Léo-Pol Morin

Léo-Pol Morin, 1932

Léo-Pol Morin ( James Callihou , born July 13, 1892 in Cap St-Ignace , † May 29, 1941 near Lac Marois) was a Canadian pianist, music critic and composer.

Life

Morin studied in Quebec with Gustave and Henri Gagnon and in Montreal with Arthur Letondal and Guillaume Couture . In 1912 he received a Prix ​​d'Europe and went to Paris, where he was a student of Isidor Philipp , Raoul Pugno and Ricardo Viñes and studied harmony and counterpoint with Jules Mouquet .

Morin made his debut in Paris as a pianist with works by César Franck and Maurice Ravel and also saw the world premiere of Stravinsky's Sacre du Printemps here . With the outbreak of the First World War he returned to Canada and worked there as a pianist and teacher.

From 1919 to 1925 he lived again as a pianist in Paris. Here he played the world premiere of Rodolphe Mathieu's Trois Préludes , which was dedicated to him, and the Paris premiere of Alban Berg's Sonata Opus 1 . In 1923 he went on a concert tour with Ravel through England, Belgium and the Netherlands.

In 1925 Morin settled in Montreal, where he became secretary of the branch of the Pro-Musica Society of New York and in 1927 organized the first music festival with works by Debussy together with Victor Brault . In 1926 he became a member of the Comité d'honneur of the Conservatoire international de Paris .

From 1926 to 1928 he wrote music reviews for the magazine La Patrie , then until 1933 weekly contributions for La Presse . Some of his articles have also appeared in the Paris magazines Le Monde nouveau and La Revue musicale . Since 1929 he also taught at the Conservatoire national in Montreal .

At the first concert of the Société des concerts symphoniques de Montréal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra) he played Mendelssohn's Capriccio brilliant in 1935 , and Francis Poulenc's Concert champêtre the following season . After concert tours in the USA, Spain and Morocco, he taught at the École Vincent-d'Indy from 1936 .

He also gave radio concerts for the CBC and took part in the weekly SVP quiz show . With employees of this show he was killed in a car accident near Lac Marois in 1941.

Morin published his compositions under the pseudonym James Callihou . He composed the Suite canadienne and Three Eskimos for piano as well as the Chants de sacrifice inspired by Indian folklore and arranged French-Canadian folk songs for voice and piano. His most famous students were Paule-Aimée Bailly , François Brassard and Jean Papineau-Couture .