“Historical Anthology of Music by Women”
Violet Archer is both a widely performed composer and a dedicated, influential educator. Admirers of her music point to its melodic vigor and seamless craftsmanship, while her former students credit her with nurturing in them both a formidable technique and an inquiring musical mind. This, together with her tireless promotion of Canadian music, has long made her a prominent participant in Canada’s musical life.
Violet Archer was born in Montreal. Her own musical life began early, for she was composing seriously for the piano before she was out of her teens. In 1930 she entered the Conservatory of Music at McGill University, where her teachers included Claude Champagne and Douglas Clarke. To pay her way through school, she took jobs as a chamber musician, accompanist, church organist, and music teacher. Working prevented her from receiving her Bachelor of Music degree and Teacher’s Licenciate in piano until 1936, but it gave her varied and valuable experience of practical music making. After graduation, she added composition to her other professional musical activities.
Eventually desiring further study, Violet Archer spent the summer of 1942 in New York as a pupil of Béla Bartók. Bartók’s lessons brought a new discipline and economy to her writing, as well as a more sympathetic approach to folk materials. In 1947, she studied with Paul Hindemith at Yale University. Along with his usual emphasis on the practical aspects of composing and music making, Hindemith honed her technique and taught her how to organize her music better. Both Bartok and Hindemith had profound impacts on Violet Archer, and she considers them “the greatest musical minds of this century.”
After Yale granted Archer a Master of Music degree in 1949, her academic career began. For the next thirteen years she taught in several American universities. She returned to Canada in 1962, to the fledgling music department of the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Through the efforts of Violet Archer and her colleagues, the department was soon flourishing. Today, many of her former students are successful and active composers both in Canada and abroad. Even though she retired from the university in 1978, her interest in teaching has never flagged, and she remains active in music education.
Violet Archer’s creative output is both prodigious and diverse. In 1985 her catalogue numbered over 220 works for many media—from solo flute to full orchestra and chorus. Solo song and choral cycles form an important part of her oeuvre, and she has also written two operas, Sganarelle (1973) and The Meal (1983). From her own powerful style, as influenced by Hindemith and Bartok, she has forged a musical language marked by forceful counterpoint, soaring melodic lines, and traditional forms, which has lately been modified by Expressionist techniques.
Archer’s music has been performed worldwide, and among her many awards are an Honorary Doctorate from McGill University (1971), an Honorary Fellowship in the Royal Canadian College of Organists (1985), the Order of Canada (1984), and an Honorary Membership in Sigma Alpha Iota.
The sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano is one of Archer’s most popular chamber works. It was commissioned in 1971, through the Canadian Broadcasting Company, by Paul Brodie, who also recorded the work. The Sonata was premiered in 1972 by Eugene Rousseau at the World Saxophone Congress in Toronto. The saxophone and the piano are equal partners in this piece, which exploits the lyrical quality and wide range of the saxophone. The movements are entitled Preamble (reproduced here), Interlude, Valsette, and Rondo.
The Preamble is cast in sonata form. The first theme appears immediately. Two notes in the first measure of the saxophone part—D-D sharp—reappear at the start of each of the following movements and form a unifying element. The brief second theme contrasts with the first through its slower rhythmic movement. The following development section is drawn largely from the first theme. A dialogue between the saxophone and piano forms the recapitulation, and a short coda completes the movement.
The Interlude is in ternary form and projects a blues feeling through its “swinging” dotted eighth notes and the Gershwinesque parallel chords in the piano. The middle section begins with three notes taken from the climax of the opening theme.
The opening phrase of the Valsette expands the D—D sharp motif from a semitone to an augmented octave. This charming movement is formally quite strict, based solidly on the eighteenth-century minuet.
The opening figure of the Rondo borrows both the D-D sharp motif and the rhythmic figure from the Preamble. Following the opening statement, the Rondo goes through two digressions, the first animated and the second lyrical. Both are derived from the main theme, as are the transitional materials between the sections. A register shift in the last return of the theme heightens the tension moving into the final cadence and serves as a coda.
Recording
Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano. Paul Brodie, saxophone; George Brough, piano. Radio Canada International. RCI 412.
Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano
Reprinted by permission of the publishers, Berandol Music, Ltd., Toronto.
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