Music: Canadian Music
Research resources
Online resources
- Canada in Grove Music OnlineExtensive article including information on art music, traditional music, and popular music in Canada.
- Canadian Music Centre ComposersAlong with a photo and short biography, you’ll have access to all of their print music titles and recordings in the CMC catalogue. Plus, event listings, news articles, blog posts, videos and more!
- CBC MusicIncludes access to streaming radio broadcasts, curated playlists, and biographical information about Canadian composers and artists.
- Canadian Music Periodical IndexThe CMPI database includes over 37,000 entries on articles dating from the late-19th century to the present day. Canadian music journals, newsletters and magazines are represented here, almost 200 of which are currently active and continue to be indexed.
- Music in the Canadian EncyclopediaThe Canadian Encyclopedia includes over 5000 entries on music, which were integrated from "Encyclopedia of Music in Canada."
- The Living Composers Project: Canadian ComposersThe Living Composers Project is a nonprofit database, charting the lives and works of composers in the here and now, that has been under continuous development since 2000.
Library resources
- 2014 Almanac of Arts & Culture Programs in Canada byCall Number: Electronic BookPublication Date: 2014
- Aboriginal music in contemporary Canada : echoes and exchanges by Discusses contemporary Aboriginal music from powwow to hip hop, the people that make it and the issues that shape itCall Number: ML3563.6 .A154 2012
- Canadian Music and Music Education by With an emphasis on research done at the Masters level, helps to fill gaps in Dissertation Abstracts with respect to identifying theses and dissertations related to Canadian music completed at U.S., Canadian, and foreign universities.Call Number: ML120 .C2P48 1997ISBN: 0810832755Publication Date: 1997-04-01
- Contemporary musical expressions in Canada by Music and dance in Canada today are diverse and expansive, reflecting histories of travel, exchange and interpretation, and challenging conceptions of expressive culture that are bounded and static. Reflecting current trends in ethnomusicology, Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada examines cultural continuity, disjuncture, intersection, and interplay in music and dance across the country. Essays reconsider conceptual frameworks through which cultural forms are viewed, critique policies meant to encourage crosscultural sharing, and address ways in which traditional forms of expression have changed to reflect new contexts and audiences. From North Indian kathak dance, Chinese lion dance, early Toronto hip hop, and contemporary cantor practices within the Byzantine Ukrainian Church in Canada to folk music performances in twentieth-century Quebec, Gaelic milling songs in Cape Breton, and Mennonite songs in rural Manitoba, this collection offers detailed portraits of contemporary music practices and how they engage with diverse cultural expressions and identities. At a historical moment when identity politics, multiculturalism, diversity, immigration, and border crossings are debated around the world, Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada demonstrates the many ways that music and dance practices in Canada engage with these broader global processes.Call Number: ML3563.6 .C68 2019
- Encyclopedia of Music in Canada by Since its initial publication in 1981, Encyclopedia of Music in Canada has been recognized as a monumental record of the music of a country, an indispensable guide to all kinds of music: popular, folk, religious, concert, and other forms. The second edition advances this landmark work into the last decade of the twentieth century. It provides more than 3700 articles in all, with more than 500 pictures of people, places, scores, concert programs, and sheet music. Compiled by scores of experts, the Encyclopedia presents our musical heritage in all its aspects: historical, educational, critical, administrative, and commercial. Essays on modern composers and performers are accompanied by critical evaluations and complete discographies. The revisions in this edition reveal the vibrancy of the music scene in Canada today. A whole generation of new performers and composers emerged over the decade between the first and second editions. New technologies have had a profound impact; so have demographic changes and a heightened awareness of commercial realizties. These and other influences are reflected in 820 new entries, and in the expansion of such entries as ethnomusicology and of the discography sections throughout the Encyclopedia. Some 200 earlier entries have been eliminated, others condensed. Access throughout has been improved. The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada explores the nation's music in all its richness and variety, from school bands to rock superstar, from community music festivals to the great concert halls. It describes the development of music as it has been and is studied, performed, and composed throughout Canada.Call Number: ML106 .C3E5 1992ISBN: 0802028810Publication Date: 1992-10-20
- Répertoire Bibliographique de Textes de Présentation générale et d'Analyse d'oeuvres Musicales Canadiennes (1900-1980) by Text in French and EnglishCall Number: ML120 .C2R46 1983ISBN: 0969058322Publication Date: 1983-01-01
Library resources
- Mapping Canada's music : selected writings of Helmut KallmannCall Number: ML205 .K315 2013ISBN: 9781554588916
- Music in Canada by The history of Canadian music from the First Peoples to contemporary artists, from classical to popCall Number: ML205 .K385 2006ISBN: 9780773530126
- The Music of Canada by Written by Timothy McGee, professor of music at the University of Toronto, the narrative ranges across the many genres of music that have flourished in Canada: art music, folk and popular music, church music, and jazz. Since the book is non-technical in its approach so that it may be easily understood by those not specifically trained in music, the author has thoughtfully provided separate analytical sections for the more advanced reader.Abounding in music examples and replete with illustrations which vividly reflect each era of Canadian history, the volume also includes an anthology of thirteen complete works (or movements) by prominent Canadian composers, past and present. Each chapter begins with a brief summary of the social and political background of the period under discussion, so that its music may be understood within the context of Canadian history. The double heritage--French and English--which has both enriched and troubled Canadian cultural life, is traced from its origins to the present day. A final chapter departs from this chronological format to focus on the music of the Indian and Inuit people and comment on its sociocultural significance. Finally, an appendix including the sources of all the music discussed, a bibliography, discography, and filmography rounds out this ground-breaking volume.Call Number: ML205 .M37 1985ISBN: 0393953769
- Contemporary musical expressions in Canada byCall Number: ML3563.6 .C68 2019
- Hungry listening : resonant theory for indigenous sound studies by This highly theoretical work of ethnomusicology is a reclamation of Indigenous ceremonial and artistic practice arguing that the inclusion and appropriation of Indigenous performers in classical music traditions only enriches the settler nation-state. Robinson gives shape to Western musical and aesthetic practices as well as to Indigenous listening practices in order to eschew traditional (Western) forms of musical analysis. Instead, the work argues that new modes of listening and studying reception, emerging out of critical Indigenous studies, are essential to understanding Indigenous musical expression in ways that do not reify the power of the settler state.Call Number: ML3563 .R63 2020
Library resources
- Musicanada Encore: Listening and Appreciation byCall Number: Educ Lib-Curriculum Coll. 372.872 M8745 2000 v. 1-6Publication Date: 2000
- Canada : its music byCall Number: Educ Lib-Curriculum Coll. 781.771 D4 1989ISBN: 0029535301Publication Date: 1989
- Music Education in Canada: a Historical Account byCall Number: MT 3 .C35G73 1991Publication Date: 1991
- A delicate balance: music education in Canadian schools byPublication Date: 2010
- Looking forward : challenges to Canadian music education byCall Number: MT3 .C2L66 2000Publication Date: 2000
Online resources
- Canadian Jazz Archive Online“With a selection of concert recordings, artist profiles, in-depth documentaries on iconic Canadian jazz artists, and a comprehensive educational component, the Canadian Jazz Archive Online provides a perspective that is both contemporary and historical in its scope and uniquely Canadian in its flavour.”
- "Jazz" in the Canadian EncyclopediaThis article provides and overview of the history of jazz music in Canada.
Library resources
- The Canadian Jazz Discography byCall Number: ML156.4 .J3L5 1982ISBN: 0802024483Publication Date: 1982-11-01
- Boogie, Pete & the Senator : Canadian musicians in jazz : the eighties byCall Number: ML395 .M53 1987ISBN: 0889711127Publication Date: 1987
- Such Melodious Racket by Such Melodious Racket traces, for the first time, the Introduction, dissemination and early development of jazz in Canada. Beginning in 1914 with the first appearance in Canada of the New Orleans ensemble, the Creole Band, and concluding with Oscar Peterson's celebrated Carnegie Hall debut in 1949, this book is based on extensive archival research, as well as interviews with musicians now in seventies and eighties. A must for all jazzophiles.Call Number: ML3509 .C2M55 1997ISBN: 1551280469Publication Date: 1998-09-01
- The Miller Companion to Jazz in Canada by The Miller Companion to Jazz in Canada is the readable, authoritative reference to Canadian jazz, a monumental undertaking and a wonderful book, covering the history, denizens, personalities and important venues in jazz since its beginnings in Canada, in the wonderful, readable style Mark Miller is known for. Containing over 50 photographs, this book is a must-have for all jazz aficionados.Call Number: ML3509 .C2M548 2001ISBN: 1551280930Publication Date: 2003-01-01
- sheBOP! : a century of jazz compositions by Canadian women by Hockey Night in Canada Theme (4:38) / Dolores Claman -- If you only knew (2:04) / Vera Guilaroff -- Les Policemen (3:54) / La Bolduc -- I'll never smile again (5:26) / Ruth Lowe -- Train of progress/Union Man (3:34) / Hootin'Lil Marcus -- There's a bluebird on your windowsill (5:00) / Elizabeth Clarke -- Tryin' to keep her 88's straight (3:45) / Jane Vasey -- Lucky duck (2:49) / Kathryn Moses -- Blue Motel Room (3:57) / Joni Mitchell -- Look Ma, no hands (4:13) / Karen Young -- Punishment of Baghdad (6:33) / Kathy KiddCall Number: M1366 .M684S54 2003 CDPublication Date: 2003
Library resources
- Canadian musician Bi monthly magazine on popular music in Canada
- Canuck Rock by The Guess Who. Gordon Lightfoot. Joni Mitchell. Neil Young. Stompin' Tom Connors. Robert Charlebois. Anne Murray. Crowbar. Chilliwack. Carole Pope. Loverboy. Bryan Adams. The Barenaked Ladies. The Tragically Hip. C#65533;line Dion. Arcade Fire. K-oS. Feist. These musicians are national heroes to generations of Canadians. But what does it mean to be a Canadian musician? And why does nationality even matter? Canuck Rock addresses these questions by delving into the myriad relationships between the people who make music, the industries that produce and sell it, the radio stations and government legislation that determine availability, and the fans who consume it and make it their own. An invaluable resource and an absorbing read, Canuck Rock spans from the emergence of rock and roll in the 1950s through to today's international recording industry. Combining archival material, published accounts, and new interviews, Ryan Edwardson explores how music in Canada became Canadian music.Call Number: ML3484 .E265 2009ISBN: 9780802099891Publication Date: 2009-09-12
- Encyclopedia of Canadian Rock, Pop, and Folk Music by Twenty years in the making, this comprehensive guide to Canadian recording artists, their music and their lives, and their hits, has been written for music afficionados and curious listeners alike.Call Number: ML102 .P66J13 1994ISBN: 1550820982Publication Date: 1994-07-01
- Oh What a Feeling by Canadian popular music has taken the world by storm during the past two generations with Justin Bieber, Avril Lavigne, Michael Buble, Diana Krall, Nickelback, and Drake following the trails blazed by such artist as Bryan Adams, Ceine Dion, Shania Twain and Alanis Morissette. This pedigree extends beyond Anne Murray, Gordon Lighfoot, Neil Young, Rush, The Band, and Joni Mitchell to such stars as Paul Anka, Hank Snow, Guy Lombardo, Sons of the Pioneers - back to the original King of Pop himself, Henry Burr, and so on to Alex Muir's composition of the Maple Leaf Forever, Canada's unofficial national anthem.Oh What a Feeling is a lively chronicle of the Canadian popular music scene since 1684, featuring more than 5,000 fact-filled entries, 400 archival images, and scores of recording industry artifacts, as well as:* Profiles of Canadian Music Hall of Fame Members* Complete List of JUNO Award Winners* Introductions to 10 of the hottest emerging artistsCall Number: ML3484 .M46 2013ISBN: 9781894997317Publication Date: 2014-04-15
This guide contains selected research tools for finding information about music in Canada. For further assistance with research in this area, please visit the Education & Music Library information desk.
Subject Headings
Use these subject headings to search for more resources on topics related to Canadian music:
Music - Canada
Music - Instruction and Study - Canada
Musicians – Canada
Composers - Canada
Folk Music - Canada
Folk Songs - Canada
Jazz - Canada
Popular Music - Canada
Indigenous Peoples - Canada - Music
Inuit Music
Métis - Music
Children’s Songs – Canada
School music - Instruction and study - Canada
School songbooks - Canada
Music - Instruction and Study - Canada
Musicians – Canada
Composers - Canada
Folk Music - Canada
Folk Songs - Canada
Jazz - Canada
Popular Music - Canada
Indigenous Peoples - Canada - Music
Inuit Music
Métis - Music
Children’s Songs – Canada
School music - Instruction and study - Canada
School songbooks - Canada