Walter Louis MacNutt (2 June 1910 – 10 August 1996) was a Canadian

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

choir director A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

, and

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 ...

. His compositional output includes numerous choral works, songs, pieces for solo organ, and works for

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

, many of which have been published by companies like Broadcast Music Incorporated,

Frederick Harris Music The Frederick Harris Music Co., Limited (Frederick Harris Music) is a music publishing firm in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, founded in 1904. The company claims to be the oldest music publishing company in Canada, and has supported the work of composers ...

, the

Waterloo Music Company The Waterloo Music Company was a Canadian music publishing and musical instrument retailing firm that was founded in 1921 by Charles F. Thiele in Waterloo, Ontario. During its more than eight decade history, the company published works by a large ...

, and the Western Music Company. In 1938 his ''Suite for Piano'' was awarded the first Vogt Society prize for Canadian composition. One of his more popular works, the secular song ''Take Me to a Green Isle'', is taken from a poem by H.E. Foster. He also composed many songs to the poems of

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

. In his later years, he composed music mainly for the Anglican church, include two ''Missae breves'' and the ''Mass of St James'' (1974).

Life and career

Born in

Charlottetown Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, Charlottetown was an unincorporated town until it was incorporated as a city in ...

, MacNutt began his music studies with W.E. Fletcher and Roberta Spencer Full on

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...

. In 1929 he entered the Toronto Conservatory of Music (TCM) where he studied through 1932 with

Reginald Godden Reginald is a masculine given name in the English language. Etymology and history The meaning of Reginald is “King". The name is derived from the Latin ''Reginaldus'', which has been influenced by the Latin word ''regina'', meaning "queen". Th ...

(piano) and

Healey Willan James Healey Willan (12 October 1880 – 16 February 1968) was an Anglo-Canadian organist and composer. He composed more than 800 works including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and ...

(organ and composition). He notably won the TCM's Vogt Memorial and Marion Ferguson scholarships and won a national competition in 1931. In 1931 MacNutt became organist-choirmaster at Trinity Church in Barrie, Ontario, a post he held through 1935. He then worked in the same capacity at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto from 1935–1942. From 1942-1946 he served in the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also respo ...

where he was stationed on Prince Edward Island. During that time he played saxophone in a regimental band and was the organist at St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral in his native city. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, MacNutt was the organist-choirmaster at All Saints' Anglican Church, Winnipeg, Manitoba from 1946 to 1949. He worked in the same capacity at All Saints' Church, Windsor, Ontario from 1949 to 1953 where he notably conducted several performances of the Windsor Singers for

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

. He then became organist-choirmaster at St. Thomas's Anglican Church in Toronto in 1954, holding that post until his retirement in 1977. He lived the rest of his life in Toronto where he died in 1996 at the age of 86.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macnutt, Walter 1910 births 1996 deaths Canadian male composers Male conductors (music) Canadian organists Male organists Musicians from Charlottetown The Royal Conservatory of Music alumni Canadian military personnel of World War II Canadian Army soldiers 20th-century Canadian conductors (music) 20th-century Canadian composers 20th-century organists 20th-century Canadian male musicians