Music

St. Patrick’s Day: Irish Music in Canada

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Irish-Canadians have shaped a large part of Canadian culture. This St. Patrick’s Day, discover their unique history and music, including the Irish Rovers and Ryan’s Fancy. Sláinte! To your health!

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“A Proud Canadian” or a Canadian Too Proud? Understanding Stompin’ Tom’s Nationalism

Stompin' Tom Connors (public domain).

In the wake of Stompin’ Tom Connors’ death, Kaitlin Wainwright explores the complexity of Connors’ songs, their themes and the nationalism that made him a Canadian icon.

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March 8 is International Women’s Day

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International Women’s Day is March 8! Explore its history and musical anthem, “Bread and Roses,” which is still sung at rallies today.

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Music for the Lunar New Year

Chinese New Year

Music historian Gary Cristall explores the wonderful world of Asian-Canadian music, from the lightning fast erhu showpiece, “Galloping Horses” to music inspired by the Silk Road.

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Black History Month: Sonic Memories of Africville

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Music historian Gary Cristall explores the history and music of a segregated, ignored, and later, demolished, community in Nova Scotia.

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Songs and Legacies of the Underground Railroad

underground railroad

Music historian Gary Cristall explores the music history of emancipation songs, from “Follow the Drinking Gourd” to “Let My People Go.”

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Songs for a Canadian Winter

Joni Mitchell "Songs of a prairie girl"

With winter upon us, settle in and hibernate with these Canadian songs all about the most Canadian of seasons – winter!

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Robert Service With A Smile

TheCremationOfSamMcGee

On Robert Service’s birthday, we explore the history behind his classic song, “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” and discover that truth is stranger than fiction!

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Ring in 2013 with “Auld Lang Syne”

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What do the words of “Auld Lang Syne” mean, and how did a Canadian bandleader become so inseparable from them?

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Music Mondays: Mummers Mumming

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“Who are those masked men and why are they creeping into my house?!” The troupe may very well be mummers mumming, a playful medieval performance that lives on today.

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Chanukah, Ruth Rubin and Me

Maccabbee Rebellion

This Chanukah, Gary Cristall reflects on growing up Jewish in Toronto, the meaning of Chanukah, and the immense musical contributions of Ruth Rubin.

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War Songs from the First World War

World War One Songs

For Remembrance Day, we present a sample of songs from the First World War, each presenting a different aspect of war.

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Songs for Halloween

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Get ready for some spooky Canadian tunes about zombies, ghosts, monsters and a supergroup collaboration that asks, “Do They Know It’s Halloween?”

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The Origins of “O Canada”

The Amabile Youth Singers Choir

“Throwing back his head he played for us, for the first time, the masterpiece of his genius – it was Calixa Lavallée; he played O Canada.”

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Loving Leonard Cohen

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Leonard Cohen was recently awarded the Glenn Gould Prize, aka. “the Nobel Prize of the Arts.” Now, let us count the ways in which he is equal to the prize!

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