Article

Eugene Hill

Published Online May 14, 2007

Last Edited December 16, 2013

(Lewis) Eugene Hill. Organist-choirmaster, composer, teacher, b Toronto 8 Apr 1909, d Oxford, O, 15 Mar 1976; LAB 1928, FCCO 1930s, B MUS (Toronto) 1937, ARCO 1938, D MUS (Toronto) 1946. After early studies in Winnipeg he enrolled at the TCM for organ lessons with Charles Peaker.

Hill, Eugene

(Lewis) Eugene Hill. Organist-choirmaster, composer, teacher, b Toronto 8 Apr 1909, d Oxford, O, 15 Mar 1976; LAB 1928, FCCO 1930s, B MUS (Toronto) 1937, ARCO 1938, D MUS (Toronto) 1946. After early studies in Winnipeg he enrolled at the TCM for organ lessons with Charles Peaker. He also studied 1936-7 at the RAM with G.D. Cunningham (organ) and Eric Thiman (composition) and in 1940, again at the TCM, with Healey Willan (composition). Hill taught organ and theory 1947-50 at the RCMT while he was music director at the Church of St Alban-the-Martyr. From 1950 until his retirement in 1975 he was chairman of the dept of theory and composition at Miami U in Ohio. Of his many works for orchestra, piano, organ, choir, and voice (some listed in the Catalogue of Canadian Composers), several were published by Waterloo, Carl Fischer, BMI Canada, Oxford, and Harris, including Sonatine for organ (BMI Canada 1949) and Prelude and Fugue for piano (BMI Canada 1957). His Two Sketches ('Legend' and 'Scherzetto') were premiered in 1941 by the TSO and performed later by the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra. His music has been described as romantic and mildly, not markedly, dissonant.