Monday, January 26, 2015

Songs of the Commonwealth, 1945


George Roy Fenwick (1889-1970) became Supervisor and, between 1935 and 1959, Director of Music for the Ontario Department of Education.  


Imagine, a time in which music was considered so important that the provincial government actually paid someone to be director of such studies!  Among his accomplishments were the school broadcasts, "Music for Young Folk" that were produced and carried by CBC between 1946 and 1964.  With the use of supplementary notes, these were intended to help music teachers in their classrooms.




Gordon V. Thompson Ltd. was a music publishing, distributing and retailing firm that operated between 1932 and 1990, when it became a division of the Warner/Chappell Music Canada enterprise. Thompson was a canny businessman, and acquired the copyright for Robert Stanley Weir's English version of 'O Canada.' He generously permitted other publishers to use this copyrighted text in their own songbooks, and in 1968 offered the copyright to the Government of Canada for $1.


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