Sir Ernest Alexander Campbell MacMillan, (18 August 1893 – 6 May 1973) was a Canadian orchestral conductor, composer, organist, and Canada's only "Musical Knight". He is widely regarded as being Canada's pre-eminent musician from the 1920s through the 1950s. His contributions to the development of music in Canada were sustained and varied, as conductor, performer, composer, administrator, lecturer, adjudicator, writer, humourist, and statesman.
Biography
Early life and education (1893–1914)
Ernest Alexander Campbell MacMillan was born in Mimico (Etobicoke), Ontario. His first musical influences were his parents. From a very young age, he became fascinated while watching his mother play piano and decided to learn music. His father, who was a minister at St. Enoch's Presbyterian Church, bought an organ for a new house the family moved to in 1898. The house had an adjoined drawing room and study room, with enough space for both an organ and piano. Thereafter, Macmillan was officially hooked.
Macmillan started studying the organ at the age of 8 with Arthur Blakely. A child prodigy, he gave his first organ recital at the age of ten. His talents astonished the public and critics alike in 1904 when he performed in the "Festival of Lillies", which "firmly established him a prodigy". 4000 people were known to attend. Moreover, he was the appointed organist at St. Enoch's, which gave him a sense of importance and great experience in accompanying singers. Between 1908 and 1910, MacMillan held his first professional appointment as an organist and choirmaster in Toronto at Knox (Presbyterian) Church. In 1910 he had his first official organ recital. After that, he performed elsewhere in Toronto until 1914. He earned the associateship and fellowship diplomas of the Royal College of Organists, and from 1911 to 1914 studied modern history at the University of Toronto, earning a BA. He was a member of the Canadian fraternity, Phi Kappa Pi.
Internment in Germany (1914–1919)
MacMillan travelled to Paris in the spring of 1914 and began to study piano privately with Thérèse Chaigneau. He was visiting Bayreuth, Germany, to attend performances of the Bayreuth Festival, when the First World War began in August, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June. MacMillan was initially detained by the German police, and then imprisoned as an enemy alien, as Canada had declared war on Imperial Germany on 5 August. MacMillan was subsequently interned for the duration of the war at Ruhleben, a British civilian detention camp, located on the site of a former horse racing track, on the outskirts of Berlin. During this period, he became a prominent member of the Ruhleben Musical Society and directed performances of The Mikado (with orchestra) and a pantomime version of Cinderella. MacMillan transcribed the music for the former from memory with the help of four other musicians, including Benjamin Dale. Among those attending these performances was James W. Gerard, the United States Ambassador to Germany. MacMillan was also a member of the Ruhleben Drama Society and acted in productions of Othello, Twelfth Night, and The Importance of Being Earnest. MacMillan gave lectures on each of the nine symphonies of Beethoven; at the end of each lecture, MacMillan and Dale would perform a four hand piano arrangement of the symphony under discussion. MacMillan was later interviewed about his experiences as an internee at Ruhleben, as part of a series of CBC interviews with Canadian First World War veterans.
Career
As a conductor
Upon return to Canada in 1919, MacMillan was appointed organist and choirmaster in Toronto at the Timothy Eaton Memorial Church. He was especially known there for his performances of Handel's Messiah and Brahms' Requiem His career as a conductor truly began when he conducted a performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion in the Timothy Eaton Memorial Church in 1923. MacMillan conducted annual performances of this work for the next 30 years. Another annual tradition Macmillan initiated during his career includes the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir's Christmas-time performance of Handel's Messiah.
Throughout his time with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, MacMillan accomplished many of the major achievements of his conducting career. His authority as a composer influenced some major changes within the orchestra. During the Depression, he changed the concert times from 5 pm to a more "evening hour".