The year is 1936. Canada has yet to shake off the cold grip of the Great
Depression. Prairie farmers watch their drought-parched fields disintegrate
in the wind. Gasoline sells for 5 cents a litre, and the province of Alberta
heads into bankruptcy. The Mail and Empire and The Globe merge to create
Canada’s largest national newspaper. The Detroit Red Wings defeat
the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Stanley Cup, and the government of Prime
Minister William Lyon McKenzie King legislates the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation into existence. CBC Radio is born.
CBC Radio is one of Canada’s oldest and most important cultural institutions.
The practice of commissioning music at the public broadcaster is nearly
as old as the CBC itself.
This timeline marks some points of interest in the history of music commissioning
at CBC Radio.
= CBC
Commissions History
= Canadian Cultural History
1936 On November
2, 1936 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is established to operate a
national radio system.
1939 CBC English Radio issues its first commission
to Benjamin Britten. The commission is issued by John Adaskin. "Young Apollo"
Opus 16 for piano and string orchestra is premiered on August 27, 1939 with
the composer at the piano.
1940 Frank Sinatra
scores a big hit when he records "I'll Never Smile Again" composed by Torontonian
Ruth Lowe.
1941 CBC National Music Director, Jean-Marie
Beaudet convinces senior management that CBC should become actively involved
in the commissioning of special works for its own broadcast purposes.
1942 The first Canadian commission is "Transit
Through Fire" by Healey Willan, orchestrated
by
Lucio Agostini with a libretto by John
Coulter.
The broadcast is conducted by Sir
Ernest
McMillan.
1943 A program called "Music for Radio" is
broadcast as part
of the series "Our Canada". All the pieces are written
specially for the medium of radio. Works come from
Howard Cable, Barbara Pentland, Godfrey Ridout
and
John Weinzweig.
1948 The CBC Opera Company is formed with
conductor Nicholas Goldschmidt at the helm.
1950 The CBC
national talent competition "Opportunity Knocks" adopts a category for composers.
Composers are paid $50 on average to create light orchestral works with an
average length of 3 1/2 minutes.
1952 Mavor Moore writes a musical called "The
Best of All Possible Worlds" based on Voltaire's Candide.
The CBC Symphony Orchestra is formed in Toronto under the musical direction
of Geoffrey Waddington.
1953 CBC commissions Healey Willan, Godfrey
Ridout, Jean Papineau-Couture, Alexander Brott and Jean Coulthard to mark
the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II with new compositions.
1955 John Weinzweig's "Violin Concerto" and
Gabriel Charpentier's "Trois Poemes de Saint Jean de la Croix"
are premiered.
Physicist,
composer and inventor Hugh Lecaine creates
"Dripsody"
an etude for variable speed recorder.
1957 Francois Morel's choral work "Cantate
pour la
Passion"
is broadcast.
1958 Roger Matton's "L'Horoscope Suite for
Orchestra", John Weinzweg's "Wine of Peace" and
Murray Adaskin's "Algonquin Symphony" are all broadcast.
1959 John Beckwith composes his chamber opera,
"Night Blooming Cereus". Oskar Morawetz composes his Third String Quartet.
1961 Ian Tyson
writes "Four Strong Winds" a song that becomes a Canadian popular classic.
1962 Igor Stravinsky visits Toronto marking
his 80th birthday. CBC Radio's Keith MacMillan produces a documentary on the
visit which is hosted by Harry Somers.
1964 "Five Shakespeare Songs" for solo voice
and orchestra by Gunther Schuller receives it premiere.
1967 The CBC commissions Gordon Lightfoot
to write a song
for
a special broadcast on January 1 of the Centennial year.
He
composes the "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" a song
describing
the building of the CPR.
The
Canadian Centennial is celebrated. Harry
Somers's
opera "Louis Riel" is premiered by
the
COC at Toronto's O'Keefe Centre.
Seven
live performances follow, including
two
at Expo 67 in Montreal.
1968 Montreal native Galt MacDermot writes
the music for the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical “Hair”.
Mstislav Rostropovich commissions Oskar Morawetz to compose a cello concerto
using an unusual orchestration. Morawetz produces “Memorial to Martin
Luther King” scored for solo cello, winds, piano and percussion.
Vancouver native Dolores Claman composes what some regard as Canada’s
second national anthem, the theme to “Hockey Night in Canada”.
1969 Ron Collier's "Carneval" for jazz orchestra,
solo flugelhorn and narrator is broadcast.
For eight days in May, room 1742 of the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in
Montreal grabs the world's attention as the site of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's
bed-in for peace.
1970 John Weinzweig's
solo percussion piece "Around the Stage in 25 Minutes During Which a Variety
of Instruments Are
Struck"
gets its first performance.
The
CRTC implements Canadian Content regulations.
The
CBC is the only broadcaster to meet CanCon
requirements
from the outset.
1971 Symphony No.3, Opus 18 by Jacques Hétu
is premiered at the Vancouver Festival.
1972 Otto Joachim composes "Mankind" for 4
speakers, 4 synthesizers, organ, tympani, incense, slides, Hebrew literature,
the Koran, as well as Catholic and Buddhist liturgy.
1973 Stompin' Tom Connors composes "The Hockey
Song" which appears on his album, "Stompin' Tom and the Hockey Song".
1974 Jean Coulthard composes "Canada Mosaic"
for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's tour of China. This orchestral suite
is later adapted for performance by the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra.
The Canada Council establishes a program to commission Canadian composers.
The scope of this program eventually surpasses the CBC's commissioning program.
1975 Malcolm Forsyth composes "Three Métis
Folk Songs from Saskatchewan" for Maureen Forrester.
Canada
hosts the inaugural congress of World Music Week
attended
by nearly 500 delegates from 50 countries in
Toronto,
Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City.
1976 CBC Radio premieres “Lecture on
the Weather” for 12 instruments or voices, tapes, and films by John
Cage.
Maureen
Forrester performs “Adieu Robert Schumann” for
contralto,
orchestra and tape by R. Murray Schafer.
Canadian folk icon Stan Rogers premieres his musical “So
Hard
To Be So Strong” for the CBC Radio Variety Department.
1977 Harry Freedman composes "Celebration"
a saxophone concerto honouring the 50th birthday of Gerry Mulligan. The outer
movements employ Mulligan's distinctive baritone saxophone sound. The middle
movement calls for soprano saxophone.
1978 Violinist Arthur Polson and the CBC Winnipeg
Orchestra premiere "Pulsations" a concerto for Electric Violin and Orchestra
by Victor Davies.
1979 Larry Lake composes "Hommage" for electronic
tape dedicated to the memory of Dr. Hugh Lecaine.
1980 Media messenger,
Marshall McLuhan dies on December 31.
1982 Pianist, composer, and CBC documentary
maker Glenn Gould dies at the age of 50. His commission to write a fugue for
CBC Radio is never completed.
1986 The CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra premiers
"Plateaus" by Phil Nimmons.
1989 Michael Jackson threatens legal action
against Toronto
composer
John Oswald for his recording "Plunderphonics" in
which
Oswald chops up and rearranges Jackson's hit song
"Bad"
creating "Dab". The Canadian Recording Industry
Association
orders all undistributed copies of
"Plunderphonics"
to be destroyed.
1992 Bramwell
Tovey and Glenn Buhr provide the creative direction for the first Winnipeg
New Music Festival.
1995 Glenn Buhr composes "Cathedral Songs"
for a performance in the CBC Toronto Atrium.
1997 Timmins Ontario native Shania Twain sells
over 20 million copies of her CD "Come On Over" making her the best selling
country music artist in history.
1998 Gavin Bryars composes "Planet Earth"
and "Apple" for Holly Cole. These works later appear on a CBC Records release
called "I Have Heard It Said That A Spirit Enters".
1999 The CBC Radio Orchestra performs Nikolai
Korndorf's "The Smile of Maude Lewis".
2000 Kelly-Marie
Murphy composes "A Thousand Natural Shocks" for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
2001 "Iron Road" by Chan Ka Nin and Mark Brownell
wins a Dora
award
for outstanding new musical. Presented by Tapestry New
Opera
"Iron Road" catalogues the pain and hardship endured
by
Chinese immigrants building the Canadian Pacific Railway.
2002 Patrick Carrabré composes "Inuit Games"
for throat singers and orchestra.
2003 Alexina Louie composes her virtuosic
avant-garde boogie-woogie "Put On Your Running Shoes" for solo piano. The
piece is premiered by Honens Int'l Piano Competition Laureate Katherine Chi.
2004 John Estacio composes "Light Eternal"
for the CBC Radio Orchestra.
2005 Rap artist K-OS is commissioned to write
a work for the CBC Radio Orchestra and creates
"Burnin' to Shine".
2006 The CBC Radio Orchestra premieres a triple
concerto by Hugh Fraser called "Primary Colours". The soloists are Campbell
Ryga on saxophone, Kenny Wheeler on trumpet, and the composer on trombone.
In recognition of the Dmitri Shostakovich centennial, CBC Radio commissions
10 composers to write short orchestral works based on Shostakovich's musical
motto D-S-C-H (D-Eb-C-B).
