Anthems and Minstrel Shows

"Calixa Lavallée, the composer of “O Canada,” was the first Canadian-born musician to achieve an international reputation. While primarily remembered for the national anthem, Lavalée and his work extended well beyond Canada – he played a multitude of roles in North American music as a composer, conductor, administrator, instrumentalist, educator and critic. In Anthems and Minstrel Shows, Brian Thompson analyzes Lavallée’s music, letters, and published writings, as well as newspapers and music magazines of the time to provide a detailed account of musical life in nineteenth-Century North America and the relationship between music and nation. Leaving Quebec at age sixteen, Lavallée travelled widely for a decade as musical director of a minstrel groupe, and spent a year as a bandsman in the Union Army. Later, as a performer and conductor, he built a repertoire that prepared audiences for the intellectually challenging music of European composers and new music by his US contemporaries. Equally at home in the worlds of classical and popular music throughout his career, his own compositions ranged from national songs to comic operas to instrumental music." -- Book jacket.