This accessible volume is both a Canadian biography and a history of music for a period which has not to date been well documented. It adds significant information to the history of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra which currently dates its origins to 1923. The book demonstrates convincingly that the story of the TSO actually began in 1906.
Set lightly amidst Toronto's social and political history, there is considerable documentation about musical activity in Toronto from 1870 until the 1920s. Primary sources are used in abundance as the author has dug deeply into the music journalism of...