FREDERICTON TALK & CONCERT: They Shot, He Scored

UNB Memorial Hall, 9 Bailey Drive, Fredericton, NB
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Tickets and details

James Wright, author of They Shot, He Scored: The Life and Music of Eldon Rathburn will give a 45-minute talk on Rathburn's life and work at the New Brunswick Summer Music Festival. The talk will be followed by the third concert of the Festival, featuring at least one of Eldon Rathburn's works.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Eldon Davis Rathburn (1916-2008), one of the most multi-dimensional, prolific, and endlessly fascinating composers of the twentieth century, wrote more music than any other Canadian composer of his generation. During a long and productive career that spanned seventy-five years, Rathburn served for thirty years as a staff composer with the National Film Board of Canada (1947-76), scored the first generation of IMAX films, and created a diverse catalogue of orchestral and chamber works.

With the aid of extensive archival and documentary materials, They Shot, He Scored chronicles Rathburn's life and works, beginning with his formative years in Saint John, New Brunswick, and his breakthrough in Los Angeles in connection with Arnold Schoenberg and the LA Philharmonic Orchestra. The book follows his work at the NFB, his close encounters with some of the most celebrated international figures in his field, and his collaboration with the team of innovators who launched the IMAX film corporation. James Wright undertakes a close analytical reading of Rathburn's film and concert scores to outline his methods, compositional techniques, influences, and idiosyncratic approach to instrumentation, as well as his proto-postmodern proclivity for borrowing from diverse styles and genres.

James K. Wright is professor of music in the School for Studies in Art and Culture at Carleton University.