James P. Clarke (composer)
James P. Clarke (1807/08–1877) was a Canadian organist, conductor and composer. He was the first person to receive a bachelor's degree in music in North America. He is best known for his work Lays of the Maple Leaf (1853) and for leading several of Toronto's earliest musical organizations.
Early life[edit]
Clarke was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. As a young man he worked as music dealer's assistant in Edinburgh and led the singing of psalms in St George's Church in Glasgow.[1]
Career[edit]
Clarke emigrated to Canada in 1835,[2] taking a job as the organist for St. James Cathedral in York (Toronto). In 1844 he became the organist for Christ Church in Hamilton.[2]
Clarke received his bachelor's degree in music from the Kings College (later University of Toronto) in 1846.[1][3]
Clarke was the first conductor of the Toronto Choral Society, which was founded in 1845. He was a composer of choral music; a collection of his songs about the Canadian landscape, Lays of the Maple Leaf, was published in 1853 by A. & S. Nordheimer.[4][5]
Clarke constructed a new kind of organ for which the pipes were made of glass.[6]
In 1872 Clarke became the conductor of the Toronto Philharmonic Society.[7][8]
Clarke taught organ and piano; one of his pupils was his son Hugh, who became a professor of music at the University of Pennsylvania.[9]
Works[edit]
- Lays of the Maple Leaf (1853)
Footnotes[edit]
- ^ a b Helmut Kallmann. "James P. Clarke". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
- ^ a b Daniel Mendoza de Arce (2006). Music in North America and the West Indies from the Discovery to 1850: A Historical Survey. Scarecrow Press. p. 252. ISBN 978-0-8108-5252-5.
- ^ World Military Bands "History of Music in Canada":"Music History". Archived from the original on 22 March 2006. Retrieved 13 February 2007.
- ^ Bibliographical Society of Canada (1974). Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada: Cahiers de la Société Bibliographique Du Canada. Bibliographical Society of Canada. p. 45.
- ^ J. M. Bumsted (2003). The Peoples of Canada: A Pre-Confederation History. Oxford University Press. p. 459. ISBN 978-0-19-541689-3.
- ^ "Canadian sound inventions". Canadian Geographic, 2 January 2006
- ^ Richard S. Warren; Richard Warren (2002). Begins with the Oboe: A History of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. University of Toronto Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-8020-3588-2.
- ^ Howard E. Smither (1 September 2012). A History of the Oratorio: Vol. 4: The Oratorio in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. UNC Press Books. p. 413. ISBN 978-0-8078-3778-8.
- ^ Helmut Kallmann (25 May 2013). Mapping Canada's Music: Selected Writings of Helmut Kallmann. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-55458-892-3.
External links[edit]
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