Each semester, Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG) showcases a Carleton faculty member whose academic interests complements one of our current exhibitions, and invite them to give a talk on their research.

In conjunction with The Other NFB: The National Film Board of Canada’s Still Photography Division, 1941-1971, join us for a lecture on the other Other NFB: music! Recognized the world over as one of the great cultural laboratories of film innovation, the National Film Board of Canada played a prominent role in Canadian cultural life during the latter half of the twentieth century. Yet there has been a notable paucity of research on the film composers who contributed so significantly to the NFB’s growth and success, and who represented and interpreted Canadian film images and themes through sound.

Professor James Wright (SSAC/Music) will discuss the music, methods and creative milieu of Eldon Rathburn (1916-2008), a prolific NFB staff film composer who, during a remarkable career spanning thirty years working in close creative collaboration with the legendary filmmakers of NFB’s legendary Unit B (Norman McLaren, Colin Low, Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroitor, et al), made a singular contribution to the distinctive sound of some of the most important documentary films in Canadian history.

Bring your lunch, the gallery will provide coffee and tea, and we’ll all learn something new!

James Wright serves as Professor of Music and Supervisor of Performance Studies in Carleton University’s School for Studies in Art & Culture. Wright is currently completing a book on Eldon Rathburn, which will be published in 2017 by McGill-Queen’s Press, Montréal. He will also have two new commissioned works premiered: a piece titled “Sleep Softly Spirit of Earth” (on poetic texts by Al Purdy), for the Command Performance Choir of Prince Edward County, and a new “Listen Up!” project created in collaboration with the Gryphon Trio and Adrienne Clarkson Public School.

Carleton University Art Gallery
St. Patrick's Building
http://cuag.ca
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