Canadian Music

I think more to the point is that there is plenty of music being written in the here and the now - by Canadians (or, at least, in Canada) and in the present. I know, as I do so indulge, and I know many others who do. And that's what's NOT getting played. I would venture so far as to say that performers like Ms. Hewitt actually do some (unintentional) damage to the reputation of Canadian composers - here they come out of Canada, playing nothing but the long-dead of other nations; there must be nothing good musically happening in Canada in the present.

We have to start holding the (intelligent) music of our own time and place in something other than contempt, and we need our big-name performers to start plugging Canadian composition.

As to what specifically can be said to make up Canadian music, I dont know, but I know a lot of what it isn't. Music that was written 150 years prior to Confederation by a man who only left Germany once, for Italy, is not it.

It's up for debate as to whether Healey Willan is a "Canadian Composer," as he started his life and career in England. We claim him, but does that make him ours? But that's a very fine point, ultimately.

As the university professor who taught me in Canadian drama pointed out to me: "Canadian" works are works made by Canadians - they do not have to fit a certain pattern or set of ideas - and we (composers and playwrights alike, not to mention any number of other artists) are sadly underrepresented the world over.