James P. Clarke (1807/08–1877) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

organist, conductor and composer. He was the first person to receive a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in music in North America. He is best known for his work ''Lays of the Maple Leaf'' (1853) and for leading several of Toronto's earliest musical organizations.

Early life

Clarke was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. As a young man he worked as music dealer's assistant in Edinburgh and led the singing of psalms in St George's Church in Glasgow.

Career

Clarke emigrated to Canada in 1835, taking a job as the organist for St. James Cathedral in York (Toronto). In 1844 he became the organist for Christ Church in Hamilton. Clarke received his bachelor's degree in music from the Kings College (later

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...

) in 1846. Clarke was the first conductor of the

Toronto Choral Society The Toronto Choral Society was founded in 1845. Music was a popular form of entertainment for a rapidly growing and prosperous population, so a group of citizens formed a choral society in order to give concerts and foster the development of the loc ...

, which was founded in 1845. He was a composer of choral music; a collection of his songs about the Canadian landscape, ''Lays of the Maple Leaf'', was published in 1853 by A. & S. Nordheimer. Clarke constructed a new kind of organ for which the pipes were made of glass."Canadian sound inventions"
''Canadian Geographic'', January 2, 2006 In 1872 Clarke became the conductor of the Toronto Philharmonic Society. Clarke taught organ and piano; one of his pupils was his son Hugh, who became a Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania.

Works

* Lays of the Maple Leaf (1853)

Footnotes

External links

Canadian Encyclopedia Article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, James 1807 births 1877 deaths Canadian composers Canadian male composers Canadian people of Scottish descent 19th-century composers 19th-century male musicians 19th-century musicians