In Memoriam Richard Truhlar
(February 14, 1950 – September 17, 2013)
Richard Truhlar was a man of broad horizons. When I first met him I was still in high school and he, four years my senior, quickly became my mentor in both literature and music. It was through him that I discovered the vast riches of contemporary fiction; my first exposure to the labyrinthine works of Thomas Pynchon, Kobo Abe, Julio Cortázar and Alain Robbe-Grillet. In music Richard had very catholic tastes and a vast knowledge of the classical repertoire. But more important to me was his interest in the work of 20th century composers. It was through him that I first encountered the music of Takemitsu, Penderecki, Messiaen and the world(s) of electronic music. But Richard’s world extended to earlier times as well and I remember his fascination with Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius and his affection for the music of Delius. His interests also reached well beyond the classical realm, with a wealth of knowledge of the alternative rock scene. I remember when I was house-bound with a broken leg in 1985 Richard made me a wonderful compilation tape of music by Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, David Sylvian and others which kept me in good company in those claustrophobic days of confinement and opened my ears to new worlds. Our relationship spanned a number of technologies, from the LPs we spent late nights listening to, through the cassette age of self-produced recordings and compilations, into the digital age. It was Richard who gave me my first compact disc — a recording of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht performed by the Ensemble InterContemporain under Pierre Boulez.
Richard Truhlar was a poet, writer of fictions, visual artist, text/sound/musical composer and performer, editor and publisher; a true renaissance man. His main contribution to the artistic community, beyond his own writings and compositions, was as a publisher. This is true in both the literary and musical worlds. In the early years he published chapbooks under his own imprints of Teksteditions and Underwhich Editions. This latter also had an audio arm producing cassette tapes of electronic and text-based music and sound poetry in the Audiographics series. While admittedly featuring much of his own creative output, I would emphasize that this was not vanity publishing but rather a fully professional enterprise featuring the work of a variety of artists from around the country and even across the world. It was Richard’s experience in producing and successfully distributing this esoteric music that led me to recommend him for a position at the Canadian Music Centre when I learned that the coordinator of the Centrediscs label was leaving. Richard had previously told me that he never stayed at a job for more than seven years so neither of us suspected that this would turn out to be such a good fit that he would stay at the CMC for two and a half decades.
During that time he oversaw the production of more than 120 compact discs running the gamut of art music in this country. Some of the highlights were the then Complete String Quartets (i.e. the first five) of R. Murray Schafer with the Orford Quartet in its final recording; the Canadian Composer Portraits series, surely one of the most important documents of Canadian musical history; A Window on Somers celebrating the life and music of Harry Somers, and a number of discs devoted to the work of Ann Southam. Talivaldis Kenins and Gilles Tremblay were also particular favourites, but Richard’s efforts were not restricted to the senior generation of composers. Among the many projects realized under his direction were discs devoted to mid-career composers Alice Ho, Christos Hatzis, Alexina Louie and James Rolfe to name just a few, and younger composers such as Chris Paul Harman, Melissa Hui, Jeffrey Ryan and Nicole Lizée had their first commercial releases on Centrediscs. There were also discs too many to innumerate of choral, chamber, orchestral, instrumental and electronic music by Canada’s most creative artists.
While the mandate of the Centrediscs label is restricted to promoting the work of the Canadian Music Centre’s associate composers, Richard’s vision was again much broader. Concurrent with his activities as the Centrediscs coordinator, he expanded the Canadian Music Centre Distribution Service, providing global access to an extended catalogue of Canadian alternative and art music encompassing many genres not otherwise represented by the CMC.
Although very private and somewhat reclusive in his personal life, Richard was a man of vision and creative energy who touched the lives of many. As testified by a host of friends and colleagues from across the arts community at his memorial service, Richard Truhlar was highly respected, greatly loved and will be sorely missed.
You can read more about Richard’s life and work at richardtruhlar.com and his most recent publishing activities at teksteditions.com.
—David Olds, DISCoveries Editor
discoveries@thewholenote.com
