John Weinzweig and the Canadian Mediascape, 1941-1948 by Erin Elizabeth Scheffer A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Music University of Toronto © Copyright by Erin Elizabeth Scheffer 2019 John Weinzweig and the Canadian Mediascape Erin Elizabeth Scheffer Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Music University of Toronto 2019 Abstract This dissertation explores John Weinzweig’s incidental music for radio and film and its context in Canadian cultural life. Between 1941 and 1948, Weinzweig composed music for nearly one hundred CBC radio docudrama episodes and for four National Film Board documentaries. Weinzweig’s time at the CBC and NFB was his first large scale success as a working composer, following his graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music. Weinzweig’s incidental music was publicly broadcast across Canada, and can be interpreted in light of how it represents Canada during an anxious and difficult yet significant time in the nation’s history through the Second World War and the immediate post-war era. These works, featuring new music broadcast by organizations in their infancy, helped to shape audience perceptions of a rapidly changing country. I begin by situating Weinzweig’s documentary music both temporally and philosophically. The opening chapter explores his biography, the musical context of the 1940s in Canada, and the creation of the CBC and NFB, and it closes by discussing significant themes in the works: indigeneity, northernness, dominion over the landscape, and nation and national affect. The subsequent three chapters divide Weinzweig’s docudramas and documentaries by topic: World War Two propaganda and postwar reconstruction, Canada’s north, and finally a discussion of Weinzweig’s only radio drama The Great Flood , which premiered on CBC’s ii cultural program Wednesday Night in 1948. Throughout this dissertation two themes emerge: the shift from propaganda to arts programming at Canada’s two public broadcasters, and how the CBC and NFB attempted to cultivate nationalist affect (the embodied emotion of feeling Canadian). Weinzweig’s incidental music for the CBC and NFB not only provides insight into his early career, it also sheds light on how two public broadcasters in their nascent years attempted to imagine Canada and create nationalist sentiment in Canadians. iii Acknowledgments Early in my first year at the University of Western Ontario, I played the first movement from Weinzweig’s Divertimento No. 1 for flute and orchestra in studio class. I was a transfer student from Alberta, overwhelmed by the bustle of a large music school and I hardly knew anything about Weinzweig beyond the fact that he was Canadian. At the time, I had no idea how entwined Weinzweig’s music would become with my own life in music but I am incredibly grateful to be here. First, thank you to my dissertation advisor Dr. Robin Elliott, who not only helped make the field of Canadian music research, but has guided me through so many facets of this project. I am also so very grateful to him because, when my PhD overlapped with what was truly the most difficult time in my life, he was both incredibly empathetic and encouraged me to finish the dissertation. I am here, at this point in my PhD, largely because of his support. Thank you to my committee members for both their understanding and for all of their help improving my project. Dr. Ken McLeod thank you for pushing me to think through my project in new and critical ways, and Dr. Caryl Clark, thank you for your guidance in writing. Finally, thank you to Dr. Mary Ann Parker and Dr. James K. Wright for serving as examiners on my defense committee. This project would be nothing without the archival materials. I would like to thank the John Weinzweig Estate and the Mavor Moore Estate for allowing me access to Weinzweig and Moore’s papers, and Weinzweig’s recorded music. I would also like to thank Elisha Denburg at the Canadian League of Composers and Andrea Ayotte at the Canadian Music Centre for giving me access to and assistance with the archival material at those two organizations. I have had many wonderful colleagues, both at the University of Toronto and elsewhere, whose friendship and support has helped me through this process. In particular, thank you to Dr. iv Melissa Wong, Dr. Vanessa Thacker, Dr. Edward Wright, Dr. Jeremy Strachan, Dr. Nadia Chana, Rebekah Lobosco Gilli, Nafisa Hasan, and Kyla Jemison. Thank you as well to Dr. Rosanne King who I’ve now worked for as a teaching assistant more times than I can count, but who has become a mentor and friend. Thank you to Kari North, for all of the mornings, afternoons, and evenings writing and working together at Kelly Library in our two-person writing group and for your friendship. Finally, thank you to my family. To my parents Jacob and Laurie Scheffer, thank you for giving me a life filled with music and reading. Thank you for taking me to youth orchestra, flute lessons, band practices, and attending all of my concerts in frequently inclement Edmonton weather. Thank you for always playing the CBC in the car (I’m not sure if I’d be as fascinated with the CBC without that). Thank you for your support when my desire to study music took me far away while still very young and on this long road to a PhD. Most importantly, however, thank you for showing me both the value and reward of hard work and the importance of caring for others—two lessons I carry with me always as both a scholar and a teacher. Thank you to my brother Matt Scheffer for all of the ways you’ve supported me and all the ways you demonstrate perseverance and selflessness. Thank you to my uncle, John Scheffer, and my cousin, Cassidy Scheffer Kobewka, for being my family here in Toronto. I am so glad I ended up living here near both of you for so long and for all of our dinners, canoe trips, music making, and home improvement projects. Finally, thank you to my partner Dr. Dennis Özcelik, we have different first languages— German and English, music and biology— but you have always supported me and believed that I could finish this project, even in all of the moments when I did not. v Table of Contents Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................................. viii List of Appendices ..........................................................................................................................x Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 Background and Context ..........................................................................................10 1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................10 1.2 Biography..........................................................................................................................11 1.3 The Creation of Canadian Public Broadcasting ...........................................................31 1.4 Exploring Ideas of Nation and Nationalism ..................................................................46 1.5 Indigeneity, Environment, and Nordicity ......................................................................53 1.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................71 Chapter 2 Propaganda, Nationalism, and Postwar Reconstruction in Weinzweig’s War- Era CBC Docudramas ............................................................................................................73 2.1 War Era Canada: From Propaganda to Reconstruction, British Nationalism to National Affect .................................................................................................................75 2.2 New Homes for Old : Imagining Immigration in Weinzweig’s First CBC Docudrama Series ............................................................................................................87 2.3 A Nation at War: Military Documentaries and Wartime Tragedy ..........................102 2.4 Our Canada is a Canada Reconstructed: The Reconstruction Documentary in World War II..................................................................................................................114 2.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................121 Chapter 3 . Imagining the North in Weinzweig’s Scores for Radio and Film .....................122 3.1 Formations of North ......................................................................................................124 3.2 Synopses of the Two Documentaries ............................................................................128 vi 3.3 The Indigenous North ....................................................................................................134 3.4 Exploration and Remnants of British Nationalism.....................................................161 3.5 Mining for Radium ........................................................................................................166