Music for Orchestra II

Desmond Maley is the music librarian at the J.W. Tate Library,
Huntington College, Laurentian University.

Students and performers of Canadian music will be delighted with this
collection, edited by Elaine Keillor, a professor of music at Carleton
University. Music for Orchestra II brings together works by Calixa
Lavallée, Guillaume Couture, Claude Champagne, Georges-Йmile Tanguay,
Jean-Josaphat Gagnier, and Healey Willan.

The orchestral music of the francophone composers shows the
characteristically French affinity for colorful sonorities, especially
in the imaginative treatment of winds and percussion. Keillor points out
that the organ-like conception of Willan’s work reflects his
background as a church organist, while the use of brass shows the
influence of Richard Wagner.

Especially important is the publication of a recently discovered
overture by Lavallée. Ouverture Patrie was apparently written in Paris
in 1874, and is thought to be one of two missing orchestral pieces
written during Lavallée’s sojourn in France from 1873 to 1875.

Couture’s Suite for Orchestra (from his oratorio Jean le Précurseur)
consists of L’Arrestation du Précurseur, Priиre du Précurseur, and
Danse de Salomé. Written during the summers of 1907 through 1911, the
oratorio received several performances in the 1920s, and was revived in
1964 and in a 1989 concert broadcast on the CBC. Champagne used Greek
myth as the subject of his symphic poem Hercule et Omphale. Composed
while he was a student in Paris in the 1920s, it is considered a
significant work in the evolution of his personal style. Tanguay’s
Pavane (1925) is an attractive orchestral arrangement of his short piano
piece Pavane, written in 1914. Gagnier’s Йglogue II: Pan aux pieds de
chиvre (1931) was submitted as a competition piece in its original
chamber version. This orchestral arrangement indicates familiarity with
Debussy’s Prélude а l’Aprиs-Midi d’un Faune.

Finally, Willan’s Symphony No. 1 in D minor has the distinction of
being the first substantive symphony written by a Canadian composer. (An
earlier work, The Saint Lawrence Symphony by Percival Price, was a
student composition.) It received an ovation at its premiere in Toronto
in 1936, and was performed several times in the 1930s and 1940s. Last
performed in 1979, it has yet to be recorded.

Keillor’s introduction, critical notes, and bibliography maintain the
CMHS’s standard of excellence, while the layout and presentation is
both readable and attractive.