Harry Somers by Brian Cherney, and: Contemporary Canadian Composers ed. by Keith MacMillan, John Beckwith, and: Soundprints by Peter Such, and: The Composer in the Classroom by R. Murray Schafer, and: The New SoundScape by R. Murray Schafer, and: When Words Sing by R. Murray Schafer (review)

HUMANITIES 429 may have overlooked or forgotten, and presents a point of view that has not been fashionable in academe. For Professor Bedford the writing of this volume, while an arduous task, has clearly been a labour of love. His fidelity to the institution he serves, no mean virtue, is writ large on every page. He has done a service to all those who have affection for United College and, as he correctly observes, that includes almost everyone who even attended classes there. More than that, he has substantially enlarged our knowledge of the history of higher education in Manitoba. (ROGER GRAHAM) Brian Cherney, Harry Somers. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press 1975, 224, illus., $15.00; Keith MacMillan and John Beckwith, editors, Contemporary Canadian Composers. Toronto: Oxford University Press 1975, $14.95; Peter Such, Soundprints. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin 1972, $4.50; R. Murray Schafer, The Composer in the Classroom. Toronto: Berandol 1965, $3.00; - Ear Cleaning. Toronto: Berandol1967, $3.00; - The New Soundscape. Toronto: Berandol 1969, $3.00; - When Words Sing. Toronto: Berandol1970, $3.00 To judge from these books, the musicians in Canada to be reckoned with are composers. They not only write music, they write about it and about one another. Schafer, Cherney, and Beckwith are all composers and MacMillan is executive secretary of the Canadian Music Centre, an agency operating on their behalf and the sponsor of both Contemporary Canadian Composers and Harry Somers. When the subject is contemporary composition the advantages of seeking composers' opinions seem clear enough - they understand the business of fitting sounds together as no one else can, they know a repertoire which is little known even in Canada, they are personally familiar with one another, and they have the greatest interest in promoting music written in Canada. These apparent advantages, though, should be viewed with some scepticism, for the circle of composers in Canada is small and there is a danger that too much familiarity will breed uncritical admiration and a tendency to avoid offending one's colleagues or letting the outside world know that every piece composed by a Canadian is not a masterpiece. It is something like politicians writing critical books on politics or on their own political parties. The longest entries in MacMillan's and Beckwith's Contemporary Canadian Composers go to, in order, Somers, Beckwith, Garant, Weinzweig , and Schafer. The first study in the Canadian Music Centre's series (MacMillan, executive secretary, Beckwith, chairman ofits Publications Committee) is of Somers. Soundprints, with a Foreword by MacMillan, is about six composers, four of whom are Weinzweig, Somers, Beckwith, and Schafer. It could well be, of course, that critical justice has been done and that these are indeed the most important composers in Canada; but 430 LETTERS IN CANADA it is also important that critical justice appear to have been done, and on that point the recurrence of the same names in different positions is not reassuring. The composer, however, can hardly be faulted for his literary activity if no one else has taken up that work, and the question inevitably follows as to where are the scholars and critics who should be the chroniclers and essayists of our now extensive musical culture. The study of music history and literature has an established place in most of our universities where, not unnaturally, it is concerned with the great European repertoire of the past. Why, though, are scholars and critics not emerging who can bring knowledge, perspective, and detachment to the examination of the repertoire growing around them? A measure of the strides taken both in composition and in scholarship rests simply in the reasonableness of the question. It is unfortunate that the two seem so unrelated. The books themselves, whoever wrote them, are nevertheless impor- tant both for their intrinsic worth and for what they represent. Writing about music in Canada has a reasonably long but not distinguished history. Periodicals have had a sporadic life since at least the middle of the nineteenth century. Books, which are almost entirely products of the _ twentieth century, include a few pioneering biographical dictionaries, a biography of Calixa Lavallee (composer of 0 Canada), a couple of notable histories, some miscellaneous works...