Composers in Toronto and Montreal

Several recent articles have dealt with Canadian music in general (have we any serious composers? is their music identifiably Canadian?) or with the pros and cons of new music (the problems of the composer electing to write in an advanced idiom; the composer-audience relationship). In this essay I should like for once to assume that there are composers in Canada and that the musical idioms of our century are more than passing fashions. Discussion of the cultural setting of our music (its social and historical context), while valuable in itself, is left outside the scope of the present report. Instead I propose to examine a few characteristic works in detail, their techniques and stylistic components. The report deals with recent music by eight composers, some well known and others less so, four of whom live in Toronto and four in Montreal. The eight are chosen for interest and variety, and not because they are the only composers of merit in these cities, or even necessarily the best. In assembling these comments I have attempted to avoid professional jargon, but I have assumed in the non-professional reader some little knowledge of notation.