Notice to the reader: This document is no longer in effect. It has been archived online and is kept purely for historical purposes.

Preparations

Five main activities occupied the editors and their assistants and advisors during the preparatory stage: the establishment of criteria of inclusion and treatment; the compilation of standards of style (spellings, abbreviations, etc); the preparation of lists of entry headings with tentative estimations of word length; the search for potential contributors; and the exploration of bibliographical and other sources of information. These activities overlapped and in fact continued long after assigning, writing, and editing had begun, since many questions of inclusion, style, and word length could be settled only through trial and error.

The original list of entries compiled by the editors had about 3000 headings. After circulation among the directors of EMC and among some 60 consultants selected according to field of specialization and geographical region the list had swollen to 4300. Some suggestions were discarded; some subjects were amalgamated into larger units and others were broken up into smaller ones; if a subject was not familiar to the editors, an assignment might be made and a decision regarding inclusion reached only after it was written. The final result, embodied in the encyclopedia, is 3162 entries and 164 reference entries.

The discovery of contributors who had the willingness, ability, and time to write, and the matching of contributor and subject -- no easy task -- were carried out by the assignments officer in close collaboration with the editors. Visits to the major Canadian cities by the English-language editor and the assignments officer resulted in the enlistment of a large number of interested writers. Not all the writers were able to be productive; many were unable to fulfill their assignments because they could not obtain the necessary information, even by direct interview. The disappointments inherent in the situation and the concurrent development of research techniques and materials by EMC's staff led eventually to the assignment to the staff of all remaining entries and all those on newly prominent subjects. It was decided also, regretfully, to postpone entries on some subjects to a later edition (eg, those on barbershop quartet societies, on certain economic aspects of musical life, and on the sociology of the post-1960 Anglo-Canadian folksong revival).

The sources of information for EMC's content may be listed in the following order, roughly according to importance:

the personal knowledge, sometimes embodied in previous publications, of EMC contributors, editors, editorial assistants, and non-contributing specialists;

the resources of the National Library of Canada with its vast collections of Canadian sheet music and scores, recordings, and music periodicals, its information and files, its city directories and other historical Canadiana, and its many bibliographical and discographical tools;

the Canadian Music Centre's thorough documentation of contemporary Canadian composition, particularly at its Montreal and Toronto offices;

the resources of certain other libraries with large holdings of Canadian music, eg, the Metropolitan Toronto and Montreal City libraries, and the Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies of the National Museum of Man;

the files and information services of many organizations, such as PRO Canada, CAPAC, the CBC's Toronto and Montreal reference libraries and the RCMT registrar's office;

data collected by means of questionnaire or interviews, or through subscription to mailing lists;

the current daily press, periodicals, and newscasts;

information and literature (clippings, leaflets, programs, etc) supplied by dedicated contributors and informants in addition to the material contained in their own assignments.

One might mention the books most frequently cited -- the Jesuit Relations in the modern edition by R.G. Thwaites and Roll Back the Years by Edward B. Moogk probably would take the lead. As of 1980 the 17th century still was better documented than the early 18th and the relatively few newspapers, travel accounts, and personal diaries of the 1790s had been indexed and scanned more diligently than the innumerable newspapers of the early 20th century; moreover, no library held certain volumes of English language Canadian music journals. Knowledge of many Ontario musicians and musical societies of that time comes from vague recollections and hastily compiled surveys, not enough to provide cohesive and accurate entries. For certain Quebec musicians it has been necessary to continue to depend on the reminiscences written by Nazaire LeVasseur ca 1920. The existence of the Dictionnaire biographique des musicians canadiens of 1935 at least makes possible the inclusion of entries on the Quebec equivalents of those Ontario musicians, but much of the information in the Dictionnaire could be neither enlarged upon nor confirmed and verified. And while often the apprenticeship of a musician has been possible to document, just as often his final years have remained shrouded in darkness; see, eg, W. Waugh Lauder, Djane Lavoie-Hertz, Adele Lount-Tyson, Eva Rose York, and even some musicians of the present era.

Criteria

The decisions to include or exclude entries on certain musicians have been among the most difficult to make. There is no sure way to translate merit into a point system, and no two judges would select the same names from a suggested list. How many times did the editors of EMC hear the comment: 'If you want to include an entry on so-and-so, I can name you five others just as important or more so!' And how many times was a suggestion taken up, only to be found unjustifiable when the entry was completed. But dividing lines had to be drawn, according to merit and also to reasonable duration of residence or substantial activity in Canada, and no undue apologies are made for occasional misjudgment and unavoidable injustice. It is believed that on the whole musical merit, historical significance, and readers' interest have been brought into balanced consideration. Thus are included some pioneers of bygone days whose accomplishments, by modern standards, may have been quite modest, and some pop musicians of recent years whose successes have made them objects of legitimate interest whatever their degree of musical accomplishment. The editors have been aware that clever promotion, premature praise of a young prize-winning artist, or treatment in earlier publications can prejudice selection and have attempted to counterbalance the temptation to include such vivid but perhaps ephemeral presences by reaching out to neglected or forgotten musicians whose considerable contributions have not been recorded in other histories or dictionaries. In 'borderline cases' preference has been given to combinations of talent: among the hundreds of excellent piano teachers, church organists, university teachers, or orchestral players -- other factors being equal -- to those who have made 'extra' contributions as, for instance, writers of instruction books, founders of choirs, presidents of professional organizations, or performers of chamber music.

Canadian-born and Canadian-trained musicians whose adult careers have been pursued in other countries are discussed briefly under the entries for those countries (this treatment has applied in particular to those established in the USA), unless they have maintained close and active contacts with Canada. But no rigid formula for inclusion could be applied. (See Emigration.)

Foreign-born musicians have received individual entries if they have made noteworthy contributions to Canada. It has made no difference whether they remained in Canada or moved on to other countries, but few are included who have not lived in Canada at lest five years. However, certain orchestra conductors who are sufficiently prominent to deserve entries have been treated under the entries for the orchestras which have been the only focus of their work in Canada. Many Canadian-born musicians also have been given only capsule biographies in the entries on the societies, institutions, or topics (eg, Country music, Fiddling, Jazz) most closely related to their spheres of activity. Discussion of their activities may be traced through the index.

Next to the basic decisions of inclusion and exclusion few aspects of a work of this kind cause more criticism than that of the relative space allotted to subjects. It is a pitfall, however, to equate length with significance. To a large extent length is determined by the complexity of the externals of a story: the career of a composer who held many academic positions in succession and had a great facility in his craft requires more space to describe and document than that of an equally worthy colleague who occupied one position throughout his career, did not sit on executive boards, and created a relatively limited quantity of music in a slow and self-critical process. Likewise the length of an entry on a choir is influenced by the number of its conductors and name changes over a given period of time. It is far more reasonable to expect a consistent relationship between significance and scale of detail than between significance and length of an article. This consistency has been striven for, and the editors are open to criticism of the extent to which they have succeeded. Two prejudices should be admitted in this connection: that towards performers and ensembles who make a specialty of introducing new Canadian works, and that towards composers of concert music: both have been treated generously.

The balancing act that is part of the editors' job has come further into play in the juxtaposition of factual data and evaluative opinion. Solid facts, in particular accurate forms and spellings of named and titles, and precise dates, are the very foundation of authoritativeness. To a certain extent, also, facts imply significance, and it should be necessary only in the rarest of cases to point out that a certain musician made an 'important contribution.' But factual data alone do not suffice to complete satisfactorily even a brief biographical article. A long list of diplomas and degrees earned, appointments held, prizes won, or operatic roles sung will not add up in itself to the recognition of human qualities and historical significance. Behind the record of a teacher-pupil relationship there may be a fruitful passing-on of skill and wisdom or an unhappy mismatching. The teacher who moves from university to university may be an ambitious or restless seeker of the perfect environment or an incompetent lecturer. It is important to ask: 'What are the strengths and weaknesses of a performer's style, and what are the stylistic characteristics and aesthetic convictions of a composer?' A 'Who's Who' may ignore such questions; an encyclopedia may not. The editors have gone to great pains to solicit evaluations, and in the case of composers have been fairly successful. In the case of performers, however, it often was necessary to go back to the contributor and ask: 'What characterizes this pianist's playing?' 'How would you describe this voice?' or 'Did this group play rock or country music?' Often, when the reply was unsatisfactory, a concert review which expressed an opinion could be found and a quotation from it added to the entry; but regrettably a number of biographical entries had to remain unilluminated by analytical and critical insights.

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Created: 2001-08-20 Updated: 2004-03-12	Top of Page	Important Notices