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Intended to instill a sense of communal national pride, “O Canada” occupies a significant place in the Canadian public’s imagination. Played in schools and sung at sporting events nationwide, many Canadians know the melody and lyrics by heart. However, few are aware of the national anthem’s colourful history.
Featured are reproductions of some pages of the manuscript of the Johan Halvorsen violin concerto, which was dedicated to Parlow and premiered by her on August 14, 1909 in Scheveningen, Holland. Also included are letters from Halvorsen to Parlow giving her corrections to the score as well as suggestions for performance, photographs, entries from her daybooks, and examples of programmes of her Norwegian concerts, many under the baton of Johan Halvorsen.
Featured digital collections:
Kathleen Parlow, violinist and teacher, was born in Calgary, 20 September 1890 and died in Oakville, Ont., 19 August 1963. She completed her studies with Leopold Auer at St Petersburg [Leningrad] Conservatory, made her professional debut in Berlin in 1907 and then toured world wide. Returning permanently to Canada in 1941, she taught at the Toronto Conservatory and founded The Canadian Trio, and the Parlow String Quartet.
Henry Frost was active in the musical community of York County, Upper Canada, between the years of 1835 and 1850. Henry Frost left a musical instruction manual, offering a complete course in the rudiments of music, which gives us insight into music education in early Canada.
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The collection includes manuscripts, correspondence, programs, photographs and recordings of artists such as John Beckwith, Talivaldis Kenins, Udo Kasemets, the Hart House String Quartet, and Kathleen Parlow.
Hundreds of digitized scores and books from the University of Toronto Music Library Rare Book Room and special collections.
One of the strengths of our digitization projects is the collection of French Opera scores published before 1923. This collections boasts items from our rare book room, as well as items contributed by partenership institutions including the University of Ottawa.
Our Canadian Sheet Music collection contains approximately 4,000 items featuring either a Canadian imprint or Canadian composer. This digitized collection is a subset of our Sheet Music archival collection.
Digitized scores and books from the University of Toronto Music Library Rare Book Room and special collections.