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(born: Vancouver, 1908 - died: Vancouver, 2000)
Composer, Teacher
Born in Vancouver, Jean Coulthard became one of Canada's preeminent composers. Her mother, Mrs. Jean (Walter) Coulthard (1882-1933), was a well known pianist and teacher who was quite active and influential in Vancouver arts circles. Mrs. Walter Coulthard, who graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music, performed both as a soloist and accompanist, and was particularly applauded for her contemporary interpretations of Debussy. She also helped found the British Columbia's Music Teachers' Federation.
Jean Coulthard began composing when she was a child and studied both piano and theory with her mother and Frederick Chubb. At 16, she had already won many awards in Vancouver. Coulthard was granted a scholarship from the Vancouver Women's Musical Club, with which she moved to London, England to pursue her piano and compositional studies at the Royal College of Music (RCM). At age 22, after studying with the great English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, fugue and canon with R.O. Morris, and piano with Kathleen Long, Coulthard graduated from the RCM in Composition. In 1934, she also completed her Associate of the Toronto (later Royal) Conservatory (ATCM).
Upon her return to Vancouver, Coulthard took up private music teaching as well as becoming the music director at two private schools (1934-6; 1936-7) and a professor of composition at the University of British Columbia (UBC) (1947-73). In 1935, Coulthard married Donald Adams. It was on a trip with her husband that Coulthard first met the famous west coast artist Emily Carr. Here is Coulthard's description of her first impression of the artist:
We were a little taken aback -- possibly by the extraordinary appearance of her dress. A gnome from the woods indeed. She wore on her head a comic little cap affair which was drawn tightly around her forehead with a black banding. Her garb was, to use a modern day term, Hippie style -- an old greyish blanket with a hole in the middle sufficed for her head to come through. As a composer I have more than once ruminated on how to capture the mood and feeling of the West Coast in music. If one has been born in this land where earliest memories of life are walks in the woods, picnics in the bays and coves of its waters -- summer vacations in the interior among the lakes and mountains -- how could one (if at all sensitive to nature) fail to catch the atmosphere of this country. The great artist Emily Carr lived to realize it in the visual art, what about music? (Coulthard Biographical Sketches quoted in Rowley, 3-4)
Inspired by the journals of Emily Carr, Coulthard wrote a piece for soprano, narrator, string quartet, timpani, and piano called "The Pines of Emily Carr." Coulthard also extended her knowledge of the west coast native musics through a university colleague. Ida Halpern, a Viennese musicologist, who recorded and studied the musics of the Nootka and Kwakiutl peoples.
Throughout her lifetime, Coulthard continued to take opportunities to improve her compositional techniques by getting advice from and studying with prestigious composers, both in North America and Europe. They included Arthur Benjamin (Vancouver, 1939); Aaron Copland (New York, 1939); Arnold Schoenberg (California, 1942); David Milhaud (California, 1942); Bela Bartok (New York, 1944); Bernard Wagenarr (New York, 1945,1949); Nadia Boulanger (France, 1955); and Gordon Jacob (London, 1965-6).
Coulthard was a prolific composer with over 200 works to her name. A few of her commissions include: "A Prayer for Elizabeth" (1953) to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's coronation; "Spring Rhapsody" (1958) a song cycle for the Canadian contralto Maureen Forrester; "Violin Concerto" (1959) for Thomas Rolston and the Vancouver Symphony. Coulthard has composed in all major musical genres. Her work has been, in part, recognized through awards and honors that she has been granted including: The Order of Canada (1978); Freeman of the City of Vancouver (1978); Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre; and Composer of the Year, Performing Rights Organization (1984) and two honorary doctorate degrees.
Compositions available through Clifford Ford Publications:
Sources: