Canadian Composers Gain Ground, Praise Morawetz
From the look of Eaton auditorium Saturday night the Canadian League of Composers is gaining ground. It gave another concert of contemporary Canadian music, and attendance was up. Officials report associate membership has grown and attribute increased interest partly to the all-Canadian concert in Carnegie hall under Stokowski.
As is to be expected at concerts of modern music, a handful was seen leaving at intermission; but most remained. It's never easy to follow a whole evening of unfamiliar scores, unless you're by nature a trail-blazer in the arts; and there's no denying many Canadian "moderns" are writing in "advance" styles that haven't gained any kind of popularity.
For us the finest writing was by Toronto's Oskar Morawetz. He had two poems set to music for voice and piano, had made a study of their moods and atmospheric
suggestions and had honestly written with a desire to enhance the poetry in each.
We admired the climax to "Chimney Sweep" and the whole of "Grenadier" which relates the thoughts of a soldier dying on the battlefield.
Doesn't Feel It's Corny
Apparently Morawetz doesn't feel it's corny to express deep feeling in his music, which received sympathetic performance from baritone Glenn Gardiner and Leo Barkin at the piano.
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