"Loving (Toi)" premiered on the French CBC-TV network in 1966, produced by Pierre Mercure, and was his last production before his death.
Compositional Technique
The scoring for different 'attitudes' in "Loving (Toi)" is distinct: Modesty uses strings and accordion, Vanity uses brittle plucked instruments, Ishtar uses percussion with a jazz suggestion, and Eros predominantly bells.
Recording & Production
This recording of "Loving (Toi)" features the identical cast and orchestra from its first complete stage production by New Music Concerts of Toronto in 1978.
Composer's Artistic Vision
The composer, R. Murray Schafer, describes "Loving (Toi)" as an audio-visual poem, not an opera, related to medieval chant-fables like "Aucassin and Nicolette."
Compositional Technique
In "Loving (Toi)," the singers are not characters but 'attitudes' representing aspects of the feminine psyche and male libido, with each expressing a definite attitude supported by the orchestra's coloration.
Composer Biography
R. Murray Schafer, born in 1933, founded the influential Ten Centuries Concerts in Toronto and created the World Soundscape Project, a series of studies on the acoustic environment.
Composition History
R. Murray Schafer's "Loving (Toi)" was composed between 1963 and 1965, primarily in St. John's, Newfoundland, and was his first work for the stage.
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