Canadian Music for Flute and Piano Dr. Jennifer Brimson Cooper ...

Sonata for Flute and Piano Srul Irving Glick (1934-2002)
Ontario region composer, Srul Irving Glick (1934-2002) primarily studied composition with Ontarian
composer, John Weinzweig, but was also exposed to the works of Darius Milhaud and Max Deutsch during brief
periods of study. Glick’s works are best known for their lyrical melodic writing, tonal thematic language and
range of tone color. His works have been heavily influenced by immigration, demonstrating the use of British
folk-like and jig melodies and a lyrical ballad style of writing. Many of his works also bear a strong association
with nature, and he is known for his inclusion of Jewish melodies within his compositions. These are all apparent
in his Sonata for Flute and Piano (1981). Within the work Glick exploits lyricism and chromatic harmony
illustrative of a Neo-Romantic style yet creatively employs it within a Neo-Classical framework. This infusion of
Neo-Romantic and Neo-Classical contexts in Glick’s Sonata for Flute and Piano, echoes that of Baker’s Sonata
for Flute and Piano, op.2.
Aria, op. 27 Jacques Hétu (1938-2010)
Jacques Hétu is one of Canada’s most prolific composers. Based in the Quebec region, he wrote in a
variety of genres including solo, chamber and orchestral repertoire. His music has been directly influenced by the
French style; much of his flute repertoire echoes the music of Olivier Messiaen, and Henri Dutilleux having been
exposed to their French compositional stylistic guises during his studies with them in France in the early 1960’s.
Hétu’s approach to writing for flute and piano includes a variety in articulation, creative use of range and dynamic
contrasts, and an endless range of tone color and expression. His Aria, opus 27, is best described within a Neo-
Romantic context in its tonal ambiguity, rich chromatic dissonance, linear musical motives with large leaps, and
intimate interaction between the solo flute and piano lines.
Sonata for Flute and Piano, op. 2 Michael Conway Baker (b. 1937)
Michael Conway Baker (b. 1937) is a Canadian composer of American birth based in Western Canada.
His music is best characterized in terms of jazz and popular style melodies representative of the American West
Coast. Western Canadian region stylistic traits found in his Sonata for Flute and Piano include idiomatic
instances of jazz and popular style lyrical melodic lines; other regional stylistic traits demonstrate evidence of folk
song influence. His Sonata for Flute and Piano demonstrates basic theme development with use of folk and
ballad-style melodic writing. Stylistic guises of both Neo-Classical and Neo-Romantic movements are evident in
this work. Baker further exploits the Neo-Classical idiom in his Sonata for Flute and Piano in his formal plan -
the work is divided into the standard three-movement Classical framework of fast-slow-fast.