Mapping Canada's Music by Helmut Kallmann

Author:Helmut Kallmann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Published: 2013-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

A Major Contribution to Music in Canada

The extraordinary blossoming of musical activity in Canada after the Second World War undoubtedly owed much to favourable economic, technological, patriotic and other historical forces. However, it was due also to a conscious self-mobilization, a collective will to create better institutions for training and employing musicians. In this process the refugees from Hitler’s Germany played a major role. As in other spheres of life, Germany’s loss was Canada’s gain. The areas of activity ranged from St. John’s, NL, where Leipzig-born Andreas Barban (1914–1993) taught and played piano, to British Columbia, where Ida Halpern (1910–1987), a Viennese, researched and recorded Indian music and promoted concerts. Of national importance, but resident in Toronto, were Arnold Walter (1902–1973), master reformer and organizer, Nicholas Goldschmidt (b. 1908),2 grand organizer of festivals (both Moravian-born), Herman Geiger-Torel (1907–1976) from Frankfurt/Main, genius of opera production, and the Berlin-born conductor and apostle of Bruckner and Mahler, Heinz Unger (1895–1965). Hardly less impressive were the contributions of such singers-voice teachers as Ernesto Vinci (Berlin-born), Emmy Heim and Irene Jessner (both from Vienna), the harpsichordist Greta Kraus (from Vienna), the brothers Otto (composer and violist) and Walter (cellist) Joachim (from Düsseldorf), the conductor Mario Duschenes (from Altona), the singer Jan Simons (from Düsseldorf), the all-round musician Alfred Rosé (from Vienna) and many others.

None of the above musicians had been in Canadian refugee internment camps. To conclude I will provide a brief survey of other ex-internees who left a mark on Canadian music. Apart from Newmark’s, the greatest reputations were enjoyed by Helmut Blume, Walter Homburger and Franz Kraemer. Blume (b. Berlin 1914) [d. Montreal 1998], a student of Hindemith’s, and a virtuoso pianist of whose brilliant recitals in Sherbrooke’s Camp N I heard only a few, spent a few years with the CBC International Service, broadcasting to Germany by shortwave. Subsequently he became well known as a music broadcaster on the CBC’s domestic radio and TV services, introducing much contemporary music to Canadian listeners. At McGill University he served as professor of piano and for many years as dean of the Faculty of Music. During those years the Faculty established an electronic music studio, planned the move to a larger building and greatly expanded its music program.

Newmark’s erstwhile page-turner Walter Homburger (b. Karlsruhe 1924), not a musician by training, became a concert agent whose International Artists Concert Agency introduced many great artists to Toronto and other cities. He was for some years also the manager of Glenn Gould and others. In 1962 Homburger was appointed manager of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and was spectacularly helpful in the orchestra’s rise to fame and financial health.

Franz Kraemer (b. Vienna 1914) [d. Toronto 1999], like Blume, worked in the CBC International Service for some years. When CBC television was started his Austrian background, including studies with Alban Berg, made him a natural choice for opera production, including Peter Grimes, Elektra, The Magic Flute, Otello, and Louis Riel. He also produced TV programs about Stravinsky, Gould and Rostropovich. Later, Kraemer became director of music programs for Toronto’s St.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.