Marvin Duchow (June 10, 1914 – May 24, 1979) was a Canadian composer, teacher and musicologist who lived and worked in Montreal, Quebec. He was an expert on Renaissance music and the music of eighteenth century France. The McGill University Music Library in Montreal is named after him, as is the Duchow String Quartet.
Early life and education
editDuchow was born in Montreal, Quebec. He began studying music theory in 1933 with Claude Champagne at the McGill Conservatory, and took private lessons in composition. After graduating with a Bachelor of Music, from 1937 to 1939 he attended the Curtis Institute, where he studied composition with Rosario Scalero and music criticism with Samuel Chotzinoff. He then attended New York University, while supporting himself by teaching.[1]
Career
editDuchow taught music at several schools while completing his education at New York University. He then returned to Montreal, where he taught at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and, beginning in 1944, at McGill University.[2][3] From 1957 to 1963 he was the dean of McGill's Faculty of Music.[4] Among his notable students was composer Alan Belkin and Andrew Homzy https://homzy.ca - a jazz musician/musicologist who wrote the first dissertation on jazz accepted at a Canadian university - https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/79407z60q..
Duchow composed a number of choral works, beginning in the 1930s. In the 1950s he was an associate editor of The Canadian Music Journal,[5] to which he contributed scholarly articles.[6]
The Marvin Duchow Memorial Scholarship was established in his name.
Works
edit- Songs of My Youth, Liedzyklus, 1930
- Variations on a Chorale Orchestral, 1936
- For a Rose's Sake, 1938
- Motet, 1938
- Seven Chorale Preludes in Traditional Style Organ (music), 1939
- Quartet in C Minor, 1939, 1942
- A Carol Choir, 1943
- Badinerie for Piano and Orchestra, 1947
- Chant intime (Prelude) for Piano, 1947
- Sonata for Piano, 1955
- Movement for Strings (Largamente), 1972
- Three Songs of the Holocaust/ Trois Chants de l'Holocaust Nelly Sachs writing from 1977 is involved in it.
References
edit- ^ "Marvin Duchow". The Canadian Encyclopedia, Nadia Turbide, April 29, 2007
- ^ Music education in Canada: a historical account. University of Toronto Press; 1 September 1991. ISBN 978-0-8020-5891-1. p. 407.
- ^ Paul Helmer. Growing with Canada: The ƒmigrŽ Tradition in Canadian Music. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP; November 2009. ISBN 978-0-7735-3581-7. p. 121.
- ^ Istvan Anhalt: Pathways and Memory. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP; 8 November 2001. ISBN 978-0-7735-6875-4. p. 147.
- ^ "A Musical Tie Now Endangered. Winnipeg Free Press, via Newspaper Archives (subscription required). April 12, 1961 - Page 25
- ^ "Lack Of Live Talent: Music Journal Slips". Winnipeg Free Press, via Newspaper Archives. August 17, 1957 - Page 28. by Ken Winters