Volume 5 Issue 2 - October 1999

DJ usician in Our Midst
John Beckwith byDavidOlds.
On Saturday October 30 Walter Hall at the University of Toronto
will be the setting for a concert celebrating half a century of vocal
writing by one of this country s most eminent composers and a
familiar presence on Toronto$ music scene, John Beckwith.
Mr. Beckwith has enjoyed a long and distinguished relationship
with U of T. He did his own degr-::es there, and went on to teach
several generations of musicians during a tenure of nearly four
decades. He served as dean of the Faculty of Music through most of
the 1970s and was the founding director of the Institute for Canadian
Music, established at the U of T in 1984.
Since retiring professor emeritus in 1990, Beckwith has kept
his hand in at the university, teaching occasional score study courses
for the students in the orchestral conducting program. He has also
continued his scholarly activities, publishing the book Music at
Toronto A Personal Account and editing Hymn Tunes of Canada and
Oratorio and Cantata Excerpts Volumes 5 and 18 respectively of
The Canadian Musical Heritage for the Canadian Musical Heritage
Society. In 1997 a compact disc of Beckwith's instrumental music
was released on the Canadian Music Centre's Centrediscs label.
Retirement has meant more time for composing and
Beckwith has taken full advantage of this. Works which have flowed
from his pen since leaving the hallowed halls include Round and
Round, an orchestral work commissioned by the Winnipeg Symphony
Orchestra in conjunction with the Victoria Symphony and the
Hamilton Philharmonic and performed by all three organizations,
orchestral arrangements of organ chorales by Johann Sebastian
Bach, all 45 of which have been performed by Symphony Nova
Scotia under Georg Tintner's direction, several works for harpsichord
in unusual pairings with banjo and Celtic harp, vocal works
on texts by Margaret Laurence and bpNichol, Canadian folksong
arrangements from a variety of ethnic sources, and Taptoo!, an opera
which was premiered in Montreal last March by Opera McGill.
Taptoo! marks Beckwith's 15th collaboration with librettist
James Reaney, a relationship which grew out of a mutual interest in
theatre while they were both students at U ofT. This most recent
work serves as a sequel to the chamber opera Serinette which
Reaney wrote with the late Harry Somers. The October 30th concert
features a duet from Taptoo!, The Great Lakes Suite, a 1949 vocal
chamber work which was the first Reaney/Beckwith co-production,
and selections from two other operatic co-creations The Shivaree
and Crazy to Kill. The concert will also include Beckwith's settings
of the words of Chaucer, Keats and e. e. cummings.
Vocal music has been an ongoing interest for John B11ckwith
throughout his long and varied career. When asked about this he
explained that as a child he had been quite a good singer himself
and had been the head of a choir. An accomplished pianist, at
university he was able to support himself as a vocal accompanist for
the students of the respected contralto Eileen Law. Working with
singers at lessons and in recital gave him an inside knowledge and
appreciation of the vocal repertoire and an understanding of how
singers work. His first compositions were vocal, and it is a form to
which he has often returned. This is reflected in the program of the
Walter Hall concert with works spanning five decades. Some of
Toronto's finest singers are taking part in the presentation, including
Benjamin Butterfield, Teri Dunn, Laura Pudwell, Kathryn Domoney
and Doug McNaughton, joined by a variety of instrumentalists,
including the composer himself at the piano.
Beckwith says he has enjoyed getting back to the piano in a
serious way. He has been performing with his son Lawrence, an
accomplished baroque violinist, and has found satisfaction in having
time to "polish" rather than just play the music. Toronto audiences
will have another opportunity to hear his keyboard skills at the Art
Gallery of Ontario in January and February. Beckwith will be part of
an ensemble that will perform his arrangements of Music of
Krieghoff's Quebec presented in conjunction with the AGO's Year
2000 Cornelius Krieghoff exhibit. Stay tuned to WholeNote for full
details.
David 0/ds is the producer and host of the CMC s flagship radio
program Canadian Currents heard on CJRT 91.1 FM Sundays at 6
p.m. He is also the administrator of New Music Concerts.
Musician in Our Midst
is photographed by
Michael Shaw, Ashley & Crippen, Photographers
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