Capital city of Nova Scotia, Canada. The Halifax Regional Municipality came into existence on 1 April 1996 as a result of the amalgamation of the cities of Halifax and Dartmouth, the town of Bedford and Halifax County Municipality. With a population of 340,000 and an area of 3840 km2, it is the major cultural, government and institutional centre of Atlantic Canada. It was founded as a British settlement and military base in 1749 and has had an active musical life from its early days. The first Canadian newspaper, the Halifax Gazette, advertised guitars and violins for sale as early as 1752; in 1765 the city's first organ was installed in St Paul's Anglican church; and in 1769 an oratorio, possibly the first such performance in Canada, was presented by a Philharmonic Society augmented by regimental officers. St Paul's became the country's first Anglican cathedral in 1787. Dissenters formed St Matthew's church and used a ‘kirk fiddle’ (a cello, still on display in St Matthew's) to lead the singing. No organ was installed there until 1873. Musical entertainment was offered by both amateurs and professionals, including visiting performers, in a variety of locations, among them coffee houses and taverns. Opera was first heard in 1790; throughout the 1790s there were performances, including Grétry's Richard Coeur-de-lion and comic operas, at the Theatre Royal. Regimental bandsmen served as performers and teachers; the arrival of Prince Edward Augustus in 1794 with his own band was a great boost to musical activities. The Canadian Forces Stadacona Band is stationed in Halifax.
Singing schools were organized by 1800, and throughout the 19th century singing societies were popular; such groups as the Halifax Philharmonic Society presented oratorios in the Temperance Hall. Choral singing has remained an important part of the city's musical life. A limited amount of piano manufacturing and musical publishing took place in the city. During the mid-19th century Cunard steamers stopped there; by 1876 a railway line to Montreal was completed, making it easier for performers to visit Halifax. The 1500-seat Academy of Music auditorium opened in 1877 with a concert given by the Halifax Philharmonic Union with soloists from Boston. It was demolished in 1929; most concerts were then held in church halls, hotel ballrooms, the Dalhousie University gymnasium or high school auditoriums.
In the mid-1800s the Sisters of Charity established Mount St Vincent Academy (later granted university status); music was important in the curriculum, as it was at the Academy established by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart and at the Maritime School for the Blind (established 1871). A music instructor was hired for the public schools in 1867; the first school music festival was held in 1870, modelled after those of Boston. The Halifax Ladies' Musical Club (founded 1905) actively supported the school music programme. The Halifax Conservatory was founded in 1887; connected at first with the Halifax Ladies' College, it later became affiliated with Dalhousie University, which awarded music degrees and diplomas. The Maritime Academy of Music, established in 1934, joined with the Halifax Conservatory in 1954 to form the Maritime Conservatory of Music. An affiliation with Dalhousie University continued but in the late 1960s Dalhousie established its own music department. A competitive festival sponsored by the Halifax Conservatory from 1935 has become a major regional festival. School music broadcasts produced in Halifax gained wide recognition in the 1940s. Public school music instruction was expanded in the late 1960s; the extensive programme ranged from Kodály-based elementary classes to excellent choral and instrumental ensembles in the senior grades and a unique ukulele programme. The folklorist Helen Creighton, who did pioneering work in collecting regional materials, spent many years in her native area.
Orchestral music was heard in Halifax before 1800 and various orchestral groups performed throughout the 19th century. A Halifax SO operated from 1897 until 1908. A second Halifax Symphony was formed in 1955 (preceded by the Lord Nelson Hotel Salon Orchestra, the Halifax Symphonette and the CBC Halifax Orchestra). In 1968 the Halifax SO merged with the New Brunswick SO to become the Atlantic SO, a professional ensemble based in Halifax; it gave concerts, often with local choral groups, as well as broadcasts, educational concerts and recordings, and toured in the four Atlantic provinces. It ceased operation in 1983, but in the same year Symphony Nova Scotia was formed; based in Halifax, this professional ensemble presents over 50 concerts annually. In 1971 an arts complex including the 1100-seat Rebecca Cohn Memorial Auditorium and the smaller Dunn Theatre was built on the Dalhousie University campus. A 10,000-seat Metro Centre built as a sports facility has been used for large musical extravaganzas. Recitals and musicals have been presented at the Neptune Theatre; concerts are also held at St Mary's University Art Gallery. Jazz musicians can be heard in many venues and there are frequent performances of new music. In addition to touring productions, local groups including the Dalhousie music department have presented operas (a Nova Scotia Opera Association formed in 1949 lasted only seven years). The CBC English-language radio and television headquarters for the maritime provinces, the Nova Scotia Choral Federation (established 1976), the concert touring organization Debut Atlantic and the Scotia Festival of Music (established 1971) are all located in Halifax.
EMC2 (P.R. Blakeley and P. Murray)
H. Talbot, ed.: Musical Halifax 1903–4 (Halifax, 1904)
P.R. Blakeley: ‘Music in Nova Scotia 1605–1867’, Dalhousie University Review, xxxi (1951), 94–101, 223–30
H. Kallmann: A History of Music in Canada 1534–1914 (Toronto, 1960/R)
T.J. McGee: ‘Music in Halifax 1749–1799’, Dalhousie University Review, xlix (1969), 377–87
F.A. Hall: ‘Musical Life in Eighteenth-Century Halifax’, Canadian University Music Review, iv (1983), 278–307
T.J. McGee: The Music of Canada (New York, 1985)
N.F. Vogan: ‘Music Instruction in Nova Scotia before 1914’, Musical Canada: Words and Music Honouring Helmut Kallman, ed. J. Beckwith and F.A. Hall (Toronto, 1988), 71–8
J.P. Green and N.F. Vogan: Music Education in Canada: a Historical Account (Toronto, 1991)
NANCY F. VOGAN