Bringing the Story to Life
Music Makers
The musical score for Canada: A People's History, composed by Claude Desjardins and Eric Robertson, weaves through all 17 episodes, interpreting the action and building another layer to the story.
Robertson explains that the series theme, the opening to all the shows, had to be big and powerful to signal the importance of the story. But other parts of the score called for another treatment: "When you come down to somebody who has lost their family, we might reduce that to just a single violin or a single cello and it becomes very small scale."
Although the tone of the music changes with the tone of the story, the entire score -- composed by the single creative team -- provides a constant backdrop over the two broadcast years of the series.
In Fall 2001, a special recording of the original soundtrack of the series will be released on CD. The CD also includes a beautiful recording of Un Canadien errant, a French-Canadian folk song that was heard in Episode 7, "Rebellion & Reform".
The CD will be available for purchase in early Fall, and will be packaged as a special bonus in the Episode 10-13 Boxed Set of home videos (VHS and DVD).
CLAUDE DESJARDINS and ERIC ROBERTSON, Composers
The musical score for Canada: A People's History comes from Millennium Music, the brainchild of Eric Robertson and Claude Desjardins. They are the composing team behind numerous film and television soundtracks including CBC's Gemini award-winning series Black Harbour, Life & Times, Dawn of the Eye, Atlantis-Alliance's Legacy and Bravo's Spoken Art. In addition to composing film and television scores, Eric Robertson is a symphonic chamber and solo concert composer, gold and platinum record producer and award-winning keyboard artist. Robertson is also the choirmaster and musical director at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Toronto. Claude Desjardins is one of Canada's finest composer/programmers and percussionists. He specializes in jazz and pop music. Desjardins has worked with top recording artists including Susan Aglukark and Gordie Sampson
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