Happy Canada Day! Let us honor the classical music heritage of the Canadian national anthem.
The music was composed by Calixa Lavallée, a French-Canadian, who had been a Union band musician with the Fourth Rhode Island Regiment during the American Civil War. Lavallée was commissioned to write the piece in 1880 by Théodore Robitaille, then Lieutenant Governor of Québec, in anticipation of that year’s Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day celebrations.
The words (in French) were added later, by Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier. The first English translation was published in 1906. Two years later, an official translation, by Robert Stanley Weir, appeared. “O Canada” served as the country’s de facto national anthem beginning in 1939. It was officially adopted only in 1980!
In 2020, musicologist Ross Duffin put forth that “O Canada” was not an original composition at all, but rather a patchwork of preexisting melodies from the classical repertoire. To which I say, what took him so long? Anyone with a passing knowledge of “The Magic Flute” knows that. Also, as far back as 2008, a listener wrote to inquire of me what was the name of the Franz Liszt composition I played that sounded so much like “O Canada?” All is revealed here, with musical examples below:
A refresher on the Canadian anthem:
One of its sources, from Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”:
Variations on the theme from a Piano Sonata in F major by Anton Reicha:
Listen for a familiar, repeated interlude in Liszt’s symphonic poem “Festklänge” (“Festive Sounds”), in this performance from across Lake Michigan:
“Wach’ auf” from Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger”
Finally, Matthias Keller’s “The American Hymn.” I confess, this one is new to me. For its discovery, I must tip my hat to Professor Duffin.
It’s not inconceivable that Lavallée would have fulfilled his commission with a pastiche, a common enough practice among band musicians of the day. This is not to take anything away from the Canadian national anthem. As you may know, the melody for “The Star-Spangled Banner” was appropriated from a British drinking song!
PHOTO: Rabbit rabbit, Canada style*
(* Original postage stamp does not include flag. Also, they’re Arctic hares.)
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