New Music for Canada

The struggle that Canadian contemporary classical music composers face to have their music performed and heard has been experienced by many of them as a continuing civil war. The enemy has not been so much the indifferent public; rather, the musical establishment consisting of orchestras, opera companies, concert presenters and broadcasters is perceived to have constructed a defensive mainstream moat surrounding their programming. The history of neglect, or rebuff after a single performance, has been a constant obstacle for Canadian composers for close to a century. One thinks of Harry Somers’s opera Louis Riel, for example: commissioned by the Canadian Opera Company for Canada’s 1967 centennial, and successfully received, it has barely been professionally produced thereafter. The many ensembles dedicated to commissioning and performing new music mostly work on a smaller scale, pay small royalties and are hard-pressed to offer more than a minimal number of performances...