Brian Cherney is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 currently residing in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

. He studied at the University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

 where he was a pupil of John Weinzweig

John Weinzweig

John Weinzweig, OC, O.Ont was a Canadian composer of classical music.Born in Toronto, Weinzweig went to Harbord Collegiate Institute, and studied music at the university. In 1937, he left for the United States to study under Bernard Rogers...

, Samuel Dolin

Samuel Dolin

Samuel Joseph Dolin was a Canadian composer, music educator, and arts administrator. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre and a founding member of the Canadian League of Composers , he served as the CLC's vice president in 1967-1968 and president from 1969-1973...

, and John Beckwith

John Beckwith

John Beckwith may refer to:*John Christmas Beckwith English organist and composer.*John Charles Beckwith , English organist*John Charles Beckwith...

. In 1972 he joined Schulich School of Music

Schulich School of Music

The Schulich School of Music is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University in Montréal, Canada. The faculty was named after benefactor Seymour Schulich.-History:Music at McGill – The Beginning...

 of McGill University

McGill University

Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

, where he has taught analysis and composition for over thirty years. His pieces, often characterized by carefully calculated formal trajectories and a rich harmonic language, give the impression of a quiet intensity, usually featuring "stillness" in some manner. His works have been played throughout North America, Europe, and elsewhere. Cherney maintains an active career as a composer, teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

 and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

; his book Harry Somers

Harry Somers

Harry Stewart Somers, CC was the foremost English-Canadian composer of his period.He was born in middle-class Toronto in 1925 but did not become interested in music until his early teenage years, when he met a doctor and his wife, both pianists, who introduced him to classical music...

(1975, U of T Press) remains one of the most important and detailed works of reference on this composer. He was awarded the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music

Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music

The Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music is a Canadian contemporary classical music award given to composers in recognition of quality new works of chamber music. Granted annually since 1978 , the prize is won through a competition administered by the Canadian Music Centre...

 in 1985 for River of Fire. He is the brother of oboist Lawrence Cherney

Lawrence Cherney

Lawrence Cherney, CM is a Canadian oboist and the current Artistic Director of Soundstreams Canada. As a proponent of new music in Canada, Cherney commissioned more than 30 new works for oboe during his career...

.

Works

Orchestra

• Variations for Orchestra (1967)
• Seven Images for Twenty Two Players (1971)
• Adieux (1980)
• In the Stillness Between (1982)
• Into the Distant Stillness (1984)
• Illuminations (1987)
• Transfiguration (1990)
• Et la solitude dérive au fil des fleuves... (1995)

Concertante

• Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1963)
• Six Miniatures for Oboe and Strings (1968)
• Chamber Concerto for Viola and Ten Players (1975)
• Oboe Concerto (1989)
• Et j'entends la nuit qui chante dans les cloches (1990)

Instrumental ensemble

• Kontakion, Quiet Music for Eleven Players (1969)
• Apparitions (1991)
• In the Stillness of September 1942 (1992)
• Die Klingende Zeit (1993–1994)

Chamber music

• Sonata for violin and piano (1961)
• Quintet for saxophone and string quartet (1962)
• Woodwind Quintet (1965)
• Interlude and Variations for woodwind quintet (1965)
• String Quartet No.1 (1966)
• Six Miniatures for oboe and piano (1968)
• String Quartet No.2 (1970)
• Notturno for piano and woodwind quintet (1974)
• String Trio (1976)
• Group Portrait - With Piano for piano and woodwind quintet (1978)
• Beyond the Seventh Palace for viola and percussion (1982)
• Accord for accordion, oboe and cello (1985)
• Triolet for flute, harp and bassoon (1980)
• Playing for Time for oboe, percussion and piano (1981)
• Gan Eden for violin and piano (1983)
• River of Fire for oboe d'amore and harp (1983)
• String Quratet No.3 (1985)
• In Stillness Ascending for viola and piano (1986)
• In the Stillness of the Summer Wind for oboe and string quartet (1987)
• Trois petites pièces désséchées... En forme de sandwich for viola and piano (1979)
• Le fil d'ariane for guitar and percussion (1988)
• Dunkle Stimmen... Am Rande der Nacht for violin, cello and contrabass (1988)
• Dopplegänger for two flutes (1991)
• Like Ghosts from an Enchanter Fleeing for cello and piano (1993)
• String Quartet No.4 (1994)
• In the Great Museum of our Memory for bass oboe and bass clarinet (1994)
• Echoes in the Memory for clarinet, cello and piano (1997)
• Entendre marcher un ange... for flute and percussion (1998)
• Qui entendrait le cri d'un ange dans les ténèbres? for clarinet, ondes Martenot
  Ondes Martenot
  The ondes Martenot , also known as the ondium Martenot, Martenot and ondes musicales, is an early electronic musical instrument invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot. The original design was similar in sound to the theremin...
  
   and cello (1998)
• Music for a Summer Wedding for flute, viola and harp (2000–2002)
• String Quartet No. 6 (2009)

Music for instrumental solo

• Mobile II for cello (1968)
• Mobile IIIa for oboe (1970)
• Tangents I for cello (1975)
• Tangents II for oboe (1976)
• Seven Miniatures in the Form of a Mobile for viola (1978)
• Études for oboe (1979)
• Gothic Scenes and Interludes for organ (1983–1987)
• Epitaph for English horn (1986)
• Déploration for harpsichord (1988)
• Shekhinah for viola (1988)
• Doppelgänger, version for flute solo (1992)
• In the Stillness of Eden for violin (1992)
• Le dernier cri for trumpet (1992)
• The Return of Ulysses for alto saxophone (1992)
• Music for a Solitary Cellist for cello (1993)
• In the Great Museum of our Memory for bass oboe (1994)
• Jam for Frances for trombone (1997)
• Incantation for flute (1999)
• Quelques pensées sur le 300e anniversaire du voloncelle Carlo Tonini d'Antonio Lysy... for cello (2003)

Piano

• Six Miniatures (1965)
• Sonata (1966)
• Jest (1967)
• Intervalls, Patterns, Shapes (1968)
• Pieces for Young Pianists (3 volumes) (1968)
• Dans le crépuscule de souvenir, 5 pieces (1977–1980)
• In the Stillness of the Seventh Autumn (1983)
• Quelques fois, à l'ombre de la nuit... au lointain... (1991–1992)
• Tombeau, 7 pieces (1996)

Vocal music

• Two Songs for soprano and chamber orchestra (1963)
• Mobile IV, text by Tu Fu
  Du Fu
  Du Fu was a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty.Along with Li Bai , he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets. His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but he proved unable to make the necessary accommodations...
  
  , for soprano and chamber ensemble (1969)
• Eclipse, text by Brian Hendersen, for soprano and chamber ensemble (1972)
• Three Songs to Texts by Paul Celan, for soprano and piano (2007)

External links

• The Canadian Encyclopedia http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0000685
• Schulich School of Music, Department of Composition http://www.music.mcgill.ca/composition/Files/Faculty/cherney.html
• The Canadian Music Center http://www.musiccentre.ca/apps/index.cfm?fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography&authpeopleid=723&by=C
• Review of Brian Cherney's "An Unfinished Life"http://showtimemagazine.ca/blog/?p=162

See also

• Music of Canada
  Music of Canada
  The music of Canada has influences that have shaped the country. Aboriginals, the British, and the French have all made unique contributions to the musical heritage of Canada. The music has subsequently been heavily influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between...
  
  
• List of Canadian composers