Music for Orchestra I

Desmond Maley is a librarian with the J.W. Tate Library, Huntington
College, Laurentian University.

Johannes Brahms once wrote, “It is not hard to compose, but it is
wonderfully hard to let the superfluous notes fall under the table.”

His remark serves to point out what is perhaps the chief technical
difficulty for the composer of orchestral music: the need to set limits.
But technical difficulties were not the only obstacles faced by Canadian
orchestral composers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. As Helmut Kallmann notes in his insightful introduction to
this eighth volume, Canada lacked the economic and cultural
infrastructure to allow their works to be published, performed, and
discussed.

The collection brings together the works of seven composers, with
composition dates ranging from 1863 to 1924. Of the three concert
overtures included, Ernest MacMillan’s “Overture” (1924) displays
the most technical skill. Since he was also conductor of the Toronto
Symphony, he was in a good position to ensure that it received
performances. In contrast, most composers could expect few, if any,
performances. For example, Rodolphe Mathieu’s “Trois Préludes”
(1912–15), with its remarkable synthesis of avant-garde harmonic
language and technical innovation, must be considered a landmark in the
development of Canadian orchestral music. Yet it failed to receive a
performance until 1977.

On the whole, these works reflect the influence of the conservatories
of London, Leipzig, and Paris, where many of these composers studied,
rather than any distinctively Canadian milieu. Canadian musical culture
was still in a formative stage, and Europe was considered the exemplar.
But it was external conditions rather than inherent faults that resulted
in the neglect of Canadian-composed classical music prior to 1930. With
this publication the “reception history” of our early orchestral
music may, in fact, have just begun.