''Musicworks'' is a Canadian
avant-garde music
Avant-garde music is music that is considered to be at the forefront of innovation in its field, with the term "avant-garde" implying a critique of existing aesthetic conventions, rejection of the status quo in favor of unique or original elemen ...
magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
, launched in January 1978 by
Andrew Timar (
editor-in-chief) and
John Oswald (design and production).
History
The first 4 issues came as a supplement to ''Only Paper Today'', a
Toronto art magazine published by Victor Coleman. It was then published quarterly by Toronto's
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 ...
, with funding from the
Canada Council, the
Ontario Arts Council, private donations and paid advertisement. The journal's offices were located inside
The Music Gallery on Saint Patrick Street, Toronto. In 1980, John Oswald summed up the birth of the magazine in an editorial titled ''The Story of Musicworks'':
"Four years ago, interested parties at the Music Gallery, an experimental music performance facility in Toronto, and ''Only Paper Today'', an art publication, initiated a magazine of new musics as a supplement to OPT. This was accomplished with volunteered contributions of materials, editorial time, and print space in an existing magazine with existing distribution. The first four ''Musicworks'' issues were published in this way."
In 1982, composer
Tina Pearson, then instructor at the
Ontario College of Art and Design, became editor and launched the first companion cassette with issue #23, 1983. Pearson and Timar were both members of contemporary music collective
New Music Co-op, along with
Miguel Frasconi
Miguel Frasconi (born May 29, 1956 in New York City) is an American composer who often uses improvisation, electronics, and experimental musical instruments.
Work
He has used new glass instruments, and was a founding member of The Glass Orchestr ...
, Paul Hodge and
Robert Stevenson.
Contents
''Musicworks'' claimed to be "the first attempt at a national periodical of new music
rovidinginformation about experimental music in Canada". Until 1990, Musicworks emphasized post-Cage-an music practices,
performance art and
graphic scores. Genres covered included avantgarde composition, ethnic music,
Acoustic ecology
Acoustic ecology, sometimes called ecoacoustics or soundscape studies, is a discipline studying the relationship, mediated through sound, between human beings and their environment. Acoustic ecology studies started in the late 1960s with R. Murr ...
, special tunings and
microtonality,
improvisation
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
, women's music, genre hybridation, etc. Typical composers interviewed or analysed in the 1978–1987 period were
Raymond Murray Schafer,
Udo Kasemets,
Lou Harrison,
Pauline Oliveros,
Annea Lockwood,
Philip Glass
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...
or
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
, with a lengthy interview published issue #17, in 1981.
The cassettes issued with the magazine in the 1980s and 1990s make up about 48 hours of material, and have been the focus of renewed interest in recent years, culminating in an exhibit with listening stations.
With issue #48, published in 1990, the journal moved to a 68-page magazine format with a colour cover, and began to focus more on Canadian
electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music is a genre of popular and Western art music in which composers use technology to manipulate the timbres of acoustic sounds, sometimes by using audio signal processing, such as reverb or harmonizing, on acoustical instrumen ...
and new technologies. The first companion CD appeared in 1992 with issue #52. Today, the magazine is published three times a year by Musicworks Society of Ontario, the official publisher since 2003. Public funding has been maintained throughout the years.
Editors-in-chief
The following persons have been editors-in-chief of the magazine:
* 1978–1982: Andrew Timar
* 1982–1987: Tina Pearson
* 1987–2007:
Gayle Young
* 2007–2009: David McCallum
* 2009–2013: Micheline Roi
* 2013–present: Jennie Punter
References
External links
*
Musicworks articleat
The Canadian Encyclopedia
{{Authority control
1978 establishments in Ontario
Avant-garde magazines
English-language magazines
Experimental music
Magazines established in 1978
Magazines published in Toronto
Music magazines published in Canada
Triannual magazines published in Canada