Dr. Elaine Keillor
Distinguished Research Professor Emerita, Carleton University
Dr. Keillor’s activities as a professional pianist initially led her to being involved with contemporary composers. That in turn resulted in her becoming ever more involved with Canadian musics, giving premieres, and researching past musical creations and their composers. Although Dr. Keillor’s doctoral dissertation was on Leonzi Honauer, an influential composer of the pre-Classical period, her publications had been all in the area of Canadian music when she accepted a position at Carleton University as a specialist in the Baroque/Classical periods and Canadian music in 1977. One of her first assignments was to assess the Canadian music courses being taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. She noted that there was no coverage of First Peoples’ musical expressions and thus initiated a course in that area.
After initiating a course in Canadian indigenous music, Dr. Keillor noted the need for resources and materials with which to study and lecture. Although a few areas had been researched, she soon discovered that there were many lacunae. Accordingly she contacted a number of her colleagues who were also interested or involved in this ethnomusicological area. In their subsequent meetings, the group agreed on what general area each would endeavor to research to try to close some of the large lacunae. Dr. Keillor embarked on fieldwork in the Northwest Territories and began her rich and rewarding association with the Dene peoples of this area, whom she continues to corroborate with today.
Student research (supervisory/committee)
Susan Baskin, “An Introduction to the Music of the Malecite Indians,” (MA research essay) 1980.
Maribeth Sam Cronk, “The Feather and Skin Dance Cycles: A Comparative Analysis of Iroquoian Sacred Music,” (MA research essay) 1982.
Paula J. Conlon, “The Flute of the Canadian Amerindian: An Analysis of the Vertical Whistle Flute with External Block and its Music,” (MA thesis) 1983.
Connie Heimbecker, “The Lullaby and Family Among the Naskapi-Montagnais Innu of Labrador,” (MA thesis co-supervised with Beverley Cavanagh) 1984.
Robin Grabell, “The Huron Soundscape, 1623-1649: An Exploration of Cross-cultural Interaction, Conflict and Change, As Articulated Within the Domain of Ritual and Ceremony,” (MA thesis) 1990.
Michael Patterson, “Native Music in Canada: Through the Seven Fires,” (MA thesis) 1996.
Cindy Allen, “The Dene Drum: The Symbol and Essence of Dene Culture,” (MA research essay) 1998.
Relevant publications
Books
John Weinzweig and His Music: the Radical Romantic of Canada. Metuchen, NJ:
Scarecrow Press, 1994. xviii, 316 pp.
Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity. McGill-Queen’s University Press,
2006, x, 499 pp. Paperback edition, 2008.
Encyclopedia of Native American Music of North America, (Assisted with advice from Timothy Archambault and Dr. John Medicine Horse Kelly), Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Press ABC-CLIO, 2013.
Edited Books
Piano Music I, Ottawa: The Canadian Musical Heritage/Le patrimoine musical canadien,
1983. xxiv, 246 pp.
Piano Music II, Ottawa: The Canadian Musical Heritage/Le patrimoine musical canadien,
1986. xv, 282 pp.
Music for Orchestra II, Ottawa: The Canadian Musical Heritage/Le patrimoine musical
canadien, 1994. xxxv, 197 pp.
Music for Orchestra III, Ottawa: The Canadian Musical Heritage/Le patrimoine musical
canadien, 1995, xl, 195 pp.
Historical Anthology of Canadian Music, Ottawa: The Canadian Musical Heritage/Le
patrimoine musical canadien, 1998, [various sizes of modules].
Performing Our Musical Heritage: Piano I, Ottawa: Clifford Ford Publications, 2004.
Performing Our Musical Heritage: Piano II, Ottawa: Clifford Ford Publications, 2004.
Chapters in Edited Books
“Hymn Singing among the Dogrib Indians” in Sing Out the Glad News: Hymn Tunes in
Canada, CanMus Documents I, editor, John Beckwith, Toronto, 1987, pp. 33-44.
“Indigenous Music as a Compositional Source: Parallels and Contrasts in Canadian and
American Music,” in Taking a Stand: Essays in Honour of John Beckwith, editor, T.
McGee, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995, pp. 185-218.
“Ontario: Overview,” pp. 1178-87, “Sharon: ‘Make a Joyful Noise’”, pp. 136-7, and the
performance of Mary Gardiner’s Mosaic included on the accompanying CD in Garland
Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume III: North America, ed. Ellen Koskoff, New York/ London: Garland, 2001.
“The Canadian Soundscape” in Profiles of Canada, third edition, editors, Kenneth G.
Pryke and Walter C. Soderlund, Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2003, pp. 447-486.
“Barbeau as a Promotor of Folk Music Performance and Composition” in Around and
About Marius Barbeau: Writings on Twentieth-Century Canadian Culture, edited by
Lynda Jessup, Andrew Nurse and Gordon Smith, Canadian Museum of Civilization,
Gatineau, QC, 2007: 137-155.
“Barbeau encouraging ‘the study, appreciation and enjoyment of the Folk Music of
Canada in all of its aspects’ (with Appendix: “Where the Society Has Been”), in Folk
Music, Traditional Music, Ethnomusicology: Canadian Perspectives, Past and Present,
edited by Anna Hoefnagels and Gordon E. Smith, Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars
Press, 2007: 241-250.
(With Lucy Lafferty) “Musical Expressions of the Dene: Dogrib Love and Land
Songs” in Music of the First Nations: Tradition and Innovation in Native North American
Music, edited by Tara Browner Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009: 21-33.
“Music for Radio and Film” in Weinzweig’s World, edited by John Beckwith and Brian
Cherney, Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2011, pp. 103-127.
“Alaskan Native Music” in Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories That Shaped Our Culture, edited by Jacqueine Edmondson, Santa Barbara, CA/Oxford, UK: Greenwood, 2013, pp. 29-32.
Articles in refereed journals
“Les tambours des Athapascans du Nord,” Recherches amerindiennes au québec 15/4
(hiver 1985-86), pp. 43-52.
“The Role of Dogrib Youth in the Continuation of their Musical Traditions,” Yearbook
for Traditional Music 18 (1986), pp. 61-76.
“La naissance d’un genre musical nouveau, fusion du traditionel et du ‘country’,”
Recherches amerindiennes au québec 18/4 (hiver 1988-89), pp. 65-74.
“Chanson de Riel: A Musical Rubbaboo,” Les Cahiers de la Société québécoise de
recherche en musique 2/1 (1998): 23-28.
“The Emergence of Post-colonial Musical Expressions of Aboriginal Peoples within
Canada,” Cultural Studies 9/1 (1995): 106-24.
“The Voices of First Nations Women Within Canada: Traditionally and Presently,”
Australian- Canadian Studies 14/1-2 (1996), 41-53.
“Amerindians at the Rodeos and Their Music,” in Contemporary Indigenous Popular
Music in North America, Karl Neuenfeldt, ed. The World of Music: Journal of the
Department of Ethnomusicology Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg, vol. 44/1 (2002):
75-94.
“Marius Barbeau and His Performers,” The Canadian Journal for Traditional Music
31 (2004): 24 – 38.
“Le rababou au Québec: passé, présent et futur (essai sur la culture musicale
québécoise). Les Cahiers de La Société québécoise de recherche en musique 10 /1 (2008): 39 – 46.
Electronic Publications
“Dancing with the Onigoke-Algonquin,” www.native-dance.ca, posted 21 January 2007.
(With Stan Louttit) “Dancing of the Anishinaabe,” www.native-dance.ca, for which
Elaine Keillor was the team leader, posted 21 January 2007.
“Native Drums in the Context of World Instruments,” this essay and much of the writing
on the website, www.native-drums.ca was done by the team leader, Elaine Keillor, posted
21 June 2005. http://native-drums.ca/index.php/Scholars/Context.
Encyclopedia Articles
Sadie, S. ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 7th edition, London:
Macmillan, 2001 and subsequently online. Keillor wrote the following entries:
“Amerindian Music” I: 484-493, 503-504; “Canada: Indigenous Adaptations” IV: 913-916; “Leonzi Honauer” XI: 675-6; “Ottawa” XVIII: 802-804; “Jean Coulthard” V: 550-501; “Susie Frances Harrison” XI: 68; “Alexina Louie” XV: 216-217; “Diana McIntosh” XV: 497-498; “Bruce Mather” XVI: 119; “Gordon Monahan” XVI: 914; “Raymond Pannell” XIX: 34; “Elizabeth Raum” VIII: 937-938; “Nancy Telfer” XXV: 243; “John Weinzweig” XXVII: 244-245; “Charles Wilson” XXVII: 421-422; “Alexander Brott” IV: 434-435; “Robert Fleming” VIII: 937-938; “Oskar Morawetz” XVII: 100-101; “Arnold Walter” XXVII: 52.
2004-2010: Team leader and chief editor for all materials of the websites funded by Canadian Heritage Canadian Content Online Program and Carleton University: Native Drums launched as www.native-drums.ca on 21 June 2005, Native Dance, www.native-dance.ca launched on 21 June 2006, Path of the Elders, www.pathoftheelders.com, launched 2010.
2011: Team leader for production of First Encounters website: Vikings and “Skraelings”; Cartier and Mi’kmaq/Iroquoians; www.firstencounters.ca, launched 2012.