Composer Evocation Publishing Co. Inc. 2440 TreeTop Lane North Vancouver, B. C. V7H 2K5 phone : (1) 604 929 8732 fax : (1) 604 929 0164 MCB direct : (1) 604 929 8537 e-mail : mconwayb@direct.ca
While some critics may dismiss Michael Conway Baker's lush, lyrical approach to music and "romantic emotionalism," the great appeal his works have for the populace makes him one of Canada's most successful composers of classical music. Canada's Radical Romantic (by David Stybr) During much of the 20th century many composers seemed preoccupied with academic musical theories that were designed more to impress each other than to communicate with their audiences. Fortunately, there were others who remained true to themselves and to their audiences and who penned music that is both meaningful and accessible. Among these is Michael Conway Baker, one of the foremost composers in Canada today.
	The Greater Vancouver Music Album is available now on Click here to order your copy
Baker, based in Vancouver, B.C., is a refreshing contrast to most modern composers because his idiom is predominantly tonal. His warm melodies, rich harmonies and superb orchestration have immediate appeal, and his use of traditional forms shows great invention within familiar frameworks. In addition to more than 150 film, television and video scores, Baker now has 113 concert works to his credit. He as also among the first to compose a totally original score for a commissioned ice ballet - the Ice Capades production of Cinderella: Frozen in Time (most ice ballets use existing music). Both the CBC in Canada and the BBC in Britain have recorded and broadcast one-hour concerts devoted entirely to music composed by Baker - an extremely rare event in either country for a living composer. While some critics may dismiss Baker's "traditional, lyrical approach" to music and his "romantic emotionalism." there is no question that his works have found favor with the populace. Hard evidence of this fame at the grass roots level are three Genie Awards for Best Film Scores; a Juno Award for Best Classical Composition in recorded music; a Gemini Award for Best Score in a Television Series from Canada's actors' association ACTRA; an award for Outstanding Success in Film Music from the performing rights society SOCAN; and numerous nominations from these and similarly prestigious groups. Ray Chatelin, music critic for the Vancouver Province, calls Baker "a person so removed from the mainstream of Canadian composition that he has become successful." The reason for Baker's success, Chatelin claims, is that he composes music we can all like: "Not for him are the stereotypical sounds of new music that thrills academia and drives audiences to the exits." he says. The essence of Baker's music is perhaps best expressed by the composer's own comments about his Symphony No. 1, composed in 1977 : "As to the 'style' of the symphony I can only say it is my own. I follow no "ism" and write what convinces me. No doubt there will be those who will find it -along with my other compositions- hopelessly traditional. But there are clearly delineated themes and although I don't use key signatures any more, the music is tonal, even when the tonal centres shift, as they often do. I rarely use 'effects' but when I do, it is because I feel a specific musical need." Michael Conway Baker (he uses his middle name to avoid confusion with another Michael Baker, who composes dance music) was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, on March 13, 1937. The son of vaudeville and radio comedian Phil Baker, he travelled around the U.S. with his family most of his childhood, and attended13 schools in 12 years. From an early age he showed great aptitude for music, and spent countless hours teaching himself the basics of music theory. "I didn't choose a music career as much as it seemed to choose me." says Baker. 'When I was just three or four years of age it must have been obvious to everybody that I was 'music mad.' I couldn't get enough of the stuff. I remember the day my mother brought a whole bunch of old vinyl records home for me. I expect they had been someone's collection, they were a mish-mash of popular and classical. I gravitated to the classical - J. S. Bach being my favorite- but there were also things like Mozart's 40th Symphony, which I loved. When I wasn't listening to music I would be up on the piano bench, picking out tunes and figuring things out. It wasn't long before I became 'piano mad' as well.' "I remember when I was seven, asking my aunt for a recording of Swan Lake. 'The child wants Swan Lake!' she laughed. Then she realized I was serious. After that, I wanted to go to live concerts, which further astounded everyone. Needless to say, these early experiences with music were tremendously important. I had a burning desire to study music and to become a composer. Again, it seems to me that we artists are chosen rather than given a choice." In 1958. after high school graduation, Baker decided to move to Vancouver, his mother 's native city, and it was there he began his first formal piano studies. Within a year he had passed the external examinations of the London College of Music, and from there went on to study composition at the University of British Columbia with Jean Coulthard and Elliot Weisgarber. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1966. Baker became a citizen of Canada in 1970, and earned a Master of Arts degree from Western Washington State College in Bellingham, in 1972. Except for a Year in England to study advanced composition with Sir Lennox Berkeley, Baker has continued to reside in the Vancouver area. Though Montreal and Toronto might have been more politically correct locations for a Canadian composer, Baker finds the natural beauty around Vancouver much more important to his inspiration. As his wife Penny Anne notes. "When Michael received his third Genie, we were under great pressure from the Toronto film community to move there. Michael knew that he might make more money in the East, but his heart is in the West and he wasn't prepared to sacrifice the serenity and beauty that comes with the B.C. life-style, so here we stay! And he gets work from Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Los Angeles film companies, whose producers love to visit this part of the world." Baker worked hard to find his own personal voice, but he found himself outside the avant-garde mainstream. Other composers, exclusively used serialism, chance, or mathematical formulas to write music, which won praise from academics but often alienated audiences. At one symposium, Baker riled the composition establishment when he agreed with U.S. critic Irving Kolodin that audiences reject most modern music because much of it is technique without substance. Ironically, Baker was considered radical because he used traditional notions of melody, harmony and form, and persisted in prescribing music that is lyrical, richly espressive and readily accessible. "I don't object to other genres of music." says Baker."I may not personally like or relate to them. but I certainly don't object to the fact that others enjoy them. What I do object to is having the exponents of one particular genre impose their particular taste on others. This has happened time and again in all the arts. A painter friend characterizes this phenomenon as 'second agenda' scenario. What this means is that the art is not what is really being dealt with, but the personal taste of a person or persons in power. These people seem to have a burning desire to impose their personal taste on everyone else. They do this by implying that any one who doesn't think or feel as they do must surely be 'stupid' and "undiscerning". "I was asked to adjudicate a young composer's competition in Saskatchewan a few years ago. When I saw the scores and heard some of the tapes, I summarily disqualified myself. The organizers were furious with me and would not accept my explanation that I felt I had no business making judgement merits on music which I couldn't relate to. It seems absurd that personal bias just doesn't seem to enter into whether or not a person is qualified to make judgments which may profoundly affect other people's lives. I personally feel we would all be better off if juries and critics disqualified themselves when asked to make judgments about art forms to which they don't relate." Although Baker has used modern techniques, he has shown no aversion to creating tonal centres in a 12-tone music composition - something that is supposed to be avoided at all costs in strict serialism. "The second movement of my Piano Concerto uses an 11-tone row." Baker offers. "I could give a number of other examples as well; my point being that I am not averse to breaking so-called 'rules' to achieve something musically satisfying to me." Though he writes for several different media, Baker's concert works are central to his output. These include a concerto for flute and strings, a piano concerto, two symphonies and a full-length ballet. Washington Square (based on the novel by Henry James), for the National Ballet of Canada as well as chamber music, numerous piano pieces and vocal works. Some of Baker's most highly praised music is for films such as John and the Missus, The Grey Fox and Savage Land (with lyricist Penny Anne Baker). Featured prominently at Expo 86 in Vancouver were Baker's Fanfare for Expo 86, which opened the event, and the scores to the films Discovery, for the British Columbia Pavilion, and Island in Space, for the United Nations pavilion. "I find I can use a lot of 'experimental' techniques in my film writing." says Baker. "One has only to look at John Williams's film scores to realize that he uses a vast array of contemporary techniques. However, these are used to support the emotional needs of the film. In many ways, I find it is the film composers who are creating the best 20th-century music. The film scores of Aaron Copland, Serge Prokofiev, Arthur Honegger etc.. demonstrate the level of writing which has been achieved in film music." Penny Anne, who is business manager, publicist, and song lyricist for Baker as well as a wife, says that Cinderella : Frozen in Time, the ice ballet that Baker wrote for Dorothy Hamill's Ice Capades, is one of her favorites. "It's the first ever original music score for a touring ice ballet." she exclaims. "Touring for three years in North America it has brought international recognition to Michael's music. Millions of people around the world have seen the show live, on television and in Sony videos. A tour of China in 1996 was a great success, and it was shown on Chinese television." More recently, one of Penny's pet projects was the Greater Vancouver Music Album. This CD of beautiful orchestral music, written, recorded and performed by Vancouver area artists, includes an eight-page full-color booklet with photographs of many Vancouver area attractions. The Bakers produced and distributed the recording independently (a first-time venture for them) under the company name of Music from Tree Top Lane - a logo derived from the address of the couple's mountaintop studio in North Vancouver. The lush, melodic music, capturing the sounds and feelings of Vancouver's Chinatown, Stanley Park, the beaches, the harbor, cathedral bells, and English Bay with the mountains in the background, is at once pensive and lighthearted energetic and spiritual. "The album has been eagerly picked up by the tourist industry in Vancouver." says Penny enthusiastically. "It's being endorsed as the ideal product for tourists to take away as a memento of their visit to the area, and we're getting repeat orders from many different countries. It's a wonderful way to show the world what a wealth of talent and scenery we have here in B.C." Like his wife. Baker puts Cinderella on his list of favorite works, but hastens to add a number of other pieces. Among those which he says have given him special satisfaction are his Symphony No. 1 ("Highland") (1977), the Concerto for Piano & Chamber Orchestra (1976), Concerto for Flute & String Orchestra (1974), Counterplay, for Viola & String Orchestra (1971), and The Flight of Aphrodite (1993) for violin and orchestra. When pressed to name what he thinks is the best music he has composed for the movies, he singles out his score for the Disney film One Magic Christmas, and of course the Genie Award-winning score he did for The Grey Fox in 1983. "And I'm very pleased with my most recent works." Baker offers. "I've just finished a Passacaglia for Piano, Violin and Viola, which has yet to be premiered. As well, I've completed a one-hour ballet score for television, called Maeldun which is about to be filmed." "Up until early May, I was working on two TV series -one on astronomy called Cosmic Highway, and the other about those singular individuals who have dedicated their lives to saving endangered species : it's called Champions of the Wild. Both series were produced for the Discovery Network. In July, I began work on a film score for a movie called Silence." "In between all this. I have been writing my first screenplay called A Canticle for Jamie -as may be gathered from the title, it has a major musical element. (I must admit that I find the process of writing for the screen endlessIy fascinating as well as challenging.)" In May of this year the Honours and Awards Secretariat of the Government of British Columbia announced that it had selected Baker to receive the Order of British Columbia - the highest honor with which the province recognizes the achievement of its citizens. The investiture was held at Government House in Victoria last June. Although most of his energy is devoted to actual composition, some of Baker's time must also be spent in the promotion and dissemination of his music. He say's this was especially true early in his career. "I'm reminded of an experience I had, as a young composer, just after the performance of a work of mine. I was approached by a nicely dressed gentleman in his 50s who announced that, he too, was a composer. I asked him if his works were performed. The answer was 'no.' He apparently never showed his work to performers, never sent his music out or approached publishers. He lamented the fact that his music was never performed, and never 'went anywhere'. He produced a long list of his compositions and asked me if I could help him get them produced." "I believe this story typifies the attitude of many composers - and probably most artists. They expect that the World will come to them. It might be worthwhile for them to consider the fact that Beethoven produced his own concert and stood on the street handing out concert notices ! I'm not suggesting artists should spend all their time promoting themselves - but they should spend some time doing this." From his vantage point as an established composer, Baker has advice for those who are just beginning their careers. He strongly urges them to keep their "regular day job" to support themselves until such time that they can rely on steady income from their music. "I worked for many, many years teaching elementary school, as well as teaching courses at the University of B.C. School of Music."says Baker. "I wrote concert music in my so-called spare time. Many thought me a 'workaholic' and "obsessed". Well I guess that's what one must be to do what I chose to do. It wasn't until I got into film scoring that I was truly able to make a living solely from writing music. It is just the reality, of working in a very precarious field of endeavor". As to future trends in classical music, Baker says that more and more he is coming to believe that the very survival of "serious" concert music is at stake. He acknowledges that there is an audience for new, "experimental" music, but cautions that it is a very small one. "This sort of music cannot survive without government grants. For the majority of concert associations, symphony and chamber music societies, survival will depend - as it always has - on providing music which the public responds favorably to." Baker can look back upon a very productive and rewarding career, and look forward to new directions, in his music. "As I mature, I find I care less and less what the critics think. Theirs is, after all, only an opinion. I find I simply have to convince myself - otherwise, what I write has little value to me. However, there are different genres in which to try to succeed. If I write something for children the parameters are, obviously, different than writing a 'serious' concert piece. If I am writing a 'pop' song, this too has different parameters - as well as a different aesthetic. I love Copland's reference to the 'world' of 'subjects' in Bach fugues. Each subject creates its own "world". And so it is, I believe, with all art. Within the particular frame of reference and aesthetic, artists create their own world. Success or failure, it seems to me, depends on how convincing that world is to the listener or viewer. Again, an artist who has not convinced him or herself, can hardly expect to convince the public. And, yet, this seems to happen all too often. I believe this happens when the artist feels he or she must 'accommodate' grant-giving juries, certain segment of the public, academics or critics." Baker points out that throughout history it is the artists who stuck to their guns, and did what they truly believed in, who survived the rigors of time. Some were ahead of their time and were vilified for being forward looking. Others. like J.S. Bach were considered "oldfogies" and relegated to obscurity until, perhaps, they were rediscovered by a later composer. "As a student composer in the 1960s I was made to feel that my music was 'hopelessly old fashioned.' Criticisms like the one that said my music 'had one foot firmly planted in the 19th century' resulted in proposed commissions being summarily rejected. This, because so many of my fellow composers did not approve of my "style" of writing. However, rather than cry the blues about this depressing situation, I went - and have come - my own way to the point where, as the movie hero said to the heroine, 'quite frankly my dear. I don't give a damn.' I'm doing very well. So much so that, when invited to join other artists' discussions, about the 'sad state of the arts,' I feel somewhat guilty that I really have nothing to complain about."