Clarke, Frederick Robert Charles

Person

Clarke, Frederick Robert Charles

1931-2009

F.R.C. (Frederick Robert Charles) Clarke. Organist-choirmaster, composer, teacher, administrator, b Vancouver 7 Aug 1931, d Kingston 18 Nov 2009; ARCT piano 1948, ARCT organ 1951, B MUS (Toronto) 1951, FCCO 1952, D MUS (Toronto) 1954. His teachers included Kenneth Ross (piano) in Vancouver, Eric Rollinson (organ) at the RCMT, and Healey Willan, S. Drummond Wolff, and George Laughlin (theory and composition) at the University of Toronto. Clarke was organist-choirmaster 1950-8 for several churches in Toronto and St Catharines. He also taught 1956-8 at the Hamilton Cons (RHCM) and conducted 1957-8 the St Catharines Civic Orchestra (Niagara Symphony Association). In 1958 he became organist-choirmaster at Sydenham Street United Church in Kingston, Ont, a position he continued to hold in 1991. He was also conductor 1958-77 of the Kingston Choral Society. He lectured 1959-69 at Queen's Theological College and joined Queen's University Music Department in 1964 to teach theory and other subjects. There he founded and conducted 1965-9 the Queen's Chamber Players Ensemble. He was head 1981-8 of the department and after it was renamed the Queen's University School of Music in 1988 he served 1988-91 as director.

Of Clarke's numerous compositions in the English tradition, Bel and the Dragon (1954) was written for his D MUS, Sing a New Song to the Lord (1960) was composed for the United Church of Canada in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the Scottish Reformation, and Psalm 145 (1966) won the CBC (Ottawa) Choral Composition Prize in 1967. Clarke was chairman of the music subcommittee for The Hymn Book of the Anglican and United Churches (1971), to which he contributed 7 tunes and 18 arrangements. His Festival Te Deum (1972) and Reginae (1991) were written for the Kingston Symphony Association to celebrate the tercentennial of the founding of Kingston and the sesquicentennial of the founding of Queen's University respectively. Clarke completed and orchestrated several of Willan's works, including the Introduction and Allegro for string quartet, premiered in 1984 by the Vághy String Quartet, and the Dirge for Two Veterans and Requiem Mass, premiered in 1985 and 1988 respectively by the Kingston Symphony with the Kingston Choral Society. He was a contributor to EMC and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre.

Draft

• English