During a long and distinguished career, the Canadian composer Jean Coulthard (b. 1908) has become widely recognized for her many works for voice, keyboard, choir and chamber ensembles. Until recently, however, her large and diverse catalogue of works for orchestra has been overshadowed. The present study presents a critical assessment of her orchestral catalogue of music composed from the late 1930s until the present. In a biographical introduction, Coulthard's initial training with Vaughan Williams in London is discussed, as is her life-long identification with the early French modern figures Debussy and Ravel. As her career progressed, her earliest orchestral scores were championed by the Australian-born composer/conductor Arthur Benjamin (who resided in Coulthard's native Vancouver, Canada, during the formative years of her development as an orchestral composer). Further training brought her into contact with figures such as Copland, Milhaud, Bartok, and Schoenberg, as well as studies with Bernard Wagenaar in New York. Following her protracted apprenticeship, Coulthard began to teach at the University of British Columbia and to commit to the major genres of orchestral writing. In this later respect she was somewhat atypical of Canadian composers of her generation, and has been viewed by earlier scholars as an exponent of the "conservative tradition" in Canadian music of the 20th century. More recent perspectives stress the quality of her work, her regional significance, and the uniqueness of her achievement in a field of music not traditionally associated with women. Paralleling Coulthard's personal and artistic development, a consideration of Canadian orchestras and the emergence of a Canadian orchestral repertoire is presented. Coulthard's orchestral repertoire includes orchestral suites, small scale orchestra compositions, works for strings, works for soloist(s) and orchestra, concerti, and symphonies. A comprehensive overview of Coulthard's extant orchestral works is presented, with a number of particularly important compositions singled out for detailed analysis. As well major style elements, aspects of Coulthard's role in Canadian music and a brief assessment of her creative personality are included. / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/9615 |
| Date | 05 July 2018 |
| Creators | Duke, David |
| Contributors | Lazarevich, Gordana |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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