The Canadian Music Centre
The “Influences of Many Musics” Project
Influences of Many Musics is an interactive web-based project created by the Canadian Music Centre which features the lives and works of 40 Canadian composers of international origin. The composers responded to questions concerning the nature of their heritage as well as its impact on the music they create, and the closely-related issues of cultural and musical identity.
The following transcripts from Mary Ingraham’s contact with electroacoustic composers are published integrally for the first time in this issue of eContact! More on the Influences of Many Musics project can be found on their website.
Social and musical aspects of a very vibrant Argentinian culture — itself in part influenced by European cultures — are important factors in lanza’s work. He talks about his efforts in promoting and documenting the music of the Americas. November 2006.
Ogborn considers himself to be “a ‘traveler’ more than an Australian or a Canadian”; a broad range of interests and activities — playing in various types of bands, soundscape composition, jazz and free improv, etc. — clearly reflects this comment.
A great diversity of cultures and religions and a fusion of musical styles can be found in Israel, and Tsabary “always sought ways to bridge [the] gaps and to point out similarities rather than differences.” Canada has provided his compositions with “the best cultural conditions to shape and grow coherently.”
Interview with Hildegard Westerkamp
Growing up in post-war Germany, Westerkamp found it easier to “let creative impulses emerge” on the west coast of Canada, which —in part due to the founding of the World Soundscape Project — was a “highly energetic, experimental and creative atmosphere” in the late 60s and early 70s. January 2007.
Interviewer Biography
Mary Ingraham received her doctorate in historical and analytical musicology from Nottingham University (UK) with a dissertation on Brahms’ cantata Rinaldo under the supervision of Robert Pascall, and a Master of Arts in Musicology from the University of Victoria (Canada) for work on Brahms's solo Lieder. Her primary area of research is in the examination of the social and cultural context for music creation, with current research into issues of identity and cultural politics in 20th century Canadian opera.
Dr. Ingraham is the author of two web-based projects for the Canadian Music Centre: Sound Progressions: Canadian Music in the 20th Century and Sound Adventure, an award-winning educational website for young learners. Her article on Brahms’ operatic ambitions was recently published in Ars Lyrica: Journal of the Lyrica Society for Word-Music Relations.
A former professional pianist, Mary is actively involved in the Canadian performing arts community as a Voting Member of the Canadian Music Centre, and Founding Director and Past President of the Piano Six Foundation. She is currently Assistant Professor of Musicology in the Department of Music at the University of Alberta.
http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/music/MaryIngraham.cfm
Originally published in eContact! 10.2 — Entrevues / Interviews (1). Montréal: Communauté électroacoustique canadienne / Canadian Electroacoustic Community, August 2008.
