{"id":71876,"date":"2021-08-16T10:31:55","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T14:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=71876"},"modified":"2021-08-16T11:31:13","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T15:31:13","slug":"memoriam-r-murray-schafer-remarkable-life-remarkably-lived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2021\/08\/16\/memoriam-r-murray-schafer-remarkable-life-remarkably-lived\/","title":{"rendered":"IN MEMORIAM | R. Murray Schafer: A Remarkable Life Remarkably Lived"},"content":{"rendered":"
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R. Murray Schafer\/Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Revered Canadian composer and author R. Murray Schafer has died Aug. 14 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease at age 88.<\/p>\n

Regularly described by colleagues as a man of extraordinary innovation and communicative ability, Schafer was one of Canada’s most prominent composers.<\/p>\n

His works reflected an interest in myth, ritual, audience participation, and ecology and environmentalism’s aural elements. His best-known works were large, ambitious outdoor pieces that incorporated elements from the environment as an integral part of the performance. Examples include The Princess of the Stars<\/em> that premiered in 1981 by New Music Concerts, and Music for Wilderness Lake<\/em>, written for 12 trombonists spaced around a lake.<\/p>\n

Many of his ideas were informed by a lifelong fascination with the \u201csoundscape\u201d, a term coined by Michael Southworth, and popularised by R. Murray Schafer in his influential book The Tuning of the World<\/em><\/a>, published in 1977.<\/p>\n

The book followed the World Soundscape Project (WSP), which he founded while teaching at Simon Fraser University in 1969. \u201c[WSP grew out of Schafer’s initial attempt to draw attention to the sonic environment through a course in noise pollution, as well as from his personal distaste for the more raucous aspects of Vancouver’s rapidly changing soundscape,\u201d writes colleague Barry Truax<\/a>.<\/p>\n