Madison DubeThe University of Alberta’s Department of Music may be situated within the dark halls of the Fine Arts Building, but for more than half a century, it’s sombre sounds and bombastic beats have been heard echoing across campus.
The Department of Music celebrated its 50th anniversary with a concert at the Winspear Centre on Jan. 24. From Bach’s Double Violin Concerto to a Beninese drum set, the program mirrored the department’s progression over the past five decades, from a focus on traditional European music to a commitment in cultural studies and ethnomusicology.
For William Street, chair of the Department of Music, the U of A has “always had some kind of music going on,” even if it wasn’t formally inscribed in a curriculum until the department was created in 1965.
“Students were interested in music, faculty were interested in music, but in the beginning there was no codified form,” he said. “People just got together to do music.”
Since it’s inaugural year, the Department of Music has supplemented events from all faculties and facilities at the U of A, including the installation of the new university president, David Turpin, this past November at the Jubilee Auditorium. Despite this, the department, according to Street, largely remains a “buried treasure.”
“I want the public to know about us,” he said. “We’re kind of a hidden secret.”
Though Street first joined the U of A as a professor in 1988, his introduction to his field of study, contemporary classical saxophone, was when he was 12 years old. His father introduced him to a band director who became his teacher for the next 40 years.
Despite their expertise, the resources at the disposal of the 40 professors in the department are, in Street’s words, “subpar.” In 1970, the department moved into the Fine Arts Building, which was the first of three phases of a “state-of-the-art” facility. Due to budgetary constraints, the proposed phase two and three never materialized.
“Right now … we don’t really have good facilities,” Street said. “It’s hard to recruit students to come to a program that has good professors and bad facilities.”
This may be changing. With the Galleria Project — a venture which aims to unite U of A fine arts students with local artists in a common venue downtown — in its early stages of possible development, the Department of Music’s future could be promising, Street said.
Though he is committed to carrying on the department’s legacy of providing music to the campus community, Street said he hopes for a little reciprocity from staff and students.
“I never want to take music away from the campus — I always want it to be alive on campus — but I think it’s important for us to move downtown,” Street said.
