There's Music in These Walls: A History of the Royal Conservatory of Music

Desmond Maley is the music librarian at the J.W. Tate Library,
Huntington College, Laurentian University, and editor of the CAML
Review.

No one will accuse Ezra Schabas, who worked in the Conservatory’s
administration in the early 1950s and was principal from 1978–83, of
sketching an airbrushed portrait of this distinguished institution.
Schabas pulls no punches in describing the bureaucratic wrangling and
office politics it seems are endemic to institutional life.

The villain of the saga is unquestionably the University of Toronto, to
which the Conservatory was married for 70 years beginning in 1919. But
the merger went from hope to despair as the University, which held the
whip hand, proved an arbitrary and often capricious partner. The divorce
of the two parties was ratified by Queen’s Park in 1991.

Since then, according to Schabas, the Conservatory’s prospects have
improved. Despite a severe downsizing in 1993, it launched a series of
promising initiatives and most recently its principal, Peter Simon, has
been campaigning to build a new performance and learning
centre—although, as Schabas says, time will tell whether this dream
can be realized.

The Conservatory was founded as the Toronto Conservatory of Music in
1886 by Edward Fisher and George William Allen. By the late 1940s, it
had reached the pinnacle of its influence. This was the period when the
Opera School was founded and a generation of brilliantly gifted students
could be found in its halls, including Glenn Gould, Lois Marshall, and
Jon Vickers.

The research is drawn from board minutes, reports, correspondence,
interviews, and previously published accounts. Unfortunately, the
documentary record seems to be thin for the Conservatory’s earliest
years. Although there is detail about musical events, programs, and
people, the narrative has a top-down flavour that emphasizes the balance
sheet and administration. I found myself wanting to know more about the
Conservatory’s art as opposed to its business. It also would have been
interesting to discuss the Conservatory’s influence outside of
Toronto, including the national examination system. Still, this
knowledgeably written, generously illustrated, and well-edited book is
an important addition to the history of Canadian music.