Art song
Perhaps the earliest report indicating that the art song was cultivated in Canada appears in August Ludwig von Schlözer's Vertrauliche Briefe aus Kanada und Neu-England vom Jahre 1777 und 1778 (Göttingen 1779). In his fourth letter Schlözer describes a party (for the queen's birthday, 20 Jan 1777) given in Trois-Rivières by Baron von Riedesel, the commander of the loyalist mercenaries: 'You should know, dear sir, that the Canadian belles sing Italian and French chansons at dinner; and that several chansons already have been written and set to music in honour of General von Riedesel and frequently are sung in Trois-Rivières'. Unfortunately, neither the music nor the name(s) of its composer(s) has survived. Late-18th-century newspapers show that music teachers taught 'vocal music,' that dealers imported vocal sheet music, and that performers gave concerts of vocal music, usually, however, operatic.
See also Folk-music-inspired composition.
Songs To English Texts
Vocal compositions were the most popular type of music available prior to 1867. The earliest Canadian art songs in English surviving in print are two canzonets by Stephen Codman for coloratura soprano and piano published ca 1827. Both are elaborate display pieces reflecting the influences of contemporary opera. The publication of separate songs in sheet-music format with piano accompaniment began in Canada when J.F. Lehman's setting of 'The Merry Bells of England' was published by John Lovell in 1840. Its simple keyboard accompaniment and strophic setting typified the songs of this period as did J.P. Clarke's Lays of the Maple Leaf or Songs of Canada (Nordheimer 1853), the first song cycle published in Canada.
The main developments of solo song began in the 1830s and 1840s when Canadian literary journals included music. These periodicals became the first means of circulating music to a widely-dispersed public. Typical of more than 150 vocal and keyboard works in The Literary Garland was Susanna Moodie's 'Welcome, welcome little bark,' set to music by J.W. Dunbar Moodie and arranged by W.H. Warren (1841). This song and others of the period express the simple sentiments of the poems with uncomplicated, predominantly diatonic harmonies, strophic settings, limited vocal ranges, and four-bar phrases.
Many anglophone Canadian composers writing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries continued to be influenced by the European art-song tradition, especially the German Lied. Ernest Whyte wrote more than 270 songs, many of which have elaborate Schumannesque piano parts, and W.O. Forsyth wrote works ranging from 'Trust,' reminiscent of Schumann, to 'Frühlingsabend' inspired by the writing of Hugo Wolf. The Album of Six Baritone Songs (1894) written by Clarence Lucas is one of the few extended collections written by a Canadian up to this time. His settings avoid repetitive formats and allow the images and structure of each poem to determine the musical accompaniment. Paul Ambrose, like Forsyth and Lucas, showed the influences of European trends in his more than 200 songs as did Gena Branscombe, the most prominent Canadian-born woman composer writing prior to World War I, in settings such as 'Happiness' (1911) by the poet Eichendorff. Bertha Tamblyn (1877-1954) wrote distinctive songs for children, collections of which - Holly Time Songs (1938) and We Are Seven (1939) - were published by Thompson.
Composers began to develop a Canadian identity principally in their choices of texts. Inspired by William Henry Drummond's narrative ballad, 'The Grand Seigneur,' Percival Illsley in 1896 created a 'Canadian ballad' dedicated to Emma Albani. Laura Lemon's Canadian Song Cycle (1911), Ernest MacMillan's settings of Bliss Carman's Songs from Sappho (1920), and Gena Branscombe's By St Lawrence Water (1921), all illustrate this interest in Canadian poets and themes.
Many anglophone Canadian composers, including Albert Ham, Susie Francis Harrison (composing under the pseudonyms 'Seranus' and 'Gilbert King'), Charles A.E. Harriss, Whyte, Forsyth, and Edward B. Manning, who composed more than 200 songs, modelled their works on Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Wolf; some set to music words by Goethe and Heine, and other German poets. British-born composers active in Canada, such as Healey Willan and Leo Smith, found their inspiration in the poetry of Yeats, Browning, Herrick, Keats, or Tennyson. Other song composers of the first half of the 20th century included W.H. Anderson (many to verses by Canadian poets), George Brewer, Edward Broome, William France, and Barbara Pentland.
Canadian composers of the 1930s and 1940s gradually absorbed new influences which liberated their music from European moulds. Polytonality, serialism, modal and exotic scales, and the rich Canadian heritage of folk material (both European and native) have been integrated in the modern Canadian song. Weinzweig and Somers have written their own words, on occasion. Somers, notably in Evocations, has explored in some depth new vocal techniques, as have Anhalt and others. Indeed, much writing in the 1970s tended to eschew or subdue the human and literary elements of the art song in favour of more abstract and exotic tendencies.
True song cycles, rarely composed by Canadians before the 1920s, subsequently became more frequent. Composers in the later 20th century have seemed more responsive to the challenge of uniting word and music over the extended span which characterizes the cycle. Among 20th-century Canadians who have published sets or cycles of songs in English with piano or other instruments are Anhalt (Foci, Berandol 1972), Michael C. Baker (Three Lyric Songs, No. 3, Leslie 1979), Beckwith (Five Lyrics of the T'ang Dynasty, BMIC 1949; Four Songs to Poems by e.e. cummings, Waterloo 1975), Bissell (Two Songs of Farewell, Waterloo 1963; Hymns of the Chinese Kings, Waterloo 1968; Six Maritime Folk Songs, Berandol 1970; Six Folk Songs From Eastern Canada, Boosey & Hawkes 1971), Blomfield Holt (Three Songs of Contemplation, Berandol 1970), Chatman (Seven Songs, Berandol 1979); Fisher (Two Last Words, Seesaw 1985); Fleming (The Confession Stone, Leeds 1968), Glick (... i never saw another butterfly..., Leeds 1972), Johnston (The Irish Book, Waterloo 1971), Kasemets (Three Miniatures, BMIC 1960), Kunz (Love, Death, and Full Moon Nights, English and German Songs, Second Book of Solo Songs, all AKM), Naylor (Speaking from the Snow, Robertson 1974), Schafer (Minnelieder, Berandol 1970; Kinderlieder, Berandol 1970), and Somers (Five Songs for Dark Voice, Berandol 1972; Twelve Miniatures, BMIC 1965; Evocations, Berandol 1970; Three Songs, Berandol 1980). Others in the mid- and late-20th century who have contributed significantly to the literature of solo songs with piano or instrumental accompaniment include V. Archer, L. Betts, Bottenberg, Brott, Buczynski, Buhr, Burritt, Coulthard, Duncan, Eggleston, Freedman, Gayfer, Haworth, Healey, William Jordan, Klein, Komorous, MacNutt, B.Mather, Morawetz, Welford Russell, Weinzweig, Weisgarber, Wilson, and Zuckert.
Some 60 19th-century songs to English texts have been reprinted in CMH,vol 3.
Songs To French Texts
Introduction
The first indications of the transition from the ballad to the art song appear in the work of Lavallée, less in the five pieces that he published between 1879 and 1886 than in the preface to the collection of Seize Mélodies pour chant et piano par le comte de Premio-Real (1879): 'The parlour song - which reigned supreme for so many years and left its much too languorous and naïve sounds echoing through our drawing-rooms - has had its day. The constant progress of the art of music has made us more demanding than our fathers, and we avow our preference for the art song because of its harmonic richness and skillful transitions with which the masters of the modern school have been able to embellish it'.
From this time onward we notice greater attention being paid to the choice of texts, which thus contributed to a discernible improvement in the style. The preferred poets are French (Barbier, Carnot, Daudet, Desbordes-Valmore, De Maistre, Desportes, Éluard, Gauthier, Hugo, Lamartine, Mendès, Musset, Rességuier, Silvestre, Sully Prudhomme, Turquety, Valéry, Van Lerberghe, Verlaine), or Canadian (Baillargeon, Choquette, Cinq-Mars, Desaulniers, Ferland, Francoeur, Fréchette, Gill, Lacasse, Lalonde, Lamontagne, Lapointe, Lasnier, Leduc, Legendre, Lemieux, Lozeau, Morin, Nelligan, Rainier, Saint-Denys Garneau, Tremblay); we also find translations of Japanese texts - perhaps in the wake of Stravinsky's Trois Poésies de la lyrique japonaise (1912-13) - in the work of J.-J. Gagnier, Robert Talbot, Rodolphe Mathieu, and François Morel, as well as, around 1955, in that of Alfred Kunz, Harry Somers, and Udo Kasemets, among other English Canadian composers; Serge Garant set the texts of García Lorca.
1880-1918
Concurrently with this movement, composers, starting with Guillaume Couture and Alexis Contant, generally showed greater sensitivity regarding prosody and variety of accompaniment. Contant, who cultivated the vocal arts for more than 30 years, used to advantage several facets of the genre in accordance with the spirit of the text: 'Musique,' for example, calls for a cello concertante and judiciously underlines the words of the text with the music; 'Sur un crucifix,' his last composition, definitely moves away from strophic song, elsewhere dear to the composer, thanks to the adoption of a style close to recitative. Another important contribution was made by Achille Fortier: Rejection of strophic style, a melodic line vigourously supported by a thick and often varied accompaniment, and imaginative harmony are the qualities of those compositions which have come down to us. Nevertheless, the prosody is not free from error, and on the whole little attention is paid to the setting of the word to music. In this regard, the work of Amédée Tremblay is very different. It consists of only two songs printed at the turn of the century, in which the predominant vocal style is the recitative, to a certain extent in opposition to the strophic structure that it retains; the harmonic refinement in his songs, as well as in his harmonization of Canadian folksongs, brings out his original gifts, which did not pass unnoticed by his contemporaries.
Between the Wars
Ignored by such influential composers as Arthur Letondal, Henri Gagnon, Claude Champagne, Léo-Pol Morin, Georges-Émile Tanguay, Hector Gratton, the art song, during the period from the death of Alexis Contant to the first works of Jean Papineau-Couture, was characterized by a variety of idioms. The considerable impetus given to the arrangement of folksongs interfered with the output of more than one composer, in turning aside their attention from the art song. Nevertheless, signs of it remained in the writing of Albertine Morin-Labrecque, Omer Létourneau and, in part, that of François Brassard. In the works of Létourneau, for example, alongside 'Papillons,' which was first published by the revue La Musique, there are almost 30 so-called art songs, of which the simplicity and the subject matter often recall the songs of T. Botrel and A. Larrieu. Furthermore, a piece such as 'Rêves d'enfant' borrows its words and melodic theme from the Breton bard. Their circulation was guaranteed by revues such as La Lyre, among others, and by publication at the composer's expense (offset printing). In all these works the musician shows himelf an adherent of a most conservative breadth of style and tonality. The attitude of Alfred La Liberté, nonetheless one of the most prolific harmonizers of Canadian folksong, is fundamentally different. He embarked on the course of a somewhat unrestrained study, but produced what is perhaps the first Canadian song cycle, Quinze Chansons d'Ève (three of which were published by Max Eschig in 1926, less than 20 years after that of Fauré).
The rejection of all folksong influence led Rodolphe Mathieu 'to conceive of a music completely different (from that of folksong), much more Canadian, perhaps; a boundless music, of broad melodic lines, of sustained rhythms, of rich and varied harmonies, with resonances of the forest, giving a sense of vastness, of the grandiose, in gentleness as well as in strength'. (Parlons... musique). Of the six songs, or groups of songs, which he wrote between 1919 and 1928, Saisons canadiennes is the work which most adequately reflects the state of his writing, which was close to Romanticism. Along with J.-J. Gagnier, Mathieu is one of the only musicians to use texts of his own invention, thus anticipating a procedure which English-Canadian composers Harry Somers and R. Murray Schafer would later borrow. The conventions of Romanticism suited Emiliano Renaud equally well. After publishing his first vocal works with bilingual texts in Boston, he left in manuscript form, among the 30 titles which comprise his catalogue, a group of Six Romances written at different periods. Shortly before his death he dedicated them to the German contralto Sigrid Onegin. The second song of the group, 'Le Pardon' (1931), was particularly suited to the dramatic talents of this celebrated singer, who performed them on more than one occasion. This same decade saw the birth of a series of 60 songs (1934-5) by the Quebec composer Léo Roy on the poems of Nelligan. They were conceived over a period of 10 years; the actual compostion took one entire year. The musicologist Aline Laforest has shown the close connection between the themes of the poems and the melodic structure, the unfolding of which takes into consideration the ideas suggested by the text without nonetheless forming a cycle in a formal sense.
Concurrently with the efforts of certain composers to conceive of the art song on a larger scale, an opposing tendency came to light which consisted not only of writing isolated works (Charles Baudoin, Auguste Descarries, Gabriel Cusson), but also of reducing their dimensions almost to those of aphorisms. 'Rose close' (1916) by Renaud is perhaps the first model of this type, followed by 'Une fleur' (1933 and 1942) by Talbot. This tendency is particularly evident in a dozen songs by Gagnier, written at the time when the musician occupied the position of regional director of music at the CBC (1934-48). In the miniatures of the latter, the strophic song can sometimes make an appearance ('Leid'); more striking is the search for unity by means of repeated motives, a shimmering harmony in the impressionistc style ('Nuits d'été'), conciseness and extreme economy of means.
After 1940
The largest part of the art song repertoire produced between the wars seems to have enjoyed a restricted appeal, and this in spite of the number of professional singers in Quebec at the time. For example, the 10 songs (ca 1929-ca 1948) by Descarries, although well-written, have all remained in manuscript form, as have most of the 14 songs (1919-32) of Talbot. The situation did not change in any significant way at the turn of the 1940s, in spite of the evident signs of interest in the French art song, at least in Montreal: for example, a series of four lecture-recitals, 'Les Liédistes français,' given by Jeanne Desjardins, Marie-Thérese Paquin, and Marcel Valois; or, even more, the series of seven recitals presented in the same period by the pupils of Pauline Donalda. Some important composers, mostly Montrealers, continued nevertheless to interest themselves in the song, often at the dawn of their career.
Six years before the Refus global, it seemed that Papineau-Couture wished to break with the prevailing ideology of Canadian nationalism to which the critics, among others, tended until then to confine the works of native composers, and to put his work on a more international footing. Paradoxically, meanwhile, his first collection of three songs, Eglogues (on a text of P. Baillargeon, 1942) for contralto, flute and piano, appeared in the revue Amériques française three months after the publication of his reflections on the future of music, under the title : 'Que sera la musique canadienne?' The songs, which suggested to John Beckwith a connection with Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, are written in a neo-classical style. The same holds true for the next cycle, Quatrains (on a text of F. Jammes, 1947), which is characterized by a sophisticated economy of means: 'Espace,' for example, consists of only one melodic phrase, repeated once, one simple rhythmic motive and, for all the harmony, two chords. However, great skill is exhibited in the accompaniment: the notation, sometimes abstract, sometimes descriptive or simply suggestive, plays an important structural role.
Although using different methods, Morel's Quatre Chants japonais ('Chansons des geishas,' 1949) are closely in keeping with the trend established by Papineau-Couture. The cycle introduces a large number of features to the song literature of French Canada. First, the instrumental part sets itself up asin a veritable counterpart to the vocal line, which on occasion it dominates (eg, in no. 1 and 3) and is distinguished by the brilliant and diverse character of its writing. The creation of atmosphere is closely related to the spectacular development of the piano part, as an examination of the sound resources demonstrate (sonorous tone clusters, the use of changing chords and the suggestion of colour, low dynamic intensity, subtle use of the pedal, etc). Moreover, the search for exoticism led the composer to the use of pentatonic and other gapped scales, as well as to the predominance of intervals and harmonies based on the perfect fourth and fifth. The treatment of the voice shows great restraint: phrases are generally made up of very brief fragments and the line has often the appearance of a recitative; only no. 4 uses repeated glissando effects. Six years later, Morel composed Les Rivages perdus (on three poems of W. Lemoyne, 1955-6) which are reminiscent of Messiaen's Poèmes pour Mi (1936).
Clermont Pépin wrote only one song cycle (on poems of P. Éluard, 1949). Like the works of Papineau-Couture and Morel, it exhibits a renewed spirit and a transformation of writing techniques. The six short pieces which make up the cycle show a sophisticated harmonic skill serving texts, in turn, of dadaist and surrealist expression. The music (disjunct intervals, in general widely-spaced chords, strongly accentuated rhythms, and a steady metric organization) brings out a feeling of gravity and strength which, apart from several pages of La Liberté, is sufficiently unique in this regard before 1950. Nonetheless, one finds a kind of prolongation of this in two works by André Prévost. After an attempt at a conventional love song (Musiques peintes, three poems of G. Lapointe, 1955), Prévost adopted the meditations of M. Lalonde, 'the doubtful poet of mutilated depths,' in the words of S. Paradis,' and set three of the tenor poems of Geôles, in the same year that he completed Fantasmes Improvisation V, thus pushing his expressive powers to their limits: the climate of violence implied in the poem of L. Vézina-Prévost finds its translation in the opposition between the groan and the shriek embodied in song based on the chromatic scale, the alternating of strongly contrasted movements, vocal effects (glissando and precise pitching of voice, with or without vibrato) and instrumental effects (vibrato or glissando on the strings of the piano, strongly dissonant hammered chords and obsessive rhythms).
The work of Jocelyn Binet and Serge Garant is fundamentally different, even in its musical conception. Jocelyn Binet did not live long enough to continue the promising experiments in which she was engaged in the years immediately following the war ('Les Oiseaux de la mer,' on a poem by Gabriel Charpentier, 1949). As for Garant, he approached song via the inspiration provided by the poetry of Verlaine ('Un grand sommeil noir', 1949), as was the case with several of his contemporaries, André Mathieu, for example. Less than three years later he wrote a part of Concerts sur terre (P. de la Tour du Pin), and 'Et je prierai ta grâce' (Saint-Denys Garneau). In these compositions the composer shows the influence of Messiaen: melodic phrases, spacious, and sometimes elaborated by means of melodic variation, adequately fit the text. The search for variety in the writing expresses itself in changes of tempo, of metre and of accompaniing figures, providing clear connectedness. The harmony is characterized above all by what the composer called an 'unceasing mutation of a series of chords' (Concerts sur terre no. 1 and 2). In 1954 Garant partly renewed his method of writing song form (Caprices, on a poem of García Lorca). The result is an example of 'spirit and of serial writing,' according to the words of the composer. In actual fact, it is the first of Garant's works in this aesthetic. It has two chief characteristics: 'the sound material is constantly renewed, and it is constantly in motion. These works unfold in a universe in perpetual evolution from which all reference points are intentionally abolished, and where there is no role for musical memory. Necessarily, in this music one finds neither themes nor motives, not even recurring textures which could facilitate the task of a music lover'. The contrast with the songs of the years 1951-52 is complete. The movement of the vocal line is disjunct, divided into short units by means of rests, occasionally interspersed with Sprechgesang. The pointillistic writing in the piano part is of great rhythmic and harmonic complexity.
At this stage, the art of composition transgresses the rules of the genre: the decline of the art song is directly related to the relinquishing of the perogatives of romantic music, which it typically manifests, as in its melodic element. It is for this reason that certain works written in a more conservative language, such as Jean Vallerand (Quatre Poèmes de Saint-Denys Garneau, 1954), Maurice Dela ('Xami', 'Ballade,' and 'La Lettre'), Pierre Mercure ('Colloque,' 1948, on a poem of Valéry, Dissidence, 1955, on three poems of Charpentier, reset in Cantate pour une joie, also from 1955), and Alain Gagnon (Opus 3 from 1964, Opus 6 from 1965 and Opus 15 from 1968: 'Que je t'accueille', on a poem of Saint-Denys Garneau), all of which attach an essential importance to the horizontal nature of the vocal line, present fixed points of interest. At the height of its development, the genre always lent itself to the most exquisite refinements; this is demonstrated by two works of one of the greatest modern composers of song, Jacques Hétu: Les Clartés de la nuit (on five poems of Nelligan, 1972), and Les Abîmes du rêve (four poems of Nelligan, 1982), of which the group Les Illusions fanées for chorus (on four poems also by Nelligan) offers an extension of the style. While using a harmonic language characteristic of the 20th century (modality, total chromaticism, polytonality), the two groups of songs composed by Hétu are distinguished by their classical characteristics (balance between text, voice, and instrument, formal balance based on the recurrence of motives). Like Schubert, the song is of a lyrical nature and all of the works contain a prelude and a postlude in the manner of the accompaniment. Also like Schubert, modulations and progressions to the minor third are frequent, as is unobtrusive imagery.
It is hazardous to predict the future of the art song in French Canada. The composition of works belonging to this genre holds little interest for young composers. An examination of the catalogue of Claude Vivier, one of the most promising musicians in the art of vocal composition in the last quarter of the 20th century, makes this evident: not one work belongs to this category. Nonetheless, there are certain hopeful signs: the persistent cult of the French language and its poetry, the gradual return to an accessible musical language, and the search for an balance between the horizontal and vertical levels in composition, favour a renewed interest in a style otherwise threatened with extinction. It is virtually certain, however, that music will give up its traditional and somewhat simplistic role of word painting; it should nonetheless come to the fore again as the pre-eminent vehicle of the composer's feelings in his encounter with poetry.
Author 1/Helmut Kallmann, Frederick A. Hall 2/Lucien Poirier
The number of Canadian art songs and art-song cycles recorded by 1991 was small in relation to the repertoire. The following list of recordings, while not claiming to be comprehensive, nevertheless provides coverage representative at the time of compilation.
Adaskin Epitaph (RCI 74/5-ACM 23); Of Man and the Universe (CBC SM-277)
Anhalt Foci (RCI 357/5-ACM 22)
Applebaum Cry of the Prophet (RCA LSC 3092/Master MA-377)
Archer 'April Weather,' 'Cradle Song,' 'The Twenty-Third Psalm,' 'First Snow' from Under the Sun (RCI 108/all except 'First Snow' are on 7-ACM 17): Under the Sun (CBC SM-79/7-ACM 17); Northern Landscape (Centrediscs CMC-1083); Prairie Profiles (7-ACM 17); 'Caleidoscopio' (Centrediscs CMC-1183); If the Stars Are Burning (Arts Venture CD-1001)
Baker, Michael C. Seven Wonders: A Song Cycle (Centrediscs CMC-14-1584/RCI 585)
Beckwith Serenade (RCI 36); Five Lyrics of the T'ang Dynasty (RCI 148/5-ACM 26/Centrediscs CMC-2185/Nos 3 and 4 Philips 6514-157); Four Love Songs (5-ACM 26); 'Drimindown,' 'L'Amant Malheureux,' 'The Saint-John's Girl' from Four Love Songs (CBC SM-111); Five Songs arr (CBC SM-77/Sel CC-15073/5-ACM 26)
Betts 5 of Six Songs, 1951 (RCI 74)
Bissell Two Songs of Farewell (CBC SM-79); Six Maritime Folk Songs (selections CBC SM-168/RCI 419/Marquis ERA-113); Six Folk Songs from Eastern Canada (selections CBC SM-144/Marquis ERA-113); Ten Folk Songs of Canada (CBC SM-168)
Blackburn 'Winter Serenade,' 'The Parrott,' 'The Idiot in the Belfry' (RCI 36); 'Soir d'hiver' (Master MA-377)
Bottenberg Three Amerindian Songs (RCI 497)
Buhr I Have no Home; The Tale of Tinúviel, Steal Away (Gandharva GRCD-9001)
Brott, A. Songs of the Central Eskimos, Indian Legends (RCI 391/7-ACM 20); Songs of Contemplation (RCI 116/7-ACM 20/CBC SM-6/SNE 516)
Chan The Everlasting Voices (Centrediscs CMC-CD-3288)
Coulthard 'Cradle Song' (arr) (West WST-17137); Spring Rhapsody (RCI 203/'Ecstasy' Master MA-377); 'All Day Long I Hear the Noise of Waters,' 'Rain Has Fallen All the Day' from Three Songs for medium voice, 1946 (RCI 20); Cycle of Three Love Songs (RCI 109/6-ACM 10); 'Lean Out of the Window, Goldenhair' (RCI 109/6-ACM 10/Master MA-377); Spring Rhapsody (RCI 203/'Ecstasy' Master MA-377); Two Duets (RCI 515/6-ACM 10); Two Night Songs (6-ACM 10); Six Medieval Love Songs (CBC SM-180/Centrediscs CMC-2185); Four Prophetic Songs (Centrediscs CMC-1183)
Daunais see Discography for Daunais for a list of recordings of his songs
Dela 'Ronde' (RCI 35); Les Saisons (CBC Expo 33, RCI 470), 'Xami' (Master MA-275), 'Berceuse béarnaise' (West WGS-8124)
Duncan 65 songs (2 cassettes, private recording, available for on-site listening in CMCentre libraries)
Eggleston 'Armenian Lullaby,' 'Jewish Lullaby,' 'Norse Lullaby' (RCI 247)
Fleming The Confession Stone (RCI 246/CBC EXPO-4), 4 songs from Coulter Songs (RCI 248); Folk Songs from Prince Edward Island. (CBC SM-259); Folk Lullabies (CBC SM -144)
Freedman Poems of Young People (CBC SM-77/Sel CC-15-073/6-ACM 8)
Frenette Les Oiseaux de verre (RCI 570)
Gagnon, Alain 'Que je t'accueille,' 'Tristesse' (RCI 393)
Garant 'Et je prierai ta grâce,' Concerts sur terre, Caprices (RCI 201/4-ACM 2); 'Cage d'oiseau' 4-ACM-2
Glick... i never saw another butterfly... (CBC SM-77/Sel CC 15.073/4-ACM 34-CD); Two Landscapes (CBC SM-180/4-ACM 34-CD)
Hambraeus Psalm CXXII (Phon Suecia PS-CD-37)
Hamer 'Marigolds' (RCI 35)
Hawkins Waves (RCI 300)
Hétu Les Clartés de la nuit, Opus 20 (RCI 483/4-ACM 31 CD)
Jeannotte Propos intimes (RCI 470)
Jones To Music (RCI 203/5-ACM 24)
Kessler Childhood Cameos (AFKA SK-4663)
Klein Three Melancholy Song (Centrediscs CMC-1183)
Kolinski Six French Folksongs (Folk FTS-31314); Seven French-Canadian Folk Songs (RCI 515)
Lavallée 'L'Absence,' 'Nuit d'été' (RCI 426)
Mathieu, Rodolphe 'L'Automne' and 'L'Hiver' from Saisons canadiennes (RCI 365/4- ACM 32); 'Un Peu d'ombre,' 'Les Yeux noirs,' Deux Poèmes (L'Oiseau-Coeur OC S-02/4-ACM 32)
McIntyre, Margaret 'Lost Lagoon' (RCI 35)
McIntyre, P. Four Poems of Walter de la Mare (RCI 74)
Mercure 'Colloque' (Master MA-275); Dissidence (RCI 201/4-ACM 35 CD/Allied ARCLP 4)
Morawetz 'To the Ottawa River' (RCI 121); 'Elegy: ''I am so tired"' (RCI 121/6-ACM 16/CBC SM-180); 'The Grenadier' (RCI 121, CBC SM-42/6-ACM 16); 'The Chimney Sweeper,' 'Mad Song' (RCI 121/6-ACM 16, CBC Expo 22); 'Piping Down the Valleys Wild' (CBC SM-8/6-ACM 16/CBC SM-180/Centrediscs CMC-2185); 'I Love the Jocund Dance' (CBC SM-8/6-ACM 16); 'Father William' (RCI 391); 'Land of Dreams' (CBC SM-8/6-ACM 16/World WRC1-4342); 'To the Ottawa River' (RCI 121/6-ACM 16); 'When We Two Parted' (6-ACM 16); Sonnets from the Portugese (6-ACM 16/Centrediscs CMC-CD-3589); 'Psalm 22'(Centrediscs CMC-CD-3589); Souvenirs from Childhood (Centrediscs CMC-CD-3589); 'The Weaver' (Centrediscs CMC-CD-3589)
MacMillan Three Indian Songs of the West Coast (Centrediscs CMC-2185)
Morel Les Rivages perdus (RCI 201/5-ACM 6)
Naylor Speaking from the Snow (Centrediscs CMC-2185)
Papineau-Couture Quatrains (RCI 148/CBC EXPO-32/6-ACM 4); Complainte populaire (RCI 515); Mort (RCI 647)
Pentland 'Wheat' and 'Mountains' (RCI 20/6-ACM 25); Sung Songs Nos. 4 and 5 (Centrediscs CMC-1083/6-ACM 25)
Pépin Cycle-Éluard (RCI 148/4-ACM 5/RCI 426)
Prévost Geôles (Allied ARCLP 4); Musiques peintes (RCI 426/6-ACM 28)
Ridout 'Ah Si Mon Moine Voulait Danser!' (Marquis ERA-113); 'She's Like the Swallow' and 'I'll Give My Love an Apple' (Centrediscs CMC-2185), all three from Folksongs of Eastern Canada
Russell 'Come Hither You that Love' and 'Waly, Waly Up the Bank' from Sixteen Songs, 'My Lute Awake,' 'Over the Mountains' (RCI 333)
Saint-Marcoux Moments (RCI 525/5-ACM 18)
Schafer Kinderlieder (CBC SM-141); Minnelieder (RCI 218/RCA CCS-1012/5-ACM 3); La Testa d'Adriane (Mel SMLP-4034)
Schipizky Three Songs for Mezzo-Soprano (Centrediscs CMC-1083)
Smith 'Imogen's Wish,' 'Oranges, Sweet Oranges,' 'My Mother Sea,' 'I Saw Thee on My Bridal Day,' 'A Prison Song,' 'At Sunset' (SNE 557-CD)
Somers Three Songs (RCI 20/Centrediscs CMC-2185/World WRC1-4342); Five Songs for Dark Voice (CBC SM-73, RCI 286/RCA LSC 3172); Evocations (CBC SM-13/CBC SM-108/10-ACM 7); Twelve Miniatures (RCA 217/RCI CCS-1011/10-ACM 7); Kuyas (CBC EXPO-10, Centrediscs CMC-1183)
Vallerand Quatre Poèmes de Saint-Denys Garneau (RCI 393/3-ACM 19/Allied ARCLP 4)
Vivier 'Hymnen an die Nacht' (RCI 631/4-ACM 36 CD)
Weinzweig Dance of the Massadah (RCA LSC-3092/Master MA-275); Of Time and the World (RCI 20/5-ACM 1); Private Collection (Centrediscs CMC-0582)
Willan 'At Dawn,' 'To Blossoms' from Ten Songs, 'Sonnet "To Sleep"' from Song Album No. 1, 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' from Song Album No. 2 (CBC SM-144)
Zuckert 'Days Come and Go,' 'How Sweet,' 'Spring Thaw' (Master MA-275); 'Remember' (Master MA-377); 'Serenade' and 'Prayer' (Master MA-904); 'Serenade,' 'How Sweet,' 'Indian Lullaby,' 'True Love,' 'Spring Thaw,' 'Oriental Romance' (Jubal 5007)
Links to Other Sites
Canadian Music Centre
Search the extensive CMC website for Canadian composer biographies and interviews, music scores, online newsletters, audio clips, podcasts, and more. Check out "CentreStreams" to listen to online archived recordings featuring outstanding Canadian composers.
Dr. Oskar Morawetz
The official website for Dr. Oskar Morawetz, acclaimed composer of contemporary music. Features a "musical biography," a discography, notes about his many compositions, audio clips, and more.
Vancouver International Song Institute
The website for the Vancouver International Song Institute. Features the latest news about their innovative programs and events.
The story of the founding of Montreal is perhaps unique in history....
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