My involvement with the string quartet began when I attended concerts by and later studied with the Vághy String Quartet, and I would like to thank the members of that ensemble, and especially Dezsö Vághy, for sparking my early interest in this medium. Istvan Anhalt has shown me numerous stimulating paths into the music of the twentieth century, and I have also enjoyed many fruitful and enjoyable discussions about music with him; I have been fortunate to have had his guidance and kind assistance over many years. Harvey Olnick steered my first steps into musicology, and I am indebted to him and to the other members of the Graduate Department of the Faculty of Music of the University of Toronto with whom I have been privileged to study. To John Beckwith goes my sincere thanks for his continued interest in this thesis, for his help and encouragement in many other ways, and not least for the outstanding example which he has set as a researcher in the field of Canadian music.

My thesis adviser, Carl Morey, has been unstinting in his help and advice, and I have benefitted greatly from his immense knowledge of the musical life of Canada. From the inception of this project he has guided and assisted in numerous ways and he has helped to shape the thesis into its final form. He has been a rigorous but sympathetic mentor.

The nature of this thesis was such that assistance from many people was required, and I was very fortunate that this help was always forthcoming. The staff at the Edward Johnson Music Library of the University of Toronto, at the Music Division of the National Library of Canada, and at the Canadian Music Centre have provided help above and beyond the call of duty, and for that I am most grateful. The many composers and performers with whom I have corresponded or in other ways communicated were most considerate and often provided more information than I had thought to ask for. This thesis has profited enormously from such enthusiasm.

To my sister Susan Elliott is due an enormous debt of gratitude for initiating me into the mysteries of word processing and for her expertise in producing the final version of this thesis on her office computer when both she and it should have been busy doing other things. Finally, to my wife Jose Matera, my thanks for waiting patiently, for understanding, and for prodding and pushing, at all the right times.

Kingston
16 March 1990

The subject of this thesis is the string quartet in Canada during the period from 1790 to 1989. Both string quartet performance and composition are studied, for the two have been and continue to be closely linked in Canada. Few Canadian string quartets have been performed by ensembles outside of Canada, and as a result the repertoire has been brought to life largely by the efforts of Canadian ensembles. During the periods when many professional ensembles have been active in Canada, composers have contributed most generously to the string quartet repertoire.

The origins of the string quartet in Europe date back to at least the middle of the 18th century. This is over 100 years before the earliest preserved composition for string quartet by a Canadian composer. But the performance of string quartets in Canada began in the late 18th century, well before any examples of indigenous string quartet composition. Accordingly the first chapter of this thesis deals with string quartet performance, thus providing a brief history of the introduction of the genre into Canada.

The remainder of the thesis deals with Canadian string quartet compositions. This study involves two contrasting but interdependent considerations: (1) the influence of the string quartet medium and its rich history upon this repertoire and (2) the issue of whether there are specifically Canadian musical characteristics evident in any of these works. A consideration of these two factors and how they bear on the Canadian string quartet repertoire has resulted in a division of this part of the study into three chapters. Three approaches to string quartet composition are considered successively under the headings "The Conservative Tradition," "Innovation and Modernism," and "The Spirit of Compromise."

The compositions to be studied under the first two of these headings have been primarily influenced by the dual nature of the string quartet as a medium. The great works by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven have come to be regarded as the standard by which all other quartets are judged. This has been both an intimidating challenge and a source of inspiration for later composers, but in either case it has resulted in a largely backwards-looking view of the medium and the creation of quartets in a conservative musical style. These are the compositions to be studied in the chapter "The Conservative Tradition."

On the other hand, the intimate and private nature of the string quartet, compared to such large, public genres as the opera or the symphony, has encouraged some composers to express their most personal and indeed their most experimental musical ideas in this medium. The roots of this approach can be traced back to the late quartets of Beethoven, and it has led in the present century to such masterpieces as the quartets of Béla Bartók and Elliott Carter. Further strengthening the experimental stream of string quartet composition is the consideration that there are four highly skilled musicians in a professional string quartet. This has encouraged some composers to write their most difficult and demanding music in the string quartet medium in the knowledge that it will usually receive a dedicated and expert performance. These experimental quartet compositions form the subject matter for the chapter "Innovation and Modernism."

In the final section, "The Spirit of Compromise," what may be thought of as a quintessentially Canadian characteristic of reconciliation will be the most important factor as the works of Canadian composers who have mediated between these two divergent approaches to the string quartet are examined. It will be seen that it is only in the works of these composers that specifically Canadian characteristics are found in the string quartet repertoire. Many of the composers discussed in "The Spirit of Compromise" (eg, MacMillan, Somers, Beckwith, and Schafer) are Canadian-born, and their music and/or career has often been referred to as typically "Canadian" for one reason or another. It is the contention of this thesis that these conciliatory figures are more numerous in Canada than they are elsewhere, and that this is a natural outcome of the history and the nature of this country. Although perhaps not unique to Canada, "the spirit of compromise" is certainly characteristic of it.

These three parallel lines of development in Canadian string quartet composition have always been present, although one or the other has tended to be uppermost at any given time. The earliest and the most recent periods have seen the dominance of tradition over innovation, while the period from the 1950s to the 1970s was the main era of experimentation. The conciliatory stream has been most influential during the periods of transition between eras of tradition and innovation.

This thesis does not by any means analyse all Canadian string quartet compositions written during the 110-year period that is here covered, nor does the discussion give equal weight to all of the works that have been chosen for consideration. A selection of significant works within each of the three different streams of composition has been chosen, and each of these works is treated differently, according to which particular aspect of the quartet has proven to be worth investigating. For some works a detailed musical analysis is presented, for others historical or aesthetic details are the subject of the discussion. The three-stream division provides the overall framework within which each of these varying analyses are reconciled and harmonized to create an overall view of string quartet composition in Canada.