Music of Canada
[12] The national anthem, "O Canada", was originally commissioned by the lieutenant governor of Quebec, Théodore Robitaille, for the 1880 St. Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony and was officially adopted in 1980.
[13] Calixa Lavallée wrote the music, which was a setting of a patriotic poem composed by the poet and judge Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier.
Beginning in the 1630s French and Indigenous children at Québec were taught to sing and play European instruments, like viols, violins, guitars, transverse flutes, drums, fifes and trumpets.
[25] Louis Jolliet (1645–1700) is on record as one of the first classically trained practicing musicians in New France, although history has recognized him more as an explorer, hydrographer and voyageur.
[26] In 1700, under British rule at this time, an organ was installed in Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal and military bands gave concerts on the Champ de Mars.
[31] Regimental bands were musically a part of civil life and typically featured a dozen woodwind and brass instruments, performing at parades, festive ceremonies, minuets, country dances and balls.
[36][37][38][39] The beginning of the 19th century Canadian musical ensembles had started forming in great numbers, writing waltzes, quadrilles, polkas and galops.
[42] In 1833, a student orchestra was organized at the Séminaire de Québec the Société Ste-Cécile, as it was known, and was one of the earliest ensembles of its kind in Lower Canada.
[43] Many immigrants during this time lived in relative isolation and music sometimes obtained through subscriptions to newspapers and magazines, provided entertainment and a life line to civilization.
[1] One of the earliest surviving publications in Canada of a song on the piano in sheet music format is "The Merry Bells of England" by J. F. Lehmann, of Bytown (later Ottawa) in 1840.
[45] The Great Migration of Canada from 1815 to 1850, consisting largely of Irish, and British immigrants, broadened considerably the Canadian musical culture.
[47] They initially had the sole right to publish copies of Alexander Muir's "The Maple Leaf Forever" that for many years served as an unofficial Canadian national anthem.
In a society in which most middle-class families now owned a harmonium or piano, and standard education included at least the rudiments of music, the result was often an original song.
[49] Such stirrings frequently occurred in response to noteworthy events, and few local or national excitements were allowed to pass without some musical comment.
[50][51] The 1870s saw several conservatories open their doors, providing their string, woodwind and brass faculty, leading to the opportunity for any class level of society to learn music.
[55] Leo, the Royal Cadet a light opera with music by Oscar Ferdinand Telgmann and a libretto by George Frederick Cameron was composed in Kingston, Ontario, in 1889.
The work centres on Nellie's love for Leo, a cadet at the Royal Military College of Canada who becomes a hero serving during the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879.
[56] Prior to the development of the gramophone, Canadian songwriters' works were published as sheet music, or in periodicals in local newspapers such as The Montreal Gazette and Toronto Empire.
[61] The war was the catalyst for the writing and recording of large numbers of Canadian-written popular songs, some of which achieved lasting international commercial success.
[63] Canada's first independent record label Compo Company built a pressing plant (the largest of its day) in 1918 at Lachine, Quebec.
[72] The RCA Victor factory located in Montreal, Quebec housed Canada's first recording studio featuring polycylindrical walls which allowed the sounds to reflect in all directions.
[70][79] Among them Montreal's jazz virtuoso Oscar Peterson (1925–2007), considered to have been one of the greatest pianists of all time, releasing over 200 recordings and receiving several Grammy Awards during his lifetime.
[86] Rapid advances in the inclusion of instrumental music study in formal school curricula brought about fundamental changes to the philosophy of the band movement and the type of repertoire available.
[88] 1958 saw its first Canadian rock and roll teen idol Paul Anka, who went to New York City where he auditioned for ABC with the song "Diana".
[91] US-born rockabilly pioneer Ronnie Hawkins moved to Canada in 1958, where he became a key player in the Canadian blues and rock scene.
[96] Other notable musicians who have been one of the largest Canadian exports include the progressive rock band Rush, Triumph and Bryan Adams.
Country music remained popular in Canada in the 1970s thanks to the CBC's The Tommy Hunter show and the adult contemporary radio format which benefited the international stardom of Anne Murray.
Canadian publications devoted to all styles of music either exclusively or in tandem with more general editorial content directed to young readers, was expanding exponentially.
The drop in annual sales between 1999, the year that Napster's unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing service launched,[126] and the end of 2004 was $465 million.
[131] Mainstream Canadian artists with global recorded contracts such as Nelly Furtado, Avril Lavigne, Michael Bublé, Nickelback, Drake, The Weeknd, Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber reached new heights in terms of international success, while dominating the American music charts.
