Norma Beecroft

Membre honoraire de la CEC / Honorary CEC Member

BEECROFT, Norma (Marian). Canadian. Composer, producer, broadcaster, administrator b. Oshawa, Ontario, 11 April 1934. Litt.D. (York, 1996).

Beecroft's composition teachers included John Weinzweig (Toronto); Lukas Foss, Aaron Copland (Tanglewood); Bruno Maderna, Goffredo Petrassi (Europe).

Pioneering Canadian electroacoustic music, she worked at studios in Toronto, Columbia-Princeton, and the Utrecht Institute for Sonology, composing over 20 works for instruments and tape. Her musical style evolved from early neo-classical pieces to post-serialism, improvisation, and collage, with approaches to colouration and form influenced by Debussy and Xenakis.

Beecroft's broadcasting career began in television (1954-59). She was then a radio producer (1963-69), originating numerous CBC-FM music series. Since 1969, she has produced freelance documentaries on Canadian composers and music technologies, receiving in 1976 the Major Armstrong Award for excellence in FM broadcasting for The Computer in Music.

Assiduous promoter of Canadian music, Beecroft was President of Canadian Music Associates and Ten Centuries Concerts, and cofounded, with Robert Aitken, New Music Concerts. She taught electronic music (1984-85) and composition (1986-87) at Toronto's York University, which honoured her with Doctor of Letters (honoris causa; 1996). Her numerous composition awards include twice receiving the Canada Council's Lynch-Staunton Award.

Selected List of Works

Music Theatre and Multi-media

Hedda (1983) orch, el-ac tape.

Orchestra

Hemispherics (1990) fl, sax/cl/tpt/trbn/gui/pf dble synth/ 2 perc/str
Improvvisazioni Concertanti No. 2 (1971) orch
Jeu de Bach (1985) ob, pic, trpt, str el-ac tape.
Pièce Concertante No. 1 1966) orch
Esprit Eternel (1994) orch, el-ac tape

Orchestra with soloist(s)

From Dreams of Brass (1963-64) nar, S, vv, orch, el-ac tape.
Improvvisazioni Concertanti No. 1 (1961) fl, orch
Improvvisazioni Concertanti No. 3 (1973)fl, timp, orch, published by Universal Edition (London)
Jeu IV (1991) fortepiano dble cel,orch

Chamber

Accordion Play (1989) accdn, 2 perc
Amplified String Quartet with tape (1992)
Cantorum Vitae (1980) fl, cello, 2 pf, 1 perc, el-ac tape
Collage ‘76 (1976) fl/conductor, fl, ob, hn, cello, db, hp, pf, 3 perc, el-ac tape
Collage ‘78 (1978) bn, pf, 2 perc, el-ac tape
Contrasts for Six Performers (1961) ob, va, hp, 3 perc
Elegy and Two Went to Sleep (1967) (Poems by Leonard Cohen) S, fl, 1 perc, el-ac tape
11 & 7 for 5+ (1975) brass quintet and el-ac tape
Images (1986) woodwind quintet
Jeu II (1985) amp fl, va, el-ac tape, live elec
Jeu III (1987) va and el-ac tape
Piece for Bob (1975)fl, el-ac tape
Rasas I (1968) fl, hp, vn, va, cello, pf, 1 perc
Rasas II (1973) Version 1: contralto, fl, gui, elec org, hp, 2 perc, el-ac tape
Version 2: contralto, fl, elec org, pf, 2 perc, el-ac tape
Rasas III (1974) S, fl, trbn, pf, 1 perc, el-ac tape
Tre Pezzi Brevi (1961)fl/hp or gui or pf, published by Universal Edition (Vienna)
Troissonts (1982) va, 2 perc and el-ac tape
Quaprice (1979) hn, 1 perc, el-ac tape

Choral

The Living Flame of Love (1967) (Text St. John of the Cross, translation by composer) SATB a cappella
Three Impressions from "Sweetgrass" (1973)(Text by Wayne Keon)
SATB/pfo 2 perc

Electroacoustic

The Dissipation of Purely Sound (1988) Radiophonic opera for Tape and Time Warp in Three Simultaneous Sections (Text by Sean O’Huigin)
Evocations: Images of Canada (1991) digital synth MIDI controlled

Bibliography

Beecroft, Norma. "Norma Beecroft: A Portrait." Musicanada (May 1979): 10-11.
Such, Peter. "The Suspended Sounds of Norma Beecroft." Soundprints: Contemporary Composers. Toronto: Clarke Irwin, 1972: 80-100.
Winters, Kenneth. "Beecroft, Norma" Kallmann, H., G. Potvin and K. Winters, eds. Encyclopaedia of Music in Canada,2nd Edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992, 102-103.

McCartney, Andra. "Beecroft, Norma (Marian)." Sadie, Stanley, eds. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition. New York: Grove's Dictionaries Inc., 2001. Vol. 3, 69.