With a century’s perspective, does Stravinsky’s work still seem pioneering?
May 2013
Claude Debussy famously described Richard Wagner’s music as “a beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a dawn.”
The French composer was not the only one who saw Wagner as the culmination of an old era, rather than the beginning of a new one. Friedrich Nietzsche called Wagner’s music “the song of a dying swan.” And the Austrian critic Eduard Hanslick…
A classical composer and educator unsung in his own land
January–February 2013
R. Murray Schafer is many things to many people. To some, he is an educator. To others, he is an environmentalist, sociologist or perhaps even a cultural theorist. Still to others (myself included) he is primarily a composer of music. He could also be called a professor, a poet, a visual artist, an eccentric, an iconoclast and a back-to-the-land…
A great composer finds his perfect disciple in Canada
March 2012
Last year was a busy time for Franz Liszt. Although dead for well over a century, he seemed to spring to life again in 2011, as the bicentennial of the Hungarian composer’s birth was celebrated around the world. There were concerts (especially piano recitals), recordings, colloquia and, of course, publications.
Aptly, this was the year in which the musical scholar Alan Walker chose to bring out a softcover version of one of his books about the composer who has been central to his…
A great Canadian soprano battled polio and other demons
March 2011
Not every celebrated musician makes an interesting subject for a biography. Even the most illustrious performing career is apt to read like a grocery list if the author cannot find something more to write about than a parade of engagements and accolades.
Was Lois Marshall a good choice for a biographical study? I would not have said yes with certainty until I read James Neufeld’s 334-page labour of…
