Technology and Music in Canada

Research Paper no. 2

Carlos Tinoco – 30002483
MUSI 533: Selected Topics in Musicology: Music in Canada
 Technology and Music in Canada
With technology blooming in the 20th century, Canadian composers were able to share
their music with the world much easier. Whereas in previous centuries where North American
musicians were “behind the times” because they didn’t go to Europe, musicians were now able to
stay in North America and experience local music due to the accessibility of sheet music and later,
broadcasting. This paper will discuss the effects of sheet music publishing and radio broadcasting
and the success of Shelton Brooks, Ruth Lowe, and Oscar Peterson.

The beginning of the 20th century saw the first of not only recording and broadcasting
technology, but also different kinds of music. One of the emerging forms of music was jazz. Shelton
Brooks (1886-1975), was one of the earliest Canadian contributors to the jazz scene. Born in
Amherstburg, Ontario, Brooks was a self-taught musician who became an outstanding pianist and
a vaudeville and revue entertainer1. His compositions, which were of influenced by ragtime, were
seen as brash, sexually suggestive, and perfectly suited the everchanging social context of the early
twentieth century. Shelton Brooks’ piece Darktown Strutters’ Ball (1917), was one of the first
traditional jazz tunes to become a jazz standard2. Both the words and the music, written by Brooks,
were inspired by the 1915 Pacific-Panama Exposition ball that took place in San Francisco3. The
bouncy and spirited song features a syncopated ragtime melody and it became a popular song for
dancing4. The song became increasingly popular shortly after a performance by comedy singer
Sophie Tucker (1887-1966). The piece was also later performed by many popular musicians such
as: The Beach Boys, Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996), and Benny Goodman (1909-1986)5. With sheet
music becoming more prominent around the time Darktown Strutters’ Ball was being performed,
the piece began to grab the attention of many publishers. It was first published in 1917 by Rossiter
in Chicago, and later by Leo Feist in New York, which sold three million copies6. It’s first recording

1
Betty King, Shelton Brooks, The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2007.
2
--------------, Darktown Strutters’ Ball, The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2006.
3
Ibid.
4
The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, The Darktown Strutters’ Ball.
5
Betty King, Darktown Strutters’ Ball, The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2006.
6
The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, The Darktown Strutters’ Ball.
was in 1917 by Canadian vaudeville band Six Brown Brothers and was shortly after recorded by
the Original Dixieland Jazz Band as an instrumental. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band recording was
one of the earliest commercial jazz records and was a No. 3 song in America for 1917. In Canada,
Darktown Strutters’ Ball had reached the No. 2 position. The Piece was later inducted into the
Grammy Hall of Fame. Darktown Strutters’ Ball, like many songs before it, became popular in
clubhouses and at social events. With the technology evolving at the turn of the century, the
popularity and accessibility of this piece increased, allowing it to gather the fame that it deserved.
Although the majority of its success coming through the means of sheet music sales, it was all that
was available at the time. In the following example with Ruth Lowe’s (1914-1981) I’ll Never Smile
Again (1939), we will see how the incorporation of radios promoted the growth and popularity of
music.

Ruth Lowe was a songwriter and pianist born in. In her teenage years, she worked as a song
plugger in music stores in Toronto7. Like Brooks, she performed at clubs and was very involved in
her community working for: radio station CLKC, tv station CKNC, and CBL8. Ruth Lowe’s first hit
song, I’ll Never Smile Again, was a beautiful jazz ballad written two weeks after the death of her
husband9. After listening to it, due to its nature as a jazz ballad, one could argue that it has
remnants of a folk song. Since the piece was composed in 1939 amidst the second World War, it
served as a perfect encapsulation of the sentiments shared by those who were separated from
their loved ones by the war. This song appears in many books and recordings of the music of World
War II10. I’ll Never Smile Again was first introduced on CBC radio by Percy Faith’s (1908-1976)
orchestra11. After this broadcast Tommy Dorsey (1905-1956), an American jazz trombonist, heard
the recording, arranged it and published it with Sun Music. I’ll Never Smile Again then hit American
radios in the 1940’s with a recording that featured Frank Sinatra (1915-1988)12. This piece was

7
Betty King, Ruth Lowe, Canadian Encyclopedia, 2007.
8
Ibid.
9
Elaine Keillor, Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity, pg. 197, 2006
10
Betty King, I’ll Never Smile Again, Canadian Encyclopedia, 2006.
11
Ibid.
12
Ibid.
responsible for elevating Frank Sinatra to international stardom13. Since Sinatra’s recording, the
piece was recorded in 1940 in French as Je ne sourirai plus by Lionel Parent, it made its way into
the Grammy Hall of Fame and the American Recording Hall of Fame14 in 1982, and was inducted
into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003. I’ll Never Smile Again became the first no. 1
record on Billboard’s modern chart, where is stayed for 13 weeks and was then given an ASCAP
award. Ruth Lowe’s I’ll Never Smile Again provides an excellent example of how the introduction
of radios and the ability to broadcast promoted musical growth. Whereas Shelton Brooks relied
on the selling and distribution of sheet music and had to wait until two years later for Darktown
Strutters’ Ball to be recorded and published, Lowe’s I’ll Never Smile Again wasn’t published until
the year after but that same year already performed, broadcasted, and recorded around 11
months later.

Towards the second half of the 20th century, the distribution of music grew into a combination of
radio broadcasting, the selling of sheet music, and the selling of records. Jazz pianist, Oscar
Peterson (1925-2007), was one of the most successful and virtuosic Canadian artists of the 20th
century. At the age of 15 in 1940, Peterson had his own program on CKAC in Montreal called
Fifteen Minutes Piano Ramblings and by 1945 he appeared on CBC programs. 1948 marked the
start of his broadcasting career from the Alberta Lounge in Montreal, Quebec15. These
broadcasting opportunities were instrumental in Peterson becoming Canada’s first jazz star16 and
sparked an international career performing and recording as a soloist and with his trio, The Oscar
Peterson Trio. Although travelling internationally, Peterson still kept Canada as his home base17.
His album Night Train (1962), proved to be one of his most commercially successful albums, and
Canadiana Suite (1964), one of his most acclaimed18. The Canadiana Suite was an 8-part
programmatic survey of Canada’s distinguishing features. Ballad to the East and Blues of the
Prairies draws from influences across the central prairies and the Maritimes. Laurentides Waltz is

13
The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, I’ll Never Smile Again.
14
Ibid
15
Betty King, Oscar Peterson, Canadian Encyclopedia, 2013.
16
James Hale, Jazz in Canada, Canadian Encyclopedia, 2006.
17
Elaine Keillor, Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity, pg. 236, 2006
18
Betty King, Oscar Peterson, Canadian Encyclopedia, 2013.
based on Quebec’s Laurentian Mountains, Place St. Henri is Peterson’s birthplace, Hogtown Blues
is based on Toronto. March Past is based on the Calgary Stampede parade and Land of the Misty
Giants is based on the Rocky Mountains found out west19. All 8 parts capture the vastness and
diversity of the Canadian landscape with a blend of blues, swing, the altering of rhythm, and the
mood as you travel across the nation20. In an interview for the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame,
Peterson said “… I had a lot of themes to choose from… This is my musical portrait of the Canada
I love”. With Canadiana Suite and tracks such as Hymn to Freedom from Night Train, Oscar
Peterson was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Canadian Music Hall of
Fame, and the International Jazz Hall of Fame21.

Canadian artists Shelton Brooks, Ruth Lowe, and Oscar Peterson benefitted greatly from
the advancing technology in the 20th century. Although they all started out with the lifetime
tradition of performing publicly in public venues at a young age, they were then able to take their
success to the next step with the help of technology. In the early 20th century, Shelton Brooks was
able to publish and distributed over 3 million copies of his hit piece, Darktown Strutters’ Ball. Ruth
Lowe and her piece I’ll Never Smile Again and Oscar Peterson’s Night Train and Canadiana Suite
had the advantage of not only being published but were broadcasted and were recorded by many
artists. Though the ability to broadcast did increase the commercial success of Lowe’s and
Peterson’s work, it also encouraged and demanded the accessibility of Canadian music.

19
Hana Gartner and Harry Brown, Oscar Peterson Plays from Canadiana Suite, Take 30, 1979.
20
The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, Canadiana Suite.
21
Betty King, Oscar Peterson, 2013.
Bibliography:

Brown, Harry and Hana Gartner. “Oscar Peterson plays from Canadiana Suite”. Take 30. Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation. 1979.

Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. “Canadiana Suite”. From 2008. From

https://www.cshf.ca/song/canadiana-suite/

Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. “I’ll Never Smile Again”. 2003. From
https://www.cshf.ca/song/ill-never-smile-again/

Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. “The Darktown Strutters’ Ball”. 2005. From
https://www.cshf.ca/song/the-darktown-strutters-ball/

Hale, James. “Jazz in Canada’. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. 2006.
Keillor, Elaine. “Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity”. McGill-Queen’s University
Press. 2006.
King, Betty. "Darktown Strutters’ Ball". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. 2006.
--------------. "I’ll Never Smile Again". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. 2006.
--------------. "Oscar Peterson". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. 2013.
--------------. "Ruth Lowe". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. 2007.
--------------. "Shelton Brooks". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. 2007.