The Founding of CAUSM: A Personal Recollection

Abstract

Dear friends: I have been asked by our [CUMS] President, Dr. Philip Adamson, to talk about the beginnings of our Society, or rather of our parent organization CAUSM, the Canadian Association of University Schools of Music. He has given me about fifteen minutes for a crash course in this chapter of Canadian music history, so here goes. The story begins wim the Canada Council and House. To avoid any misunderstanding, let me just say that House is not the place where the Holy Grail of Canadian hockey, the Cup, is being kept. Still, the name Stanley does represent a tenuous link between hockey and the arts. It was Lord Stanley, the sixth Governor-General of Canada, who donated the famous hockey cup in 1893. House was the summer retreat he had built for himself a few years earlier at New Richmond, on the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec. It was also the place where the plans for the creation of CAUSM hatched in 1963 and '64. Having been donated by its French-Canadian owner to the Canada Council in 1961, this beautiful property overlooking the Baie des Chaleurs opposite the coast of New Brunswick, became a unique contribution to the cultural life of Canada. To quote from the publicity given out at the time, the Council had decided ... to make of House a select meeting place for artists and scholars, away from the noise and distractions of the city, to think and exchange ideas with others in their fields, or with representatives of other disciplines, in a setting conducive to talk and discussion. The Council wished to encourage as free an expression of views and ideas as possible and to reduce formalities to a minimum. Programmes were to be kept flexible, and participants should have leisure time between working sessions and discussions, to establish and strengthen lasting bonds of friendship and collaboration. It was the late Peter Dwyer, then the Council's Assistant Director for the Arts, who organized the first summer meeting of musicians at House in 1963. I was one of those lucky enough to be invited by the Council to that first music conference. There were only a few of us, less than a dozen. After all, the house wasn't big enough to accommodate a crowd. Those present, according to a couple of photographs I kept, included: Lou Applebaum, at that time Music Consultant to CBC TV; Eugene Hallman, who was then CBC Programme Director; the late Roy Royal, Music Director of the CBCs International Service; the late John Adaskin (brother of Harry and Murray), who was at that time executive Secretary of the Canadian Music Centre; Roland Leduc, directeurgeneral du Conservatoire de Musique et d 'Art dramatique de Quebec; composers John Weinzweig, Gabriel Charpentier and Francois Morel, as well as a bright young man whom I tentatively identified on the photo as Kenneth Winters, then art and music critic of the Winnipeg Free Press. There may have been a few more, but if so, they were enjoying leisure time - or enjoying a swim - while the photos were taken. We did have an informaragenda (topics to be discussed) under six main headings: Broadcasting, Music Education, Recording and Publication, the other Performing Arts (Opera, Theatre, Ballet), Subsidies and Community Support, and Miscellaneous (meaning, as always, everything else that bears on the above). In looking over the concerns of our little group of almost thirty years ago, I am impressed how topical they still are. This is not to say that nothing was done about them. On the contrary. Indeed, something is being done about them all the time. For the problems we confronted then continue to arise anew in a growing society, and each generation faces the challenge of dealing with them according to changing circumstances and new insights. To illustrate the point let me quote some of the topics we discussed in 1963: - The need to relate new musical output more closely to its practical use in society. …