Research Data Leeds Repository

A Brief Speculative History of EA in Canada

Austin, Kevin (2016) A Brief Speculative History of EA in Canada. University of Leeds. [Dataset] https://doi.org/10.5518/160/33

This item is part of the Alternative Histories of Electronic Music collection.

Dataset description

Canada was an outlier to the French, German and American electronic music scenes, exacerbated by being physically huge, and having grown from two european colonial powers. An unpromising start. The early traditional history of electronic music in Canada has the names Hugh Le Caine, University of Toronto Electronic Music Studio [UTEMS], acousmatic music legacy [in Montreal], and empreintes DIGITALes. Sometimes added to this is soundscaping, and, granular synthesis. These events are separated by around 4,500 kilometers. From the 1940s, – McLaren and Le Caine, until the late 1980s there were multiple parallel timelines and little personal, aesthetic or cultural connection between many of the major developments. This presentation will talk about some of the less-known contributing features of electronic music / electroacoustic studies in Canada that are either only locally-documented, anecdotal or possibly apocryphal. The subjects include: multi-channel pieces from the early-1970s – from McGill University Canada’s EMS representative – Otto Joachim live electronic music groups – Canadian Electronics Ensemble, MetaMusic continuous promotion of electroacoustics to the public local / regional associations [Acreq, Music Gallery, BEAMS] performing / concert production group [CECG/GEC – ÉuCuE, GEMS] numerous individual initiatives – Contact List for Electronic Music eg integration into pop music – disco archival collections of pieces – the 3,000+ works in the Concordia Archive, McGill publications – Q, Q-résonance, Newsletter/Bulletin, and others conferences – 1985-1993 development of university and private studios attempts to have Canadian ea recognized nationally and internationally and eventually, the coming together of some 100 practitioners to form a national association – a Canadian electroacoustic community. As is characteristic in young countries with poor communications – another example being Australia, like the helicopters from the maple tree, many seeds appeared, few survived more than one or two freezing winters. By the late-1970s Montreal had become recognized as the center of electroacoustic activity in Canada, eventually with four major educational / research mandates. The particular educational, historical and political history led to four somewhat different interpretations regarding what electroacoustics is, with three – Université de Montréal, McGill, Conservatoire having Master and Doctoral level programs, and Concordia having ‘in-house’ multi-disciplinary opportunities including performance art, theater, dance, animation, film and mediatic arts. The presentation will first provide the broader context for the history of ea in Canada, and then follow many of the threads noted above, with examples, leading up to the Google-, Wikipedia-, YouTube-age, when the histories of ea nationally and internationally essentially ceased to exist in isolation. Throughout the presentation there will be a number of observations, perhaps occasionally irreverent, of what it was like developing a national ea profile when 90% of the contact between members of the community was having listened to the same LPs and eventually many of the same CDs, but not having met each other. And knowing what ‘cold’ is.

Subjects:

W000 - Creative arts & design > W300 - Music
W000 - Creative arts & design > W300 - Music > W310 - Musicianship/performance studies > W316 - Electronic/electro-acoustic music performance

Divisions:

Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures > School of Music

Related resources: