Barbara Pentland

Barbara Pentland C.M. (January 2, 1912 – February 5, 2000) was one of the pre-eminent members of the generation of Canadian composers who came to artistic maturity in the years after World War II. Pentland's parents, especially her mother, intended for their daughter to adopt their values and pursue a life spent amongst the upper classes of Canadian high society, rather than a career as a professional composer.

Despite her family's objections, Pentland continued to compose privately as a young teenager. She finally was encouraged in this pursuit by one of her teachers, the organist and conductor Frederick H. Blair, who taught her piano and music theory while she attended boarding school at Miss Edgar's and Miss Cramp's School in Montreal from 1927 to 1929. In 1929, Pentland was surprised when her parents finally allowed her to study composition with Cécile Gauthiez, professor of harmony at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. Under Gauthiez's tutelage, Pentland received a formal, conservatory style music education, including lessons in form, harmony, and analysis by composers such as Cesar Franck, Vincent d'Indy, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Compositional Style One of Pentland's first known works is her four-movement Sonate (1930), which her biographer Sheila Eastman described as being clearly influenced by her knowledge of Beethoven and his music. Neoclassicism was very popular during this time, particularly in France, and Pentland's writing in the Sonate reflects this style.

Although Pentland's position at the forefront of the Canadian musical avant-garde was recognized during her lifetime, her career was also marked by substantial struggle. As a woman composer of 'difficult' music, she met with resistance from male performers and was often treated dismissively by fellow composers. Her academic career was relatively brief; she left her post at the University of British Columbia because of conflict with the department chair on the issue of academic standards. Following the end of her career (forced by ill health more than a decade before her death), Pentland fell into relative obscurity, overshadowed in discussions of Canadian music by her male contemporaries. Her works have nonetheless been recorded by such performers as Angela Hewitt (Studies in Line), Glenn Gould (Ombres/Shadows), and Robert Rogers (multiple works).

Pentland's centennial was celebrated with a 2012 concert series sponsored by the Canadian Music Centre (BC Region), and with a revival of her opera The Lake presented by Astrolabe Musik Theatre, the Turning Point Ensemble, and Westbank First Nation. That year, the CMC Centrediscs label also released Toccata, a recording of Pentland's compositions by pianist Barbara Pritchard.

In 1986, a six-record set of Pentland's music was included in the Anthology of Canadian Music Series. The Pentland portrait in the Canadian Composers Portraits series was released in 2003.

Pentland was an early member of the Canadian League of Composers and the Canadian Music Centre, which provides public access to a large number of her scores and recordings. Library and Archives Canada holds the Barbara Pentland fonds.

Pentland received an honorary doctorate from the University of Manitoba in 1976. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 1989 and a Member of the Order of British Columbia in 1993.

Pentland died in Vancouver on February 5, 2000, from Alzheimer's Disease.

Selected works Studies in Line, piano (1941) Symphony no. 2 (1950) The Lake. One-act chamber opera (1952) Sonata, 2 pianos (1954) Concerto, piano, strings (1955–56) (1957) Duo for viola and piano (1960) Variations for viola (1965) Suite Borealis, piano (1966) String Quartet no. 3 (1969) Disasters of the Sun, mezzo-soprano, 9 instruments, tape (1976) (1983)