Who wrote our national anthem? What’s the nature of murder in Canada? Can we explain Confederation to kids? Learn the answers to this and more in this week’s selection of recent arrivals.
“Oh Canada, this week we stand on guard for thee with five books about you, beginning with a biography of the man who wrote your national anthem,” wrote Sarah Murdoch for Arrivals in the Book section of The Star this week.
Murdoch continued, “Anthems and Minstrel Shows: The Life and Times of Calixa Lavallée, 1842-1891, Brian Christopher Thompson
Thompson, a music scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, became interested in Lavallée in 1993 when he was working at the CBC’s music library in Toronto. This is the fruition of his two decades’ endeavour, the first in-depth biography of the man who wrote “O Canada” (yet opposed Confederation). Lavallée began as a minstrel, wrote battle songs for the Unionists in the Civil War, trained in Paris for two years then returned to North America to become one of the leading performers and conductors of his day.”
Read the full article here.
Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS
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