Walter, Arnold (Maria)

Walter, Arnold (Maria) prominent Moravian-born Canadian music educator, administrator, musicologist, and composer; b. Hannsdorf, Aug. 30,1902; d. Toronto, Oct. 6, 1973. He studied harmony and composition with Bruno Weigl in Brno. After taking a doctorate in jurisprudence at the Univ. of Prague (1926), he studied musicology with Abert, Sachs, and Wolf at the Univ. of Berlin. He concurrently pursued training in piano with Breithaupt and Lamond, and in composition with Schreker. When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Walter went to Majorca. In 1936 he went to England. He settled in Toronto in 1937 and taught at the Upper Canada Coll. until 1943. In 1945 he founded the Senior School as the graduate dept. of the Toronto Cons, of Music, where he also founded its opera school. From 1952 to 1968 he was director of the music faculty of the Univ. of Toronto. Walter served as president of the International Soc. for Music Education (1953-55), the Canadian Music Centre (1959, 1970), the Canadian Music Council (1965-66), the Canadian Assn. of Univ. Schools of Music (1965-67), and the Inter-American Music Council (1969-72). From 1956 to 1962 he was chairman of the editorial board of the Canadian Music Journal. In 1945 Walter was awarded the Christian Culture Medal of Assumption Coll. in Windsor, Ontario. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1972. In 1974 the concert hall of the Edward Johnson Building at the Univ. of Toronto was dedicated in his memory. He contributed articles to several journals, publ. the study Music and the Common Understanding(Saskatoon, 1966), and ed. the vol. Aspects of Music in Canada (Toronto, 1969). In his compositions, he remained faithful to traditional forms and modes of expression.

Works

dramatic: Music for radio plays. ORCH.: Sym. (1942; Toronto, Feb. 1, 1944); Concerto for Orchestra (1958). CHAMBER: Cello Sonatina (1940); Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano (1940); Violin Sonata (1940). Piano: Suite (1945); Toccata (1947); Sonata (1950); Legend (1962). VOCAL: Sacred Songs for Soprano and String Trio (1941); For the Fallen for Soprano, Chorus, and Orch. (1949). TAPE: Summer Idyll (1960; in collaboration with M. Schaeffer and H. Olnick).

Bibliography

E. Seiffert, A. W.: His Contribution to Music Education in Canada 1946-68 (thesis, Univ. of Western Ontario, 1980).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire