Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1972-1973 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
1 score (75 p.) + 1 page of textual records
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
John Beckwith (born March 9, 1927 in Victoria, British Columbia) is a composer, pianist, author, and teacher. He moved to Toronto in 1945 to study piano with Alberto Guerrero at the Royal Conservatory. He also studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger (1950-1951) and has a Mus.B. (1947) and Mus.M. (1961) from the University of Toronto, where he studied with John Weinzweig, among others. He began lecturing part-time at the University of Toronto in 1952, taught full-time from 1955 to 1990, and was dean of the Faculty of Music from 1970 to 1977. He was also the director for the Institute for Canadian Music at the Faculty of Music and held the Jean A. Chalmers professorship in Canadian music.
His over 160 compositions include four operas, orchestral, chamber, solo and choral works, and he has published critical and scholarly articles in Canadian music studies. He was also a staff (1953-1955) and freelance (1955-1965) script-writer and programmer for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) music series, and a critic and columnist for the Toronto Star (1959-1962, 1963-1965).
Beckwith holds five honorary doctorates from Canadian Universities, and received the Canadian Music Council’s annual medal (1972) and the Composer of the Year citation (1984), the Toronto Arts award for music (1995), and the Diplome d’honneur of the Canadian Conference of the Arts (1996). He was named a member of the Order of Canada in 1987.
Beckwith passed away in Toronto, Ontario on December 5, 2022.
Repository
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Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
File contains score, with inscription from the composer to Feldbrill with thanks for the idea and the premiere (dated 1973). It was commissioned by the Junior Women's Committee of the Toronto Symphony on a grant by the Canada Council. File also contains a note from Beckwith to Feldbrill regarding a rehearsal and some changes to the score and premiere performance.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
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System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
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Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Uploaded finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Also see original manuscripts and other materials in the John Beckwith fonds, including a recording of a performance by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Victor Feldbrill, with Nancy Beatty and William Webster, narration.
Publication note
Canadian Music Centre