Article

Carl Morey

Published Online July 2, 2007

Last Edited December 7, 2018

Carl Reginald Morey, musicologist, teacher (born 14 July 1934 in Toronto, ON; died 3 December 2018 in Toronto). ARCT 1953, B MUS (Toronto) 1957, M MUS (Indiana) 1961, PhD (Indiana) 1965. Morey studied piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music and music history and literature at the University of Toronto. A Canada Council doctoral fellowship in 1963 enabled him to work in Italy on his dissertation 'The late operas of Alessandro Scarlatti.' He taught 1962-63 at Wayne State University, Detroit, and 1964-70 at the Music Department at the University of Windsor (1967-70 as its head). He began teaching as an associate professor at the University of Toronto in 1970, became a full professor in 1977, and was dean 1984-90 of the Faculty of Music and concurrently chairman of the Graduate Department of Music. In 1991 he was appointed Jean A. Chalmers professor of Canadian music and director of the faculty's Institute for Canadian Music. Morey retired from the university in 2000.

Carl Morey wrote many articles for Opera Canada and for Canadian Opera Company programs. In addition to writing reviews and articles for periodicals, he prepared entries for reference works such as Contemporary Canadian Composers, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, The Encyclopedia Canadiana, The Encyclopedia of Opera, the German encyclopedia MGG, The New Grove Dictionary, and the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. During the 1980s, Morey was heard frequently on CBC radio as a commentator on various programs, including Arts National and Saturday Afternoon at the Opera. He has prepared and presented several radio series for the CBC, including Hark the Echoing Air: A Portrait of Lois Marshall, presented in 1983 (see Lois Marshall).

Morey's special interests included opera and the musical history of Toronto. He also edited eight volumes of the musical works of Glenn Gould between 1995 and 2004. He supervised the doctoral work of Elaine Keillor, Anne Baker, Frederick and Sharyn Hall, Patricia Sauerbrei, Dorith Cooper, Gordon E. Smith and Robin Elliott, among others.

The boards on which Morey served included the Canadian Music Council (1987-90), Opera Canada (1976-90), the Toronto Arts Council (1985-88) and the Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation.

Writings

  • 'Alexander Gordon, scholar and singer,' Music and Letters, vol 46, Dec 1965
  • 'The diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic dances by Martino Pesenti,' Acta Musicologica, vol 38, 1966
  • 'Misalliance... the state of music education,' Canadian Music Teacher, vol 26, Sep 1972
  • 'Music and modernism: Toronto 1920-1950,' Regionalism and National Identity: Multidisciplinary Essays on Canada, Australia and New Zealand (Christchurch 1985)
  • 'The beginnings of modernism in Toronto,' Célébration
  • 'Orchestras and orchestral repertoire in Toronto before 1914,' Musical Canada
  • "Musical Education in Toronto in the 19th Century," in Taking a Stand: Essays in Honour of John Beckwith, ed. T. McGee (Toronto 1995)
  • "The Founding of Toronto: Music in the Town of York," in Music in Canada/La musique au Canada; Universitätsverlag Dr. N. Brockmeyer (Bochum 1997)
  • Music in Canada: A Research and Information Guide (New York and London 1997)
  • MacMillan on Music: Essays by Sir Ernest MacMillan (Toronto 1997)
  • An Opera Sampler: Miscellaneous Essays on Opera (Toronto 1998)
  • "Nationalism and Commerce: Canadian Folk Music in the 1920s," in Canadian Issues/Thèmes canadiens, vol XX, 1998; Canadian Identity: Region/Country/Nation. Ed C. Andrew, W. Straw, and J.-Y. Thériault (Montréal 1998)
  • "The Music of Wagner in Toronto Before 1914," Canadian University Music Review/Revue de musique des universités canadiennes 18/2, 1998
  • Opera Viva. Canadian Opera Company: The First Fifty Years with Ezra Schabas (Toronto, 2000)
  • "Words for Music: the Composer as Poet," in Istvan Anhalt: Pathways and Memory; Robin Elliott and Gordon E. Smith, eds. (Montreal and Kingston 2001)