Barbara Pentland

Barbara Pentland C.M. (January 2, 1912 – February 5, 2000) was one of the pre-eminent members of the generation of Canadian composers who came to artistic maturity in the years after World War II. Pentland’s parents, especially her mother, intended for their daughter to adopt their values and pursue a life spent amongst the upper classes of Canadian high society, rather than a career as a professional composer. Despite her family’s objections, Pentland continued to compose privately as a young teenager. She finally was encouraged in this pursuit by one of her teachers, the organist and conductor Frederick H. Blair, who taught her piano and music theory while she attended boarding school at Miss Edgar’s and Miss Cramp’s School in Montreal from 1927 to 1929. In 1929, Pentland was surprised when her parents finally allowed her to study composition with Cécile Gauthiez, professor of harmony at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. Under Gauthiez’s tutelage, Pentland received a formal, conservatory style music education, including lessons in form, harmony, and analysis by composers such as Cesar Franck, Vincent d’Indy, and Ludwig van Beethoven. Compositional Style One of Pentland’s first known