Tributes flood in at news revered Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer has died
“Father of acoustic ecology” is also credited with creating the concept of soundscape
Composer R. Murray Schafer. Photo courtesy Analekta
THE “FATHER of acoustic ecology”, revered Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer, passed away on August 14 at 88, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease.
He penned more than 150 works, spanning opera, chamber music, choral work, and symphonies. A true renaissance man, he was also an environmentalist, writer, visual artist, musicologist, and educator. His groundbreaking works are still regularly performed by Vancouver ensembles, choirs, and events, from the Sonic Boom Festival to musica intima to the Vancouver Chamber Choir.
Born in Ontario and trained in Britain, he had deep ties to BC, where he was an instructor at SFU from 1965 to 1975. While there, he established the World Soundscape Project. Sparked by his concern for the degradation of Vancouver’s urban soundscape, his project was focused on studying the relationships between people and their acoustic environments. Though in 1975 he moved to a farm near Bancroft, Ontario, he remained affiliated with the project. His books The Book of Noise and The Tuning of the World emerged from the initiative and its study of creating harmony between humans and their sonic environment.
Nature inspired many of his works, whether it was a string quartet based on the rhythmic intervals of cresting waves or Music for Wilderness Lake, a score for 12 trombones positioned around a small rural lake.
But his influences were vast, from Eastern thought and religion (Ko wo kiku for the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra incorporated a Japanese incense ceremony in its first movement) to more urgent social, political, or historical themes (Statement in Blue, Threnody, a moving commentary on the bombing of Nagasaki, or Requiems for the Party Girl, about the mental collapse and suicide of a young woman).
Amid his musical theories that are still influential today, he is credited with coining and creating the concept of soundscape.
His many honours over the decades include several Juno Awards, a Governor General’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts, the triennial Glenn Gould Award, Japan’s Koizumi Prize, and the Canada Council's Walter Carsen Prize.
When he earned the Governor-General’s Companion of the Order of Canada, the honour read: “Murray Schafer is widely regarded as one of the most important Canadian composers of the 20th century. With his singular voice and stunning creativity, he is renowned for infusing his choral, orchestral, chamber music and opera pieces with a distinctly Canadian spirit. His global impact is also reflected in his pioneering writings on acoustic ecology, which studies the relationships between people, sound and the environment. As founder of the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University, he has encouraged academics and musicians to record and preserve the sonic environment of the planet. He remains one of the few Canadian composers to enjoy an international following.”
Here are just some of the tributes pouring in over social media:
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