Dela, Maurice (real name, Albert Phaneuf)

Dela, Maurice (real name, Albert Phaneuf) , Canadian composer and organist; b. Montreal, Sept. 9,1919; d. there, April 28, 1978. He studied organ and theory with Raoul Paquet before taking courses in theory and composition with Severin Moisse and Claude Champagne at the Cons, de Musique du Quebec à Montreal (1943–7). He also studied orchestration with Sowerby in Chicago and J.-J. Gagnier in Montreal. He subsequently was a church organist in the province of Quebec, a composer and arranger for the CBC (1951–65), and a teacher in Montreal. His music is pragmatic in style and idiom, tending toward Baroque consistency but energized by an injection of euphonious dissonance.

Works

ORCH Ballade for Piano and Orch. (1945); Piano Concerto (1946); Le Chat, la belette et le petit lapin for Narrator and Orch. (1950; rev. 1965); Les Fleurs de Glais for Narrator and Orch. (1951); Scherzo (1952); Adagio for Strings (1956); Piano Concertino (1962); 2 esquisses (1962); Projection (1966); 2 syms. (1968, 1972); 3 Dances (1971); Triptyque (1973); Suite 437 for Band (1977). CHAMBER : Petite suite maritime for Wind Instruments (1946); Suite for Flute, Cello, and Piano (1953–54); 2 string quartets (1960,1963); Divertissement for Brass Quintet (1962); Miniatures for 3 Recorders (1968). Piano : Hommage (1950); 2 Impromptus (1964). VOCAL: Ronde for Soprano and Small Orch. or Piano (1949); songs; arrangements of folk songs of Quebec province.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire