The Canada Music Book/Les Cahiers canadiens de musique

The Canada Music Book/Les Cahiers canadiens de musique

The Canada Music Book/ Les Cahiers canadiens de musique. Bilingual periodical published by the Canadian Music Council and edited by Gilles Potvin. The editorial board was made up of directors of the CMCouncil. From issue 7 to issue 10 Adrian Waller acted as assistant editor. Articles were in either English or French and most editorial matter and announcements in both. The first year of publication yielded only one issue (Spring-Summer 1970). Subsequent years yielded two (Spring-Summer and Autumn-Winter) until 1975. Autumn-Winter 1975 was delayed and combined with Spring-Summer 1976 as issue 11/12, after which publication went into eclipse. Each issue had about 200 pages, and the individual cover colours of issues 1 to 8 added up to a rainbow spectrum which began again at issue 9.

Some issues contained as many as 10 major articles, while others were devoted largely to the council's conferences (issues 2, 3, 5, and 9) and the International Music Council's 16th General Assembly and World Music Week (issue 11/12). There was strong emphasis on the analysis and discussion of contemporary music and musical issues, but historical subjects of Canadian interest were dealt with occasionally. Besides a large review section there was a regular series of 'Canadian Chronicles,' arranged by province or region, which will be invaluable for the future historian. Two issues were devoted to special subjects: a 'Dossier Stravinsky-Canada 1937-1967' (issue 4) and a 'Dossier John Weinzweig' with tributes on the composer's 60th birthday (issue 6).

Besides a wide range of Canadian writers on music, contributors included such foreign musicians as Pierre Boulez, Maurice Fleuret, and Yehudi Menuhin, apart from the many visitors to World Music Week (issue 11/12). The CMB published historical articles about R. Bayeur (no. 8), J.-M. Beaudet (no. 2), Beethoven (no. 2), J.P. Clarke (no. 1), W.O. Forsyth (no. 7), R. Mathieu (no. 5), and Scriabin (no. 3); on musical life in Quebec 1840-5 (no. 7) and in Winnipeg 1900-7 (no. 8); and on the CLComp (no. 2). There also are musicological articles on Boulez (no. 2), Britten (no. 1), Kierkegaard (no. 2), Messiaen (no. 1), Schütz (no. 5), and Webern (no. 5) and a comparison of Wagner and R. Murray Schafer as men of letters (no. 2). Sterling Beckwith (no. 9) and L. Beaudet-Léonard (no. 8) contributed pieces on music education. There also are miscellaneous articles about the Canadian Music Centre (no. 4), music criticism in Canada (no. 7), 'Radio as music,' by Glenn Gould (no. 2), 'Muscadet,' a computer data bank on music in Canada (no. 8), and Canadian composition and the music of Canada's ethnic minorities (no. 10).