R. Murray Schafer, composer and acoustic ecology visionary, dies at 88

TORONTO —
Acclaimed composer R. Murray Schafer, whose ground-breaking research in acoustic ecology helped move the needle on the understanding of soundscapes, has died at 88.

Eleanor James, Schafer’s wife, told friends by email the prolific creator died on Saturday morning near Peterborough, Ont., after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Lauded in many circles of the arts and academia, the Glenn Gould Prize winner’s approach to music combined less conventional forms of theory and environmental studies into sprawling and complex works.

Some of his theatre pieces were performed in vast outdoor spaces, incorporating the sounds of nature, with the intention to transport audiences as well as challenge them. The approach made Schafer hard to define as an artist but widely praised nonetheless.

In addition to the Gould prize, he received a companion to the Order of Canada and a 2010 Dora Award for his opera “The Children’s Crusade,” to name only a few of the accolades.

Schafer was born in 1933 in Sarnia, Ont., but his family moved to Toronto during his youth.

He enrolled in the University of Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music at 19, studying under musician and professor John Weinzweig, who was often called “the dean of Canadian classical music” for his mentorship of some of the country’s greatest composers.

Schafer’s time on campus would be a driving force for the direction of his career. He befriended Marshall McLuhan, who is considered to have left a lasting impression on his perspective of the world.

After leaving Canada for Vienna in 1956, studying under composer Peter Racine Fricker while away, Schafer returned in 1961 to direct the “Ten Centuries” concerts, and later teach at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., for a decade starting in 1965.

It was at the university where he secured grants to establish the World Soundscape Project, a study of acoustic ecology or the connection between humans and sound in their environments.

His fascination with the topic defined years of his work as he explored the effects of noise on people, particularly in urban settings, earning himself the title of “father of acoustic ecology.” Much of his research and philosophies on soundscape were compiled in his 1977 book “The Tuning of the World.”

“What Murray would love to say was that the wilderness and the environment offer a constant and infinite set of variations when you listen,” said longtime friend and CBC Music producer David Jaegar.

“He felt very close to the land and he felt that we needed to become one with the land to value what’s there and what’s to be appreciated.”

Schafer also rebelled against urban life, Jaegar said, coining the term “schizophonia” to describe the separation of a sound from its original source through electronic reproduction.

His studies influenced his compositions, including “No Longer Than Ten (10) Minutes,” an amalgamation of sounds compiled from Vancouver traffic.

In the 1980s, Schafer’s interest pivoted to the Patria cycle, which explored the relationships between various art forms, music, opera, dance and live theatre among them.

In 2010, Shafer won the Dora Award for outstanding new music or opera for “The Children’s Crusade,” which was performed in a vacant Toronto warehouse.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 16, 2021