Ernest MacMillan

Zara Nelsova, Sir Ernest MacMillan and Kathleen Parlow.

Sir Ernest Alexander Campbell MacMillan (born August 18, 1893 in Mimico / Ontario ; † May 6, 1973 in Toronto ) was a Canadian composer, conductor, organist and music teacher.

Life

The son of the Presbyterian pastor and hymnologist Alexander MacMillan had organ lessons from Arthur Blakeley , the organist of the Methodist Church on Sherbourne Street in Toronto , from the age of eight . From 1905 to 1908 he lived with his father in Edinburgh. Here he took organ lessons from the blind organist Alfred Hollins and attended music classes from Friedrich Niecks and WB Ross at the University of Edinburgh .

After his return to Toronto he got his first organist position at the age of fifteen at the Knox Presbyterian Church , which he held for two years. He then studied in London at the Royal College of Organists , obtained a Bachelor of Music degree from Oxford University and studied modern history at the University of Toronto from 1911 to 1914 .

In 1914 he traveled to Paris and took private lessons from Thérèse Chaigneau . As a guest at the Bayreuth Festival , he was surprised by the outbreak of the First World War and interned as an enemy foreigner in Ruhleben near Berlin. Here he directed a small camp orchestra with which he gave concerts and performed musicals and devoted himself to composition, and he met the English composers Benjamin Dale and Quentin Maclean , with whom he had a lasting friendship.

On his return to Toronto in 1919 he was appointed organist and choirmaster at the Timothy Eaton Memorial Church in Toronto, which he held until 1925. From 1920 he taught organ at the Canadian Academy of Music , which was later merged with the Toronto Conservatory of Music . In 1926 he succeeded Augustus Stephen Vogt as its director. He founded the Conservatory Opera Company here , with which he performed several operas between 1928 and 1930. In addition, he became dean of the music faculty at the University of Toronto in 1927 . Organists Charles Peaker and Frederick C. Silvester are among his students from this period .

After working together as Gest, he became chief conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1931 at the suggestion of Luigi von Kunits . In 1935 he was knighted as a Knight Bachelor by King George V for his services to music in Canada . In 1936, Marjorie Agnew , a teacher at Templeton Junior High School in Vancouver founded a series of groups to promote the understanding of art among young people, which were named Sir Ernest MacMillan Fine Arts Clubs . From the late 1930s to the beginning of World War II , MacMillan also performed as a conductor in the United States and England. In 1942 he succeeded Herbert A. Fricker as conductor of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir .

In 1946 MacMillan was one of the founders of the Canadian Music Council , whose direction he took over the following year, and from 1947 to 1963 he was President of the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada (CAPAC). After concerts in Australia and South America, he directed performances of Bach's great choral works in Toronto in the early 1950s . After internal disputes, he gave up the direction of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1956, and in the following year he resigned as conductor of the Mendelssohn Choir.

He then worked as a guest conductor a. a. of the CBC Symphony Orchestra and various radio orchestras at the CBC Talent Festival . In the 1960s he stopped conducting because of his deteriorating health, but still appeared as a commentator on music programs for the CBC. The MacMillan Theater was named after him in 1964 in the new building of the University of Toronto's Music Faculty in the Edward Johnson Building . Since 1963 the MacMillan Lectures took place at the university's summer courses , at which he also appeared himself. His 70th and 75th birthday were celebrated in public, and in 1970 MacMillan was named Companion of the Order of Canada .

MacMillan died after two strokes in 1973. He was posthumously awarded the Canadian Music Council Medal , and the Mendelssohn Choir and CAPAC donated grants in his memory. His estate came into the possession of the National Library of Canada . In 1986 his sons Keith and Ross MacMillan established the Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation to promote the education of young Canadian musicians.

Works

• Snow White , Opera, 1907
• Magnificat in B flat for choir and organ, 1908
• Sleepy Time Songs No. 1 and No. 2 , songs, 1910, 1911
• You're like a flower , song, 1913
• String Quartet in C Minor , 1914
• Overture 'Cinderella' for orchestra, 1915
• Overture 'Don't Laugh' for orchestra, 1915
• O Mistress Mine , song, 1917
• Three Songs for High Baritone from 'The Countess Cathleen' , 1917
• 4 Fugues for string quartet , 1917
• In dulci jubilo for organ, 1917
• Songs from Sappho , Lieder, 1920
• Overture for orchestra, 1924
• Two Carols for soprano and string trio, 1925
• Padded Footsteps , Song, 1925
• That Holy Thing , Lied, 1925
• I Heard a Voice from Heaven for choir, 1925
• Two Sketches for Strings 'based on French-Canadian Airs' for string orchestra or quartet, 1927
• Six Bergerettes du bas Canada for soprano, alto, tenor and four instruments, 1928
• Recessional for choir or voice and piano, 1928
• Sonnet , Lied, 1928
• Three Indian Songs of the West Coast , 1928
• Last Prayer , Lied, 1929
• Three French Canadian Sea Songs for medium voice and string quartet, 1930
• O Canada for choir and orchestra, 1930
• Prince Charming , Opera, 1931
• Overture 'Scotch Broth' for orchestra, 1933
• God Save the King for choir and orchestra or piano, 1934
• Hail to Toronto for choir, 1934
• The King Shall Rejoice in Thy Strength for choir and organ, 1935
• Northland Songs , 1938
• Canada Calls / Debout Canadiens! , Song, 1942
• Land of the Maple Leaf for choir and piano, 1943
• A Song of Deliverance for choir and orchestra or organ, 1944
• Christmas Carols for orchestra, 1945
• Fantasy on Scottish Melodies for orchestra, 1946
• There Was an Old Woman for mezzo-soprano and strings, 1946
• Ballads of British Columbia , Songs, 1947
• Cortège académique for organ, 1953
• Fanfare for a Festival for Brass and Percussion, 1959
• Fanfare for a Centennial for brass and percussion, 1967

literature

• Ernest MacMillan: MacMillan on music. Essays on music . Dundurn Press, Toronto [et. a.] 1997, ISBN 1-55002-285-7 .

Web links

• Sir Ernest MacMillan ( English, French ) In: Encyclopedia of Music in Canada . published by The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• Ernest MacMillan (Conductor) Bach Cantatas
• Sir Ernest MacMillan ( Memento of August 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
• The Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation ( February 7, 2015 memento in the Internet Archive )