Ann Southam, (4 February 1937 – 25 November 2010) was a
Canadian electronic and
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
and music teacher. She is known for her minimalist, iterative, and lyrical style, for her long-term collaborations with dance choreographers and performers, for her large body of work, and, according to the Globe and Mail, for "blazing a trail for women composers in a notoriously sexist field".
She was born in
Winnipeg,
Manitoba, in 1937, and lived most of her life in
Toronto,
Ontario. She died, aged 73, on 25 November 2010.
She was appointed a Member of the
Order of Canada in 2010.
Biography
Southam was born in
Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is the great-great-granddaughter of newspaper baron
William Southam
William Southam (August 23, 1843 – February 27, 1932) was a Canadian newspaper publisher.
Born in Montreal, Quebec, he began his newspaper career working for the '' London Free Press''. The first newspaper he bought was the ''Hamilton Specta ...
, and benefited from the inherited wealth of the family business.
At the age of three, her family moved to Toronto, where Southam lived for the rest of her life.
Southam attended the private
Bishop Strachan School for girls in Toronto, and dropped out after a year of Shaw's Business School for secretarial studies.
Throughout this time she developed a hobby interest in music. She began composing at age 15 (in 1952) after attending a summer music camp at the Banff School (now known as
The Banff Centre
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, formerly known as The Banff Centre (and previously The Banff Centre for Continuing Education), located in Banff, Alberta, was established in 1933 as the Banff School of Drama. It was granted full autonomy as ...
).
After dropping out of secretarial school, she studied piano and composition with
Samuel Dolin at the
Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, who introduced her to "
tape music".
She studied piano with
Pierre Souvairan and electronic music with
Gustav Ciamaga at the
University of Toronto from 1960 to 1963.
In 1966, she began teaching electroacoustic composition at the
Royal Conservatory of Music.
In 1966, she was introduced to
Patricia Beatty
Patricia Beatty, (13 May 1936 – 20 November 2020) was a Canadian choreographer, dancer, director and teacher.
Early life and education
Patricia Beatty was born in Toronto. She studied modern dance at Bennington College in Bennington, Ver ...
, a Canadian choreographer who had just returned from studying modern dance in New York. Shortly afterward, Southam began working on a new score for Beatty's adaptation of Macbeth and the two became friends.
With this relationship as the catalyst, she began a collaboration with the New Dance Group of Canada (later known as
Toronto Dance Theatre) in 1967, where she became composer-in-residence in 1968.
Over her life she composed around 30 pieces for the group, as well as quietly supplying financial donations to keep the group afloat.
In the 1970s, when Southam was in her thirties, she came out as lesbian to her mother.
In 1977, she created
Music Inter Alia
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect o ...
, a concert promotion organization in Winnipeg that existed until 1991, with
Diana McIntosh.
She founded, with Mary Gardiner, the
Association of Canadian Women Composers in 1981. She was the first president (1980–'88), life member (2002), and honorary president (2007).
She was also an associate composer of the
Canadian Music Centre
The Canadian Music Centre was founded in 1959 by a group of Canadian composers who saw a need to create a repository for Canadian music. It now holds Canada's largest collection of Canadian concert music, and works to promote the music of its A ...
.
Ann Southam wrote work that was commissioned by organizations including the
Canada Council, the
Ontario Arts Council, the
Music Gallery
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspec ...
, and the
CBC.
She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008, and died, aged 73, on 25 November 2010.
Eve Egoyan and
Christina Petrowska-Quilico
Christina Petrowska Quilico (born December 30, 1948) is a Canadian pianist. She is a professor emerita, senior scholar at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2020 “For her celebrated career ...
performed at her memorial.
Music
Southam's early works are lyrical atonal pieces written in a Romantic style, and lyricism remained an important element of her later electronic scores. She also worked with
12-tone techniques.
Southam has been described as having "composed with exacting technique, intent on coaxing warmth out of her machines and bringing electronic music into new spaces".
Southam's passion for electronic music began in the 1960s, and she built a home studio with synthesizers, tape recorders, a mixer and a what she called a "minimum of sound equipment", including
Electronic Music Studios synthesizers such as the
AKS
Aks or AKS may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Aks'' (2001 film), a 2001 Indian Hindi supernatural thriller
* ''Aks'' (2018 film), a 2018 Pakistani horror film
* ''Aks'' (album), released by Lucky Ali in 2000
* ''Aks'' (TV series), a 20 ...
.
In the 1970s, Southam purchased a house and installed a grand piano, beginning to compose purely acoustic pieces for the first time: first ''Rivers'' and then ''Glass Houses''. She asked
Christina Petrowska-Quilico
Christina Petrowska Quilico (born December 30, 1948) is a Canadian pianist. She is a professor emerita, senior scholar at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2020 “For her celebrated career ...
to record her performances of the pieces, as a means of preserving them; by 1982, Petrowska-Quilico had begun to perform the pieces live in her tours.
In the 1980s, Southam began developing an interest in music by American minimalists
Terry Riley and
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, a ...
. Her composition ''Glass Houses''
(1981) is constructed from short tonal units that combine and re-combine, creating an overall sense of lyricism.
In the 1990s, Southam largely abandoned the electroacoustic compositional style and began creating instrumental works such as ''Song of the Varied Thrush'' (1991) for string quartet; ''Webster's Spin'' (1993) for string orchestra, and ''Full Circles'' (1996, rev. 2005).
Of her work and interest in incorporating feminism, Southam has said:
I was looking for a way of writing music that would have a feminist aesthetic, because what was thought of as feminist music back in those days was usually vocal music, and it would be the words that would give the feminist meaning. I wanted something where the very workings of the music would reflect a feminist aesthetic.
Southam found that minimalist, iterative compositions reminded her of "women's work" – repetitive, monotonous tasks such as knitting and cleaning that nevertheless sustain life.
Southam's favourite quotes about herself were "staggeringly boring" (from the
Montreal Gazette), and "a rather shadowy presence on the new-music scene" (from
The Globe And Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
).
Collaborations
Ann Southam worked for over thirty years with
Christina Petrowska-Quilico
Christina Petrowska Quilico (born December 30, 1948) is a Canadian pianist. She is a professor emerita, senior scholar at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2020 “For her celebrated career ...
on ''Rivers'' (2005), ''Pond Life'' (2008) and ''Glass Houses,'' which was revised by Southam in 2009 and by Petrowska-Quilico in 2010. These resulted in 6 CDs. Petrowska-Quilico also toured ''Rivers'' with the Toronto Dance Theatre in Toronto at the Premiere Dance Theatre, Harbourfront; in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre; in Halifax; in St. John (New Brunswick) and St. John's, Newfoundland, and in other cities.
Southam was first introduced to
Eve Egoyan in 1998, when David Jaeger of the
Canadian Electronic Ensemble suggested Egoyan play on a new recording he was producing. Southam worked on several collaborative projects with Eve Egoyan throughout the late '90s and early 2000s including: ''Qualities of Consonance'' (1998), ''Figures'' (2001), ''In Retrospect'' (2004), and ''Simple Lines of Enquiry'' (2008).
Awards
Southam received the Friends of Canadian Music Award in 2002.
In 2010, Southam was named a Member of the
Order of Canada, but was too ill to attend the ceremony.
The award recognizes her "for her contributions as one of Canada's prominent women composers, known for electronic, acoustic and orchestral works, and as a philanthropist and committed volunteer".
In 2011, Southam was posthumously nominated for a
Juno Award
The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...
for her composition "Glass House #5 from the CD "Glass Houses Revisited" recorded by Christina Petrowska Quilico on Centrediscs".
Legacy
Ann Southam left $14 million to the Canadian Women's Foundation, creating the Ann Southam Empowerment Fund and investing in the Girls' Fund.
This was, at the time, the largest private donation to a Canadian woman's organization.
Southam's published works remain the property of the
Canadian Music Centre
The Canadian Music Centre was founded in 1959 by a group of Canadian composers who saw a need to create a repository for Canadian music. It now holds Canada's largest collection of Canadian concert music, and works to promote the music of its A ...
.
The Centre named its recording collection the Ann Southam Digital Audio Archive in her honour.
Her personal archives are held by the
Banff Centre Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives.
Southam left five unfinished works that were intended to be performed by Eve Egoyan; Egoyan recorded and released the performances as ''5: Music of Ann Southam'' in 2013.
The disc is described as "a continuation of the composer's fascination with very slow, kaleidoscopic transformation of sound using a few very simple chords inside of which a tone row gradually unfolds at the speed of a tulip blossom opening on a warm, sunny spring morning".
Selected compositions
Piano
* Suite for Piano (1960)
* Four Bagatelles (1961)
* ''Sea Flea'' (1962)
* ''Three in Blue'' (1965)
* Quodlibet (1967)
* ''Five Pieces in a Jazz Manner'' (1970)
* ''Five Shades of Blue'' (1970)
* ''Rivers: Set 1'' (1979); ''Set 2'' (1979); ''Set 3'' (1981)
* ''Cool Blue; Red Hot'' (1980)
* ''Four in Hand'' (1981)
* ''Glass Houses'' (15 pieces, 1981)
* ''Soundings for a New Piano'' (1986)
* ''Spatial View of Pond'' (1986)
* ''In a Measure of Time'' (1988)
* ''Remembering Schubert'' (1993)
* ''Where?'' (1995)
* ''Qualities of Consonance'' (1998)
* ''Two by Two'' (2000)
* ''In Retrospect'' (2004)
* ''Commotion creek'' (2007)
* ''Simple Lines of Enquiry'' (2007)
* ''Pond Life'' (2008)
Chamber
* ''Rhapsodic Interlude for Violin Alone'' (1963)
* ''Momentum'' (1967)
* ''Configurations'' (1973)
* ''CounterPlay'' (1973)
* ''Integruities'' (G. Arbour, M. Thompson) (1975)
* ''Interviews'' (Arbour, Thompson) (1976)
* ''Towards Green'' (1976)
* ''Waves'' (1976)
* ''Networks'' (1978)
* ''Re-tuning'' (1985)
* Quintet, for piano, 2 violins, viola and cello (1986)
* ''Alternate Currents, Percussion Music for Solo Performer'' (1987)
* ''Throughways: Improvising Music'' (1988)
* ''Song of the Varied Thrush'' (1991)
* ''The Music So Far'' (1992)
* ''This Time'' (1992)
* ''Webster's Spin'', for string orchestra (1993)
* ''Full Circles'' (1996 rev. 2005)
* ''Music for Strings'' (2000)
* ''Figures: Music for Piano and String Orchestra'' (2001)
Electronic
* ''A Thread of Sand'' (1969)
* ''Boat, River, Moon'' (1972)
* ''Sky-Sails'' (1973)
* ''L'Assassin Menace'' (1974)
* ''Mythic Journey'' (1974)
* ''Walls and Passageways''(1974)
* ''The Reprieve'' (1975)
* ''Nighthawks'' (1976)
* ''Rude Awakening'' (1976)
* ''Soundplay'' (1978)
* ''Seastill'' (1979)
* ''The Story's Dream'' (1980)
* ''The Emerging Ground'' (1983)
* ''Rewind'' (1984)
* ''Music for Slow Dancing'' (1985)
* ''Goblin Market'' (1986)
* ''Fluke Sound'' (1989)
Discography
* ''Canadian Music for Piano''. Louise Bessette piano. 1993. CBC Records MVCD 1064
* ''Virtuoso Piano Music of Our Own Time''. Christina Petrowska piano. 1993. JLH Lasersound JLH 1002 DDD
* ''Mystic Streams''. Christina Petrowska Quilico piano. 1996. Welspringe CD WEL001
* ''Northern Sirens''. Christina Petrowska Quilico piano. 1998. York Fine Arts YFA00999
* ''Seastill: The Electronic Music of Ann Southam''. 1998. Furiant Records FMDC 4604-2
* ''Fluke Sound''. Furiant Records FMDC 4677-2
* ''Glass Houses: Music of Ann Southam''. Eve Egoyan piano, Stephen Clarke piano. 1999. CBC Records MVCD 1124
* ''Canadian Composer Portraits – Ann Southam''. Christina Petrowska Quilico piano, Eitan Cornfield producer/narrator. 2005. Centrediscs CMCCD 10505 (3 CDs)
* ''Simple Lines of Enquiry''. Eve Egoyan piano. 2009. Centrediscs CMCCD 14609
* ''Pond Life''. Christina Petrowska Quilico piano. 2009. Centrediscs CMCCD 14109 (2 CDs)
* ''Glass Houses Revisited''. Christina Petrowska Quilico piano. 2011. Centrediscs CMCCD 16511
* ''Glass Houses Volume 2''. Christina Petrowska Quilico piano. 2014. Centrediscs CMCCD 20114
* ''Glass Houses Complete''. Christina Petrowska Quilico piano. 2015. Centrediscs CMCCD 22215
* ''Soundspinning''. Christina Petrowska Quilico piano. 2018. Centrediscs CMCCD 26018
References
Notes
Further reading
*Anderson, C.
Choice and interpretation: Ann Southam in conversation with Carol Anderson. ''Musicworks'', 46 (1990): 4–10.
*Báthory-Kitz, Dennis and David Gunn. "If Only I Could Sing: Ann Southam in Conversation with Kalvos and Damian". ''Musicworks'' 71 (Summer 1998)
(Accessed 30 December 2007). Also published in
. ''eContact! 10.2 – Interviews (1)'' (July 2008). Montréal:
CEC.
*Bernstein, Tamara. "Anne Southam", in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', edited by S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan, 2001.
*Egoyan, Eve. "Composition as Enquiry: the explorational music of Ann Southam". ''Musicworks'' 101, (2008): 38–45
*Everett-Green, Robert
"Ann Southam, a one woman tone poem"Globe and Mail. (9 July 2009, R1)
*Lee, R. Andrew.
Anne Southam: Soundings for a New Piano (1986). Streamed free from
Irritable Hedgehog Music
Irritable Hedgehog Music is a Kansas City-based record label, focused primarily on minimalist and electroacoustic music.
History
Irritable Hedgehog Music was original organized as the publishing imprint for David D. McIntire's compositions. The ...
.
*MacMillan, R. Ann Southam. Don Mills, Ont.: PRO Canada, 1981.
*Mason, R. Ann Southam's new music (Throughways). Music Scene 367, (1989): 22.
*Poole, E. "Composer has a tough tone row to hoe". Globe and Mail (15 March 1997).
External links
Canadian Music Centre"Ann Southam" on CBC MusicFinding Aid for the Ann Southam archives at the Banff Centre
See also
*
Music of Canada
*
List of Canadian composers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Southam, Ann
1937 births
2010 deaths
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
Canadian classical composers
Members of the Order of Canada
Musicians from Winnipeg
Musicians from Toronto
Women classical composers
20th-century Canadian composers
Canadian women in electronic music
20th-century women composers
21st-century women composers
20th-century Canadian women musicians
Canadian women composers