Joseph Vézina

Joseph Vézina (around 1915)

Joseph Vézina (born June 11, 1849 in Québec , Québec as François-Joseph Vézina ; † October 5, 1924 ibid) was a Canadian conductor , composer and organist . He also worked as a bandmaster in military music , worked as an arranger and was a professor at Laval University .

Live and act

Early life and first work as a musician

Joseph Vézina was born on June 11, 1849, the son of the painter and amateur musician François Vézina and his wife Marie Petitclerc in the city of Québec in the Canadian province of the same name and baptized in the name of François-Joseph. Already in his childhood he received his first music lessons from his father and learned to play the baritone horn , the piano and other instruments. He also received six months of harmony lessons from Calixa Lavallée , who later became the composer of the Canadian national anthem O Canada . Vézina mostly taught herself the rest. At the age of 17 he graduated from the Petit Séminaire de Québec in 1866 , of which he had been a student since 1861. Subsequently, he was hired as a cabin boy and came to Europe for the first time on a ship . During his trip he felt homesick , which is why he decided to return to his homeland and spend the rest of his life as a professional musician in the city of Québec. At that time, however, Vézina had difficulties pursuing such a career in the provincial capital. He found his way into the music business via the various military bands in the city. In 1866 he enrolled at the School of Military Instruction and was assigned to the 9th Battalion Volunteer Militia Rifles , which from the following year was part of the Primary Reserve of the Canadian Armed Forces . In the local military music he appeared as a baritone player and acted as Kapellmeister from 1868 to 1879. Over the years he directed several other bands and founded the bands of Notre-Dame de Beauport in 1874 and the bands of Montmorency (Beauport) and Charlesbourg in 1875. During these years he also met his future wife Monique Tardiff; the two married on September 24, 1872 in Québec; from the marriage there were four daughters and three sons.

Breakthrough as Kapellmeister and conductor

Parallel to his work in military music, he gave lessons for various wind instruments . Vézina, known for his very good hearing, an intuitive understanding of music and a remarkable ability to work, brought most of the ensembles he supervised to a high level of performance. An example of this is the victory of the Notre-Dame de Beauport band in a competition at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal in 1878, in which musicians from all over Canada took part. In 1879 Vézina was appointed conductor of the B Battery Band of the predecessor association of the Royal Garrison Artillery , which was converted to the Royal 22nd Regiment in 1922 . Military music has appeared as La Musique du Royal 22e Régiment since 1922 . Vézina gave up this position to lead the cadet band of Saint-Jean-Baptiste in 1912 . When, on June 24, 1880 - St. John's Day , which has been the day of national festivities in Lower Canada since 1834 - O Canada was performed for the first time at the evening banquet of the Société du parler français au Canada (the national covent of the Francophone Canadians ) in the Pavillon des Patineurs in Québec , Vézina appeared as the conductor of the music ensemble. Only 100 years later, on July 1, 1980, did it become the Canadian national anthem, replacing God Save the Queen as the previous anthem. Also in 1880 Vézina took up his professorship at the Petit Séminaire de Québec and from this time appeared as a professor of music. In 1887 he became a member of the Académie de musique du Québec , whose president he was from 1914 to 1915.

During this time his skills were recognized by many of the leading musicians of the time. These included Carlo Alberto Cappa and Walter Damrosch from New York City , who are believed to have urged Vézina to leave his home and move to the United States . However, Vézina strictly refused to leave his hometown. The following years were marked by important events. In 1894 he conducted concerts at the first large-scale Québec Carnival , also known as the Winter Carnival . He did the same in 1896, with this concert, which took place on January 27, 1896 in the Quebec City Armory , also known as the Voltigeurs de Québec Armory or Québec Drill Hall , was undoubtedly the most significant. During this time, Vézina also conducted the ensembles that accompanied the then famous opera singer Emma Albani . In 1896 Vézina became organist at St. Patrick's Church , the only English-speaking Parish of the Archdiocese of Québec . He also resigned from this position in 1912. On September 16, 1901, Vézina conducted a gala concert on the Dufferin Terrace on the occasion of a visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall ( George V and Mary ) . In June 1902 he again conducted three concerts in the Quebec City Armory on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of Laval University . The concerts were all crowned with success. Subsequently, Vézina was invited by three young musicians - Louis-Léonidas Dumas , Joseph Talbot , and his own son Raoul Vézina - to become the first music director of the Orchester Symphonique de Québec , then still called Société symphonique de Québec and only after the merger with the Cercle Philharmonique de Québec, founded in 1936, known under its current name in 1942. From the beginning of October 1902, Vézina appeared as music director of the symphony orchestra and held this position until his death in 1924.

On February 23, 1903, 15 new musicians, including mostly professionals and either members of the regimental band or of the Septuor Haydn septet, which had existed since 1871 , were accepted into the symphony orchestra under his direction . Under Vézina's leadership, the orchestra quickly developed into one of the most successful in the country; in 1907 it won a prize initiated by Albert Gray, 4th Earl Gray , then Governor General of Canada at a competition in Ottawa . The judge here was George Chadwick , who was considered one of the most important American composers at the time and was director of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston , Massachusetts . In 1908, Vézina was president of the music committee for the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the city of Québec. On this occasion, the Société symphonique de Québec played several important concerts. Up until 1914, the symphony orchestra played large subscription concerts with around 60 musicians. Three took place annually in the Auditorium de Québec , a music hall that was inaugurated by his orchestra in 1903 and is now known as the Capitole de Québec or Théâtre Capitole , in Québec. The Société symphonique de Québec also played at the annual meeting of the Société du parler français au Canada , as well as on numerous other occasions. In addition, the orchestra was invited to perform in other parts of the country, notably in Ottawa, Montreal, Sherbrooke and Montmagny .

Working as a university professor as a career end

In 1922, Vézina received one of the first full professorships and was one of the early PhDs in music at the École de Musique at Laval University , which opened that year and had Gustave Gagnon as director. His job there as a full professor lasted just under two years before he died on October 5, 1924 at the age of 75. At that time he was still working as a teacher at the Petit Séminaire de Québec and was also still conductor of the Société symphonique de Québec . His funeral took place three days later, on October 8, 1924, in the Cimetière Notre-Dame-de-Belmont in the parish of Sainte-Foy , now part of the Québec borough of Sainte-Foy-Sillery-Cap-Rouge .

Work as a composer

Vézina composed many works for military bands, wind ensembles and symphony orchestras as early as 1900. He also composed pieces for various instruments, including piano and flute, as well as songs and some choral works. He also appeared as an arranger for a number of works by other composers and in later years created the scores for three comic operas , which were first published by the Société symphonique de Québec in 1906 ( Le lauréat ; libretto by Félix-Gabriel Marchand ), 1910 ( Le rajah ; libretto by Gaston Morelles (pseudonym of Benjamin Michaud )) and 1912 ( Le fétiche ; libretto by Alex Villandray and Louis Fleur (pseudonyms by Alexandre Plante and Antonio Langlais )). A fourth work ( La große gerbe ), based on a poem by Pamphile Le May , remained unfinished.

Joseph Vézina was considered one of the driving forces of musical life in the provincial capital for over half a century. He was considered a tireless worker, first-class organizer, and demanding, versatile and undoubtedly talented musician. His most famous achievement, the now Orchester Symphonique de Québec , is now considered one of the leading orchestras in Canada and is also the oldest and longest continuously active in the country.

Web links

Commons : Joseph Vézina  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Bertrand Guay: Vézina, Joseph . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . tape 15: 1921-1930 . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 2005, ISBN 0-8020-9087-7 ( English , French ).