Canada ’s choral culture is vibrant, diverse and widespread. Choral music is an integral part of every village, town, and city in this geographically large (just under 10 million square kilometers) but population-small (just over 33 million) country. Canada boasts world-class choirs and choral composers, whose works have gained international recognition.
What makes the Canadian choral scene unique and different from that of our southern neighbors, the United States ? Is it our colonial past? Our bilingualism? Our geography? Our weather (a favorite Canadian topic of conversation)? Our collective desire to be distinct, in a polite and peaceful way? The impact of immigrant cultures and our concept of a diverse society? After all, the concept of Canada as a multicultural society is embodied in the Canadian Multiculturalism Act of 1985, which proclaims multiculturalism to be a “fundamental characteristic of the Canadian heritage and identity.” No doubt the answer lies in all of these influences and more.
While many Canadian choral works are solidly rooted in the folk, classical, and sacred music traditions of its founding peoples (primarily settlers from France and Britain), there is no doubt that immigrant communities, such as the Irish, the German-speaking Mennonites, Ukrainians and Eastern European Jews who came to our country in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, have also had an influence on composers and the way in which we approach choral music making. In recent decades, a greater respect of and appreciation for the culture of Canada ’s indigenous peoples, formally identified as First Nations, 1 have also had an impact on mainstream choral music.
And then there is the land itself: the majestic Rockies, endless stretches of prairie land and sky, remote northern forests and the Northern Lights, the Great Lakes, the mighty St. Lawrence Seaway, our Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, the “Rock” (as Newfoundland is known) . . . Composers write about the land, the sea and sky, and Canadian choirs want to sing about them.
Performing choral music is a widespread and grassroots activity in Canada . There is virtually no place in Canada where choral music is not practiced. From church and school choirs to independent community choirs of every size, type, and style of repertoire, there is a choir for every skill level and every music preference, including groups that are professional in all but name. The Association of Canadian Choral Communities estimates that there are some 38,000 choristers singing in choirs that are members of their provincial choral federations. If we consider the many choristers singing in non-affiliated choirs, this number is easily doubled or tripled. The city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, with a population of about 720,000, holds an annual ChoralFest organized by the Manitoba Choral Association which attracts the participation of more than 100 school and community choirs over an eleven-day period each fall. Choral music is clearly important in this central Canadian city with strong French, Mennonite, and Ukrainian roots. An annual sacred music festival each fall in Montreal regularly attracts ten to twelve choirs – some 500 choristers – who perform some of their own repertoire and unite their voices in a massed choir to sing masterworks by composers such as Berlioz , Franck , Handel , and Mozart . These festivals are just a few examples of the thousands of choral events that take place every year in which choirs perform in addition to their own concerts. University and college campuses also offer numerous choral performances on a regular basis.
While there have long been children’s and youth choirs affiliated with schools and religious institutions in Canada , such as Les Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal (Montreal), the late 1970s and early 1980s saw the establishment of independent children’s choirs that sought to bring the performance of choral music by young voices to a new level of excellence. One such choir was the Toronto Children’s Chorus (TCC) founded in 1978 by the talented, hardworking, and very determined Jean Ashworth Bartle. Her vision for the TCC – to make it the best children’s choir in the world – provided leadership throughout the Canadian choral community, demonstrating that it was possible to present professional-level concerts with young voices. Inspired by Ashworth Bartle and the TCC, others followed suit and established excellent choral programs across Canada. Many of these – Shallaway (St. John’s, Newfoundland, and Labrador), the Amabile Youth Choir (London, Ontario), the Saskatoon Children’s Choir and the Cantilon Choirs (Edmonton, Alberta), to name but a few – have earned national and international recognition and awards. Each of these programs includes several levels of choirs, providing training to new singers and greater musical challenges for the more experienced. These choirs, and many others in every region of Canada, produce several concerts per season, engage professional instrumentalists and vocal soloists, record, commission new works, and travel internationally, thus contributing to the overall health of the choral community and making Canadian music known abroad. It is largely thanks to some of these ensembles that the works of composers such as Nancy Telfer , Stephen Hatfield , and Ruth Watson Henderson have made their way across the country and beyond.
Amateur choirs greatly outnumber professional choirs, which we can loosely define as those ensembles whose singers are paid for their services. Although few in number, Canada ’s professional ensembles contribute substantially to Canada’s choral culture setting standards for excellence, commissioning and premiering new music, and providing outreach and educational activities in their communities and on tour. Prominent Canadian professional choirs include the Vancouver Chamber Choir (VCC), Pro Coro Canada in Edmonton, the Winnipeg Singers , the Elora Festival Singers of Elora, Ontario, the Elmer Iseler Singers based in Toronto, and Montreal’s Studio de musique ancienne . In addition, professional choristers are engaged on a contract basis for ensembles such as the chorus of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and L’Opéra de Montréal . Historically, professional chamber choirs in Canada can trace their roots back to the 1930s, when the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) began to engage already-formed choirs or professional singers for regular and special radio broadcasts notably in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Montreal. Other ensembles which made a significant impact on choral music in Canada were the Montreal Bach Choir , conducted by Georges Little (1920–95), and the Festival Singers of Toronto , founded in 1954, who changed their name to the Festival Singers of Canada in 1968 when they became the country’s first choir to attain professional status. Led by Elmer Iseler (1927–98) for most of its duration, this ensemble formed the basis for the Elmer Iseler Singers , founded in 1979. Another influential ensemble was the Tudor Singers of Montreal under the direction of Wayne Riddell . Both Iseler and Riddell , through their programming, commissioning, symposiums, and masterclasses, became icons of choral music in Canada, mentoring and inspiring several generations of conductors right across the country. Jon Washburn continues to be a leader in commissioning new works and in providing training through an annual National Conductors’ Symposium with the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Newer on the scene is the Nathaniel Dett Chorale , a professional chamber choir based in Toronto and named after the African-Canadian composer. Its mandate is to perform and promote the music of the African diaspora in its many forms.
Aided by government grants in the 1970s and early 1980s, amateur choral activity began to benefit from structured services as provincial choral federations and a national association for conductors were formed. Today, eight of Canada ’s ten provinces have a provincial choral federation. From west to east, they are the British Columbia Choral Federation, the Alberta Choral Federation, the Saskatchewan Choral Federation, the Manitoba Choral Association , Choirs Ontario, the Alliance des chorales du Québec, the New Brunswick Choral Federation, and the Nova Scotia Choral Federation. Among the activities and services they offer to their members are conducting courses for beginners, choral music lending libraries, the organization of festivals, conferences and honor choirs, group insurance, conductor mentoring programs, concert listings, newsletters, and much more. At the national level, the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors (ACCC) (now the Association of Canadian Choral Communities ) was formed in 1980. This association holds a biennial conference called Podium that focuses on professional development, with workshops, masterclasses, reading sessions, and concerts. The ACCC also sponsors the National Youth Choir (NYC) every two years for top singers between the ages of 17 and 25, publishes lists of recommended Canadian choral repertoire, an information magazine called Anacrusis , and a membership and professional directory, and organizes the National Choral Awards and a conducting apprenticeship program linked to the NYC. It collaborates closely with the provincial choral federations and other national and international music organizations to promote the performance and creation of choral music, particularly Canadian music.
Nearly every town in Canada , regardless of size, hosts its own annual music festival, of which choral singing is a major component. Since 1944, when the first Kiwanis Music Festival was launched in Toronto, most festivals have been sponsored at least in part by local service organizations such as Kiwanis or Lions Clubs and engage both paid and volunteer staff members as well as professional musician adjudicators. Performances are assessed and ranked and prizes are awarded, with top competitors advancing to the provincial level of competition, from which those identified as the very best will compete again at the national level. There are ten different choral prizes awarded nationally, based on age, size, and type of choir. Singers and conductors credit participation in local music competitions with inspiring their singers to prepare their best performances. Not only is the competitive element inspiring to many singers, they are also presented with the opportunity to learn from an expert adjudicator, the chance to hear other choirs perform in the festival, and the pride and prestige of having performed their best, and sometimes of winning.
In addition to local music festivals, Canada is home to numerous national and international festivals and competitions. Both the east and west coasts of Canada offer long-standing, high-quality, international choral festivals in beautiful coastal settings. In Powell River, British Columbia, the International Choral Kathaumixw , Sliammon for “a gathering together of different peoples,” was established in 1984 with the goal of creating a festival of a quality that would be on a par with festivals in Europe. It attracts about thirty choirs biennially and includes choral and solo competitions, orchestra, workshops, communal song singing, and seminars. Since the inaugural festival in 1984 in which there were four hundred participants, this biennial gathering has attracted more than twelve hundred singers from around the world who gather to share their music, culture, and friendship, and to perform for a distinguished international jury. Not all Canadian music festivals are competitive. Festival 500 is a non-competitive, international choral festival, held in North America’s oldest city, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Festival 500 was established in 1997 as an anchor event in the John Cabot Anniversary Celebrations, to commemorate 500 years of European discovery in North America and as an effort to boost a depressed economy through increased tourism in an area boasting rugged coastal views, rich history, whale watching, and icebergs. Unique aspects of Festival 500 include the highlighting of a particular global culture at each festival, the opportunity for individual singers to attend without a choir and participate in a massed choir setting, and the academic symposium that parallels the festival, bringing together singers, conductors, audience, and scholars. Both of these international events project a hospitality typical of their gracious coastal regions, featuring the participation of numerous volunteers, home stays for performers, interaction between local residents and visitors, and tours of the region.
From 1976 to 2008, the CBC and its French-language counterpart Radio-Canada , in cooperation with the Canada Council for the Arts, sponsored a biennial National Radio Competition for Amateur Choirs aimed at promoting amateur choral singing and Canadian choral repertoire. In 2009, responsibility for this national choral initiative shifted to the ACCC, in collaboration with the Canada Council for the Arts and CBC Radio, and it was renamed the National Competition for Canadian Amateur Choirs . Choirs in various categories compete for monetary prizes as well as national radio broadcasts. The competition encourages the performance of Canadian repertoire by requiring that one of the four pieces submitted by each choir must be an original Canadian composition. It is not unusual for new Canadian works to result from this requirement. Through CBC radio broadcasts of the national semi-finals and national finals, a pan-Canadian listening audience has the opportunity to listen to choirs and repertoire from across the country. In addition to chamber and concert choirs, choirs from a myriad of cultural traditions abound in Canada, each continuing to specialize in its own distinct repertoire and language. Hence, the National Competition includes a separate category for cultural choirs where listeners are exposed to Ukrainian, Finnish, German, Chinese, and many other choral traditions. The CBC also supports Canadian choral music through regular broadcasts of Canadian professional and amateur choral concerts, notably on the weekly Choral Concert , and by making many of these concerts available on its website (Concerts on Demand). The Canada Council for the Arts provides financial support to professional and amateur choirs on a competitive, juried basis.
There is ample evidence in historical accounts that the early French settlers sang masses and motets in church services as well as music for entertainment, including choral music, in the colonies that were to become Canada . There are collections of polyphonic music in Montreal and Quebec City that date back to the early 1700s. The arrival of British settlers and the establishment of Anglican and other Protestant congregations further increased the types of choral music in the colonies, with metrical psalms, hymns and anthems sung in addition to the high masses and vesper services of the Roman Catholic Church.
By the early nineteenth century, choral activity was growing, especially in churches and, even in smaller towns, and published materials, such as hymnals and books of chant , became available. By mid-century and in the period around the time of Canadian Confederation (1867), the arrival of European musicians, the influence of the singing school movement and the establishment of choral societies and music schools all helped to foster the growth of choral music and provide opportunities for Canadian composers. 2 The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir , founded in 1894, is credited with being the oldest Canadian choir still active today. Among the better-known composers of choral music from this period were the French-born Antoine Dessane (1826–73) and Quebec-born Ernest Gagnon (1834–1915), both of whom wrote sacred works and arrangements of French-Canadian folk songs. Among those writing some of Canada ’s first large-scale choral-orchestral works were Guillaume Couture (1851–1915) (Jean le Précurseur ) and Alexis Contant (1858–1918) (Caïn ).
By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Canadian-born musicians began to seek formal training abroad with noted French and British pedagogues, while many more composers born and trained in Europe established themselves permanently in Canada . Noted for their choral works, including masses, cantatas, and oratorios, are Charles A. E. Harriss (1862–1929) and the prolific Claude Champagne (1891–1965), who also penned some very sophisticated arrangements of folk songs. Also noteworthy is the African-Canadian composer and conductor R. Nathaniel Dett (1882–1934), born in what is today Niagara Falls, Ontario, who studied in the United States and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and who became one of the most highly acclaimed composers and pedagogues of his generation.
Some of Canada ’s most significant composers immigrated to Canada, bringing with them musical styles of their homelands. European influence remained strong as many composers returned to artistic centers such as London and Paris for formal composition training. One such pillar of Canadian choral music was Healey Willan (1880–1968), considered by many to be the “father of Canadian choral music,” whose early training was in the British choir school tradition. Willan was best known for his liturgical output, and his motets, masses, and anthems exhibit a proclivity for elegant counterpoint , modality, and melismatic, linear writing. Another early Canadian composer who maintained close ties with Britain was W. H. Anderson (1882–1955), who sang at St. Paul’s Cathedral before immigrating to Canada in 1910 where he became particularly well known for the natural lyricism of his choral compositions, many of which are well-suited for young, amateur choirs. Under the pseudonym Michael Bilencko, Anderson also arranged a large number of Ukrainian, Czech, and Icelandic folk songs, using primarily those versions sung by settlers in his new home of Manitoba.
The French-Canadian composer Lionel Daunais (1902–82) received the Prix d’Europe, which allowed him to study in Paris before returning to Canada where he maintained parallel careers as a singer and composer of French-language choral and solo works. Similarly, Pierre Mercure (1927–66) studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger . Jean Coulthard (1909–2000) received her early training in composition in Canada before going to England to study with Ralph Vaughan Williams , later working with Aaron Copland , Darius Milhaud , Arnold Schoenberg , and Béla Bartók . Violet Archer (1913–2000) studied with Bartók and Paul Hindemith . Derek Healey (b.1936) studied with Herbert Howells at the Royal College of Music in London before moving to Canada, bringing with him an intense interest in music of various cultures. Derek Holman (b.1931) served as music master at Westminster Abbey Choir School and Warden of the Royal School of Church Music before immigrating to Canada where he is a highly respected church musician and composer whose Night Songs received the 1988 Association of Canadian Choral Conductors National Choral Award for Outstanding Choral Work. The highly influential Quebec composer Claude Vivier (1948–83) was a student of Stockhausen who employed twentieth-century compositional techniques, frequently setting texts derived from ancient and medieval literature.
Typical of Canada ’s character of “cultural mosaic” rather than “melting pot,” many Canadian composers brought with them the cultural and musical influences of diverse homelands and heritages. The music of Malcolm Forsyth (1936–2011), who was born in South Africa , combines African and North American folk music within his own unique style. Srul Irving Glick ’s writing (1934–2002) displays a significantly Jewish idiom.
Regardless of their place of birth, Canadian composers have established distinct compositional styles, often closely related to the landscape of the country’s vast and diverse terrain. R. Murray Schafer (b.1933) holds a reputation as one of Canada ’s most creative composers whose choral music paints vivid sound portraits of the Canadian landscape. His concept of “soundscapes” influences music classrooms across Canada in an attempt to increase listeners’ awareness of sounds of all types in the world. Schafer ’s dramatic approach to composition extends to music to be performed from different sides of a lake, or the placing of multiple choirs surrounding the audience. Epitaph for Moonlight and Miniwanka have become Canadian standards with their evocative texts and aleatoric opportunities for participants. Schafer ’s unique non-traditional scores have captured the interest of visual artists as well as musicians, resulting in their display in art galleries. Brief aleatoric passages and tonal depictions of Canada’s natural beauty are also found in works such as Keewaydin by Harry Freedman (1922–2005) and The Blue Eye of God by Nancy Telfer (b.1950). Canadian geography has been the inspiration for Stephen Chatman ’s (b.1950) Due West , Due East , and Due North choral settings depicting such typically Canadian phenomena as mosquitoes and trains. Stephen Hatfield (b.1956) is recognized as one of Canada’s most dynamic, imaginative composers. His music is frequently grounded in native and global ethnic traditions. Ruth Watson Henderson ’s (b.1932) The Song My Paddle Sings , Lydia Adams ’s (b.1953) Mic’Maq Honour Song , and the settings of poetry by native poet Pauline Johnson by Jeff Smallman (b.1965) and James Rolfe (b.1961) are a few examples of the influence of First Nations culture on Canadian choral tradition.
Folk song settings form a significant portion of Canadian choral repertoire. Most “classical” composers have also written concert arrangements of Canadian folk songs. Some of the best-known of these composer/arrangers include Ruth Watson Henderson (b.1932), Harry Somers (1925–99), Godfrey Ridout (1918–84), Donald Patriquin (b.1938), and Stuart Calvert (b.1933). Compositions by maritime composers of Canada ’s east coast, such as Allister MacGillivray ’s (b.1948) Away from the Roll of the Sea and Song for the Mira , have a particularly appealing quality as they express a closeness to the land and sea found in this part of the world, as the line between original compositions in a folk style and true folk songs becomes blurred.
The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have produced world-class Canadian composers whose music is known and performed globally. While these composers write in their own styles, there is a freshness about many Canadian choral compositions that makes them particularly appealing to choirs and audiences internationally. Imant Raminsh (b.1943), Eleanor Daley (b.1955), Ruth Watson Henderson , Stephen Chatman , Nancy Telfer , Mark Sirett (b.1952), Donald Patriquin , Allan Bevan (b.1951), and Stephen Hatfield have attracted the attention of conductors and choirs around the globe. Works such as Daley ’s In Remembrance and Raminsh ’s Ave Verum Corpus , Sirett ’s Thou Shalt Know Him , and Willan ’s Rise Up My Love, My Fair One have become part of the standard repertoire. Perhaps one explanation for the vocally idiomatic writing in so much of Canadian choral repertoire can be found in the fact that a large number of the composers are also choral conductors who work regularly and closely with voices and have a strong understanding of the medium.
Several of Canada ’s most prolific composers are women. Ruth Watson Henderson , Nancy Telfer , Eleanor Daley , and Ramona Luengen (b.1960) have all received international acclaim and have had a substantial number of compositions published in Canada, the USA, and Europe.
Competitions, commissions, and such prestigious initiatives as ACCC’s National Choral Awards help to bring the work of established and emerging Canadian composers to the attention of the choral community. Events such as the biennial composition competition sponsored by the Association of Canadian Choral Communities have resulted in high-profile performances and publication of winning compositions. Composers such as Allan Bevan , Eleanor Daley , and Jeff Smallman have gained increased public exposure through such competitions. They are representative of a talented cadre of composers who are taking Canadian choral composition into the new millennium with ever-widening creative techniques as they build their own portfolios and reputations.