World Music Exploration - Canadian Pop and Rock

Last week was Canada Music Week. I let my students choose which Canadian artist or band they'd like to share with me. Here are a few of their choices:

Celine Dion: we have been admiring her vocal range and stage presence.

Justin Bieber: Well, my students in his fan demographic would say "he's awesome". He's a cute kid. I like the drum grooves.

Frank Mills: This was one of the first "fun" (AKA, "supplemental") pieces my mom "asked" me to learn. Isn't Music Box Dancer catchy?

Two of my students introduced me to Cœur de Pirate last year. She sang at the 2011 Calgary Folk Fest. Here's C'était Salement Romantique:

World Music Exploration - Andrew Ager

Maestro gives his seal of approval (energetic singing) on this week's featured entry. This week we are learning about Canadian Composer Andrew Ager. 

Andrew Ager is a living composer. He has been the Composer-in-Residence of the Georgian Bay Symphony and Timothy Eaton Memorial Church. Ager has composed music for orchestra, chamber ensembles and opera. 

This is a clip from his 2005 opera "Frankenstein" based on Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" (a collaboration with Tryptych Productions of Toronto) 

He has received grants from the Laidlaw Foundation, The Ontario Arts Council and The Canada Council for the Arts.

(c) 2011 by

Musespeak(TM)

, Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

World Music Exploration - Claude Champagne

This time, we are exploring some classical-style Canadian music. Our featured composer is Claude Champagne. 

Claude Champagne lived from 1891to 1965. Born in Montréal, he started piano and music theory at the age of 10. He was a composer, teacher, adjudicator and administrator. 

Champagne wrote for orchestra, piano, organ and choir. He also wrote five solfège teaching manuals, served as assistant director of the new Conservatoire de Musique du Québec and later became the editor-in-chief of the Canadian publications department of BMI Canada Ltd. (1949-65) and as an adjudicator or juror for many competitions. Fellow Canadian Clermont Pépin once said that Champagne "established the basis of a modern teaching approach for the training of young musicians in Québec."

This week's clip is from Champagne's first major work, the symphonic poem Hercule et Omphale

World Music Exploration 2010/11 Week 9 - Aboriginal Canadian Music

This month, my students and I are exploring Canadian music. With Canada Music Week taking place November 21 - 27, I thought it was apropos to dedicate the month to exploring our own musical culture.

This week, I've selected two contrasting clips of music by our First Nations peoples. This first clip is of the Native American Hoop Dance. The dance signifies the circle of life, with no beginning or ending. Each hoop added represents another layer or thread in our lives as we learn new things and interconnect with others.

The second clip demonstrates Inuit throat singing. I had the pleasure of watching a performance at a friend's wedding a couple of years ago.

Initially, it was a means for Inuit women to entertain themselves while the men were out hunting. Today, it is sung primarily by women but sometimes by men.

Throat singing has different names in the Inuit language. Depending upon the Arctic region, it is called katajjaq, pirkusirtuk or nipaquhiit.

If it sounds to you like the two girls are playing a game, you're spot on. One woman leads the game, while the other woman responds. According to Timothy McGee, author of The Music of Canada, the women create rhythms with their breathing and guttural sounds at a fast tempo. The one who can keep going the longest without missing a beat or running out of breath is the winner.(c) 2010 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.