Jean Coulthard

Coulthard, Jean
Jean Coulthard. Composer, teacher, b Vancouver 10 Feb 1908, d North Vancouver 9 Mar 2000; ATCM 1926, LRSM 1930, honorary D LITT (British Columbia) 1988, honorary LLD (Concordia) 1991. Jean Coulthard studied in Vancouver with her mother, Jean (Robinson) Coulthard, and 1924-8 with Jan Cherniavsky (piano) and Frederick Chubb (theory), and from 1925 taught piano in the Coulthard home studio with her mother and with her sister Babs. On a scholarship from the Vancouver Woman's Musical Club she attended the Royal College of Music 1928-9, studying with Kathleen Long, R.O. Morris, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. On her return to Vancouver she continued to teach privately and at private girls' schools. She married Donald Adams in 1935 and in 1943 her daughter Jane was born. In 1947 she joined the faculty of the newly-created Department of Music at the University of British Columbia, where she remained on staff for the next 26 years.

Coulthard returned intermittently to compositional studies, working with Arthur Benjamin 1939-44, Bernard Wagenaar in 1944-5 and in 1949, and Gordon Jacob 1965-6 - the latter for advanced studies of orchestration. She submitted her work for criticism variously to Copland in 1939, Schoenberg and Milhaud in 1942, Bartók in 1944, and Nadia Boulanger in 1955. After retirement from the University of British Columbia, Coulthard taught workshops and summer sessions at J.J. Johannesen's International School of the Arts (1973) and the Banff Centre (1978-9). With Alys Monod around 1972, Coulthard founded the Okanagan Music Festival for Composers.

Compositions - Early Works
Coulthard's early compositions - eg, "Cradle Song" and "Threnody" - were mostly for voice and piano. On the advice of Arthur Benjamin she turned to orchestral composition in 1939 and during the next four years produced four works - Canadian Fantasy, Excursion, Ballade (A Winter's Tale), and Song to the Sea - which established her reputation in Canada. Following her studies with Wagenaar she felt equipped to create in larger forms, eg, Music on a Quiet Song for flute and strings; sonatas for cello and piano, oboe and piano, and piano solo; String Quartet No. 1, and Symphony No. 1. As compared to the sonatas, with their looser formal structure and more overt romanticism, her Variations on B-A-C-H, Duo Sonata and especially String Quartet No. 2: Threnody reveal broadening tonal material, concision, and increasing mastery and intensity of expression. In 1953 the CBC commissioned A Prayer for Elizabeth to mark the coronation of Elizabeth II.

Jean Coulthard was in Paris in late 1955 on a Royal Society of Canada Scholarship, and then spent nearly six months in southern France in 1956. During her year in France, Coulthard began a violin concerto and an opera, completing the latter work, The Return of the Native, in 1979. (The opera was finally premiered in full, in concert form, in September 1993.) Lyric Suite: Sketches from a Medieval Town and Aegean Sketches show Coulthard's openness to European history and culture. In 1958 the Vancouver International Festival commissioned the song cycle Spring Rhapsody for Maureen Forrester. The Violin Concerto, a Canada Council commission, was premiered in 1959 by Thomas Rolston and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

1960s-80s
During the 1960s Coulthard wrote increasingly complex works for a variety of ensembles, many on commission. Although her piano concerto (1963, recorded 1972 with Robert Silverman and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra) attracted the attention of the public, it was her double string quartet - Twelve Essays on a Cantabile Theme (1972) - that notably showed her mastery of musical form and content. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra commissioned This Land and Canada Mosaic and performed the latter on its Japanese tour in 1974. Meanwhile, The Pines of Emily Carr, based on the journals of the West Coast painter, introduced aleatoric elements; The Birds of Lansdowne made use of an electronic tape incorporating bird songs of Vancouver Island.

Piano pedagogy material followed in 1977-8 in the 8-volume series Music of Our Time (in collaboration with her former students David Duke and Joan Hansen, with art by Coulthard's daughter Jane Adams). The series was supplemented by teachers' guides and by a brief Student's Guide to Musical Form.

In the late l970s and the l980s Coulthard continued to write extensively - often influenced by literary discoveries - and in a variety of forms. Among significant works from this period are String Quartet No. 3 (1981); Image Astrale for piano (1981); Fantasy Sonata for horn and piano (1983); Christina Songs for high voice and piano (1983); Autumn Symphony for string orchestra (1984); Dopo Botticelli, a suite for cello and piano (1985); Sonata No. 2 for piano (1986), written for Jane Coop; Duo Sonata for Violin and Cello (1989), written for Shauna and Thomas Rolston; and Symphonic Image ("Vision of the North") for string ensemble (1989), written for the Guildhall Chamber Ensemble.

Late Period; Influence
Coulthard continued to accept commissions through the 1990s, from the Canada Council, Vancouver's Community Arts Council, the Toronto Children's Chorus, and individuals. Premieres of Coulthard works during this decade included her Symphonic Image: Of the North (1993). Other late works include songs and The Encore Series (1995; teaching repertoire for violin and piano, with David Duke and Jean Ethridge). Coulthard's 90th birthday in February 1998 was celebrated by a gala at the University of British Columbia, broadcasts on CBC radio, and performances, one by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Coulthard was the first West Coast composer to gain wide recognition. By the mid-1940s she had absorbed the diverse influences of her teachers and fashioned her own personal style, which evolved steadily from then onward. Her music displays two significant streams, the lyrical, as in the Lyric Sonatina (1976), and the profound and brooding, as in the String Quartet No. 2: Threnody (1954, rev 1969), and is unified and characterized by an integral romanticism within a distinctly personal and contemporary framework.

Awards and Honours
Jean Coulthard was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and Freeman of the City of Vancouver in 1978, and was named to the Order of British Columbia, 1994. She was an associate of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers. Volume 10 of RCI's Anthology of Canadian Music (6-ACM 10), issued in 1982, was devoted to Coulthard's compositions and includes a monologue by her entitled "Music Is My Whole Life." In 1984 she was named composer of the year by PRO Canada. In 1990 Maclean's magazine named her to its Honour Roll, and quoted Mavor Moore, former chair of the Canada Council, who praised Coulthard as "an extraordinarily original composer, with a voice very much her own." Glenn Colton, writing in Centregramme, described her contribution thus: "Coulthard was not only a driving force behind the mid-century promotion and dissemination of Canadian music, but also a pioneer who paved the way for women composers (and, to a certain extent, Western Canadian composers) on the national music scene."

Coulthard's papers are deposited at the Archives of the University of British Columbia. The university established the Jean Coulthard Fund for Canadian Music Studies in recognition of the composer's commitment to Canadian music.

Selected Compositions
Stage

Excursion. Ballet. 1940. Ms. CBC SMCD-5088 (Symphony Nova Scotia)

The Devil's Fanfare. ballet. 1958. Ms

The Return of the Native, opera (Coulthard and Edna Baxter, after Hardy). 1956-79. Ms

Orchestra
Ballade: A Winter's Tale. 1940 (Vancouver 1942). Str orch. Ber (rental). CBC IS Canadian Album No. 2/6-ACM 10 (TSO)

Excursion. 1940. Ms. CBC SMCD-5088 (Symphony Nova Scotia)

Convoy (also known as Song to the Sea), overture. 1942 (Vancouver 1944). Ms. CBC SM-215/6-ACM 10 (Atlantic Symphony Orchestra)

Symphony No. 1. 1951 (Toronto 1954). Ber (rental)

A Prayer for Elizabeth. 1953 (Toronto 1953). Str. BMIC 1961. Centrediscs CMC-2887 (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra)

Rider on the Sands. 1953. Ms

Serenade or a Meditation and Three Dances. 1961 (Vancouver 1962). Str orch. Ms

Endymion. 1964 (Hal 1970). Ber (rental)

Kalamalka "Lake of Many Colours." 1974. (Hal 1974). Wat (rental)

Canada Mosaic. 1974. Wat (rental). (Introduction and 3 folk songs) CBC SM-5081 (CBC Vancouver Orchestra)

Autumn Symphony "Symphony No. 4" (formerly Symphonic Images). 1984-5. (Vancouver 1987). Str orch. Ms

Symphonic Image "Vision of the North." 1989. Str orch. Ms

Soloist(s) with Orchestra
Music on a Quiet Song. 1946. Fl, string. Waterloo (rental). RCI 8/6-ACM 10 (Hervé Baillargeon)

Night Wind (LePan). 1951. Alto, piano; rev soprano, orch. Ms

The Bird of Dawning Singeth All Night Long. 1960 (Vancouver 1964). Vn, harp, string. Ms. 2-CBC SM-5050 (CBC Vancouver Orchestra)

Fantasy. 1961 (Victoria 1962). Vn, piano, orch. Ms

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. 1963 (Ott 1967). Ms. 6-ACM 10 (Silverman)

Choral Symphony "This Land" ("Symphony No. 2") (Canadian poets). 1966-7. Soli, SATB, orch. Ms

Two Visionary Songs (Monro, de la Mare). 1968. Sop, fl, string (string quartet). Ms

Music to Saint Cecilia. 196? Arr 1968. Org, tape, string. Ms

Lyric Symphony "Symphony III" 1975. Bn, chamber orch. Ms

Burlesca. 1977. Pf, string orch. Ms

Symphonic Ode for Viola and Chamber Orchestra. 1977. (Montreal 1979). Ms

Vancouver Lights: A Soliloquy (Birney). 1980. (Vancouver 1983). Sop, bar, SATB, orch. Ms

Fanfare Overture for Chorus and Orchestra. 1985. SATB, orch. Ms

When Tempests Rise (cantata drawn from the opera Return of the Native). 1988. Soli, SATB, orch. Ms

Chamber
Two Sonatinas. 1945. Vn, piano. Ber 1975

Sonata for Cello and Piano. 1947. Novello 1968. Col MS-6542 (Friedlander)/CBC SM-305 and 6-ACM 10 (Orloff)/RCI 4 (R. Leduc)

Sonata for Oboe and Piano. 19478. Wat 1977. RCI 4 (Perrier, Newmark)

String Quartet No. 1. 1948, rev 1952. Ms

Duo Sonata for Violin and Piano (Sonata No. 1). 1952. BMIC 1963

Threnody: String Quartet No. 2. 1954; rev 1969. Ber 1975. RCI 386/6-ACM 10 (University of Alberta String Quartet)

Piano Quartet "Sketches from a Mediaeval Town." 1957. Pf quartet. Ms

Sonata Rhapsody. 1962. Va, piano. Wat (rental). SNE 550 (CD) (Verebes)

Sonata II (A Correspondence) 1964. Vn, piano. Ms

Ballade of the North. 1965-6. Vn, piano. Ms

Divertimento. 1968. Fl, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, piano. Ms

Lyric Trio. 1968. Pf trio. Ms

Lyric Sonatina. 1969. Bn, piano. Wat 1973. Mel SMLP-4032 (Weait)

Lyric Sonatina. 1971. Fl, piano. Wat 1976

The Birds of Lansdowne. 1972. Pf trio, tape. Ms

Twelve Essays on a Cantabile Theme. 1972. 2 string quartet. Ms. RCI 495/6-ACM 10 (University of Alberta String Quartet, Purcell String Quartet)

Songs from the Distaff Muse (various). 2 sets: 1972. Sop, alto, violoncello. 1974. Sop, alto, piano. Ms

Music on a Scottish Folk Song. Ca 1974. Vn, guitar. Ms

Lyric Sonatina. 1976. Cl, piano. Ms

Serenade (E. Gourlay). 1977. Alto, violin. Ms

Fanfare Sonata. 1978. Tpt, piano. Ms

Shizen: Three Nature Sketches From Japan. 1979. Ob, piano. Novello 1986

Sonata for Violin Solo. 1979. Ms

Pas de Deux: Sonatina for Flute and Bassoon. 1980. Ms

Sonata No. 3 "À la jeunesse". 1981. Vn, piano. Ms

String Quartet No. 3. 1981. Ms

Fantasy Sonata. 1983. Hn, piano. Ms

Lyric Sonatina. 1984. Guit. Ms

Dopo Botticelli. 1985. Vc, piano. Ms

Duo Sonata for Violin and Cello. 1989. Ms

Sonata for Solo Cello. 1997. Ms

Voice and Chamber Ensemble
Three Shakespeare Songs for soprano and string quartet. 1947. Ms

Two Night Songs for baritone, string quartet and piano. 1960. Ms

The Pines of Emily Carr for alto, narrator, string quartet, timpani. 1969. Ms

Music for Midsummer for soprano, violin, viola, cello, harp. 1970. Ms

Shelley Portrait for alto, flute, clarinet, cello, and piano. 1987. Ms. Concordia Commissions SNE-614-CD

Piano
Four Études. 1945. BMIC 1952 (1, 2), 1954 (3, 4). (No. 1 and 4) Bar BC-2837 (Varro) /(No. 1 and 2) RCI 93/6-ACM 10 (Pratt)/(No. 4) RCI 134/6-ACM 10 (Newmark)

Sonata. 1947. BMIC 1953. 1969. RCI 289/6-ACM 10 (Ogdon)/(1st movement) RCI 648 (K. Cerovsek)

Quiet Song. 1948. Pf. RCI 93 (Pratt)

Three Dances. 1950. FH 1957 (3)

Variations on B-A-C-H. 1951. Novello 1972. 1969. RCI 289/6-ACM 10 (Ogdon)

Aegean Sketches. 1961. BMIC 1964. Mel SMLP-4031 (Kubalek)

Preludes for Piano. 1954-64. Avondale 2009

Sketches From the Western Woods. 1970. Ms. 1984. Bedivere BVC-357 (cass) (Margaret Bruce)/6-ACM 10 (Ogdon)

Image Astrale. 1981. Avondale 1988. Centrediscs CMC-1684 (Foreman)

Piano Sonata No. 2. 1986. Ms

Educational Works
Early Pieces for Piano (1917-21). Alberta Keys 1992

Pieces for the Present for Piano (1973). Wat.

Music of Our Time/Musique de notre temps. (9 vols, Wat 1977-80) and A Student's Guide to Musical Form (Wat 1983, published in the US as Music in Many Forms, Neil A. Kjos 1984)

A la jeunesse for violin and piano [pub. as Encore Series]. 1980. Frederick Harris

Earth Music for cello and piano. 1986. Ms

Choir
"Cradle Song" (Padraic Colum). 1927. SA, piano. BMIC 1960. RCA CCS-1020 (CBC Vancouver Chorus, H. McLean)

"Threnody" (Herrick). 1935. SATB. BMIC 1961. RCA CCS-1020 (CBC Vancouver Chorus, H. McLean)

"Quebec May" (Birney). 1948. SATB, 2 piano. Wat 1976. RCI 35/6-ACM 10 (CBC Symphony Orchestra)

"Sea Gulls" (Pratt). 1954. SA, piano. Jay 1967

"More Lovely Grows the Earth" (Helena Coleman). 1957. SATB. Ms. RCI 189/6-ACM 10 (Montreal Bach Choir)

"Soft Fall the February Snows" (W. Campbell). 1958. TTBB, piano. Ber 1970. RCA CCS-1020 (CBC Vancouver Chorus, H. McLean)

"The Signature of God" (John Hall). 1964. Sop, alto, SA, piano. Ber 1970

"Auguries of Innocence" (Blake). 1963-5. SATB. BMIC 1969. RCA CCS-1020 (CBC Vancouver Chorus, H. McLean)

"Hymn of Creation." 1975. SATB (SATB, percussion.). Ms

Three Ballades From the Maritimes. 1979. SATB. Ms

Also 7 junior choral pieces (1954-65), 4 published by Iroquois and 1 by OUP. "The Bell Song" has been recorded by the Vancouver Bach Choir (VBC-001L)

Voice
"Cradle Song" (arr). 1927. Mezzo, piano. BMIC 1960. West WST-17137 (Forrester)

"Love Song" (Haida poem). 1942. Sop, piano. Ms. RCI 74 (F. James)

Three Songs (Joyce). 1946. Sop, piano. Ms. (1 and 3) RCI 20 (F. James)

Two Songs (J. Joyce). 1946. Bar, piano. ("Lean out of the Window") RCI 109/6-ACM 10 (Diamant)/Master MA-377 (D. Mills)

Cycle of Three Love Songs (L.A. MacKay). 1948. Bar, piano. RCI 109/6-ACM 10 (Diamant)

Spring Rhapsody (various). 1958. Alto, piano (orch). Wat 1978 (1,2,3); (4) "Ecstasy" BMIC 1969. RCI 203 (Forrester)/Master MA-377 (D. Mills)

Two Duets (Herrick). 1960. Sop, tenor (alto), piano. RCI 515/6-ACM 10 (B. Laplante, M Laferrière)

Two Night Songs (Munro, Belloc). 1960. Bar, piano quintet. Ms. 6-ACM 10 (Boyden)

Six Mediaeval Love Songs (Latin, trans H. Waddell). 1962. Bar, piano. CBC SM-180/Centrediscs CMC-2185 (Vickers)

The Pines of Emily Carr. 1969. Alto, narrator, timpani, piano, string quartet. Ms

Four Prophetic Songs (Gourlay). 1975. Alto, fl, violoncello, piano. Ms. Centrediscs CMC-1183 (R. Roslak)

Three Sonnets of Shakespeare. 1977. Alto, string quartet. Ms

Two Idylls From Greece (Braddock). 1980. Bar (tenor), piano. Ms.

Christina Songs (Rossetti). 1983. High voice, piano. Ms

Author Vivienne Rowley, Bryan N.S. Gooch, Betty Nygaard King, William Bruneau, David Duke

Bibliography

Ridout, Godfrey. "Two west coast composers," Canadian Review of Music and Art, vol 3, Dec 1944-Jan 1945

Cluderay, Lawrence. "Jean Coulthard," Music Scene, 240, Mar-Apr 1968

BMI Canada Ltd/PRO Canada Ltd. "Jean Coulthard," pamphlets (1970, 1979, 1985)

Rowley, Vivienne W. "The solo piano music of the Canadian composer Jean Coulthard," DMA thesis, Boston 1973

Contemporary Canadian Composers, ed John Beckwith and Keith MacMillan (Toronto 1975)

Duke, David. "Coulthard's career intensifies since 'retirement'," Music Scene, 299, Jan-Feb 1978

Bradley, Ian L. "Jean Coulthard...composer, teacher, pianist," Twentieth Century Canadian Composers, vol2 (Agincourt, Ont 1982)

- "A conversation with Jean Coulthard," Music Scene, 370, Nov 1989

Deaville, James, ed. "Colloquy/débat: Violet Archer, Jean Coulthard, and Barbara Pentland remembered," Canadian University Music Review, vol 20:2, 2000

Bruneau, William. International Alliance of Women in Music Journal, issue dedicated to Archer, Jean Coulthard, and Barbara Pentland, vol 6:3, 2000

Duke, David. "The orchestral music of Jean Coulthard: a critical assessment," PhD thesis, U. of Victoria 1993

Colton, Glenn. "The Piano Music of Jean Coulthard," PhD thesis, U. of Victoria 1996

Black, Linda. "Jean Coulthard and her Choral Music," PhD thesis, U. of Florida 1997

Crookall, Christine. "Jean Coulthard's Sonata for Cello and Piano," DMA thesis, U. of Texas at Austin 2001

Bruneau, William, and Duke, David Gordon. Jean Coulthard: A Life in Music (Vancouver 2005)

Links to Other Sites
Canadian Music Centre
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Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
The official website for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Features a current concert calendar, biographical notes, and an overview of their many educational programs.

Jean Coulthard
See a biography for Jean Coulthard as well as related videos, sheet music, and audio clips at the website for the Canadian Music Centre.

JWR International Directory of Fine Arts & Film
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Jean Coulthard: A Life in Music by William Bruneau and David Gordon Duke
A review of a biography of the celebrated Canadian composer Jean Coulthard.