My six chosen composers.
Today, over in the “Writing About Music” section of my website, I posted an article called “Six Canadian Composers You Should Know.” (You’ll find it here.) It was originally published this summer in Queen’s Quarterly, from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
My six chosen composers are Jean Coulthard, Jacques Hétu, Colin McPhee, Ann Southam, Claude Vivier and Healey Willan. The astute reader will notice that they all have one thing in common: they are deceased. This was a deliberate decision on my part. The living can fend for themselves; but composers who have passed on must be championed, if their music is to survive beyond them. As well, anyone who tried to publish a list of the six “best” living Canadian composers would surely be challenged to pistols at dawn by someone who didn’t make the cut.
© Colin Eatock 2011
My six chosen composers are Jean Coulthard, Jacques Hétu, Colin McPhee, Ann Southam, Claude Vivier and Healey Willan. The astute reader will notice that they all have one thing in common: they are deceased. This was a deliberate decision on my part. The living can fend for themselves; but composers who have passed on must be championed, if their music is to survive beyond them. As well, anyone who tried to publish a list of the six “best” living Canadian composers would surely be challenged to pistols at dawn by someone who didn’t make the cut.
© Colin Eatock 2011
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