accompaniment of the marimba is based on the germinal motif. On the other hand, the voice part introduces a new four-note motif based on the pitch set (0268) at mm.2-10.

The first instance of this new motif uses the pitches (F-G-B-C#). Moreover, this new tetrachord is also very symmetrical with a vector of 020202 (two intervals of two semitones, two intervals of 4 semitones, and two intervals of 6 semitones) and presents a pitch content exceptionally close to the whole-note scale, previously noted for its lack of harmonic tension, thus producing a static impression that can easily be associated with cold. Additionally, the baritone part follows the rhythm of the prosody, but in a very monochromatic setting. This could be interpreted as a musical metaphor for the frozen landscape, and the uniform texture of a snow-covered winter scene. This monochromatic treatment of the voice is also present in other works analyzed throughout this chapter, for example, in Clermont Pepin's Hymne au vent du nord.

Another section worth mentioning in regards to the musical translation of the idea of cold is located at the very end of the second movement. The voice part ends with the verse "le monde ici s'acheve en un silence etale."71 This verse describes a place so cold that nothing surrounds it, except silence. It is followed by a static statement in the orchestra where the marimba, celesta, and antique cymbal are playing a high sustained Eb in a decrescendo dynamic until ppp and ultimately silence (see ex. 4-30). All the while six solo violins with mutes play a harmonic statement of the motif, in a progressively softer dynamic. The ethereal resonance quickly leads to complete silence.

71 "The world here ends in an vast silence." 186 Example 4-30 Hiver dans I 'ame, "Dernier parallele," mm. 88-93

Sf " a tempo jttms reH\ Antique Cymbals * I - pp ppp & ;*= T ^ > r r," mp PP ppp

m.. "jp *£• pp pp i i - t I -1

a tempo j,g- k bjt Jft sonl. zz ** £ E f flrT: I-"'*" rvt PP ppp

Violm I 2 h pi 3 soli fee pp ppp illiiPi; o VI i i c ? r p «p ppp

p pp ppp Violma m>H II 2 i i* |j » i p pp ppp •ki--- +: * P pp ppp

Finally, the third and last movement of this composition, "Verte feuille," uses the same elements, i.e. a bare texture, four-note motif, and the return of the violin I part with the artificial harmonic on Eb (mm. 194-198), but this time Prevost combines these fundamental components with the use of all twelve tones. Example 4-31 presents the first eight measures of this last movement. Both the voice and the violin I part I are based on the (0167) tetrachord. The violin I part II on the other hand presents a series of twelve tones in eighth-notes. All twelve notes are played every two measures. Prevost also ensures that each statement of twelve notes starts with one of the four pitches of the tetrachord, giving great unity to this movement. Furthermore, each measure of the violin I part II is related to m. 1, either transposed, inverted, retrograded or retrograde inverted.

187 This setting of the twelve tones gradually moves to other sections of the orchestra, namely the viola in the beginning section of the movement and in the woodwinds starting at m. 157. The twelve tones play a double role in this movement. They can be interpreted in relationship to the title "Verte feuille,"72 as representing the fullness of green leaves and the warm summer in contrast to the cold of winter of the first two movements. As well, the use of the twelve tones combined with the tetrachord aptly symbolizes the fading memory of the lost lover who died during the last winter (in "Dernier parallele"), as the twelve tones dissipate the omnipresence of the tetrachord. The remaining lover remembering the lost one only sporadically, as the poem indicates

mon corps est au soleil et mon coeur cicatrise je n'ai chagrin de rien et aucune memoire ta voix ne m'atteint plus ni ton rire ni ton chant l'eclat de ton profil se perd dans la lumiere [...] tu meurs et je m'etonne tu m'allais droit au coeur et pourtant je t'oublie.73

Example 4-31 Hiver dansVame, "Verte feuille," mm. 1-8

Vivo. nx J i? • ' -fvf?

violin l

72 "Green Leaf' 73 "My body is under the sun and my heart heals/1 have no grief and no memory/ your voice does not reach me, neither your laughter, neither your singing/ the radiance of your profile is getting lost in the light [...] you die and I'm astonished/ you used to touch me straight in the heart and yet I'm forgetting you."

188 Violet Archer's Northern Landscapes (1978)

Dr. Violet Archer, a seminal figure in Canadian composition, was attracted to the

theme of North. She composed several works with various instrumentation based on this

theme: Fantasy on "blanche comme la neige" for guitar (1978), The Moon at Wintertime

for choir (1987), Northern Journey (1990), Northern Landscape (1978), Prairie Profiles

(1986), Snow Shadows (1949), and Songs of North (1996) the four latter for solo voice and various accompaniment

Her first vocal cycle on the theme of the Canadian northern landscape dates back to 1978 and is appropriately entitled Northern Landscapes. The three poems set to music in this cycle are from Canadian modernist Arthur James Marshall Smith (1902-1980).

They describe different aspects of the Canadian landscape. "The Lonely Land" is the first and most intriguing excerpt of the whole cycle, namely because the title highlights the concept of loneliness, so many times acknowledged as a component of the Canadian idea of North. This poem is also pertinent since it was first inspired by an exhibition of the

Group of Seven, icons within the Canadian northern discourse in the arts.74

According to Sherrill Grace, Archer "has created a powerfully mimetic composition in which the piano and voice are fully integrated to reflect the rhythm, emotion, and a sense of the verbal text."75 To convey the essence of the landscape,

Archer's piano part is spare, the melodic lines are angular, the meter is frequently changing, but first and foremost the use of dissonance is fundamental. In fact, this song

74 "The Lonely Land" was subtitled "Group of Seven" when it was first published in the McGill Fortnightly Review on January 9, 1926. The poem was heavily revised by the author in the subsequent years and lost the subtitle. The version used by Archer is the final one published in The Classic Shade. See John Fern, A.J.M. Smith (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1979), 46. 75 Grace, Canada and the Idea of North, 130. 189 largely focuses on the verse "this is the [sic] beauty of dissonance," a beauty of

dissonance powered by resonance and strength.76 As the last two stanzas of the poem show, the kind of landscape described by Smith largely resembles the ones found in the

Group of Seven's paintings:

This is a beauty of dissonance, this resonance of stony strand, this smoky cry curled over a black pine like a broken and wind-battered branch when the wind bends the tops of the pine and curdles the sky from the north

This is the beauty of strength broken by strength and still strong 7

Technically, Archer achieves this representation of dissonance by using minor and major seconds and their inversions (major and minor sevenths) as the core material that permeates this setting of Smith's poem. Example 4-32 shows the first three measures of this song, where minor and major seconds are widely spaced on the piano keyboard.

76 The text by Smith, "this is a beauty of dissonance," was modified by Archer to "this is the beauty of dissonance." See Violet Archer, Northern Landscape (Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1978), 5. 77 Arthur James Marshall Smith, The Classic Shade: Selected Poems (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1978), 39. 190 Example 4-32 Northern Landscapes, "The Lonely land," mm. 1-3

Lento e m«e*toso «» m

Sopfaoo -i

Lento f mteftoso .-M

J=r=~ k-ziEE-

Piano <

fid

Example 4-33 shows another instance of seconds oscillating back and forth from a compact to a spacious setting, the latter being also stretched in octaves.

Example 4-33 Northern Landscapes, "The Lonely land," mm. 20-22

Soprano <£f- m * > Vr: m--

$E

•

Violet Archer's Prairie Profiles (1980)

In 1980, Archer composed another song cycle on aspects of the Canadian landscape: Prairie Profiles. This time Archer was inspired by poems of Calgary poet

David Carter (b. 1934). As in the last work, these poems also have a visual connection since they were published alongside some illustrations by Ted Ranshaw. Carter's poems

191 reflect the vastness of the prairies at different times of the year. Two of the four songs are of greater interest as they connect to the northern theme more than the others. The second song, "Have You Heard Snow Falling?," depicts a still winter landscape and the third,

"Ground Blizzard," portrays the fierceness of the weather conditions and the powers of nature during the cold season.

"Have You Heard Snow Falling?" is another case that illustrates the art of restraint since the texture of this song, scored for baritone, horn and piano, is exceptionally spare. The three musicians seldom play at the same time. In addition, each part is lean. The following sample (example 4-34) is thus representative of the whole song: a slow descending melody on a simple rhythm in the horn part is accompanied by a repeated interval of a major second in the piano part, followed by two measures of a cappella singing for the baritone.

Example 4-34 Prairie Profiles, "Have You Heard Snow Falling?," mm.1-5

Largo molto

Horn in F iiil§i|p=i=E ,1-1 / PF

mcditamk) * *! # Baritone m (inarted bits of branch dut-tcr (he ground

Piano <

Another noteworthy element is located at m. 20, where a somewhat contrasting section begins. The voice and horn are still playing in relay and the texture is still bare, however, the piano part is now solely built on wide-spaced open fifths, as per example 4-35. This parallel motion of wide-spaced fifths conveys the feeling of a very static extensive 192 expanse covered by snow, a setting so peaceful that the voice can dare to ask in a soft parlando: "Have you heard snow falling?"

Example 4-35 Prairie Profiles, "Have You Heard Snow Falling?," mm. 20-32

Tempo 1

Horn in F i - m f rnmquilto P *-J ' ^ ~ •.p Mi - iHitepaf-ti-cleiofsno* dvup up-on ill and make de-It- cale. crinkly stto* ^leps. ~s._« nit "V Piano \ P iranquilk) r*rjr— =8=- 8>~-—— •ik se*•» "v,$• g- -<4-""-1*-- fw> • »d • ftii • SW *®t4 •

Largo molto iT\ Hn. H

col la vocc ~iW>

a piaccre, jwiando

as Kfluw. whiie-ly au-to-graphkihe ground - Have you Jtcanl snow l'jl • hng' — ^

+ && * "Bed

"Ground Blizzard" immediately follows the previous song in a totally contrasting mood based on nervous and panting motifs in the piano and horn parts, at times chromatic, arpeggiated, or filled with trills, all motifs contributing to the representation of a blizzard, as illustrated by the first six measures presented in example 4-36.

193 Example 4-36 Prairie Profiles, "Ground Blizzard," mm.1-6

QwmI AlWpt* «

>«* hrim» 'n - i --

ff brtoM

As in the previous song, the texture is still spare in many sections, namely between mm.

41 and 53 where the piano has a few measures in double octaves followed by nine measures of solo horn in dotted quarter notes or dotted half-notes. As well, this song also features passages with octaves, presented in the form of tremolos within the bass line. In connection to Schafer's comments about how the cold affects the music: "It'll toughen it up. It'll reduce it to the lean shape, maybe even bare bones,"78 one more remark should be added about this song, centered on the last seven measures (see example 4-37), where the powerful force of the ground blizzard is depicted in the horn and piano parts while the baritone sings "and let man know the elements are still master." That sturdiness of both the blizzard and the northern music is heard through the extremely loud cadence-like repeated fifth interval (Ab-Eb) in the high register of the horn played over a fast repeated motif of two widely spaced parallel superposed fourths and tritones in the piano part.

The efficiency of this simple setting is doubled by the required accelerando as well as by the continuous use of the pedal, which keeps the strings ringing in a deep growling effect.

It is also a good example of the dissonance mentioned in Archer's song "The Lonely

Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 64. 194 Land" from the cycle Northern Landscapes, since the left hand (Bb1, Eb2, A2) and the

right hand (Bb6, E6, B5) clash on tones and semitones, except on the Bbs.

Example 4-37 Prairie Profiles, "Ground Blizzard," mm. 71-77

Godfrey Ridout's "Winter." third movement of The Seasons (1980)

Because the texts used by Godfrey Ridout in this cycle of songs are from William

Blake's Poetical Sketches (1783), the first printed work of this English poet, and not a

Canadian poet, it is especially relevant to note that winter and the North are connected

here with an image from another circumpolar country, Iceland, through its most famous

volcano, Mount Hecla [sic]. Ridout's movement "Winter" is a very convincing example of northern music portraying the essential characteristics listed by Schafer. This

movement, based on a twelve-tone row (Ab, E, G, F#, Db, C, Eb, D, B, Bb, F, A), is a chaconne. Although the voice part begins by stating the row, it then shifts to a free manipulation. The instrumental parts on the contrary strictly state the row in an assortment of variations, always keeping a bare, almost minimalist, treatment each time.

The three first measures of introduction present the prime and retrograde in a type of fugal setting. Example 4-38 shows the next two instances of the row played by the strings

195 in octave doubling (mm. 6-9), the first one in a fast setting in sixteenth-notes played

piano, sul ponticello and tremolando, and the second one on a dotted rhythm played

forte, natural, ben marcato. These two statements of the row are connected by the voice

part asserting "the north is thine," the word "north" being treated as a climax leading to

an octave fall on 'is thine."

Example 4-38 The Seasons, "Winter," mm. 6-9

north thine:

nuTursic

f hen motvato nafurnle 1 f hem miivaia naturwle

| _ y ^ ft?* if f b?tt m*m ato

ft

This is followed by another statement of the row in the strings playing in octave

doublings, with the piano part harmonically completing the row by adding either minor or

diminished seventh chords (mm. 10-13). While the row is often fragmented, leaving

sections of silence, it is always played in a homorhythmic pattern by all strings and piano.

The row is again stated with diatonic chords in the piano part along with double, triple,

and quadruple stops in the strings (mm.17-18). At the fourth beat of measure twenty-five, the piano is silenced leaving only the strings playing the row at the octave with added 196 random ornaments. The next variation (mm. 33-37), illustrated in example 4-39, brings a texture change with tremolo arco sul ponticello stating, in harmony, the first five notes of the row, followed by another sub-group of the prime, and so on. The use of the bow on the bridge of the string instruments gives this section a cold shivery feel illustrative of the words "and his hands unclothe the earth and freezes up frail life."

Example 4-39 The Seasons, "Winter," mm. 33-37

-JK A m and. his hand un- clothes tb< o«ih,awi fax-res up,.... frail life.

Arco ' sul pom nuturaie .dn Violin I i 1 J P M ""ft"" " fir ""u m-.:::::".;"; / =

•no / ttul pont naniralc Violin 2 m } J i 1 J W i .a.r:. M irco / poni. EiE rfkp

arco; »ul p

jsr

This is succeeded by a return of the row completed with chords (as per mm. 10-13) as well as double, triple and quadruple stops in dotted rhythms that unfold into the last section of the movement in sustained chord combinations.

In summary, this movement has a very clear form and is based on a twelve-tone row used in a very effective yet simple fashion, most often stated in the prime form and in unison. The question that arises then is whether or not Ridout uses the same technique and approach for the other seasons of this cycle. While Ridout did not compose an

197 "Autumn" movement, both "Summer" and "Spring" are stylistically very different from

"Winter;" they belong to a post-romantic style with more traditional harmony, and are most definitively not serial movements. Therefore, we can deduce that the tight atonal construction is interpretative of the northern text.

Euphrosvne Reefer's Polar Chrysalis (1981)

"I am a Northerner,"79 says the character in Schafer's Music in the Cold. But what does it really mean to be a Northerner? Does it imply living in the North or to have experienced the real North? If this is the case, than Euphrosyne Keefer is the only composer in this study who is a real northerner, since she has spent time in the true

North. Born in Eastbourne, England, she studied piano and composition at the Royal

Academy of Music in London and also trained as a singer. She married Thomas Keefer, a

Canadian mining engineer, with whom she moved to Canada. They spent five years in the

North (possibly 1958-1963) as they were raising their family of five children.

Interestingly enough, while in the North, she decided to learn the local First Nations language so she could communicate with her neighbours.80 So it is not pure coincidence that her work embodies Schafer's northern triad of meaning: (1) survival, (2) soundscape and (3) art, as well as the aloneness of the Northerner. Some of Claire Pratt's haiku poems selected by Keefer for this composition are very evocative of that triad:

79 Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 66. 80 See Canadian Music Centre, s.v. "Keefer, Euphrosyne" http://wwwmusiccentre.ca/apps/index.Cfm? Fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography&authpeopleid=417&by=K / (accessed August 23, 2010). 198 Things undone, not said: the huge North does not permit such self- indulgence.

Winds of the mute air, strong tides of the secret see: mover in silence.

Wind, blow hot, blow pain, blow evil, move the still air. Crack the still white North.

Night sky and black fog, alone upon the rock cliffs, gone is the North star.

During her career, Keefer set to music two of Claire Pratt's (1921-1995) haiku sequences: Haiku for soprano and flute (1975), and Polar Chrysalis for soprano and piano (1983). For Polar Chrysalis, she selected nine haiku.

Although Keefer's style is very melodic, she nevertheless also employs avant- garde techniques, especially serial ones. To that effect, she gave this work a type of arch shape, as the melody of the voice in the first haiku appears in retrograde version in the last haiku. The melody of the voice in the second haiku is again in its retrograde version in haiku eight, and so on. All the musical material used in the piano part is based on the interval of a major 7th, the largest interval within the octave. This, as well as the wide spacing of registers of the piano part, could be a musical metaphor for the huge North.

Example 4-40 gives a sample of five measures, which shows this abundance of major sevenths and the wide spacing of registers, two essential elements at the core of this composition.

199 Example 4-40 Polar Chrysalis, mm. 1-5

Leato *46

Voice s m mm r W & Huge north • em white - nc*« r»"i J 1 \ 1 If. f *C°' » _s I- p- ff m i •ftnSrrf: #"9

The voice part contributes to the impression of the North in a similar way. It is built on the frequent use of major sevenths and octaves, as well as perfect fifths, conveying the effect of a wide open space implied in the first three words of the first haiku: "Huge northern whiteness." Example 4-41 aptly showcases this use of major sevenths and octaves in the voice part. This setting of "the huge north does not permit such self- indulgence" is accompanied in the piano by doubled-octaves in a motif of a descending semitone (the equivalent of an inverted major seventh) leading to a massive crescendo and accelerando build-up to a widely-spaced sforzando quadruple octave on F# at m. 19.

Example 4-41 Polar Chrysalis, mm. 14-19

l rt'K fHK'O a/WO

I f ^ ff j I'MTr w the huge north iViet not per-mrt «uch Mh-w ilul js* t- *• & {r X Irip jf j 11 *? i ted hM it vr*Sc pmtt a pneo j accel. JT • _k«4 Jejl ~$ut. 7 if ~ «3

Similarly, example 4-42 offers one other relevant instance of abundant use of perfect octaves and major sevenths in the voice part, highlighting the aloneness of the narrator on steep rock cliffs during a dark northern night sky filled with black fog. Once more, the

piano part also uses the same intervals. At m. 66, Keefer conveys the sense of space with

the use of a low pedal Gb, on which are played three chords made up of major sevenths

200 in both hands. Interestingly, if analyzed melodically, each of the four lines are built on a

succession of whole-tones (Cb-Db-Eb/Bb-C-D/Abb-Bbb-Cb/Gb-Ab-Bb), a concept often

found in the selected repertoire. This is followed by an effective pianissimo passage of

non legato sixteenth-notes in chromatic motion marked misterioso and played at a

distance of two octaves.

Example 4-42 Polar Chrysalis, mm. 66-69

N«h< ... mi bfctfc fc*. *.)<•* *c rart .lift. iwi Wi+•-. .

ft*

Lastly, like many composers of her generation, early on Keefer was influenced by the music of Bartok, Hindemith and Stravinsky. In her short biography found on the

Canadian Music Centre website we read: "Keefer also had great admiration for the lean, nordic scoring of Sibelius."81 This comment is especially noteworthy since it ties back to the end of Gould's The Idea of North where, instead of using a work composed or performed by him, Gould concludes his radio documentary with the last movement of

Jean Sibelius's Fifth Symphony.

Peter Hatch's East From the Mountains (1984)

Solitude and aloneness have been largely discussed already as elements associated with the North. East From the Mountains, set to music by Peter Hatch is no exception, as this text is an excerpt of Moving in Alone by John Newlove (1938-2003). In the landscape

81 Canadian Music Centre, s.v. "Keefer, Euphrosyne," http://www.musiccentre.ca/apps/index.cftn ?fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography&authpeopleid=10695&by=K / (accessed August 23,2010). 201 found east of the mountains, there are "cold and isolate cities" as "the cities do not extend

to each other, the hamlets exist alone."

For his setting, Hatch uses an uncommon instrumentation: male voice (most likely tenor), oboe, and harp. Because text painting is a crucial element in this composition, in a way it also partly explains Hatch's choice of the oboe and the harp. The oboe for instance has often been given a melancholic role in orchestral literature, which in this present case translates to the concept of aloneness.82 A good example is the long oboe soliloquy at the beginning of the work (mm. 1-19).

Example 4-43 East From the Mountains, mm.1-19

Aadaat? rcprmlve ,

pipp a tempo mbpmn r»< atrmfw :$1 * L» * •*- - IsAi < jpti

The harp on the other hand offers many options to the composer in depicting elements of the North or winter. For instance, as presented in example 4-44, the winter air is illustrated in the harp as a trill on a single sounding pitch (B-Cb) at the octave.

Example 4-44 East From the Mountains, mm. 36-43

Vmu:

bnb.

82 A comparable convincing example is the huge English horn solo in Jean Sibelius' tone poem The Swan ofTuonela (1895), in which the English horn represents the voice of the swan, one of the most poignant solos in orchestral literature. 202 As per example 4-45, starting at m. 44, the harp then depicts the blowing snow, mentioned in the vocal part (mm. 48-49), in a melodic wave-like pattern in sextuplet sixteenth notes.

Example 4-45 East From the Mountains, mm. 44-49

Plu OIOMO

Tenor

This is followed by a contrasting section which starts at m. 69, where the oboe and harp play a melodic line in triplet quarter notes at the octave (covering three octaves) that illustrates the verse "on a single wind followed by lonely silence." Another gripping feature is the harp glissando played with fingernails, which is used several times starting 203 at m. Ill and produces a cold sonority. One final example is the "high pitched wind" of winter, symbolized by the effect produced at the oboe with the use of an alternate fingering while playing one single pitch, as in m. 112, producing a slightly unstable ethereal timbre. Some of these processes depicting the northern soundscape are repeated until the end of the work.

Barbara Pentland's Ice Ase (1986)

As was pointed out earlier, Music in the Cold projects that building an urban society in the North would completely shatter the internal balance of what Schafer identifies as essential northern triadic components (survival, soundscape, and art), to the point that it could lead to the destruction of the North. This is precisely Dorothy

Livesay's (1909-1996) point of view in her poem Ice Age,83 set to music by Barbara

Pentland. Livesay believed that writing was a political act as well as an artistic one.84

This conviction is quite evident in her work. After reading Ice Age it comes as no surprise to learn that in the 1960s, Livesay listed the destruction of the environment as one of the concerns to which she had dedicated her life and work.85 As for the northern component,

Livesay was born in Winnipeg, apparently during a snowstorm, an event she took as a symbol of her early identity. Ironically, she passed away 87 years later in Victoria, during a rare snowstorm.

83 Ice Age is the 51st poem of a collection of 55 poems, entitled Ice Age. See Dorothy Livesay, Ice Age (Erin, Ontario: Press Porcepic Limited, 1975), 70. 84 See chapters 3 and 4 of Lee Briscoe Thompson, Dorothy Livesay (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1987), 33- 81. 85 Thompson, Dorothy Livesay, 69. 204 Pentland's professional destiny also seems to be tied with the North. In 1939, after studying at Juilliard, Pentland first gained experience as a composer and made herself known throughout Canada by composing the music for Payload, a major documentary on the development of the North. She sporadically returned to the theme of

North with works like Suite borealis (1966) and of course Ice Age in 1986.

Throughout most of her career, Pentland embraced modernist aesthetics, and considered herself a committed high modernist comparable to Ruth Crawford Seeger in the United

States. In the late 1940s, she adopted serial techniques, probably influenced by several factors, namely her friend John Weinzweig, who introduced serialism to Canadian music.87 Other factors were her contact with Schoenberg's pupil Dika Newlin and the discovery of Webern's music. Part of the international avant-garde, in the 1960s and

1970s she continued her explorations through the use of microtones, tape, and directed improvisation. In an interview published in the Anthology of Canadian Music dedicated to her music, Pentland discusses the influence of Anton Webern on her music and says:

"My aim is to write as much meaningful music using as few notes as possible. Every time

I must copy a work I wish I had been more successful in that respect."88 Webern is certainly remembered as a composer for whom the idea of musical unity was important to his musical style to the extent that he wanted to reduce the material to its very essence,

86 See Canadian Music Centre, s.v. "Pentland, Barbara" (by David Gordon Duke), http://www.musiccentre.ca/apps/index.cftn?fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography&authpeopleid= 1016 &by=P / (accessed August 24,2010). 87 Pentland was a close friend of John Weinzweig. Furthermore, in the early 1940s both composers were also colleagues at the Conservatory in Toronto. See Keillor, John Weinzweig and His Music, photo 14. 88 Liner notes of Barbara Pentland, Anthology of Canadian Music, vol. 25, Barbara Pentland. Radio Canada International, 1980, 6 sound discs 33 1/3 rpm., 4. 205 often resulting in one-minute long masterpieces. This explains his aesthetic motto Non

multa sed multum: little (in quantity) but a lot (in quality).89

With the use of the twelve tones and its lean scoring, Ice Age is a convincing example of a work composed in an aesthetic inspired by Webern. Although Pentland selects the twelve tones as the core material for this work, Ice Age is not a composition based on the strict manipulation of these tones, but is rather a dodecaphonic composition freely using them.90 Example 4-46 presents the first thirteen measures of this work, for voice and piano. After a thick cluster on the first beat of m. 1, the piano states six pitches

(mm. 1-3), the first four of these pitches are then repeated in the voice part (mm. 4-6). On the fourth beat of m. 6 the piano begins another statement of the same initial six pitches, followed by the completion of the twelve-tones in the voice part mm. 8-10 with the addition of one pitch in the piano part (Eb in m. 9). At mm. 10-13 is another setting of the twelve-tone spread in both the voice and piano parts. No specific version of a prime row is ever used, except when the voice part does offer a straightforward statement (D, E, F,

C, G, G#, B, C#, A, F#, Bb, Eb) at mm.10-13. The composition unfolds from one statement of the twelve tones to the next, always in a different combination.

89 "Non multa, sed multum" are the words that Webern used to start the dedication to the score of his six Bagatelles opus 9 for string quartet. Willi Reich asserts this adage would be suitable for the whole of Webern's work. See Willi Reich, "Anton Webern: The Man and his Music," Tempo 14 (March 1946): 8. 90 In an interview published in the liner notes accompanying the 25th volume of the Anthology of Canadian Music, dedicated to her music, Pentland explains her aesthetic preference of composing atonal music of dodecaphonic nature, rather than being restrained by the use of strict serialism. See Pentland, Anthology of Canadian Music, 22. 206 Example 4-46 Ice Age, mm. 1-13

Lento Mollo Saitenuto (6-ioncs) , 48

Soprano

co-mmg co

(thick soft cluster) (f<* ft*

(12-toncs) (12-umcs)

dc- vow ring our wheat and™_

X A jv

This intuitive, but intelligent way of setting the twelve tones is also combined with another unifying element: the use of a rhythmic cell built of a triplet followed by two eighth-notes. This recurring element is first stated at m. 26 on the word "rain."

The connection of Pentland's music to Webern's aesthetics could potentially cast a shadow on Schafer's essentialist claims about the music of the North. It is however important to remember that even if Canadian composers share Schafer's ideas, it is impossible to affirm that only the works of northerners will bear some of these essential elements. They are not the sole privilege of Canadian composers. However, Schafer's concept of a northerner's music should be acknowledged as defining important

207 characteristic features extensively present in Canadian music representing the northern

landscape or the "idea of North."

Jean Papineau-Couture's Nuit polaire (1986)

Jean Papineau-Couture's composition Nuit polaire is scored for an expanded chamber orchestra and contralto. The treatment is remarkably bare, as all musicians seldom play at the same time. Papineau-Couture selected an ensemble with many instrumental resources. The instrumentation seems traditional at first glance, with two flutes, oboe, percussion, harp, piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass. As usual, the oboe player is expected to also play English horn. What is surprising is that both flute players are expected to play the piccolo, flute in C, flute in G and the bass flute at various sections of the work. The percussion section is also diversified in terms of timbre with three triangles, one suspended cymbal, rototoms, two tambours de bois, timpani, a set of crotales, a vibraphone, a marimba, and a bass drum.

Although not a serial or dodecaphonic work, Nuit polaire is partly built on the use of twelve tones. Right from the beginning of the work, Papineau-Couture assigns six simultaneous pitches to the four string sections, some of them playing double stops, which are followed by the remaining six other pitches completing the twelve-tone group.

This process is repeated four other times with other pitch class combinations until the voice enters at m. 19 on the words "la longue nuit du pole."91 Example 4-47 shows this introductory passage in the strings, where each group of six pitches is held for two measures. This lengthy setting is illustrative of the adjective "longue." This impression is

91 "The long polar night." 208 also strengthened by the playing of the strings sul tasto con sordino (on the fingerboard and with mute), and by the extreme low range of these instruments, which conveys a muffled and deep effect as a perfect musical translation of the words "nuit du pole." The use of the static twelve-tone harmony combined with all the previously mentioned features creates a very perceptible atmospheric sensation of the immense and frozen polar night.

Example 4-47 Nuit polaire, mm. 1-24

1 . | - j . { - i - f i

Hnclifth Horn 'U 1*» f ' U

lui u*h< wmt

P it)} UMttt if twos P ml M'rd s -f • in P Mil l*ski Mmt.

.-.-j - | * |- j- 1 \ c ^ j \ y bj, j fl>* t # * >• La km - fm mtit nuit

I nK. tin.

A slightly modified setting of these measures is immediately repeated to accompany the words "1'immense nuit du pole." This is followed by a contrasting section, which

209 illustrates the verse "le chant des etoiles."92 The constellation of stars is represented musically in a cluster of congregating superposed rhythms in the high and extremely high registers. Example 4-48 gives a sample of this contrasting section. Since stars can be visible in the night sky as points of light, Papineau-Couture portrays these with two piccolos and one oboe playing fast staccatissimo lines. This detached treatment in the woodwinds is echoed by the plucked timbre of harp in its highest register. The myriad of stars is also conveyed by the crystalline sound of the individual high B crotale played pianissimo with a long and sustained bow, which actually sounds two octaves higher than the written pitch. Finally, one last element translating the shimmering quality of that starry night is located in the piano part, where the pianist is asked to play glissandi with fingernails or a plectrum over the highest strings inside the instrument while depressing the sustaining pedal.

92 "The song of the stars." 210 Example 4-48 Nuit polaire, m. 41

PIim ripidt • - kx) /(clminc)4 S Vo*cc »& - - „ > J J ' *" l.c ctwni dc* £ - toi * lc»

jjaccatissimo t tf Piccok) ? • t r t J flp slBCC0tJs*irm> Piccolo fey?„ T-SSiS "T-f- f---nr-^f r

staaatisnimo

Croialcs arco Pavimion Ji «» s~- tot if „le. ..tr . : t _--f HoffH is. ?= jjf 1=

»»H»wwwvwwww\»vmwwwww»w»wwwwvw ~S-=^~3E= y mg

fit-

ctilever to ftourdme

Violin

cnkver ia sourdine Viola

enlcvcr Is sourdine Violoncello 9-

cnlever U sourdine

211 Throughout this work, Papineau-Couture uses many unusual instrumental techniques to illustrate the various aspects of the polar night, as described in the poem.

On the words "neige eternelle"93 the composer gives the two piccolos a passage in

"Aeolian sounds," which he describes as "ou seul le souffle est audible, tout en produisant la hauteur precise,"94 meaning that only the breath is audible, while being produced in a precise playing position. As per example 4-49, the composer also combines this technique with the use of glissandi, giving this section the feel of a cold breeze.

Example 4-49 Nuit polaire, mm. 77-80 (piccolos)

eoticn

Piccolo

eolicn

Piccolo

Another intriguing section is Papineau-Couture's depiction of this northern landscape's

"sol lunaire."95 He translates this musically as a surreal sounding section dominated by crackling effects. Musically, this is achieved by the use of Bartok pizzicatos in the strings, very dry chords senza pedale in the piano part, fluttertongued notes in the oboe, improvised passages of wood drums imitating the irregular rhythm of bamboo chimes, and finally sections where the piccolos either make percussive sounds with the keys of the instrument while playing a precise pitch or creating pizzicatos, i.e. a tongued staccato in the palate without blowing air into the instrument. These features are not all simultaneous, so the rattling effect is scattered throughout the ensemble from mm. 85 to

93 "Eternal snow." 94 Jean Papineau-Couture, Nuit polaire (Montreal: Canadian Music Centre, 1986), 1. 95 "Lunar soil." 212 94. Many more examples of word-painting could be described in other sections of this composition.

One last feature of this work already acknowledged at the outset of this analysis is the bareness of the composition, even though it is set for a large chamber ensemble. This is a typical feature of many works analyzed in this study. Two examples illustrate this trait. Example 4-50 shows a striking moment almost at the exact centre of the piece where the voice, preceded by a solo of crotales playing the twelve-tone row, speaks in a slow, solemn pace and low voice tone marked forte: "Univers de glace / Paysage impavide"96 accompanied only by a punctuated statement of the timpani.

Example 4-50 Nuit polaire, mm. 109-114

Marl* trt* grave r» lew. conunr - Lent / r-1 /•> o $4 *>- t - " " -f: j. •- I " I Unjvcf* dc Pmyvtft! wn pj - bagoe«te« $ jt -f s * lit PtfVlMKk* timhiikt wrd 9' ::::::i "i:T.::: :V::::::c::: r:: 1 » V

The second excerpt, shown in example 4-51, is an extended measure essentially consisting of a long a cappella cadence on the words "fantastique nuit noire habitee d'etoiles."97

96 "World of ice / Fearless landscape." 97 "Fantastic dark night inhabited by stars." 213 Example 4-51 Nuitpolaire, m. 202

P*rto tro Mtitcnu ifwnte

Voiv-r & : .""j • : ft

Mi • hi • Me if«• k» tec H«-to-«*e cf*-tw-k* ,ft t«n-ir» .ft hs UM

un pen «*<»» «pnk Hf- 4* * » *• Vi aw'iH'jF' -1 >» V» w* fm • •»» - 11 - que Durt oat Ha • hi • iit

Leon Zuckert's Two Northern Nature Sones (1989)

The connecting theme between these Two Northern Nature Songs for voice and piano, based on poems by Lois Darroch (1912-2004), is loneliness, a concept frequently linked to the idea of North.98 The title of the first song, "The Lonesome Loon," quickly highlights this theme, which is not as obvious with the title of the second song, "Northern

Night" However Zuckert adds the following note to accompany his score:

In 1943, when I was traveling with Sigmund Romberg's orchestra from North Dakota to Winnipeg, the only connection by train was to catch a train that stopped at a "whistle stop" in the middle of nowhere. We were 50 people in the group. The station was very tiny and I don't understand how so many people could fit in there, and practically everybody smoking. I decided to go outside for some fresh air, and was met by a beautifully starry night, trillions of small and large stars sparkling, winking joyously. I was surrounded by a vast expanse of snow-covered desert. Suddenly, in the North there began a display of shooting, jumping, crossing each other rays of all colors of the rainbow, I could almost hear the crackling of the Northern Lights, but... amid all that stupendous grandeur I felt alone, lost in all that immensity and I felt saddened by my loneliness. That's why that NORTHERN NIGHT SONG IS SAD.

Because the interest in the second song, "Northern Night," resides primarily in the poem, which highlights both the concept of loneliness and the overwhelming presence of silence, the present musical analysis focuses on the first song, "The Lonesome Loon."

98 Interestingly, Darroch wrote a book on Arthur Lismer, one member of the famous Group of Seven. See Lois Darroch, Bright Land: A Warm Look at Arthur Lismer (Toronto: Merritt, 1981).

214 Aside from the thematic content centered on loneliness, "The Lonesome Loon" features many extremely relevant musical characteristics within the northern frame of reference of this study. First, Zuckert describes it as his impression of the cry of the loon. Musically, it is rendered through a pattern of a sixteenth-note sextuplet followed by a longer note, generally of a half-note value. In terms of melodic contour, this seven-note motif starts with a descending pattern of four pitches followed by a mirroring ascending pattern

(example 4-52.)

Example 4-52 Two Northern Nature Songs, "The Lonesome Loon," m. 2 (voice)

This motif is used in both the voice and the piano part, and is either stated as shown in the previous example, starting on B, or in a slightly modified version in terms of intervallic distance between the pitches, starting on E, as per example 4-53.

Example 4-53 Two Northern Nature Songs, "The Lonesome Loon," m. 3

0

Voicc

215 It is interesting to compare Zuckert's impression of the cry of the loon to Somers' famous rendering in the first song of Evocations (example 4-10) composed twenty-three years prior to Zuckert's song. While the echoing call of the loon in Somers' Evocations was heard in the eerie effect of the loon motif sung into the piano with the damper pedal depressed, in Zuckert's song the echo is produced by an interplay between the singer and the pianist, as illustrated in example 4-54.

Example 4-54, Two Northern Nature Songs, "The Lonesome Loon," mm. 19-21

Voiec

LAKH'!

Piano

Furthermore, the composer is assertive about the fact that this effect must be performed almost without measure, as it "should be heard a second or two away and not follow as it is in the music.

Finally, referring to Schafer's idea that the "art of the North is the art of restraint" and of "tiny events magnified,"100 Zuckert's "Lonesome Loon" is entirely based on one single pentatonic scale (D, E, F, A, B). No other pitch is ever played throughout this

3'30" song.

99 From the comments accompanying the score. Violet Archer, Northern Journey (Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1990). 100 Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 65. 216 Violet Archer's Northern Journey (1990)

As previously mentioned, the North truly is a recurrent theme in Violet Archer's repertoire for solo voice. Northern Journey for baritone and piano is one of her most complete and accomplished song cycles, essentially based on poems about the Canadian northern landscape. The texts are from Canadian poet Inge Israel, who was largely inspired by arctic regions of the country, according to the titles given to the outermost songs: "Auyuittuq" and "Kluane Glaciers."

Most likely inspired by the Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island, the first song is entitled "Auyuittuq," a word in Inuktituk which translates to "land that never melts." Right from the beginning, with its maestoso character, the introduction of this song depicts a vast, cold, and massive landscape. As shown in example 4-55, this impression is created by the use of a single melodic line played in triple octaves in the medium and low range of the piano with accents on every pitch doubled by the sostenuto effect of the pedal. What also contributes to give a cold feel to this section of the work is that within these seven measures of introduction at the piano, all twelve chromatic pitches are played melodically without producing any tonal attraction or implication. In fact, the only harmonic content of this passage is created by the added low octave tremolos of the left hand part, at the interval of an unresolved tritone. Consequently, there is almost a complete absence of harmony, thus of harmonic direction, contributing largely in producing a cold-feeling effect and a sense of emptiness.

217 Example 4-55 Northern Journey, "Auyuittuq," mm. 1-7

Lirgo, maestoso * 54

Piano

The MMNumnn pcdi! should he used it ihe of (he pcrtwnwr ftii-

This cold, empty, and stark impression is present in many sections of this cycle. Another good example can also be found at m. 29 where the baritone's line "and we breathed warm guilt into the cold air" is doubled two octaves higher in the right hand of the piano, all of which is sustained by a low octave tremolo like a pedal bass on E in the left hand.

Example 4-56 Northern Journey, "Auyuittuq," m. 29

Baritone

brutllrcad warm guilt in - to the cow

Piano

One other evocative excerpt is at mm. 25-26, which follows the words "ice crystals." The music there is based on a superposition of tritones played two octaves apart in the high register of the piano, which conveys a very bright, crystalline quality. As well, the choice of the tritone as a way to organize pitch content is quite appropriate. In the set theory method, the tritone is the perfect interval, i.e. it divides the octave in exactly two halves, meaning that the complement of the tritone is precisely the same interval but in inversion. Thus the tritone is the most symmetrical interval; a perfect

218 choice to illustrate crystals, which are accepted as symmetrically shaped solids naturally

formed.

Example 4-57 Northern Journey, "Auyuittuq," mm. 25-26

Piano ( "P

it. *-

Another aspect worth mentioning is that this poem gives a prominent role to the loon. However, contrary to Somers and Zuckert's lonely cry of the loon, Israel highlights the presence of loons in the chosen landscape as they "burst into maniacal laughter," representative of the second half of the call as referred to earlier.101 Archer mirrors this emphasis in her music through extremely reduced means: a cluster of three notes in the high range of the piano that is quickly repeated in a very nervous rhythmic pattern that lasts from mm. 45 to 49.

Example 4-58 Northern Journey, "Auyuittuq," mm. 45-46

Poco pin motto (. - mi ) A

PifliM) < ff m I. v. keep damper pedal pressed (half pressed) until release is indicated

....

101 See note 32, p. 142. 219 The impression of bareness acknowledged so many times in this chapter is

evident throughout this cycle, especially in the second song "Winter Sky." This song

starts with the verse "We laid offerings of silence." Hence Archer chose a generally thin

texture, giving prominence to silence by using either an abundance of rests or a cappella

singing. She reduces the musical material to a minimum, yet her music is effective. At

mm. 25-26 for example, she illustrates the arctic wind with a repeated whole-tone scale in sixteenth notes. This is a perfect way to portray the cold wind since, unlike a diatonic scale, the whole-tone scale has no direction nor requires resolution. These two measures are followed by the words "all at once the arctic wind stopped time," which are then followed by a widely spaced octave doubling (m.24); a highly effective way to illustrate the frozen infinity of the landscape.

Another excerpt worth mentioning is the Aurora dance moment from mm. 33-45

(example 4-59), which could be interpreted as one more illustration of Schafer's art of restraint. Technically, Archer makes it a dance in triple meter solely constituted of an abridged left hand piano accompaniment, without any melody, even in the voice part.

Finally, this second song ends with a strong arctic wind followed by a gigantic silence

(mm. 46-50), echoing mm. 25 and 26.

Example 4-59 Northern Journey, "Winter Sky," mm. 35-45

Presto* * 120

I - # • 1 j •' *-- r I " * i 1- -. 1 <. . |-- * en» I 1 1 7 ftrj -

220 The third song of the cycle is entitled "Delta." Since a delta is a flat area at the mouth of a river, it is not surprising that Archer opted here for a monochrome harmonic character. Continuing in the same style as the other songs, she again uses multiple double octaves and fifths in parallel motion.

The last song, "Kluane Glacier," makes reference to a different geographical place: the Kluane National Park spread between Yukon and British Columbia. Archer persists with harmony in parallel motion, numerous instances of widely spaced double octaves, as well as an abundance of rests and a cappella sections to convey silence. The musical parameters throughout are again reduced to a strict minimum. The concluding section of this song, thus of the whole cycle, while bringing back the cold immensity of the beginning of the cycle with its accented wide-spaced octaves, also highlights the transformative quality of the North acknowledged by Gould - people who go North are inevitably transformed by this experience. Israel uses the word "resurrection" to portray this transformation. Musically, Archer interprets this by adding the comment come campane, like bells, to the octaves. The transformation is also imparted harmonically as the widely spaced octaves of the piano part from mm. 62 to 68 are for the first time in the whole cycle a major third harmony. This harmony in thirds can be interpreted as a reflection of the minor sixth interval used in the voice part for the words "and resurrection," the minor sixth being the inverted equivalent of the major third. As in previous sections of the cycle, Archer combines this harmony in thirds with the use of whole-tone scale content: the right hand of the piano part plays a whole-tone scale of Eb-

F-G-A-B (mm. 61-64) and the left one completes the scale with Db-Eb-F-G (mm. 62-64).

Example 4-60 presents these last twelve measures of "Kluane Glacier." The tempo

221 indication of adagio molto, also contributes to conveying the majestic impression of this perennial mass of ice.

Example 4-60 Northern Journey, "Kluane Glacier," mm. 57-68

Adagio molto .= 46 JST a tempo / !h Baritone * and re-sur - rcc tion Adagio molto « = 46 \>± irdna-.. i Piano < a tempo ff come campane iff

=s~^= i f- bp- !>-*»• ' S>xr

Bar. Hiliis

XX il IV. /•">

Id vibrate until Pno. sound disappears

l.v. r\

hoc tax 1>XX"" l.v.

'2*6 l&fc ifii.

Brent Lee's "Stopping for Northern Lights East of Priddis" from Landscapes in a

Luminous Nieht (1993)

Each song of this cycle is composed as a recollection of nocturnal Alberta landscapes that Brent Lee experienced in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. "Stopping for Northern Lights East of Priddis" is the only song from this cycle for soprano and harp 222 that has a specific connection to the idea of North. Interestingly enough, it is also the only

one of the cycle without words; it consists of a vocalise on only three vowel sounds ([u],

[o], [a]). Contrary to many other works studied so far, the pertinent elements of this song

lie largely in the voice part, not in the accompaniment. The harp plays a non-stop steady accompaniment role as it tirelessly repeats the same rhythm in 6/4 meter with the exception of m. 45 in 3/4 meter. Example 4-61 gives a sample of this harp accompaniment: each measure consists of a low bass note on the first beat followed by one mid-high range chord on the second beat repeated again on the fifth beat.

Example 4-61 Landscapes in a Luminous Night, "Stopping for Northern Lights East of Priddis," m. 1

XT-

The melodic contour of the vocal part, however, is much more varied and somewhat imitative of northern lights as it gradually gains magnitude in terms of range and dynamic to a climax at mm. 39 to 41, after which there are only nine more bars remaining in the song. These last measures are marked by a diminuendo and a quick lowering of the register, to effectively close the song. This compositional technique, greatly reminiscent of the second Viennese school, was also used by Somers in his

Twelve Miniatures.

223 Example 4-62 Landscapes in a Luminous Night, "Stopping for Northern Lights East of Priddis," mm. 36-43 (voice part)

Sof,riim> =-—-=4^^ ~ ff - i ]

ii-oa - - « - - - - * - - . a-

Adding to this northern lights effect is the way Lee uses the three vowel sounds as colour

and light effects, constantly merging from one to the other. The beginning is dominated

by the use of [u], a closed and darker vowel sound. In m. 9, an oscillation between [u]

and [o] starts. This gradually metamorphoses again into a more open vowel sound until

m. 17 is reached, where [a], the most open and clear vowel sound of them all, is used for

the first time. At m. 25, the fluctuation between the three vowels is reduced again to only

two vowel sounds, [a] and [o], and finally at m. 36, almost at the climax, only the bright

[a] vowel is used up until the end of the song. Musically, the use of these three different

vowel colours as well as the melodic phrasing and contour assigned to the voice part is

imitative of the luminous phenomenon of shimmering colours typically associated with the aurora borealis.

John Buree's Winter (1995)

In his introductory comments accompanying the score of Winter, a song for soprano, flute, and piano on a poem by Bliss Carman (1861-1929), Burge mentions:

"Bliss Carman's poetry is marked by both an attachment to the Canadian landscape and a somewhat mystical vision of the world."102 This is probably why Burge opted to structurally base this song on a chorale-like theme initially stated by the flute and piano,

102 John Burge, Autumn Closing and Winter (Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1995). 224 followed by six variations; again another straight-forward form. The poem is not strophic,

so it cannot justify the variation setting. Burge gives each variation a different number of

verses, some verses or sections of verses being also repeated. The following scheme

represents the verse distribution for all variations.

Winter

Var.1 When winter comes along the river line And Earth has put away her green attire, With all the pomp of her autumnal pride, Var. 2 The world is made a sanctuary old, Where Gothic trees uphold the arch of gray, And gaunt stone fences on the ridge's crest Stand like carved screens before a crimson shrine, Var. 3 Showing the sunset glory through the chinks. Var. 4 There, like a nun with frosty breath, the soul, Uplift in adoration, sees the world Transfigured to a temple of her Lord; Var. 5 ("ah!") Var. 6 While down the soft blue-shadowed aisles of snow Night, like a sacristan with silent step, Passes to light the tapers of the stars.

In winter, "the world is made a sanctuary old." Burge translates this musically by

writing the piano part in a style reminiscent of a church organ. He mostly achieves this by

the use of simultaneous ranges in combined layers, like the different voicing options

possible with organ stops. Thus he tacitly refers to an instrument associated with the concept of a shrine or a sanctuary and strongly connected to spiritual significance.

Although the two works are very different, one cannot help but draw a parallel with

Claude Debussy's piano prelude La cathedrale engloutie, at least in terms of instrumental range and occasional sonorities.

Many musical elements in this song contribute to give an overall sense of a large space, as in Burge's depiction of "winter like an enormous sanctuary." This is conveyed

225 by the use of extreme registers and the omnipresence of octaves throughout the song.

Octaves permeate this score; they are present in the bass line and are cleverly disguised in the voice part. Example 4-63 gives one of many instances where the vocal phrase starts with this interval.

Example 4-63 Winter, mm. 30-34 (voice)

#••»/ ^ ^

The world 5*...mmk a sane - lu « a • ry of old,

Octaves are also spread throughout the flute part as well, notably in the third variation where it is treated in a type of ostinato pattern, as shown in example 4-64.

Example 4-64 Winter, mm. 64-80 (flute)

Additionally, in a similar way to Archer's "Kluane Glacier" from the cycle

Northern Landscapes, composed five years earlier and which carried a transformative

element under the word "resurrection" associated with bell-like sounds, Burge's Winter also presents an analogous component, however, this time under the verb "transfigured" and in association with the organ, another instrument linked with church. In Burge's song, this transformative element of transfiguration is presented in the fourth variation.

This variation is immediately followed by the fifth one (mm. 105-118), which vocally consists of a vocalise on "ah!" Burge adds this vocalise to Bliss Carman's poem, as if

226 words were not enough to illustrate the change comprised within the concept of transfiguration.

John G. Armstrong's False Sprins (1996)

Armstrong's False Spring, for soprano, recorder, and guitar, is a set of seven songs based on poems by Ottawa writer Susan McMaster (b. 1950). Armstrong presents this cycle as a series of snapshots, each with a seasonal association. Three of the seven songs can be studied through the lens of the northern theme: "Pavane," "Old

Photographs," and "False Spring."

For a musician, the title "Pavane," used for the fourth song of this cycle, immediately brings to mind the stately seventeenth-century dance type in duple meter featuring three repeated sections (AABBCC).103 It is hard to understand why the composer did not seek the opportunity to borrow elements from this, either in terms of rhythm or structure. However, the word "pavane" does have many other connotations;

Maurice Ravel's melancholic and solemn Pavane pour une infente defunte is certainly one famous example. Nevertheless, Armstrong's depiction of an icy night is convincing in this movement, especially during the first nine measures where the tempo and character are marked "still, transparent." Example 4-65 presents these measures, where the guitar plays sustained fourths in high harmonics, giving an ethereal colour to the

103 Grave Music Online, s.v. "Pavan" (by Alan Brown), http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.lipr oxy.uregina.ca:2048/subscriber/article/grove/music/21120?q=pavane&hbutton_search.x=0&hbutton_searc h.y=0&hbutton_search=search&source=omot237&source=omo_gmo&source=omo_tl 14&search=quick &pos=l&_start=l#firsthit / (accessed September 14, 2010).

227 sound, while the voice line is moving in intervals of fifths and fourths, intervals also

privileged by several other composers within this northern thematic.

Example 4-65 False Spring, "Pavane," mm. 1-9

Still, transparent (« * 60)

PP

The ice «ood up in shafts of light a cms- cross of tracks...... lit by the moon

-/F-"* *r » if*-** pp

"Old Photographs" is very short with only six measures in total, an obvious example of the art of restraint. In addition, the whole song is based on only five pitches

(D, F#, G, C#, B) and the voice part is set a cappella for the first four bars. To add to this, the composer expects this miniature song to be "stark and empty." Technically, this is again achieved with the combination of melodic and harmonic perfect fourths and tritones, which are open and unresolved.

The sixth song of the cycle, "False Spring," is again a very effective movement based on the interval of the tritone, which is constantly present in the voice as well as the recorder part. The tumult created by the weather change at the end of winter, where there might be a sudden warmer breeze while nature and light are still frozen, is well depicted in the frenzied sounding guitar part in which the musician is expected to improvise randomly on given pitches, playing them continuously as fast as possible and letting them ring.

228 Violet Archer's Sones of North (1996)

Archer's cycle entitled Songs of North is a fine example of nordicity. The songs are about the four seasons, but are ultimately about the fact that regardless of the season, the described landscape is a northern one. One could argue that these poems set to music by Archer are not about Canada specifically; in fact the poet Lisa Harbo104 is from

Alaska. However, they represent or express things that most Canadians would believe to be essential to their northern country: snow (cycle of water), vast territory, quiet place, and solitude.

Again, there are clear implications of Schafer's notion of an essential northern musical idiom in Archer's Songs of North. Throughout the cycle, which is mainly based on the use of whole-tone scales, there is a strong impression of stiff and clumsy piano writing, most of the accompaniment being in parallel motion, often in double or triple octaves. This could easily be connected with Schafer's comments: "It'll toughen it up.

It'll reduce it to the lean shape, maybe even bare bones. [...] A northern glacier is a brute form."105 As in her other works previously analyzed, Archer once more associates these northern poems with a use of a multiplicity of octaves and whole-tone scale patterns, creating the impression of a very static and cold climate. As described in other sections of this chapter, works based on the use of octaves, fifths, fourths and/or whole-tone scales have the peculiar characteristic of creating a harmony in parallel motion where there is an absence of direction, direction being typical of more diatonic harmony. The following examples illustrate these qualities. Examples 4-66 and 4-67 show instances of harmony in rigid triple and quadruple octaves, the former example being even marked marcato.

104 Lisa Harbo is now an instructor of English at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. 105 Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 64-65. 229 Example 4-66 Songs of North, "Seasons of North," mm. 5-6

f manafo Voice m Grand and qui d di* • tmcl

JL. 3!E * ~zSz: Piatm < IZlfeE 9 a* 3

Example 4-67 Songs of North, "Vows and Seasons," mm. 16-24

I?- ^ * * #3- 3L__3 Piano i

3=n r m # * i ? »•** £? ts- 5- ..?

Example 4-67 as well as the following three examples show instances of the use of whole-tone scale motifs. Example 4-68 first presents a whole-tone scale in two statements of four pitches played an octave apart in a staggered setting between the two hands at a distance of a sixteenth-note. This is directly followed by a repeated whole-tone scale motif of four pitches played melodically in simultaneous octaves. The next example shows an excerpt where the melody of the voice part is based on the use of a whole-tone scale pattern. The last example, taken from the fifth song of this cycle, presents one occurrence of a whole-tone scale pattern played in a compact position doubled at the octave. Archer cleverly quadruples the effect of this simultaneous whole-tone harmony by adding three more utterances of it played each time at a higher octave while maintaining the sostenuto pedal.

230 Example 4-68 Songs of North, "September Nativity," mm. 3-4

Allegro con motom

Piano < iqf poco a fXHv crc.u

SA- -J fit

Example 4-69 Songs of North, "September Nativity," mm. 6-8

Largo fHH O iUXft. / Voicc - - f-grJ-T J r r f-r ;

The high bu*h ber • hes .shine So red a - g»in*t a sea ot teatvs,...

Example 4-70 Songs of North, "O Kingdom of Summer," mm. 42-45

Allegro

Piano {

Finally, it is important to point out that the poetry of Lisa Harbo, set to music by

Archer, corresponds to Schafer's binary opposition of North/South in Music in the Cold.

This binary opposition, for example "winter of night/summer of day," is emphasized musically as Archer systematically uses descending melodic motifs for winter and more negative images such as darkness, in contrast to ascending melodic motifs for summer and more optimistic elements like the verb "shine."

231 Predominant Shared Musical Features or the Creation of a Musical Style

After completing the comparative study of the different musical works for solo voice written by Canadian composers, it is now possible to draw conclusions based on analysis of the data. As described at length in the first part of this chapter, the texts used as song lyrics play a crucial role in the articulation of North in Canadian art music for solo voice. While word-painting is an important strategy used by Canadian composers to illustrate aspects of the northern landscape in the selected repertoire, it is impossible to make an exhaustive list of all the utterances and then identify repetitive patterns or musical elements that are used to illustrate words, expressions or concepts tied to northernness. What can be asserted, however, is that the simple identification of the musical idioms used by Canadian composers to represent northern wilderness or Canada- as-North leads to broad conclusions in terms of recurring and outstanding elements on how the music is structured, what is its harmonic content, how the voice is exploited, and how the orchestration and instrumentation contribute to this discursive formation of

North in Canadian music for solo voice.

The framework provided by Schafer's Music in the Cold proved to be positively accurate. At the beginning of his manifesto, Schafer wondered how this cold and snow would ultimately affect music. His prognosis was that it would make northern music stronger and sturdier, slimmed down to the bare essential elements, and structurally highly organized, to the point that its trimmed conception would heighten small inner component(s). These elements were successfully identified as important characteristic features extensively present in the selected repertoire of this study.

232 Several commonalities emerged from the previous analyses. Musical structure proved to be a central preoccupation for the vast majority of composers who generally used obvious forms, with a predilection for the arch shape, as seen in Keefer's Polar

Chrysalis, Hutu's "Soir d'hiver," and Henninger's "Winter Night." Tied to this formal aspect, is the interpretation of Schafer's analogy that "a northern glacier is a brute form" and that "rolling land masses become formal in the winter," musically translated in blocks of sound in works for voice and orchestra, such as in Ridout's "Winter" from The

Seasons, Pepin's Hymne au vent du nord, and Fleming's Of a Timeless Land. This feature also relates to Archer's growling effect in the accompaniment of Prairie Profiles and the stiff and clumsy piano part in Songs of North.

Notably, the whole repertoire analyzed in the context of this study truly belongs to the category of "art of restraint," as all the works feature extremely lean scoring: there is never any excess, whether superfluous virtuosity or exaggerated density.106 The texture is generally spare, even when it comes to the piano or the orchestral accompaniment. More specifically, in the works for voice and orchestra or large chamber ensemble, all the musicians seldom play at the same time, only sub-groups or individual instruments, such as in Fleming's Of a Timeless Land and in Papineau-Couture's Nuit polaire. As for the works that use the piano as accompaniment, contrary to usual practice, this instrumental part is never dense and filled with an overuse of the sustaining pedal. In fact, the scoring for this instrument is rather spare, sometimes even used melodically rather than harmonically, as per songs in Evocations by Somers. The lean scoring also pairs with the

106 Examples of elaborate or dense vocal writing by non-Canadian composers of the twentieth century include Sequema III for woman's voice (1965) by Luciano Berio (1925-2003), Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969) by Peter Maxwell Davies (b. 1934), and Recitations (1978) by Georges Aperghis (b. 1945). 233 omnipresence of rests throughout this repertoire, an expected element since, as seen in the analysis of the literary component (see Appendix E), the word "silence" pervades the poetry. The rendition of the word silence is particularly evocative in Ridout's The

Seasons (mm. 31-33), where the voice sings that word a cappella followed by a simple cadence-like statement of two pitches played pizzicato in the strings. As can be anticipated, this abundance of silence creates opportunities for a cappella singing, in itself representative of a minimalist approach to the musical setting of poetry, but also illustrative of the aloneness of the northerner. A cappella singing occurs in several songs, such as in Archer's cycles Northern Journey and Prairie Profiles, in Armstrong's False

Spring, and Somers' Evocations. However, the best illustration of an a cappella section is found in m. 202 of Papineau-Couture's Nuitpolaire (see example 4-51). In keeping with the idea of reduced means, it is not surprising to find extremely well crafted miniatures in the repertoire, namely Armstrong's songs from his cycle False Spring and especially

Somers' Miniatures, "Winter Night" and "Loneliness."

This leads to a third noteworthy element in this definition of a northerner's music, especially from Schafer's point of view that "the art of the North is composed of tiny events magnified."107 In fact, the analysis has shown that several works are based on the development of a core motif, cell, or row. Such is the case in Zuckert's song "The

Lonesome Loon," exclusively based on a pentatonic scale, Prevost's cycle Hiver dans

I 'ame, rooted on a four-note cell, and Ridout's movement "Winter," built on a 12-tone row. These three works, and many others from the selected repertoire, not only use this small feature as their core element, but by magnifying it to its full potential, the germinal

107 Schafer, "Music in the Cold," 65. 234 motif ultimately provides greater unity to the composition and improves the overall formal structure.

A fourth common feature concerns the compositional processes chosen to convey the cold and frozen northern landscape. To do so, composers use a variety of instrumental combinations, techniques, and idioms. General features found in the repertoire include strings with mutes, natural and artificial harmonics, the use of higher woodwind instruments, especially the flute, to produce crystalline and aerial sounds, and finally a preference for metallic timbres, such as cymbal rolls (see Fleming's Of a Timeless Land, mm. 240-248), crotales played with bow (see Papineau-Couture's Nuit polaire, mm. 41-

51), or the harp played with nails (see Papineau-Couture's Nuit polaire, mm. 41-51 and

Hatch's East from the Mountains, mm. 111-119). However, another effective element in that regard is how composers exploit the harmonic component within these compositions.

Throughout these analyses, the presence of perfect fourths, fifths, and octaves was frequently highlighted. Such is also the case for tritones, and especially whole-tone scales. Because of the inherent absence of attraction created by parallel fourths and fifths, whole-tone scales and unresolved tritones, these musical features effectively convey a convincing impression of cold, static, and frozen landscape. An endless number of examples are present within the selected repertoire. Archer's "September Nativity," from

Songs of North, is one effective sample based on the use of whole-tone scales (see examples 4-68 to 4-70).

Finally, this discussion leads to the illustration of the northern expanses, which is primarily conveyed through a spare texture combined with the exploitation of extreme registers. The simultaneous use of widely distanced registers to portray the vastness of

235 the Canadian northern landscape pervades this repertoire. It is the case in Keefer's Polar

Chrysalis, Prevost's Hiver dans I'ame, and Archer's song cycles. In addition, this spacing of registers is most often fused with widely spaced double, triple, or quadruple octaves,

which exponentially duplicates the effectiveness of this effect to portray the huge North.

Many convincing examples are found in Archer's Northern Journey (see mm. 13-16 in

"Auyuittuq," mm. 17-21 and 29-30 in "Winter Sky," and mm. 59-68 in "Kluane

Glaciers").

This exhaustive study of the selected repertoire would be incomplete without some further comments on the vocal setting. In general, the studied repertoire on the northern theme does not showcase other important features solely specific to the vocal treatment. Considering the timeframe during which this repertoire was composed and the expansion of sound resources characteristic of this period, the initial expectation was to find several cases of innovative approaches to the vocal setting, such as the use of

Sprechstimme, non-familiar idioms, or other extended vocal techniques. On the contrary, with a few exceptions, namely Evocations by Somers, the vocal treatment corresponds to a traditional lyrical setting. As stated, only a few instances of Sprechstimme singing can be accounted for in Pentland's Ice Age and Somers' Evocations. Nonetheless, sections of songs in declamatory style, like in Fleming's Of a Timeless Land (see m. 246), and others inparlando singing, notably in Archer's Prairie Profiles (see m. 31 of "Have You Heard

Snow Falling?" in example 4-35), are often found, consequently giving extreme prominence to the text. In that regard, it is also especially fitting to retrace the many occurrences where the voice is set in a monochromatic style, like in Pepin's Hymne au

236 vent du nord (see mm. 96-100) and Prevost's Hiver dansVame (see mm. 2-19 of

"Dernier parallele"), a reflection of the bare and frozen North.

Important and fundamental commonalities found throughout the selected vocal repertoire have been extensively listed. This detailed account of Canadian music for solo voice representing the northern landscape or the "idea of North" demonstrates that

Canadian composers writing in this genre actively contribute towards a definition of a

Canadian northern musical style. As shown, after diligent analysis of the different musical parameters, there is a convergence of elements that characterize this repertoire and lead to the assertion of a shared Canadian northern style. These conclusions, drawn from a thorough and comprehensive study of works composed by 26 different composers, written over a span of over 50 years, scored for voice and various instrumental combinations, and emanating from diverse compositional approaches, truly demonstrate the creation of a musical style, which emerged from this country's northern landscape.

237 CONCLUSION

"North" has proven to be a source of collective identity for Canadians. This enduring myth of the Canadian ethos has significantly inspired Canadian artists, namely

"art music" composers. The exhaustive study of the repertoire chosen for this project, when correlated to the theoretical underpinning of Schafer's Music in the Cold, led to many conclusions on how the North is performed in Canadian music for solo voice, ultimately proving the existence and articulation of a typically Canadian musical style in the context of this theme.

In order to do so, a frame of reference was first established. Consequently, after situating the musicological approach privileged for this study, Chapter 1 justified the selected timeframe of the second half of the 20th century, a time during which art music in Canada reached an international level comparable to that found elsewhere in Western art music. This maturation towards professionally recognized standards of quality in the discipline, as training improved and Canadian music and composers attained international recognition, in conjunction with the proliferation of new works, made it possible to study the Canadian repertoire within a national rather than a colonial context and discourse.

Through an historical overview of the "Idea of North" in Canada, Chapter 2 demonstrated that the Canadian identity is tied to the land, especially to the northern landscape. Chapter 3 served as a framework that showed the importance of the northern landscape as a concept permeating the imagination of Canadian musicians. For this purpose, works by Glenn Gould, R. Murray Schafer, and Christos Hatzis, using various

238 media that are not specifically considered Western art music, were examined. The study of these works permitted highlighting how each musician made an important contribution in shaping the northern narrative in Canadian art music.

Chapter 4 then took on the challenge of looking at Canadian repertoire for solo voice to show how it is grounded in the national northern discourse. After a detailed description of this repertoire, a thorough investigation of the literary content of these songs was conducted. A parallel with Canadian northern literature identified the recurrence of themes or leitmotives, such as a northern Utopia, wild animals and native people, a northern mission, and isolation. It also demonstrated that the Canadian northern landscape is extensively represented as a huge frozen landscape, and quite often at nighttime. Finally, in the poetry set to music, the wind and silence were both identified as important concepts belonging to the Canadian northern soundscape. This was followed by a thorough analysis of the music, which showed the presence of several common features within the selected repertoire, especially when examined according to the frame of reference provided by Schafer's conception of a Northerner's music as presented in his

Music in the Cold. Thus, what precedes this concluding chapter is a descriptive account of Canadian music for solo voice on the northern theme, which leads to a definition of a

Canadian northern style in music.

Musical findings stemming out of these analyses include many recurring elements and idioms, such as the use of static (interpreted as frozen) harmony with a profusion of material based on whole-tone scales or parallel fifths, fourths, tritones, and octaves, the privileging of clear forms and spare orchestration with an abundance of silence and a cappella singing, the use of a germinal motif or cell as the core material, the profusion of

239 sections scored in widely-spaced registers, and the privileging of cold timbres and effects

through instrumentation. Perhaps the most significant common features in this Canadian

response to the northern expanse and what gives it its originality of character is the

combination of two concepts: (1) the huge open space and (2) tiny events magnified.

Space alone could be associated with the music of composers like Aaron Copland and tiny events with that of Anton Webern. It is, however, the blend of these elements that conveys a uniqueness, which can be interpreted as a typically Canadian sound or style.

While he never made any direct connection to the Canadian landscape, in the end, this

conclusion closely confirms Darius Milhaud's intuition that Canadian music had a gaunt

and lonely quality.

Because the chosen theme for this study focused on the Canadian northern

landscape or Canada-as-North, Rodolphe Mathieu's and Schafer's conviction that the country's geography would affect the essence of Canadian music proved to be extremely accurate.1 However, their firm belief in the effect of the Canadian landscape on music exceeded the scope of the repertoire inspired by landscape imagery. Interestingly, in her survey of Canadian composition written between 1610 and 1967, Andree Desautels came to similar conclusions, with the added nuance that according to her, Canadian music was actually influenced by the natural environment:

It [Canadian composition] is also deeply affected by geographical factors, by the sheer size of a country that is smaller only than Russia, by wide open spaces where silence reigns and loneliness descends upon the settler. Vast landscapes, not to be measured on any human scale, impress themselves on painters, poets and musicians.2

1 Mathieu's point of view is discussed in the introduction (see pages 4-5). 2 Andree Desautels, "The History of Canadian Composition, 1610-1967," in Aspects of Music in Canada, ed. Arnold Walter (Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1969), 90. 240 Parsons' "Landscape Imagery in Canadian Music: A Survey of Composition Influenced

by the Natural Environment" and Keillor's Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and

Diversity have convincingly demonstrated that the Canadian natural environment has

directly inspired an abundance of compositions. A question for further investigation

would consist in challenging whether or not it is truly possible to identify these

paradigms in more abstract compositions.

As shown, contrary to instrumental music, vocal repertoire has the peculiar trait of

bearing a text, which simplifies the linkage between the music and the identification of

the musical idioms used by Canadian composers to represent northern wilderness or

Canada-as-North. Echoing Stuart Hall's politics of representation, one needs to be conscious that the representation of North in Canadian art music is part of a complex and elusive process through which the production of meaning happens.3 Objects do not have stable and fixed meanings, consequently representation can only be understood as part of a culture, given that the people involved understand how the language and the systems of knowledge production work together to produce and disseminate such meanings. This justifies why it was crucial, within this study, to ground the concept of Canada-as-North in its historical and national context in order to better situate and comprehend the discursive formation of North in Canadian music.

But while it is possible, in the realm of vocal music, to show how composers create their individual representations of North through their works, elucidating how composers signify what they mean and how it constructs what the listener ultimately understands as North leaves considerable place for interpretation. As well, simply

3 Hall, Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, 15-64. 241 listening to this research's selected works may pose a certain challenge, since subtlety from the score may not be grasped through hearing alone.

Furthermore, this notion brings about the concept of performativity elaborated by

Judith Butler, which is helpful in understanding that Canadian composers, through their choice of poetry, depicting northern people and places, and their musical settings of these texts, contribute in reflecting and at the same time in creating a northern Canadian identity through music.4 In summary, it is not only how a work of music reflects an identity, but how it produces it as well. Identity, in the present case a Canadian northern one, while being expressed through the works of musicians, is also constructed by repeated actions, whether it be the composition or performance of musical works, which in turn actively contribute to defining that same identity. Consequently, because it is constructed through an active process, identity is not a static reality, but rather remains in constant re-production. In renewing itself, it is transformed, reinvented, or reasserted.

Because it works in a double-sided process, identity can be weakened and become unstable, or on the contrary be strengthened by the repeated performances or utterances and become anchored.

Logically, this implies that because music is a temporal art, repetition reinforces the definition of identity. The preceding conclusion automatically begs the question of how often the works previously analyzed have been performed and if any of them could be considered "classics." Somers' Evocations (1966) and Hetu's cycle Les clartes de la

4 The notion of "gender performativity," at the core of Judith Butler's work, can exceed the scope of gender issues and be used as a comprehensive theory of subjectivity in the social sciences. Consequently, performativity implies that any social reality is culturally constructed by repetition of stylized acts, whether through language or any other form of expression. See Judith Butler, Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex" (New York: Routledge, 1993), 1-23. 242 nuit, op.20 (1972) are the strongest examples in this category. Barbara Pentland's Ice Age

(1986) and Archer's cycles Northern Landscape (1978) and Songs of North (1996) are

also becoming standards, even though the latter cycle was only composed 15 years ago.5

Significantly, all these works are scored for voice and piano, a common instrumentation, especially appropriate for recital setting, and perhaps the one that permits the most chance of performance (if compared to a work for voice and full orchestra).

This study was limited to repertoire for solo voice. Nevertheless, there is a considerable number of instrumental compositions, whether for solo instrument, chamber ensemble or full orchestra, as well as works for multiple voices or choir, based on the

"idea of North." The subject of Canadian music associated with the northern landscape and thematic is broad and still pregnant with possibilities. As such, several notable compositions on the northern topic written for more than one solo voice were identified through the search at the Canadian Music Centre.6 Because these compositions also showcase northern poetry, it would be relevant to pursue this present project by studying the numerous works for more than one solo voice as well as the vast choral repertoire through the same paradigms as the repertoire for solo voice.

5 The fact that these five works have been extensively recorded is a good indicator of their status as standard Canadian vocal repertoire (see the Canadian Music Centre Library and the bibliography). As well, these cycles are suggested as appropriate vocal selections at competitions, namely in the Eckhardt- Gramattd Competition. Furthermore, the compositions by H&u and Pentland are listed in the Royal Conservatory of Music Official Voice Syllabus (2005). Finally, Conservatory Canada lists the works by H6tu and Somers for the Associate. 6 A short list of Canadian compositions on a northern theme written after 1950 and requiring more than one solo voice includes: Linda Bouchard's Ice (soprano, mezzo, flute, piccolo, 2 percussion, viola and double bass), Dr. Graham Elias George's Red River of the North (SATB solo, SATB chorus and orchestra), Arsenio Giron's Winter Scenes (SSA solo, flute, clarinet, piano, percussion., violin and cello), John Beckwith's Les premiers hivernnements (soprano, tenor, 2 recorders, flute, viol and percussion) and Music originating in the period of Cornelius Kreighojf (tenor, soprano, flute, violin, percussion and piano), Kelsey Jones' Songs of Winter (soprano, contralto and piano), and Richard D^silets' Neptune sous la neige (high voice, low voice, cello, percussion and synthesizer). 243 Furthermore, vocal music is not music alone, it lives in association with poetry.

This is why, as seen throughout Chapter 4, analyzing the selected repertoire also meant simultaneously engaging with equal sophistication both the poetry and the music, which makes it fundamentally different from the study of instrumental music. Moreover, the actual performance of vocal music brings into play another layer of meaning, which could not be accounted for in the context of this study. Each performance of a work is unique, informed by the knowledge, artistry, and sensibility of the performers. In the context of vocal interpretation, singers additionally inform the musical substance through what Roland Barthes identifies as the "grain of the voice."7 This became quite clear while listening to Mary Morrison's interpretation of "Winter Night" from Richard Henninger's

The Three Songs of Winter (1972), in which her choice of singing non vibrato the first utterance of "winter night" at m. 36 conveyed the icy character of a biting-cold nighttime, rendering it manifest in an intense and palpable, conspicuous way. The study of this aspect of performance or musical interpretation would certainly contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the repertoire for solo voice pertaining to the idea of

North and enrich the discursive formation of North in Canadian music. For the moment, that will remain another aspect to be addressed further, hopefully in the near future.

Whether or not we believe in the power of this myth of North as a unifying theme playing a role in defining the Canadian national identity, there is clear evidence that the idea of North is a recurring theme in the corpus of Canadian artists, especially in art music. With the Montreal ice storm of January 1998, the creation of Nunavut in 1999, the endangered North with the warming up of the climate, and the never-ending battle of

7 Roland Barthes, "The Grain of the Voice," in Image - Music, and Text, trad. Stephen Heath (Glasgow: Fontana/Collins, 1977), 179-189. 244 Canada to protect the waterway, just how influential the North, whether as a geographical place, a social reality or a symbolic concept, will continue to be in defining parts of the national identity of our "imagined community" of Canada in the decades to come, only time will tell. New words, like Louis-Edmond Hamelin's concept of nordicity, were invented to describe this northern region and reality. With new words and more recently the emergence of northern voices, those of the Aboriginal and Inuit peoples, the discursive formation of North will continue to evolve. This will be fascinating to observe and to retrace in the works of artists and, in particular, in music.

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Journal Articles

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"The League of Composers: 20 Years on, What Progress." The Canadian Composer 59 (April 1971): 10, 12, 14.

"The League of Composers: How Hard Work Paid Off." The Canadian Composer 119 (March 1977): 4, 6, 8, 10.

Anhalt, Istvan. "The Making of Cento" Canada Music Book 1 (Spring-Summer 1970): 81- 89.

Ayre, Robert. "The Press Debates the Massey Report." Canadian Art 9 (October 1951): 25- 38.

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Beckwith, John. "A Festival of Canadian Music." MusiCanada 33 (1977): 6-14.

. "Le festival de musique canadienne." MusiCanada 33 (1977): 7-15.

. "What Every U.S. Musician Should Know About Contemporary Canadian Music." Musicanada 29 (November 1970): 5-7, 12-13, 18.

Bliss, Michael. "Has Canada failed?" Literary Review of Canada 14, no. 2 (March 2006): 3- 5.

Bowen, Jose A. "The History of Remembered Innovation: Tradition and Its Role in the Relationship Between Musical Works and their Performances." Journal of Musicology 11 (1993): 139-168.

Bumsted, John M. "Canadian and American Culture in the 1950s." Bulletin of Canadian Studies 6 (April 1980): 54-74.

Coates, K,S, and W.R. Morrison. "Writing the North: A Survey of Contemporary Canadian Writing on Northern Regions." Essays on Canadian Writing 59 (Fall 1996): 5-25.

Cupido, Robert. "Appropriating the Past: Pageants, Politics, and the Diamond Jubilee." Journal of Canadian Historical Association 9 (1998): 155-186.

257 Dickinson, Peter. "Documenting 'North' in Canadian Poetry and Music." Essays on Canadian Writing 59 (Fall 1996): 105-122.

Dreyfus, Laurence. "Early Music Defended Against Its Devotees: A Theory of Historical Performance in the Twentieth Century." Musical Quarterly 69 (1983): 297-322.

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Fink, Howard. "Glenn Gould's Idea of North: The Arctic Archetype and the Creation of a Syncretic Genre." Glenn Gould 3, no. 2 (Fall 1997): 35-42.

Gauthier, Jennifer. "Mood Music for a Nation: Reflections on Reflections of Canada: A Symphony of Sound and Light." Topia: A Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies 6 (Fall 2001): 45-61.

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Grace, Sherrill and Stefan Haag. "From Landscape to Soundscape: The Northern Arts in Canada." Mosaic 31, no. 2 (June 1998): 101-122.

Granatstein, Jack Lawrence. "Culture and Scholarship: The First Ten Years of the Canada Council." Canadian Historical Review 65 (Dec. 1984): 441-74.

Grant, George. "Have We a Canadian Nation?" Public Affairs 8 (1945): 161-166.

Hall, Stuart. "Culture, Community, Nation." Cultural Studies 7, no. 3 (1993): 349-63.

Harvey, Christian. "Les Grands-Jardins, territoire de creation des peintres de la Norditude." Revue d'histoire de Charlevoix 59 (June 2008): 6-7.

Hirschman, Charles. "The American Melting Pot Reconsidered." Annual Review of Sociology 9 (1983): 397-423.

Hjartarson, Paul. "Of Inward Journeys and Interior Landscapes: Glenn Gould, Lawren Harris, and 'The Idea of North'." Essays on Canadian Writing 59 (Fall 1996): 65-86.

Palmer, Howard. "Mosaic versus Melting Pot?: Immigration and Ethnicity in Canada and the United States." International Journal 31, no. 3 (Summer 1976): 488-528.

258 Kallmann, Helmut. "First Fifteen Years of Canadian League of Composers." The Canadian Composer 1 (March 1966): 18, 36,45.

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Keillor, Elaine. "The Emergence of Postcolonial Musical Expressions of Aboriginal Peoples within Canada." Cultural Studies 9, no. 1 (1995): 106-24.

Konrad, Victor. "Recurrent Symbols of Nationalism in Canada." The Canadian Geographer 30, no. 2 (summer 1986): 175-180.

Lacroix, Brigitte. "Les Peintres de la Norditude." Revue d'histoire de Charlevoix 59 (June 2008): 8-22.

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Lefebvre, Marie-Therese. "Repertoire des travaux universitaires sur la musique du Quebec (1924-1984)." Canadian University Music Review/Revue de musique des universites canadiennes 6 (1985): 45-57.

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MacMillan, Keith. "Me and Glenn Gould." Glenn Gould 8, no. 2 (Fall 2002): 58-63.

— . "Report from Victoria." Canada Music Book 2 (Spring-Summer 1971): 93-96.

Maloney, Timothy S. "Marshall McLuhan, Northrop Frye, and Glenn Gould: Three Canadian Legacies to the World of Ideas." Australian Canadian Studies: A Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ACS) 19, no. 2 (2001): 49-79.

Mantere, Markus. "Northern Ways to Think About Music: Glenn Gould's Idea of North as an Aesthetic Category." Intersections 25, no. 1-2 (2005), 86-112.

McKillop, A.B. "Who Killed Canadian History? A View from the Trenches." The Canadian Historical Review 79 (June 1999): 269-299.

McNeilly, Kevin. "Listening, Nordicity, Community: Glenn Gould's 'The Idea of North'." Essays on Canadian Writing 59 (Fall 1996): 87-104.

259 Nattiez, Jean-Jacques. "The Language of Music in the Twenty-first Century: Gould as a Precursor of Post-modernism?" Glenn Gould 2, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 28-35.

Reich, Willi. "Anton Webern: The Man and his Music." Tempo 14 (March 1946): 8-10.

Sallis, Friedemann. "Glenn Gould's Idea of North and the Production of Place in Music." Intersections 25, no. 1-2 (2005): 113-137.

Schafer, R. Murray. "Patria and the Theatre of Confluence." Descant 22, no. 2 (Summer 1991): 11-215.

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Schulman, Michael. "A Colossal Convocation of Canada's Major Composers." The Canadian Composer 163 (September 1981): 4, 6, 8, 10, 12.

. "Canadian League of Composers Celebrates its 30th Birthday." The Canadian Composer 161 (May 1981): 32, 34.

Spilchuk, Vincent. "Changes at the CBC." Institute for Canadian Music Newsletter 6, no. 1 (January 2008): 1.

Theberge, Paul. "Counterpoint: Glenn Gould & Marshall McLuhan." Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory 10 (Jan-Feb 1986): 109-127.

Tippett, Maria. "The Writing of English-Canadian Cultural History, 1970-1985." Canadian Historical Review 67, no. 4 (Dec. 1986): 548-561.

Tomlinson, Gary. "The Web of Culture: A Context for Musicology." 19th-century Music 1 (1984): 350-362.

Tulk, Lome. "Remembering Glenn Gould." Glenn Gould 6, no. 2 (Fall 2000): 66-68.

Waterman, Ellen. "Patria at the Millenium." Topia: A Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies 6 (Fall 2001): 21-44.

West, Douglas A. "Re-searching the North in Canada: An Introduction to the Canadian Northern Discourse." Journal of Canadian Studies 26, no. 2 (Summer 1991): 108- 119.

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Bouffard, Sophie. "L'art de Lawren Harris, une source d'inspiration pour certains compositeurs canadiens : « Blue Mountain » de Harry Freedman et« Au Nord du lac Superieur » de Michel Longtin." In Couleurs et lumieres du Nord, eds. Daniel Chartier and Maria Walecka-Garbalinska, 240-248. Acta Universitatis Stockholminensis 25. Stockholm: Stockholm University Press, 2008.

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261 Cook, Nicholas. "Analysing Performance and Performing Analysis." In Rethinking Music, eds. Nicholas Cook and Mark Everist, 239-261. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

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Florbt, Gunilla. "Deconstruction in the Wilderness: Margaret Atwood's 'Death by Landscape'." In Rediscovering Canada: Image, Place and Text, ed. Gudrun Bjork Gudsteins, 31-36. Reykjavik: Nordic Association for Canadian Studies (NACS)/Nordiques d'Etudes Canadiennes (ANEC) and the Institute for Foreign Languages, University of Iceland (IFLUI), 2001.

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Randel, Don Michael. "The Canons in the Musicological Toolbox." In Disciplining Music: Musicology and its Canons, ed. Katherine Bergeron and Philip V. Bohlman, 10-22. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Rasporich, Beverly and Tamara P. Seiler. "Multiculturalism and the Arts." In A Passion for Identity, 3rd ed., eds. David Taras and Beverly Rasporich, 243-264. Scarborough Ontario: International Thomson Publishing, 1997.

Reeh, Line. "National Material, Modern Methods: The Group of Seven and English- Canadian Identity." In Rediscovering Canada: Image, Place and Text, ed. Gudrun Bjork Gudsteins, 90-101. Reykjavik: Nordic Association for Canadian Studies (NACS)/Nordiques d'Etudes Canadiennes (ANEC) and the Institute for Foreign Languages, University of Iceland (IFLUI), 2001.

Schafer, R. Murray. "Canadian Culture: Colonial Culture." In Canadian Music: Issues of Hegemony and Identity, eds. Beverley Diamond and Robert Witmer, 221-237. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 1994.

. "Music in the Cold." In On Canadian Music. Ed. R. Murray Schafer, 64-74. Bancroft, Ontario: Arcana Editions, 1984.

Taruskin, Richard. "The Pastness of the Present and the Presence of the Past." In Authenticity and Early Music, ed. Nicholas Kenyon, 137-207. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Tovell, Vincent. "At Home with Glenn Gould: Gould in Conversation with Vincent Tovell." In The Art of Glenn Gould: Reflections of a Musical Genius, ed. John P.L. Roberts, 66-88. Toronto: Malcolm Lester Books, 1999.

Vervoort, Patricia. "The Hardness of Snow: Winter Landscapes." In Rediscovering Canada: Image, Place and Text, ed. Gudrun Bj6rk Gudsteins, 154-160. Reykjavik: Nordic Association for Canadian Studies (NACS)/Nordiques d'Etudes Canadiennes (ANEC) and the Institute for Foreign Languages, University of Iceland (IFLUI), 2001.

264 Woodcock, George. "There Are No Universal Landscapes." In Documents in Canadian Art, ed. Doug Fetherling, 257-269. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 1987.

Thesis and Dissertations

Maves, Dale Paul. "The Art of Songs for Voice and Piano by Canadian Composer Jean Coulthard: An Eclectic Analysis of Selected Works." PhD diss., New York University, 1997.

Parsons, David. "Landscape Imagery in Canadian Music: A Survey of Composition Influenced by the Natural Environment." MA Research Essay, Carleton University, 1987.

Recordings

Archer, Violet. Northern Landscapes: A Tribute to Dr. Violet Archer. Sarah Muir, mezzo soprano and Ann Nichols-Casebolt, piano. Edmonton, AB: SMCD, 1997. 1 CD.

Archer, Violet. "Northern Landscapes." Gentle Lady, Do not Sing Sad Songs...: Selection From the Works of Jean Coulthard & Violet Archer. Cliff Ridley, baritone and Danielle Marcinek, piano. Victoria BC: Cliff Radley, 2006. 1 CD.

Archer, Violet. "Prairie Profiles." Ovation. Volume 2. Toronto: CBC Records, 2002.

Bouffard, Sophie and David L. Mclntyre. Songs of North. SB001, 2008. 1 CD. Includes: Northern lights I, Soir d'hiver by Alain Perron, Evocations by Harry Somers, Polar Chrysalis by Euphrosyne Keefer, Ice Age by Barbara Pentland, "Soir d'hiver" from Les clartes de la nuit by Jacques Hetu, Songs of North by Violet Archer, and "Hiver" from Les saisons by Maurice Dela.

Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, CTV Vancouver 2010: XXI Olympic Winter Games (Vancouver: CTV Television Network, 2010), 5 videodiscs.

Coulthard, Jean. Anthology of Canadian Music, vol. 9, Jean Coulthard. Radio Canada International, 1982. 6 sound discs 33 1/3 rpm.

Gould, Glenn. "The Idea of North." In Solitude Trilogy. PSCD 2003-3. Toronto: CBS Records, 1992.

Gould, Glenn. Canadian Music in the 20th Century. Morawetz, Fantasy in D\ Anhalt, Fantasia; and Hetu, Variations pour piano. Toronto: CBS Masterworks, 1966-67

265 Hatzis, Christos. Footprints in New Snow. Toronto: CBC Records/Les Disques SRC MVCD 1156-2, p2002.

Hatzis, Christos. The Idea of Canada. Personal copy from the composer.

Hetu, Jacques. Jacques Hetu. CMC Centrediscs CMCCD 8302, 2002.

Introduction to Canadian Music. Scarborough, Ont.: Naxos 8.550171-2, p.1996. 2 CDs.

Pentland, Barbara. Anthology of Canadian Music, vol. 25, Barbara Pentland. Radio Canada International, 1980. 6 sound discs 33 1/3 rpm.

Pepin, Clermont. Anthology of Canadian Music, vol. 5, Clermont Pepin. Radio Canada International, 1980. 4 sound discs 33 1/3 rpm.

Somers, Harry. Anthology of Canadian Music, vol. 4, Harry Somers. Radio Canada International, 1980. 10 sound discs 33 1/3 rpm.

Somers, Harry. Songs from the Heart of Somers. CMC Centrediscs CMCCD 7001,2001.

Scores

Archer, Violet. Northern Journey. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1990.

. Northern Landscape. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1978.

. Prairie Profiles. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1980.

. Songs of North. Calgary: Alberta Keys, 1998.

Armstrong, John G. False Spring. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1995.

Bloomfield Holt, Patricia. Polar chrysalis: Ten Haiku Poems. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1988

Burge, John. Autumn Closing and Winter. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1995.

Burritt, Lloyd. Four Winter Haiku. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1969.

Coulthard, Jean. Soird'hiver. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1957.

Crawley, Clifford. The Winter Galaxy. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1988.

266 Dela, Maurice. Les saisons. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1972.

Fleming, Robert. Of A Timeless Land. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1974.

Fu, Paul Zicheng. In the Woods. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1980.

Giron, Arsenio. Ten Songs. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1995.

Hatch, Peter. East From the Mountains. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1984.

Henninger, Richard. Three Songs of Winter. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1972.

Hetu, Jacques. Les clartes de la nuit, op.20. Montreal: Editions Quebec-Musique, 1981.

Keefer, Euphrosyne. Polar Chrysalis. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1981.

Komorous, Rudolf. Cold Mountain Songs. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1987.

Lee, Brent. Landscapes in a Luminous Night. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1993, rev. 1997.

Mitchell, Mark. Season Songs. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1990.

Papineau-Couture, Jean. Nuitpolaire. Montreal: Canadian Music Centre, 1986.

Pentland, Barbara. Ice Age. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1986.

Pepin, Clermont. Hymne au vent du nord. Montreal: Canadian Music Centre, 1960.

Prevost, Andre. Hiver dans I'ame. Montreal: Canadian Music Centre, 1978.

Ridout, Godfrey. The Seasons. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1980.

Schafer, R. Murray. Brebeuf. Bancroft, Ontario: Arcana Editions, 1981.

. North/White. Toronto: Universal Edition, 1980.

. Snowforms. Indian River, Ontario: Arcana Editions, 1983

Somers, Harry. Evocations. Don Mills, Ontario: BMI Canada, 1968.

. North Country: Four Movements for String Orchestra. Toronto: BMI Canada, 1960.

. Twelve Miniatures. Toronto: Berandol, 1965.

267 t

Stephen, Roberta. The Eye of the Seasons. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1997.

Telfer, Nancy. Winter Flowers. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1980.

Wuensch, Gerhard. Seasonings. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1994.

Zuckert, Leon. Two Northern Nature Songs. Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1989.

Online Ressources

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Canada Council for the Arts, www.canadacouncil.ca/ (accessed August 4, 2010).

Canada's Northern Strategy: Our North, Our Heritage, Our Future (by the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and the Federal Interlocutor for Metis and Non-Status Indians), http://www.northernstrategy.ca/cns/cns-eng.asp/ (accessed August 18,2010).

Canadian League of Composers, http://www.clc-lcc.ca/membership-join.php/ (accessed August 10. 2010).

CBC Digital Archives, http://archives.cbc.ca/info/archives/archives_en_02.asp?IDLan=l/ (accessed August 10, 2010).

Canadian Music Centre, s.v. "Dela, Maurice" http://wwwmusiccentre.ca/apps/index.cfm? Fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography&authpeopleid=147&by=D / (accessed August 24,2010).

Canadian Music Centre, s.v. "Hetu, Jacques" http://wwwmusiccentre.ca/apps/index.cfm? Fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography&authpeopleid=417&by=H / (accessed August 23,2010).

Canadian Music Centre, s.v. "Keefer, Euphrosyne" http://wwwmusiccentre.ca/apps/index. Cfm?Fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography&authpeopleid=417&by=K / (accessed August 23, 2010).

Canadian Music Centre, s.v. "Pentland, Barbara," (by David Gordon Duke), http://wwwmusiccentre.ca/apps/index.cfm?Fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography &authpeopleid=417&by=P / (accessed August 24, 2010).

268 Grove Music Online, s.v. "Modernism" (by Leon Botstein), http://www.oxfordmusic online.com.liproxy.uregina.ca:2048/subscriber/article/grove/music/40625?q=moderni sm &hbutton_search.x=0&hbutton_search.y=0&hbutton_search=search&sourc e=omo_t237&source=omo_gmo&source=omo_t 114&search=quick&pos= 1 &_start= 1 #firsthit / (accessed September 12,2010).

Grove Music Online, s.v. "Neo-classicism" (by Arnold Whittall), http://www.oxfordmusic online.com.liproxy.uregina.ca:2048/subscriber/article/grove/music/19723?q=neo- classicism&hbutton_search.x=0&hbutton_search.y=0&hbutton_search=search&sourc e=omo_t237&source=omo_gmo&source=omo_t 114&search=quick&pos=: 1 &_start=1 #firsthit / (accessed September 6, 2010).

Grove Music Online, s.v. "Pavan" (by Alan Brown), http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com. liproxy .uregina.ca:2048/subscriber/article/grove/music/21120?q=pavane&hbutton_se arch.x=0&hbutton_search.y=0&hbutton_search=search&source=omo_t237&source= omo_gmo&source=omo_tl 14&search=quick&pos=l&_start=l#firsthit / (accessed September 14, 2010). Grove Music Online, s.v. "Romanticism" (by Jim Samson), http://www. oxfordmusiconline. com/subscriber/article/grove/music/23751 ?q=romanti cism&hbutton_search.x=0&hbutton_search.y=0&hbutton_search=search&source=:o mo_t237&source=omo_gmo&source=omo_tl 14&search=quick&pos= 1 &_start= 1 #fir sthit / (accessed September 1, 2010).

Grove Music Online, s.v. "Somers, Harry" (by Brian Cherney), http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.libproxy.uregina.ca:2048/subscriber/article/grove /music/26175?q=somers&hbutton_search.x=0&hbutton_search.y=0&hbutton_search =search&source=omo_t237&source=omo_gmo&source=omo_tll4&search=quick& pos=l&_start=l#firsthit / (accessed August 24,2010).

Hamelin, Louis-Edmond. http://lehamelin.sittel.ca/(accessed September 5, 2010).

Hatzis, Christos. "Footprints in New Snow: Postmodernism or Cultural Appropriation?," http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~hatzis/ (accessed October 31, 2009).

. "The Idea of Canada: Conceptual and Creative Approaches to the Human Soundscape," http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~hatzis/ (accessed October 31, 2009).

Saul, John Ralston. "Listen to the North: Cramming Northerner's Needs Into a Southern Model Just isn't Working," http://reviewcanada.ca/essays/2009/10/01/listen-to- the-north/ (accessed October 31,2009).

International Polar Year 2007-2008, http://www.ipy.org/about-ipy/ (accessed August 12, 2010).

269 Inuit Broadcasting Corporation, http://www.inuitbroadcasting.ca/ (accessed August 18, 2010).

Look Up North (by the Government of Yukon, the Government of the Northwest Territories, and the Government of Nunavut), www.lookupnorth.ca/ (accessed August 18,2010).

National Broadcast Orchestra Canada, www.nboc.ca/ (accessed August 4,2010).

The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Balfour Report" (by Norman Hillmer), http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A 1 ART A0000482 / (accessed August 4,2010).

The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Broadcasting" (by Keith MacMillan), http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params= U1ARTU0000445 / (accessed September 15,2010).

The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "CBC" http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/ Index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=Ul ARTU000063 / (accessed August 24, 2010).

The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Somers, Harry" (by Brian Cherney, John Beckwith and Betty Nygaard King), http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfmVPgNm^ TCE&Params^Ul ARTU0003267 / (accessed August 24, 2010).

The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Statute of Westminster" (by Norman Hillmer), http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params= A1ARTA0007675/ (accessed August 4, 2010).

The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, s.v. "Hetu, Jacques" (by Irene Brisson), http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params= U1ARTU0001607 / (accessed August 23,2010).

The Glenn Gould Foundation, www.glenngould.ca / (accessed September 25, 2010).

University of the Arctic, www.uarctic.org/ (accessed August 18,2010).

270 Appendix A

Canadian Music Courses Offered in Canadian Universities as in 2009

University Course(s) Comments

University of British Columbia MUED340 Canadian Music in Optional course in Music the Classroom Education University of Victoria Concordia University College of Alberta King's University College University of Alberta MUSIC 314 Optional University of Calgary University of Lethbridge MUSIC 4721 Optional Prerequisite: History of 20th- century Music University of Regina MU215 History of Canadian Mandatory Music University of Saskatchewan MUS240.3 1 History of Music Optional III: Western Music from 1830 to Present (includes Canadian music) Brandon University 67:530 Music History and Optional Literature: Canadian Music in Prerequisites: 67/65:130+131 the Twentieth Century Canadian Mennonite University University of Manitoba Algoma University Brock University MUSI3P91 History of Music in Optional Canada Prerequisite: MUSI1F50 History of Music From Medieval to Modern Times Carleton University MUSI3103 Aspects of Canadian Optional courses, but for a Music Heritage B.Mus. Honours 1 of these 4 courses is mandatory MUSI3104 Popular Musics of Canada MUSI4103 Ethnomusicology of Canadian Traditions MUSI4104 Musics of Canada's First Peoples

271 Lakehead University MUSIC4318 Music in Canada Optional Laurentian University Queen's University MUSC-288 Social History of Optional Canadian Music MUSC-388 Canadian Music Optional Since 1930 Prerequisites: MUSC103 Music and Society Plus 1 of 3: MUSC 203Romantic & 20century Music MUSC 204 Baroque & Classic Music MUSC 205 Medieval & Renaissance Music Corequesite: MUSC 291 Theory and Analysis II University of Guelph MUSC 2030 Music in Canada Optional University of Ottawa MUS4323 Survey of Music in Mandatory Canada Prerequisite: MUS2334 History of Music IV: Romantic Or equivalent MUS4324 Seminar on Canadian Optional Music Prerequisite: MUS4323 May be repeated once if different topic MUS4380 Survey of Musical Optional traditions in Canada University d'Ottawa MUS4723 Panorama de la Mandatory musique au Canada Prerequisite: MUS2734 Histoire de la musique IV: 6poque romantique Or equivalent MUS4724 Seminaire sur la Optional musique au Canada Prerequisite: MUS4723 May be repeated once if different topic MUS4780 Panorama des Optional traditions musicales du Canada University of Toronto HMU205 Music in Toronto Optional Prerequisites: HMU111H1 Introduction to Music and Society HMU225H1 Historical Survey I HMU226H1 Historical Survey II Canadian Music Since 1945 (future course offering) University of Western Ontario MUSIC3760A/B Topics in Optional Canadian Music Prerequisite: MUSIC2711F/G Music History: c.1800 to Present

272 University of Windsor 32-427 Studies in Canadian Optional Music Prerequisites: 32-126 Music History and Literature I 32-127 Music History and Literature II Wilfrid Laurier University MU379 Studies in Canadian Optional Music Prerequisites: MU268 Theory IV and MU271 Music History III Or MU218 Intro to the Structure of Music II and MU224 Music of the 19th and 20th Centuries York University Bishop's University Concordia University McGill University MUHL 391 Canadian Music Optional University de Montreal University Laval MUS.22138 Le folklore Optional canadien fran?ais Distance University du Quebec k Montreal University de Sherbrooke MUH Histoire de la musique de Optional 1945 & nos jours (y compris le Ouybec) Mount Allison University MUSC 3001 Introduction to Optional Music in Canada University de Moncton MUSI 3013 Musique du 20e Mandatory in 3rd or 4th year siycle et Musique canadienne Arcadia University MUSI3223 Canadian Art Music Optional St. Francis Xavier University Dalhousie University MUSC 3362.03 Topics in Optional for students in Canadian Music composition (3rd or 4th year) Prerequisites: MUSC 2201.03 M Theory III MUSC 2202.03 M Theory IV University of Prince Edward 423 Canadian Music I Optional Island 424 Canadian Music 11 Optional Memorial University 2003 Music History IV Mandatory for history major (includes Music in Canada) 3016 Canadian Musical Optional Traditions

273 Appendix B

List of Solo Vocal Works Pertaining to the Idea of North

* Songs relevant to North

a S •P«© o c r o © a X! a Text s

s 2 Numbei

Composer © •** < CMC Ca u a

Violet Archer Northern Bass and 1. Auvuittuq* Inge Israel MVl 101 (1913-2000) Journey piano 2. Winter Sky* A672nor 3. Delta* 1990 4. Kluane Glaciers* Northern Soprano and 1. The Lonely AMJ Smith MVl 101 Landscape piano Land* (The Classic A672n1 Baritone and 2. Swift Current Shade) 1978 piano 3. Sea Cliff MVl 101 A672n3 1978 Prairie Baritone, 1. Buffalo Jump David Carter MV1221 Profiles horn, and 2. Have You A672pr1980 piano Heard Snow Falling?* 3. Ground Blizzard* 4. Prairie Spring Songs of North Soprano and 1. Seasons of the Lisa Harbo MVl 101 piano North* A672son 2. September 1996-1998 Nativity* 3. Vows and Seasons* 4. The Ending of Snow's Dominion* 5. O Kingdom of Summer*

274 John G. False Spring Soprano, 1. The Lake Susan MV 1212 Armstrong recorder, and 2. Red Leaves McMaster A736fa 1996 (b. 1952) guitar 3. So Faint the Geese This Fall 4. Pavane* 5. Old Photographs* 6. False Spring* 7. Return John Burge Autumn Soprano, Bliss Carman MV1211 (b. 1961) Closing and flute, and B954au 1995 Winter piano Lloyd Burritt Four Winter Baritone and Yaha, Seira, M V1800 (b.1940) Haiku tape Kyorai & B971 fo 1969 Hashin Jean Coulthard Soir d'hiver Baritone and MV1101 (1908-2000) piano C855vi 1957 Clifford The Winter Voice and 1. The Winter 1. Charles MV 1101 Crawley Galaxy piano Galaxy* Heavy sage C91 lwi (b.1929) 2. Indian Summer 2. Wilfred 3. Lord of my Campbell Heart's elation 3. Bliss Carman 4. Winter 4. Archibald Evening* Lampman 5. Among the 5. Agnes M. Thousand Islands Macher 6. Rickety House 6. Alexander 7. Our Life is Like McLachlan a Forest 7. Charles Sangster Maurice Dela Les saisons Tenor and 1. Printemps Simone MV1101 (1919-1978) piano 2. Et6 Phaneuf D331sa1954 3. Automne 4. Hiver* Robert Fleming Of a Timeless Contralto and Margaret MV1400 (1921-1976) Land orchestra Fleming F598of1974 Arsenio Giron Ten Songs Soprano and 1. End of Summer 1. Turnbull MV1101 (b. 1932) piano 2. Serenade Stickney G527te 1995 (Only seven of 3. Midwinter* 2. Edward C. these ten songs 4. These Prairies Pinkney are available at Glow 3. John T. the CMC.) 5. Solipsism Trowbridge 6. Vientecico 4. William C. 7. Vendor's Song Bryant 5. George Santayana 6. W.C. Bryant (trans.) 7. Adelaide Crapsey

275 Peter Hatch East From the Male voice, John Newlove MV 1212 (b. 1957) Mountains oboe, and H361ea 1984 harp Richard The Three Soprano, 1. Winter Night Richard MV1911 Henninger Songs of flute, piano, Henninger H517th 1972 (b. 1944) Winter and tape

(Only one of these three songs is available at the CMC.) Jacques H6tu Les clartes de High voice 1. Thdme Emile Nelligan MV1101 (1938-2010) la nuit, op. 20 and piano sentimental H591cla High voice 2. Nuit d'6t<5 1972 and orchestra 3. La belle morte MV 1400 (op. 20a) 4. Les corbeaux H591cl 1986 5. Soir d'hiver* Patricia Polar Mezzo, horn, Claire Pratt M VI265 Bloomfield Chrysalis: Ten cello, piano, H758po Holt (1910- Haiku Poems and 1988 2003) percussion Euphrosyne Polar High voice Claire Pratt MV1101 Keefer (1919- Chrysalis and piano K26po 1981 2003) Rudolf Cold Mountain High voice Han Shan (8th MV1103 Komorous Songs and cello century) K815co (b. 1931) translated by 1987 Red Pine Brent Lee Landscapes in Soprano and 1. Blue Light Brent Lee MV1102 (b. 1964) a Luminous harp Above the Elbow L4771an Night River, Alone After 1993 Sunset 2. Restless Tallgrass Beneath A Dry Moon 3. Stopping for Northern Lights East of Priddis* 4. Nothing to Break the Light of the Sun Rising in the East Mark Mitchell Season Songs Soprano and 1. An Early Start 1. Robyn Sarah MV1101 piano in Mid-Winter* 2. Raymond M682sea Soprano and 2. All This Slow Souster 1990 orchestra Afternoon 3. Mark MV1400 3. Summer Mitchell M682sea Evening 4. Dixie Thunderstorm Partridge 4. Nocturne, October

276 Jean Papineau- Nuit polaire Contralto, Isabelle MV1357 Couture (1916- piano, harp, Papineau- P217nu 1986 2000) perc., 2 flutes, Couture oboe, violin, viola, cello, and double bass Barbara Ice Age Soprano and Dorothy MV110I Pentland piano Livesay P419ic 1986 (1912-2000) Clermont P6pin Hyrnne au vent Tenor and Alfred MV1400 (1926-2006) du nord orchestra Desrochers P422hy 1960 Andrg Provost Hiver dans Baritone and 1.11 fait nuit Michdle MV1400 (1934-2001) I'ame orchestra lente* Lalonde P944h 1978 2. Dernier paraltele* 3. Verte feuille* Godfrey Ridout The Seasons Tenor, 2 1. Summer William Blake M V1205 (1918-1984) violins, viola, 2. Autumn R547se 1980 cello, and (missing form the piano score) 3. Winter* 4. Spring Murray Schafer Brebeuf Baritone and 1. Winter near Murray Schafer MV1400 (b. 1933) orchestra Kibec* inspired by The S296br1961 2. The Journey* Jesuit Relations 3. The Arrival* Harry Somers Evocations Mezzo and 1. Loon Harry Somers MV1101 (1925-1999) piano 2. Shattered* S694ev Light* 1966-1968 3. And the Day Spinning Away* 4. Moon Cracks and Spreads Winter Night* Twelve Soprano, 1. Springtime Sea Harold G MV 1215 Miniatures recorder or 2.The Skylark Henderson S694tw flute, viola da 3. The Visitor 1963 gamba or 4. Night Lightning cello, spinet 5. The Portent or piano 6.September Voices 7.Autumn Nightfall 8. The Scarecrow 9. Lament 10. Winter Night* 11. Loneliness* 12. The River

277 Roberta The Eye of the Soprano, 1. The Apple Tree Lorna Crozier MV1211 Stephen Seasons clarinet, and 2. Study in White* S829eye (b.1931) piano 3. Study in Grey 1997 4. Magpie 5. Spring Storm Leon Zuckert Two Northern Voice and 1. The Lonesome Lois Darroch MV1101 (1904-1992) Nature Songs piano Loon* Z94tw 1989 2. Northern Night*

278 Appendix C

Chronology of the Selected Works

1950-1959

Maurice Dela Les saisons (1954) Jean Coulthard Soir d'hiver (1957)

1960-1969

Clermont Pepin Hymne au vent du nord (1960) Murray Schafer Brebeuf (1961) Harry Somers Twelve Miniatures (1965) Harry Somers Evocations (1966) Lloyd Burritt Four Winter Haiku (1969)

1970-1979

Jacques Hetu Les clartes de la nuit, op.20 (1972) Richard Henninger The Three Songs of Winter (1972) Robert Fleming Of A Timeless Land (1974) Andre Prevost Hiver dans I'ame (1978) Violet Archer Northern Landscape (1978)

1980-1989

Violet Archer Prairie Profiles (1980) Godfrey Ridout The Seasons (1980) Euphrosyne Keefer Polar Chrysalis (1981) Peter Hatch East From the Mountains (1984) Barbara Pentland Ice Age (1986) Jean Papineau-Couture Nuit polaire (1986) Rudolf Komorous Cold Mountain Songs (1987) Clifford Crawley The Winter Galaxy (1988) Patricia Bloomfield Holt Polar Chrysalis: Ten Haiku Poems (1988) Leon Zuckert Two Northern Nature Songs (1989)

279 1990-1999

Violet Archer Northern Journey (1990) Mark Mitchell Season Songs (1990) Brent Lee Landscapes in a Luminous Night (1993) Gerhard Wuensch Seasonings (1994) John Burge Autumn Closing and Winter (1995) Arsenio Giron Ten Songs (1995) John G. Armstrong False Spring (1996) Violet Archer Songs of North (1996) Roberta Stephen The Eye of the Seasons (1997)

280 Appendix D

Links Between the Selected Repertoire and Allison Mitcham's Classification of the Representations of North in Canadian Literature

« T3 o Isolation Composer Composition Wild Creaturei Northern Towi Northern Utopi Canadian Siberia Northern Missic Native People ai

Violet Archer Northern Journey 1. Auyuittuq X X 2. Winter Sky 3. Delta 4. Kluane X Glaciers Northern Landscape 1. The Lonely X X Land Prairie Profiles 1. Buffalo Jump 2. Have You X Heard Snow Falling? 3. Ground X Blizzard 4. Prairie Spring X Songs of North 1. Seasons of the North 2. September X Nativity 3. Vows and Seasons 4. The Ending of Snow's Dominium 5. O Kingdom of Summer John G. False Spring Armstrong 4. Pavane X 5. Old Photographs 6. False Spring

281 John Burge Autumn Closing and Winter 1. Autumn X Closing 2. Winter X Lloyd Burritt Four Winter Haiku Jean Soir d'hiver X Coulthard Clifford The Winter Galaxy Crawley 1. The Winter Galaxy 4. Winter Evening Maurice Dela Les saisons 4. Hiver Robert Of a Timeless Land X X Fleming Arsenio Giron Ten Songs 3. Midwinter X Peter Hatch East From the X X Mountains Richard The Three Songs of Henninger Winter 1. Winter Night X Jacquex Hdtu Les clartes de la nuit, op. 20 5. Soir d'hiver X Patricia Polar Chrysalis: Ten X X Bloomfield Haiku Poems Holt Euphrosyne Polar Chrysalis X X Keefer Rudolf Cold Mountain Komorous Songs Brent Lee Landscapes in a Luminous Night 3. Stopping for Northern Lights East of Priddis Mark Mitchell Season Songs 1. An Early Start in Mid-Winter Jean Nuit polaire Papineau- Couture Barbara Ice Age X X X X Pentland Clermont Hymne au vent du X P6pin nord

282 Andr6 Provost Hiver dans I 'dme 1.11 fait nuit lente 2. Dernier X X parall&le 3. Verte feuille Godfrey The Seasons Ridout 3. Winter R. Murray Brebeuf Schafer 1. Winter near X X X Kibec X X 2.The Journey X X 3.The Arrival

Harry Somers Evocations 1. Loon X 2. Shattered Light 3. And the Day Spinning Away 4. Moon Cracks and Spreads Winter Night Twelve Miniatures 10. Winter Night 11. Loneliness X Roberta The Eye of the Stephen Seasons 2. Study in White X Leon Zuckert Two Northern Nature Songs 1. The Lonesome X X Loon 2. Northern Night X X

283 Appendix E

Recurrent Elements Illustrative of the Northern Landscape in the Selected Repertoire

1. Northern Utopia Violet Archer: "Kluane Glaciers," Northern Journey Violet Archer: "Ground Blizzard," Prairie Profiles Robert Fleming: Of a Timeless Land Patricia Bloomfield Holt: Polar Chrysalis: Ten Haiku Poems Euphrosyne Keefer: Polar Chrysalis Clermont Pepin: Hymne au vent du nord Andre Prevost: "Dernier parallele," Hiver dans I 'ame

2. The Wild Creatures, the Native People and Us Violet Archer: "Winter Sky," Northern Journey Violet Archer: "The Lonely Land," Northern Landscape Violet Archer: "Have You Heard Snow Falling?," Prairie Profiles Violet Archer: "Prairie Spring," Prairie Profiles John Burge: Autumn Closing Arsenio Giron: "Midwinter," Ten Songs Barbara Pentland: Ice Age R. Murray Schafer: Brebeuf Harry Somers: "Loon," Evocations Roberta Stephen: "Study in White," The Eye of the Seasons Leon Zuckert: "The Lonesome Loon," Two Northern Nature Songs Leon Zuckert: "Northern Night," Two Northern Nature Songs

3. Northern Mission Violet Archer: "September Nativity," Songs of North R. Murray Schafer: Brebeuf

4. Isolation Violet Archer: "The Lonely Land," Northern Landscape John Armstrong: "Red Leaves," False Spring Jean Coulthard: Soir d 'hiver Robert Fleming: Of a Timeless Land Peter Hatch: East from the Mountains Richard Henninger: "Winter Night," The Three Songs of Winter Jacques Hetu: "Soir d'hiver," Les clartes de la nuit Patricia Bloomfield Holt: Polar Chrysalis: Ten Haiku Poems Euphrosyne Keefer: Polar Chrysalis

284 Barbara Pentland: Ice Age Andre Prevost: "Dernier parallele," Hiver dans I'ame R. Murray Schafer: Brebeuf Harry Somers: "Loneliness," Twelve Miniatures Leon Zuckert: "The Lonesome Loon," Two Northern Nature Songs Leon Zuckert: "Northern Night," Two Northern Nature Songs

5. Frozen Landscape John Armstrong: "Pavane," False Spring Jean Coulthard: Soir d 'hiver Clifford Crawley: "Winter Evening," The Winter Galaxy Maurice Dela: "Hiver," Les saisons Robert Fleming: Of a Timeless Land Peter Hatch: East from the Mountains Jacques Hetu: "Soir d'hiver," Les clartes de la nuit Mark Mitchell: "An Early Start in Mid-Winter," Season Songs Jean Papineau-Couture: Nuit polaire Andre Provost: "II fait nuit lente," Hiver dans I 'ame Roberta Stephen: "Study in White," The Eye of the Seasons

6. Huge Space Violet Archer: "Seasons of the North," Songs of North Patricia Bloomfield Holt: Polar Chrysalis: Ten Haiku Poems John Burge: Winter Peter Hatch: East from the Mountains Euphrosyne Keefer: Polar Chrysalis Jean Papineau-Couture: Nuit polaire

7. Snow Violet Archer: "Have You Heard Snow Falling?," Prairie Profiles John Armstrong: "Old Photographs," False Spring John Burge : Winter Lloyd Burritt: Four Winter Haiku Jean Coulthard: Soir d'hiver Maurice Dela: "Hiver," Les saisons Arsenio Giron: "Midwinter," Ten Songs Jacques Hetu: "Soir d'hiver," Les clartes de la nuit Barbara Pentland: Ice Age Harry Somers: "Loneliness," Twelve Miniatures Roberta Stephen: "Study in White," The Eye of the Seasons

8. Nighttime Violet Archer: "Seasons of the North," Songs of North John Armstrong: "The Lake," False Spring John Armstrong: "Pavane," False Spring

285 John Burge: Winter Jean Coulthard: Soir d'hiver Clifford Crawley: "The Winter Galaxy," The Winter Galaxy Clifford Crawley: "Winter Evening," The Winter Galaxy Richard Henninger: "Winter Night," The Three Songs of Winter Jacques Hetu: "Soir d'hiver," Les clartes de la nuit Brent Lee: Landscapes in a Luminous Night Jean Papineau-Couture: Nuit polaire Clermont Pepin: Hymne au vent du nord Andre Prevost: "II fait nuit lente," Hiver dans I 'ame Andre Prevost: "Dernier parallele," Hiver dans I'ame Harry Somers: "Loon," Evocations Harry Somers: "Winter Night," Evocations Leon Zuckert: "Northern Night," Two Northern Nature Songs

9. Luminous Landscape Violet Archer: "O Kingdom of Summer," Songs of North Violet Archer: "September Nativity," Songs of North John Armstrong: False Spring Clifford Crawley: The Winter Galaxy Jean Papineau-Couture: Nuit polaire Harry Somers: "Shattered Light," Evocations Leon Zuckert: "Northern Night," Two Northern Nature Songs

10. Wind Violet Archer: "The Lonely Land," Northern Landscape Violet Archer: "Buffalo Jump," Prairie Profiles Violet Archer: "Ground Blizzard," Prairie Profiles Violet Archer: "Winter Sky," Northern Journey John Armstrong: "Red Leaves," False Spring Patricia Bloomfield Holt: Polar Chrysalis: Ten Haiku Poems John Burge: Autumn closing Lloyd Burritt: Four Winter Haiku Clifford Crawley: "Winter Evening," The Winter Galaxy Maurice Dela: "Hiver," Les saisons Peter Hatch: East from the Mountains Euphrosyne Keefer: Polar Chrysalis Jean Papineau-Couture: Nuit polaire Clermont Pepin: Hymne au vent du nord Harry Somers: "Winter Night," Evocations

11. Silence Violet Archer: "Buffalo Jump," Prairie Profiles Violet Archer: "Have You Heard Snow Falling?," Prairie Profiles Violet Archer: "Winter Sky," Northern Journey

286 Patricia Bloomfield Holt: Polar Chrysalis: Ten Haiku Poems John Burge: Winter Clifford Crawley: "Winter Evening" The Winter Galaxy Maurice Dela: "Hiver" Les saisons Robert Fleming: Of a Timeless Land Peter Hatch: East from the Mountains Euphrosyne Keefer: Polar Chrysalis Andre Prevost: "II fait nuit lente," Hiver dans I 'ame Andre Provost: "Dernier parallele," Hiver dans I 'ame Roberta Stephen: "Study in White," The Eye of the Seasons Leon Zuckert: "Northern Night," Two Northern Nature Songs

287