Great Canadian Composers.

Hello EVERYBODY!

I'm back, after several month's hiatus. I've just been excrutiatingly busy. I'll post music from now on once I have recordings, but yeah keeping it real.

Recently, I've been introduced to a huge collection of Canadian composers. I'm going to recommend some, and I know that you can purchase some recordings off of Itunes, but otherwise you need to go to the Canada Music Centre:

Go to this exact website:
Canadian Music Centre

the user name is CMC-national and the password is 66listen.

I recommend listening to the following composers and the following pieces:
Alexander Brott's "From Sea to Sea", a symphonic suite of five movements, the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, Prairies, and British Columbia.

Claude Champagne's Altitude, and his Gaspe Symphony.

Now, recordings that you can buy from the music centre:

You've know how Aaron Copland's third symphony is also called the "Quintessential American Symphony" almost as a cliche. Well, Harry Somer's 1st Symphony is what I feel is a very good Canadian symphony, and it comes on the same CD as "North Country," for string orchestra.

But perhaps the most famous Canadian composer who's world renowned is R Murray Schafer.

Many of his compositions involve new venues of performance. One of his operas takes place on a wilderness lake with the singers on canoes and arias echoing across the water. Very beautiful, the "Princess of the Stars." In fact, look up "Patria", which is the twelve part cycle of music dramas. But his concert works, one which involves a snowmobile or a thousand person choir, could quite easily give Xenakis a run for his money.

It's a shame how there is just so much amazing music out there, but because its Canadian, it tends to become obscure no matter how beautiful it is. Also, many of these recordings were on LPs, and only recently were transferred to CDs, and even then they are non-commercial recordings, which is why I gave you the CMC website because nobody's making much money anyway.

This is my gift to anybody who's never heard of any Canadian music and assumed that there is no such thing as good Canadian music and to prove them wrong. I have just as much respect for them as I do for Brahms, Sibelius, Smetna, Tchaikosky, Schoenberg, and every other more famous composers on the market.

So yeah, Canadian music.

. . . and Howard Shore. He is primarily a film scorer as you all know, but he is working on an opera and he has written other classical pieces before too. One thing that I can remember is that he wrote a piece celebrating the like 75 or whatever anniversary of Julliard which was performed at the ceremony. So, he is a legitimate composer and one of the best film scorers of the last 40 years.

true, but the question though is, did he study in Canada? Is there any musical relationship with Canada? Don't get me wrong, he's a great composer, and he could very well write music that is Canadian, I just don't know of any.

Another Canadian composer I could suggest, and you can get (through the CMC a CD of his) is Jacques Hétu. Professor Hétu lives in Montréal, an teaches at U.Q.A.M.

He wrote an incredible Mass for chorus and orchestra for the Bach tercentenary celebrations called "Miss Pro Tricentissimo Anno". It's "tonal" yes modern, incredibly lyrical, very emotional. I was at the premiere... tears flowed.

There's also Professor Alan Belkin whose beautiful Violin Concerto is available on CD. Professor Belkin teaches at Université de Montréal.

And then there's... ME!

AH! You're Canadian! That's sick! I've been away for too long.

My entire family is canadian. I love canadians!!!
Canada rules!!