Barbara Pentland by Sheila Eastman, Timothy J. McGee, and: R. Murray Schafer by Stephen Adams (review)

HUMANITIES 5'3 Sheila Eastman and Timothy j. McGee. Barbara Pentland University of Toronto Press. viii, 134. illus. $27.50 Stephen Adams. R. Murray Schafer University of Toronto Press. x, 240, illus. $27.50 These monographs on two of Canada's most prominent composers are numbered three and four, respectively, in the Canadian ComposersSeries published by the University of Toronto Press in conjunction with the Canadian Music Centre. The first volume, Harry Somers by Brian Cherney, appeared in '975, shortly after the series began, and volume two, Jean Papineau-Couture, by Louise Bail-Milot, is in the final stage of publication. The series, which includes at least two other titles in progress, ;'s under the general editorship of John Beckwith. Barbara Pentland (b 1912) and R. Murray Schafer (b 1933), although a generation apart, have several things in common. In the first place each has been identified with the avant-garde in Canadian music almost from their first works and each has been the subject of considerable controversy within Canada. The label 'enfant terrible' has been applied with equal fervour to both. At the same time both have changed stylistically a great deal throughout their careers and each has a strong feeling of place with respect to her/his Canadian identity. These elements are dealt with in proper scholarly fashion by the authors and the reader is left with the impression that the measure ofrecognitionwhich each composer has been givenby the musical communityis more than deserved. Itis fair to say that Pentland and Schafer are the subjects of study in this series not just because they are Canadians but because they are well-respected composers and would be so considered if they lived in some other country. Their works do meet international standards and are worthy of greater familiarity than they have been accorded to date. Canadian composers have been thrust into the role of proselytizing their own music for some time. Pentland in fact began her career by proclaiming that 'while there's life there's experiment. Without the element of looking forward, music would stagnate and die' (1943) and 'it must be realized that we are actually the first generation of Canadian composers' (1950). Although Schafer, coming along a generation later, has not felt compelled to defend the right of the composer to exist, he has had a great deal to say about the place of music in education and the soundscape of modern society, and has written extensively on both of these subjects. Each of these books follows a chronological approach and in both cases the authors begin with biographical studies of their subjects. As might be expected, the books touch on early family life and musical training, primary influences, extra-musical interests, and so on. Each composer emerges as a fascinating person, quite apart from the music which each has written. One point of contrast in the studies is that in the Schafer book, Adams makes it quite clear that although his subject has provided much of the material, the book is his own. With the Pentland book one is never so certain, not just because there are two authors but because the text itself does not make it clear what facts and ideas are Pentland's and what are interpretations and conclusions of the authors. Much discussion centres around Pentland's home life and her relationship with her parents, neither of whom encouraged her to pursue a musical career. She succeeded quite well, nevertheless, although not without a certain sense of bitterness towards the middle-class ethic which stood in her way. Adams's book on Schafer, on the other hand, mentions Schafer's family only briefly, but from that the reader learns that Schafer was encouraged by his family to follow an artistic career. The irony of this situation is, however, that it was Pentland who ended up with a much more conventional musical training than Schafer, who did not become seriously interested in music until his late teens. Pentland was, and is, an accomplished pianist but Schafer began too late in music to achieve such an end. The studies of the works of each composer is selective. Both Eastmanl McGee and Adams give...