National Film Board: Music of the Moderns

Our regular Wednesday film program will resume in September. During the Scotia Festival of Music, the Gallery is pleased to present the Film and Video program on nine consecutive days at 5:00pm in the Gallery.

These seldom-seen productions from the National Film Board of Canada span 100 years of mainstream and experimental music by Canadian and international composers, including concerts, festivals, new music workshops, and performers both celebrated and unknown.

Thursday, 25 May - Stravinsky

Roman Kroitor, Wolf Koening, NFB 1966, 49 mins, b & w

A late portrait of the great modernist composer, in Canada to conduct his Symphony of Psalms.

Friday, 26 May - Healey Willan: Man of Music

Roger Blais, NFB, 1959, 18 mins, b & w

A brief portrait of the famed Canadian choir-master, conductor and composer at all of his musical haunts in Toronto in the late 1950s

and

They Shoot, He Scores!

Roger Blais, NFB, 1996, 25 minutes. An informal encounter with Louis Applebaum, one of Canada's most prolific film composers.

Saturday, 27 May - Music Magic: Gilbert and Sullivan in Stratford

Malca Gillson, NFB, 1984, 57 mins

Backstage at Stratford and London's Old Vic during the staging of Iolanthe, The Gondoliers and The Mikado, with generous clips of the productions.

Sunday, May 28 - From Bears to Bartok

Reevan Dolgoy, NFB, 1983, 49 minutes

The Banff Summer School of Fine Arts is revealed in this fast-paced documentary on music, theatre, visual arts and writing amidst the beauty of the Canadian Rockies.

Monday, 29 May - Singing: A Joy In Any Language

Malca Gillson, Tony Ianzelo, NFB, 1983, 56 mins

Contralto Maureen Forrester, bass-baritone Claude Corbeil and pianist Claude Savard present Master Classes in China, bringing the traditions of Western Opera to the even older traditions of Chinese Opera.

Tuesday, 30 May - Glenn Gould: On and Off the Record

Roman Kroitor, Wolf Koening, NFB, 1959, 29 mins each, b & w

Two encounters with a young Glenn Gould: practising at and iscolated, off-season lakeside cottage, and recording Bach's Italian Concerto.

Wednesday, 31 May - Bing Bang Boom

Joan Henson, NFB, 1969, 24 mins.

Canadian composer R. Murray Shafer takes on a grade 7 class with nothing but percussion instruments and the kids' unbounded energy.

and

Harry in Wonderland

Barbara Willis Sweete, NFB, 1989, 26 mins

Canadian Composer Harry Freedman takes us through the composition and presentation of a work based on Alice in Wonderland.

Thursday, 1 June - Eternal Earth

Larry Weinstein, NFB, 28 mins. 

A portrait of Chinese-Canadian composter Alexina Louis writing Eternal Earth for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

and

The Concert Man

Tony Ianzelo, NFB, 1982, 28 mins

Montreal violinist, composer and musical personality Maurice Zbriger who brought music to the masses through free concerts looks back over his 50-year career.

Friday, 2 June - Zivjeli! To Life!

Niv FIchman, NFB, 1982, 58 mins

This early NFB film follows Soundstage Canada's participation in the new music festival the Zagreb Biennale.