Lande Collections

Lande Collections

Lande Collections. Holdings of Canadiana collected by Lawrence Lande and housed in the McLennan (Redpath) Library of McGill University.

Lande - a notary, b Ottawa 11 Nov 1906; BA (McGill) 1928, LLB (Montreal) 1931, honorary D LITT (McGill) 1969 - is one of the most successful private collectors of Canadian books, a poet and author, and an amateur composer whose works (for piano and for voice) have been recorded on several privately produced LPs.

In June 1976 the Lande Collections held 11,257 items, of which the musical content was small but significant. The core of the collection is described in two bibliographies. The Lawrence Lande Collection of Canadiana in the Redpath Library of McGill University (Montreal 1965) lists 2328 items, including 55 of musical interest: sheet music from the late 19th century, hymn and instruction books, and the texts of Colas et Colinette and of C.W. Sabatier's Cantata. Rare and Unusual Canadiana: First Supplement to the Lande Bibliography (Montreal 1971) lists 2451 items, about 130 of them relating to music, mostly sheet music, but also material by T.F. Molt. Most of the material listed in A Checklist of Early Music Relating to Canada (Montreal 1973) was sold to the National Library of Canada in 1979, including 70 pieces of sheet music, several with reference to General Wolfe; the manuscript of Beethoven's canon 'Freu Dich des Lebens,' inscribed to Molt; and hymnbooks and songbooks.

The Lawrence M. Lande Foundation for Canadian Historical Research has published a series of books, including the above Rare and Unusual Canadiana (no. 6 in the series); the Checklist (no. 8 in the series); Beethoven & Quebec (1966, in French and English, no. 2 in the series), which details T.F. Molt's meeting with Beethoven in Vienna; and Joseph Quesnel, 1749-1809, Selected Poems (Montreal 1970, unnumbered in the series) edited by M. Gnarowski.