George Proctor

Proctor, George

George (Alfred) Proctor. Musicologist, teacher, administrator, violinist, b Toronto 13 May 1931, d London, Ont, 5 Dec 1985; ARCT 1950, BA (McMaster) 1952, M MUS (ESM, Rochester) 1956, PH D (ESM, Rochester) 1960. He was a pupil of John A. Montague and Kathleen Parlow at the RCMT.

While a student at the ESM Proctor played 1953-4 with the Rochester Philharmonic. On his return to Canada he taught 1954-7 at McMaster University. He worked 1959-61 as a musicologist at the National Museum of Canada (Canadian Museum of Civilization), researching old-time fiddle music, and played 1959-60 in the Ottawa Philharmonic. He taught 1961-4 at the University of British Columbia, 1964-5 at the University of Western Ontario, and 1965-7 at the ESM, where he was a member in 1966 of the Eastman Chamber Orchestra. He held the Pickard-Bell Chair 1967-74 at Mount Allison University as head of the Dept of Music. He served 1974-8 as assistant dean (graduate studies) of the Faculty of Music at the University of Western Ontario and continued to teach there as a member of the faculty until his death.

Proctor was a pioneer in compiling and making available information about music in Canada and a scholar in many areas of Canadian music. He prepared the 1971 CTV University of the Air series 'Canadian Music of the 20th Century,' shortly thereafter receiving a Canada Council grant to present the topic in book form. The book, the first comprehensive study of Canadian composition, was published by the University of Toronto Press in 1980. At the time of his death he was working on a biography of Violet Archer for the series Canadian Composers/Compositeurs canadiens and also on Canadian Music: A Resource and Information Guide for Garland Publishing of New York. Proctor wrote articles for EMC and The New Grove.

Writings

'The works of Nicola Matteis, Sr.,' PH D thesis, U of Rochester 1960

'Musical styles of Gaspé songs,' Contributions to Anthropology, vol 2, National Museums of Canada (Ottawa 1963)

'Old-time fiddling in Ontario,' ibid

'The Bachelor of Music degree in Canada and the United States,' CME, vol 7, Jan-Feb 1966

'Music education - an historical view,' Recorder, vol 10, Jun-Jul 1968

'Music at Mount Allison,' MSc, 259, May-Jun 1971

Sources in Canadian Music: A Bibliography of Bibliographies/Les Sources de la musique canadienne: Une bibliographie des bibliographies (Sackville, NB 1975, 1979)

'Neoclassicism and Neoromanticism in Canadian music,' Studies in Music from the University of Western Ontario. vol 1, 1976

'Recent trends in Canadian music,' ibid, vol 3, 1978

Canadian Music of the Twentieth Century (Toronto 1980)

'Notes on Violet Archer,' Musical Canada