City in Canada, the Capital of Ontario and the principal city of English-speaking Canada.
In 1793 Governor John Graves Simcoe moved the capital of Upper Canada from Niagara to what is now Toronto, then named York. At first the only music was provided by the itinerant fiddlers who entertained at ‘logging bees’ held during land clearance and members of the militia who played at social functions. The first record of musical activity is an account book entry for ‘7 Dollars Paid musick By Order’ for a ball and supper on the king’s birthday, 4 June 1798. Some government officials brought printed music and a few instruments with them, including a harpsichord, but they seldom intended to settle and did not establish a social setting apt for the growth of music. Moreover York’s role as a garrison town was emphasized by deteriorating relations with the USA and the war of 1812.
During the 1820s social and cultural stability increased. Colman’s opera The Mountaineers and Storace’s No Song, No Supper were performed at Franks’ Assembly Room in 1825 and John Braham’s Devil’s Brigade was given in 1826, and occasionally soloists visited the town. By 1834 the population had reached about 9000 and York was incorporated as the City of Toronto.
In 1836 the Toronto Musical Society announced its first concert. This group of amateurs and professionals, which included the singer J.D. Humphreys, a prominent musical figure for the next 30 years, was the first of many such groups which often survived only for a couple of seasons. For example the Philharmonic Society, established in 1845 under the direction of James Paton Clarke, was dissolved and reconstituted several times before the end of the century, but in its first years performed music by Beethoven, Mozart, Weber, Auber, Rossini, Méhul, Spontini, Hérold and others.
Among the many prominent choral organizations which were central to Toronto’s musical life was the Metropolitan Choral Society, inaugurated in 1858 with a performance of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus. The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, the outstanding organization and the only one still in existence from this era, was founded in 1894 by A.S. Vogt and quickly became one of the greatest choral ensembles on the continent. In 1902 Vogt instituted the practice of bringing orchestras from the USA to participate in major performances: first the Pittsburgh SO under Victor Herbert and later Emil Paur, followed by the Russian SO and the Theodore Thomas Orchestra (Chicago SO) under Frederick Stock. In 1905 the choir first visited the USA and appeared with outstanding success in Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore; World War I prevented a European tour planned for 1915 (an ambition realized only in 1972).
Several halls were built before 1900 of which the most notable, St Lawrence Hall (1850, seating about 500) and Massey Hall (1894, seating 2765), are still in use. In these and other halls great performers from abroad appeared regularly – the pianists Leopold de Meyer, Gottschalk, Thalberg, Anton Rubinstein and Joseffy, the violinists Vieuxtemps, Sarasate, Wieniawski, Ysaÿe and Reményi and the singers Adelina Patti, Jenny Lind, Henriette Sontag, Christine Nilsson and George Santley.
Small touring opera companies with usually one or two principal singers appeared regularly at such theatres as the Royal Lyceum (1848–74) or the Grand Opera House (1874–83). The first full-scale production of an opera, Norma, was given in 1853 and conducted by Luigi Arditi with Rosa Devries in the title role. Local productions of opera were less common. In 1843 the Theatre Royal presented The Miller and his Men ‘with the whole of the original music of Sir Henry Bishop’, and in 1853 Lucrezia Borgia was given in concert performance. In 1867 the Holman English Opera Troupe leased the Royal Lyceum as a resident company, and until 1873, when he moved to London, Ontario, Holman presented full seasons of plays and many performances of about 35 operas.
Attempts to establish an orchestra had been made in 1867 by George Strathy and in the 1890s by Torrington and Fisher; the first successful organization was the Toronto SO, founded in 1906 by Frank Welsman, a Toronto musician. For the first time the major symphonic repertory was heard regularly and with outstanding soloists such as Gadski, Rachmaninoff and Flesch. But World War I caused increasing difficulties of finance and personnel, and after 1914 the orchestra was effectively discontinued.
Music and instrument dealers flourished in the second half of the 19th century. Leslie Brothers were the principal suppliers of band instruments and accessories during the 1840s and in 1842 O’Neill Brothers began to manufacture pianos. The construction of pianos, harmoniums, melodeons and organs became a major industry and at least 20 firms were in business at one time or another before 1914. The head of one of the largest, R.S. Williams & Son (established 1854), was also a collector of early instruments, music and autograph letters and presented his collection of some 400 items to the Royal Ontario Museum. In 1860 Theodore Heintzman, a German immigrant to the USA, settled in Toronto and founded the firm which until 1986 was the major piano manufacturer in Canada. Another firm in operation until the 1980s was begun in 1871 by J.G. Mason and Vincent Risch who first dealt in pianos and then (1877) manufactured their own instruments.
An important general music business was begun in 1844 by Abraham and Samuel Nordheimer, who imported both music and fine pianos. As publishers they issued many reprints of popular music originally printed in Europe and the USA, and published ballads and piano music by Toronto composers, including J.D. Humphreys, H. Schallehn and St George Crozier. They later enlarged their interest by manufacturing their own pianos.
Private musical instruction had been available from the 1820s and a few musicians held part-time positions in schools. In 1847 the Ontario Normal School opened for teacher training as part of a plan for general public education, in which music was to have a place. J.P. Clarke was engaged as the first music teacher, and in 1858 Henry Sefton was brought from England to develop a vocal music curriculum for use in the schools.
The University of Toronto (chartered as King’s College in 1827) granted the degree of Bachelor of Music to J.P. Clarke in 1846 but did not offer regular instruction in music. The University of Trinity College (affiliated to the University of Toronto in 1904) appointed George Strathy as professor of music in 1853 but had no degree course; it granted a number of external degrees, mostly in England during the 1880s, but abandoned the practice after intense opposition from English schools. In 1886 the Toronto Conservatory of Music (since 1947 the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto) was founded by Edward Fisher. In 1888 it became affiliated to Trinity College and in 1896 to the University of Toronto in offering a course of studies for the university’s Bachelor of Music examinations. In 1888 Torrington founded the Toronto College of Music which also, in 1890, became affiliated to the university. In 1918 the university created a faculty of music with A.S. Vogt as dean. The conservatories were then disaffiliated, the Toronto Conservatory being administered as a separate institution by the university board of governors until 1991, when it again became fully independent.
In 1923 the New SO gave its first concerts directed by Luigi von Kunits, former leader of the Pittsburgh SO and since 1912 a Toronto violin teacher. In 1926 the New SO acquired the charter and assets of Welsman’s earlier orchestra and became the Toronto SO. After von Kunits’s death in 1931 the conductor was again a local musician, Ernest MacMillan, who built up an outstanding orchestra. Subsequent conductors were Walter Susskind (1956–65), Seiji Ozawa (1965–9), Karel Ančerl (1969–73), Andrew Davis (1975–88), Günther Herbig (1989–94) and Jukka-Pekka Saraste (from 1994). The orchestra moved from Massey Hall to the new Roy Thomson Hall (2812 seats) in 1982.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has its principal English-language studios in Toronto and produces many recitals and concerts for radio and television. From 1952 to 1964 the corporation had its own major orchestra, the CBC SO, which gave regular concerts in the studio and publicly under outstanding conductors, and recorded with Robert Craft and Stravinsky. In 1992 a new Broadcast Centre opened; it contains a studio-auditorium, the Glenn Gould Studio.
In 1946, as part of the reorganization of the Royal Conservatory, an opera school was set up under the administrative direction of Arnold Walter with Nicholas Goldschmidt as musical director. In 1948 Herman Geiger-Torel joined the staff as stage director and became a dominant figure in the subsequent growth of opera in Toronto. In 1950 the Royal Conservatory Opera Company was formed and presented an opera festival at the Royal Alexandra Theatre; the success of this professional venture led to the formal organization of the Opera Festival Association, which in turn became the Canadian Opera Company with Geiger-Torel as general director. From 1961 the company performed principally at O’Keefe Centre (1960; 3200 seats), which was renamed the Hummingbird Centre in 1996. The school and the company have continued to flourish independently. The company employs staff and performers from Canada with many foreign guests; besides the standard repertory, it produced 19 Canadian works in the years 1966–99, most of them company commissions. In 1982 the company originated the use of surtitles during performance, subsequently widely used elsewhere. The school has given such operas as Pelléas et Mélisande, Dialogues des Carmélites, Falstaff, Ariadne auf Naxos, The Rake’s Progress, The Mines of Sulphur, Kat’á Kabanová and Searle's Hamlet (the North American première). Among the singers it has produced are Victor Braun, Ermanno Mauro, James Milligan, Gino Quilico, Teresa Stratas and Jon Vickers. Since 1969 it has functioned as a department of the University of Toronto music faculty. A Faculty of Fine Arts was established at York University in 1968, and in 1972 a music department, which has developed distinctive areas of study that draw on ethnomusicological methods.
The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir continued to maintain its early importance; it numbers about 200 voices. After 1918 it brought either the Philadelphia Orchestra under Stokowski or the Cincinnati SO under Reiner to Toronto each season, and since 1935 it has associated regularly with the Toronto SO. The conductors succeeding Vogt were H.A. Fricker (1917–42), Sir Ernest MacMillan (1942–57), F.C. Silvester (1957–60), Walter Susskind (1960–64), Elmer Iseler (1964–97) and Noel Edison (appointed 1999). Iseler was also founder and conductor of the Festival Singers of Canada (1954–79) and the Elmer Iseler Singers (founded 1979) professional choirs which have performed regularly in Toronto and broadcast, recorded and toured widely in Canada and abroad.
The strong sacred music tradition of the 19th century (which led to the foundation of many secular choral societies) was developed in the 20th century by such distinguished organists and choirmasters as Healey Willan. St Michael's Choir School, attached to the Roman Catholic Cathedral and founded in 1937, provides a complete musical education for its students.
Chamber music ensembles have been active since the 1850s; the first to be established was the Academy Quartet (1914–24), followed by the Hart House String Quartet (1923–45), the Parlow String Quartet (1941–58), the Orford Quartet (1965–91) and the St Lawrence Quartet (founded 1989). In the 1930s a set of viols was available at Hart House, University of Toronto, and used in performance under Wolfgang Grunsky. The harpsichordist Greta Kraus settled in the city in 1939 and in the 1950s the cellist Roland Pack devoted himself to early music performance. Notable organizations are the Toronto Consort (established 1972), Tafelmusik (established 1978, an orchestra of period instruments that gives some 60 local concerts each season and tours widely) and Opera Atelier (established 1983), which produces 17th- and 18th-century opera in appropriate musical, scenic and dramatic style. Colin Tilney has been a leading harpsichordist and teacher since his arrival in 1979.
Dance bands, especially in the 1930s and 1940s, acquired local but also national prominence under such leaders as Rex Battle, Bert Niosi, Trump Davidson, Luigi Romanelli and Frank Bogart. Jazz remained essentially peripheral until the 1950s with the appearance of outstanding players and leaders such as Phil Nimmons, Cal Jackson and Ron Collier. At the same time, Collier, Norm Symonds and Gordon Delamont developed the fusion of jazz and art music techniques somewhat in the manner of the ‘third stream’ in the USA. Influential in the widening popularity of jazz performance was the stage-band movement in music education in schools in the 1970s.
Opera in Concert (established 1974) has given about 70 rarely-heard operas in concert versions, almost all Toronto premières and using primarily local singers. Other concert organizations include the York Concert Society (1953–64), conducted by Heinz Unger, who introduced to Toronto much of the music of Mahler and Bruckner; the Ten Centuries Concerts (1962–7), whose repertory ranged from medieval to contemporary works; New Music Concerts and Array Music (both founded 1971), devoted to recent works by Canadian and foreign composers; and the Music Gallery, a centre for the avant garde since 1976. The Nexus Percussion Ensemble (established 1971) performs a wide variety of contemporary music and music in non-western styles. The Esprit Orchestra was established in 1983 for the performance of 20th-century music.
GroveO (E. Forbes)
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H. Kallmann: A History of Music in Canada 1534–1914 (Toronto, 1960/R)
G. Trowsdale: A History of Public School Music in Ontario (diss., U. of Toronto, 1962)
D. Sale: Toronto’s Pre-Confederation Music Societies 1845–1867 (diss., U. of Toronto, 1968)
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C. Morey: ‘Pre-Confederation Opera in Toronto’, Opera Canada, x/3 (1969), 13, 15
H. Kallmann: ‘James Paton Clarke: Canada’s First Mus.Bac.’, Les cahiers canadians de musique/The Canada Music Book, i (1970), 41–53
C. Morey: ‘Canada’s First Operatic Ensemble’, Opera Canada, xi/3 (1970), 15, 75
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J.P. Baillie: Look at the Record: an Album of Toronto’s Lyric Theatres 1825–1984 (New York, 1985)
C. Morey: ‘Music and Modernism’, Regionalism and National Identity: Multi-Disciplinary Essays on Canada, Australia and New Zealand, ed. R. Berry and J. Acheson (Christchurch, NZ, 1985), 117–25
C. Morey: ‘Orchestras and Orchestral Repertoire in Toronto before 1914’, Musical Canada: Words and Music Honouring Helmut Kallman, ed. J. Beckwith and F. Hall (Toronto, 1988), 100–14
G. Jones: ‘The Fisher Years: the Toronto Conservatory of Music, 1886–1913’, Three Studies (Toronto, 1989), 59–145
W. Kilburn: Intimate Grandeur: One Hundred Years at Massey Hall (Toronto, 1993)
E. Schabas: Sir Ernest MacMillan: the Importance of Being Canadian (Toronto, 1994)
C. Morey: ‘Musical Education in Toronto in the 19th Century’, Taking a Stand: Essays in Honour of John Beckwith, ed. T.J. McGee (Toronto, 1995), 113–24
R. Elliott: Counterpoint to a City: a History of the Women's Musical Club of Toronto (Toronto, 1997)
CARL MOREY