Compositional Crossroads: Music, McGill, Montreal

by Eleanor V. Stubley (Editor)

Overview

McGill University's Faculty of Music - now the Schulich School - has been a centre of new music in Canada for decades, helping to shape contemporary composition, electro-acoustic research, performance, and sound recording. Compositional Crossroads focuses on McGill's location in a culturally dynamic city and shows how the interplay between place, community, identity, and memory and individuals, faculty, and students created institutional pathways that have lead to an explosion of new music activity. Visionary deans, composers, musicologists, and students associated with the Faculty of Music between 1970-2004 offer insights into the early contributions of Istvan Anhalt, the birth of the Electronic Music Studio and McGill Records, the importance of visiting composer-teachers, opportunities for composer/performer collaborations, the development of performing spaces and ensembles, and new ways of considering sonic creativity. Several essays are devoted to major composers who taught at the school, including Bengt Hambraeus, alcides lanza, Brian Cherney, Bruce Mather, John Rea, and Denys Bouliane. Contributors include Robin Elliott (Toronto), alcides lanza (emeritus, McGill), John Rea (McGill), Paul Pedersen (emeritus, Toronto), James Harley (Guelph), Laurie Radford (City University, London), Bruce Mather (McGill), Pamela Jones (author, Montreal), Neil Middleton (Montreal), Steven Huebner (McGill), Jérôme Blais (Dalhousie), and Patrick Levesque (Université de Montreal).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780773577435
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	02/12/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	386
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Eleanor V. Stubley (1960-2017) was associate professor and associate dean of graduate students, Schulich School of Music, McGill University.

Table of Contents

Letter from the Dean vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Crossroads 3

Part 1 Mapping The Infrastructures of the Faculty of Music, McGill University, As a Centre for New Music 17

Introduction 19

1 István Anhalt and New Music at McGill Robin Elliott 33

2 A Brief History of McGill University's Electronic Music Studio, 1964-2004: alcides lanza in Conversation with Meg Sheppard alcides lanza and Meg Sheppard 56

3 Better than a Thousand Days of Diligent Study is One Day with a Great Teacher: Visiting Foreign Artist Residencies at McGill's Faculty of Music, 1975-1981 John Rea 72

4 McGill University Records, 1976-1990: A Brief History Paul Pedersen 110

5 The Making of New Music: Composer as Collaborator James Harley 129

6 From Mixed Up to Mixin' It Up: Evolving Paradigms in Electronic Music Performance Practice Laurie Radford 150

Part 2 Composer-Work Studies 169

Introduction 171

7 The Lost Recital: An Analysis of Bengt Hambr&ae;us's Carillon for Two Pianos Bruce Mather 178

8 The Soles of the Feet: Alcides lanza Reconnects with his Roots Pamela Jones 199

9 Hidden Meaning in Brian Cherney's Die klingende Zeit Neil Middleton 227

10 Bruce Mather's Thé&ahat;tre de l'&ahat;me Steven Huebner 246

11 "Music under the Influence": On la nécessité extérieure in the Music of John Rea Jé&ohat;me Blais 264

12 Illusions, Collapsing Worlds, and Magic Realism: The Music of Denys Bouliane Patrick Levesque 301

Epilogue: The Schulich School of Music Hearing the Future 328

Chronology 335

Appendices

1 Recordings 349

2 The Aims and Philosophy of McGill University Records 359

Index 361

Editorial Reviews

"I am reminded of McLuhan's comment that 'we shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.' Compositional Crossroads - timely and of tremendous importance to musicology - speaks in a voice that appears to have been prescribed by the material itself." Alan Bell, music theory and composition, University of Calgary


"I cannot think of any other book that is devoted to a single faculty of music. Compositional Crossroads offers a serious discussion of a period and place and the personalities that played an exceptional role in the development of Canadian contemporary mu

From the Publisher