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Canadian composer dies.


Velvet

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When I was at the NAC on Saturday I noticed an article on the musician bulletin board. It said that Patrick Cardy had died last Thursday.

Cardy was Canadian composer in his early fifties. Aside from being president of the Canadian Composers Guild for many years, and working under constant commissions of pieces (he once told me he had commissions to last the next eight years) that were performed and recorded all over the place, he was a hell of a good guy, and my theory and composition prof throughout university. He was always bringing his hand-printed scores in for us to analyse, and once to explain multiple meters he brought in a Yes tune that he had transcribed. He recommended me for my job at the NAC too.

My favourite memory of Cardy: In first year our Theory class coincided with dinner in res, so going to class meant going without supper. Me and my roommate used to skip class fairly often for this reason, but we were good students and always handed our assignments in on time (usually by slipping them under his door during classtime and booking it back to res for dinner). It was last class before xmas break, and the cafeteria was putting on one of their rare, really, really good holiday meals. My roomie and I decided we couldn't miss the dinner but we felt bad just slipping the assignments under the door this time, so we went to see Cardy before class. We handed him our assignments, wished him a happy holiday and explained that despite our greatest wishes, there was no way we were gonna be able to make it to class that day. Cardy looked up at us with relish and said, "Gee, that's too bad guys, 'cuz today I'm just gonna collect the assignments and then for the rest of class I'm taking everyone to Roosters for beers on me." I wish I had a picture of our faces. Beaten, we tucked our tails between our legs and trundled back to res, trying to figure how we could reverse what just happened. We had dinner, missed drinks.

Weirdest part about this is the guy died indirectly from curling. Last Monday he went curling and broke his arm. I guess it must have been a bad break, 'cuz when he woke up in the hospital he went into cardiac arrest and died.

Anyway, a sad scene for Canadian Serious Music (not my term). I have one of his cd's and twice saw the NAC Orchestra perform pieces of his. He was a damn good composer.

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