O Canada! by Stephen Chatman Orchestra - Sheet Music

O Canada!

In 1880, Calixa Lavallée composed O Canada!, a setting of a French poem by Adolphe-Basile Routhier. The premiere performance took place on June 24, 1880, at Quebec City’s Pavillon des Patineurs, a skating rink. The French lyrics and music survive unchanged to this day. The current English lyrics, by Robert Stanley Weir, were first published as a two-part song in The New Educational Music Course, Canada Publishing Company, 1907. O Canada! was officially adopted as the national anthem of Canada in 1980. Stephen Chatman’s stirring arrangements for band or orchestra are, above all, meant to inspire. Although essentially traditional, these arrangements convey unique features, including new harmonic and voice leading elements, added trumpet fanfares and flourishes, multi-percussion instrument crescendi, crash cymbals highlighting important off-beats, and woodwinds/strings octave doublings of all parts. The result is “maestoso”— a bold, brilliant fullness of sound. The orchestral arrangement received its premiere performance on October 6, 2016, by the University of British Columbia Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Girard. Duration: 1:20