Archer, Violet (1913—)

Canadian composer, pianist, and teacher. Born Violet Balestreri in Montreal, Canada, on April 24, 1913; studied with Douglas Clarke and Claude Champagne at the McGill Conservatory, earning her Bachelor of Music in 1936; studied with Bela Bartók in 1942 and with Paul Hindemith in 1949, both of whom strongly influenced her orchestral and choral works.

Preoccupied with Canadian folksongs and folklore, Violet Archer used folk music as a source of creative material. The Habitant Sketches, Life in a Prairie Shack, and Three Folk Songs from Old Manitoba all display this influence, as does her opera, Sganarelle. Archer won the Woods-Chandler composition prize at Yale, and four scholarships at McGill as well as an honorary doctorate. The anthems, organ voluntaries, piano and choral pieces that comprise much of her output were doubtlessly influenced by Paul Hindemith's musical imagination as she used his system of progressive harmonic weights. Archer taught at McGill (1944–47), at North Texas State University where she was also composer-inresidence (1950–53), at the University of Oklahoma (1953–61), and at the University of Alberta where she became professor and chair of the theory and composition department after 1962. Her Trio No. 2 has been extensively performed abroad. In 1984, Violet Archer was the first woman composer to be chosen as Composer of the Year by the Canadian Music Council.

John Haag , Associate Professor of History, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia