Obituary of Kenneth Peacock -- Doukhobors

After two years being bedridden with cancer in an Ottawa Hospital, the outstanding Canadian musician and composer died in his sleep from pneumonia. His most recent honors came in 1998 when the Folklore Studies Association of Canada awarded him the Marius Barbeau Medal for his pioneering contributions to folksong research across Canada which aided a folk music revival and careers of young musicians. His collections are archived in at least 14 repositories and have regenerated a tradition perceived to be threatened.

Between 1951 and 1971, Peacock made 3,336 individual field recordings on 544 reels of tape for the National Museum. His archives hold a wide range of ethnographic documents based on his research: audio field recordings, photographic and film images, short journal articles, books, radio programs and two vinyl recordings.

In 1982 he was recognized with an Order of Canada : 'Mr. Kenneth H. Peacock: As a musicologist, he carried out pioneering research into the folk music of various ethnic groups in Canada, thus enriching our cultural awareness. Much of his material has been used by professional singers. He has published a number of collections, including Songs of the Doukhobors and Songs of Newfoundland Outports. [Outports are small coastal communities].'

Ken Peacock's formal musical training began at the age of five when his parents discovered him at the piano playing tunes he had heard on the phonograph. At the age of twelve he had a juvenile dance combo which played at local school dances and lodge banquets. But classical music was his main interest and he continued playing, composing, and teaching while attending university. At fifteen he graduated from the Conservatory in Toronto [In 1947 renamed The Royal Conservatory of Music] and four years later completed the Bachelor of Music course at the University of Toronto. He later studied philosophy, English and anthropology and continued his music studies in Boston and Montreal. His String Quartet #1 won a McGill Chamber Music Society Award in 1949.

In 1949 he met Marius Barbeau, Dean of Canadian folklorists, and worked with him on a number of projects including the transcription of First Nation music from old Edison cylinder recordings housed in the National Museum. Indigenous music and literature provided the basis of much of his composition during this period. His cantata Songs of the Cedar (click on 'Works'), based on West Coast native poetry, was among the compositions chosen to represent Canada for the Art Competitions at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.

Working for the National Museum of Canada from 1951 up to 1971, Kenneth Peacock's work took him from one end of Canada to the other, often pioneering in areas where folklorists had yet to venture. When Marius Barbeau invited him to go to Newfoundland and begin to record the folk music of the people there, Peacock told Dr. Barbeau: 'I don't know anything about recording.' To which Barbeau replied: 'Neither do I. You can improvise as you go along.' And Peacock did exactly that.

With tape recorder in hand and a music notation pad, his work in Newfoundland (1951-1961) launched him as a multicultural folk-song collector. He was largely self-taught and not trained as an ethnomusicologist,

In between visits to Newfoundland, Barbeau invited Peacock to collect music of Cree, Blackfoot, and other natives of the Canadian Plains.

In 1953 and 1957, Peacock wrote and performed a series of radio lectures for the CBC about Newfoundland folk music.

Some of these songs along with Newfoundland material were released in the 1950s on two Folkways albums (above): Indian Music of the Canadian Plains (1955) and Songs and Ballads of Newfoundland (1956), which Ken performed himself based on rare material he had transcribed by hand in remote areas where lack of electricity prevented the use of a tape recorder.

After his first decade in 1963, he published a 13-page summary (A Survey of Ethnic Folkmusic Across Western Canada, Doukhobors pages 1-3) reporting that so far he met with 33 ethnic groups and recorded music from 18.

At the end of his Newfoundland research in 1961, a West German film company hired him to make a one-hour documentary on the folk music of Newfoundland which was later broadcast on European television.

In 1962 Peacock set out across Canada to see if it would be feasible to study the folk music of immigrants from Europe and Asia. In his 11,000 mile journey he discovered a goldmine of material and spent the following 10 years crossing the country digging for traditional music of almost 40 cultures. He also began photographing and collecting the rich variety of musical instruments and folk artifacts of these cultures. His pioneering efforts formed the basis for the vastly expanded research and display programs of the National Museums of Canada. To help others to do what he was doing, he compiled his advice into a 184-page book: A Practical Guide for Folk Music Collectors (1966).

In 1963 he first visited USCC Doukhobor and Sons of Freedom communities in British Columbia. He was touched by the warmth, cooperation, deep faith, and uniqueness of the singers and their voices. In 1964, with my assistance, he continued recording with Independent Doukhobors in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In those two years he collected about 500 Doukhobor songs.

He published 5 Doukhobor songs notated with musical analysis in Twenty Ethnic Songs from Western Canada (1966), National Museum of Canada. Ottawa, 91 pages (added to the online Internet Archive in Feb. 2024); and then devoted a full book: Songs of the Doukhobors: An Introductory Outline (Bulletin 231, Folklore Series No.7.1970 — 27 songs, Russian/ English, 167 pages, online at the Canadian Museum of History in 9 PDFs).

In Twenty Ethnic Songs (91 pages), covering Doukhobor, Mennonite, Hungarian, Ukrainian and Czeck, Ken devoted 42 of 91 pages (46%), including 12 photos and a complimentary 7-page introduction, explaining USCC Doukhobors and their song traditions. As the first musicologist who transcribed the motifs of Doukhobor psalms into musical notes, he found that their traditional oral literature and music goes back to many centuries and continues to unite all Doukhobors today with beauty, culture, and spirit. One of the psalms he transcribed explains it best: 'The singing of psalms beautifies our souls.'

The following is a chronological list spanning 30 years of most of the other publications about Doukhobor song by and about Peacock:

Between 1951 and 1961, during 6 field visits to Newfoundland, Peacock visited 118 people in 38 communities, and acquired 766 folksongs (638 on tape, plus 128 by hand notation when he did not have electricity).

In 1965, 71% of this Newfoundland material, 546 songs under 411 titles, was published by the Canadian Museum of History in a monumental three-volume collection totaling 1035 pages, titled Songs of the Newfoundland Outports (SNO, Volumes 1-3,1965) (above). He documented British, French, Irish, Newfoundland and Gaelic songs, capturing and era when many people were still singing widely as the distraction of radio, jukeboxes, records, tapes, and television was beginning to affect their cultures.

Even today, SNO is still the largest published collection of Canadian folksongs and continues to be a key reference for both folksong scholars and musicians. A sample of 12 songs from SNO are online on the YouTube channel of the Canadian Museum of History.

Shortly following the publication of SNO in 1965, news of his work in this remote area inspired folk music scholars as well as folk revivalists to follow in his tracks. As Peacock had included the names and communities where he found his songs, many local musicians and singers were able seek out, learn and preserve their heritage and stimulate a traditional folk-music revival in Newfoundland. Some created their own blend of rock music with traditional folk music, called 'trad-rock'. His work influenced many local musicians, among them the popular Newfoundland trad-rock band Figgy Duff.

Decades later SNO became rare and expensive, so the Newfoundland-based recording company SingSong produced a CD-ROM using SNO material with 500+ songs from nearly 100 informants, and 40+ photographs. In 2006 this 'long-awaited CD-ROM version' was extensively reviewed with instructions about how to use it, by David Gregory, Athabasca University, in 'Kenneth Peacock's Songs of the Newfoundland Outports', 21 pages.

In 2019 the entire 3-volume SNO was posted online by the Trent University Library, Ontario, for anyone to read for no cost on the Internet Archive. You need a free account to borrow these 3 book for 1-hour increments, and access over 70 million other items, most in the public domain. (Search for 'Doukhobor' and find nearly 400 items.)

Another project, A Garland of Rue: Lithuanian Folksongs of Love and Betrothal (1971) edited by Ken, is a collection of Lithuanian matchmaking songs about 'the sad state of marriage.' For Peacock the songs were particularly interesting because the Lithuanian people were Christianized only in the 13th century; many of their songs still contained powerful references to pre-Christian beliefs when trees, stones, the sun and the moon were gods and goddesses. He was fascinated with mystical folk culture.

The Canada Music Week newsletter (Nov. 19-26, 1989) made this assessment of Kenneth Peacock: 'Several Canadian composers, including Harry Somers, John Beckwith and Keith Bissell, have made various types of concert settings of his folksongs, sometimes with specific artists in mind such as Maureen Forrester or the Festival Singers [of Canada]. And on a more popular level, professional folksingers have been using his material on recordings, radio and television for over 35 years. It has been said that his pioneering research and publications on so many cultures has contributed much to the current interest in multiculturalism in Canada.'

Kenneth Peacock was an avid reader who enjoyed the company of intellectual and creative peoples. He and composer Harry Somers were students of John Weinzweig. Although he did not personally know Glenn Gould, the two probably passed each other in the music conservatory's halls at the University of Toronto. Peacock recalls being in Marshall McLuhen's home in Toronto around 1953 when several professors were deeply engrossed arguing the merits of Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man (1951). As he was leaving, McLuhen, the master of 'the medium is the message', said: 'Do you know that there is a new toilet paper for executives? It is green in color and smells sweet with chlorophyll. Why? "For kissing sweet".'

During his teens, Peacock recalls when the famous Northrop Frye invited him and other students for classes in his home. 'He was a very kind person,' Ken told me, 'but people were afraid of him. He was intelligent and precocious. When dealing with literary criticisms at the table, he often quoted lengthy paragraphs by memory.'

Along with colleagues Marius Barbeau (1883-1969), Helen Creighton (1899-1989) and Edith Fowke (1913-1996), he is considered a pioneer in terms of his efforts to research and disseminate music in Canada, and was influential in the Canadian folk revival movement. His musical talents were greatly appreciated by Helen Creighton who employed him to do most of the transcriptions of her Nova Scotia collection. He also provided musical transcriptions for Robert Klymasz for some of his Ukrainian publications. His work was readily used by such professional folk song interpreters as Tom Kines (1922-1994) and Alan Mills (1913-1977). Alan Mills autographed a copy of his book Favorite French Folk Songs (1965) 'To Ken who knows so much more about our songs, then I do, and whose kindness in sharing his knowledge with others is deeply appreciated.'

Although he was not interested in organized religion, Peacock was always interested in spiritual matters, the search of the inner and outer spaces, and Chinese Tao. As time permitted in the 1980s, he went on retreats with a Tibetan Buddhist on top of a mountain near Lincoln, Vermont, USA.

In his 1995 article 'Culture and Continuity ...' (listed above) on page 35, he interpreted the imagery of several Doukhobor hymns and songs as being similar to Sibylline oracles '... often apocalyptic, warning of the dire consequences if the "true path" was not followed. ... The commune envisage ... is not unlike ... imagery ... reflected in several psalms and hymns sung by the Doukhobors in 1963 ... One is reminded here of the famous prophecies ... of the woman leader Lukeria Kalmykova ... many other parallels exist in Doukhobor texts ... to rival the fervor of many millenarianist prophets of out own time. ... '

His search for simplicity, sincerity, depth of meaning, and beauty were revealed here as they were in his photographic interests which he developed from his youth and later used in his fieldwork.

By the end of his folklore collecting career Peacock had made over 3,300 recordings on 560 tapes. His correspondence, essays, and visual and auditory materials of 2,500 songs from the field collections of 552 tape recordings recently formed the Kenneth Peacock fonds (F 669) at the Provincial Archives Saskatchewan, Regina; and the Kenneth Peacock Fonds, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA), with 144 audio reels (1951-1961). Earlier his full photographic and audio collection was catalogued and is housed at the Canadian Museum of Civilization [2013: Canadian Museum of History] in Hull [now in Gatineau], Quebec. He willed most of his estate to the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto which funds the 'Kenneth H. Peacock Lecture Series', and to the Main Branch of the Ottawa YMCA-YWCA [National Capital Region]. The legacy of this talented musician, composer, and folklorist lives on.

Imagine Perfect Resonance. A chord is struck, but never fades, sustained forever
Kenneth Peacock was a distinguished alumnus of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music. His body of work, as a composer and researcher for half a century, has made a significant impact on musical life in Canada. The Faculty of Music was very grateful to learn that Mr. Peacock had made a bequest to the University of Toronto in his will for the benefit of our music programs. With this legacy gift, the Faculty of Music will establish the Kenneth H. Peacock Lecture Series in Music in keeping with his lifelong interest in and contribution to the multi-dimensional study of music. Thank you Mr. Peacock. — (Brochure: 'A World of Song: The MacMillan Singers', University of Toronto, Faculty of Music, October 27, 2001.)

At over 1000 pages, SNO is used like an encyclopedia for Newfoundland singers and researchers. However, Peacock’s treatment of the material by way of tune-text collations, use of lines and stanzas from unpublished songs has always been somewhat controversial. Additionally, comparison of the field collection with Outports indicates that although Peacock acquired a range of material, his personal preferences frequently guided his publishing agenda.

In 2016, Dr. Guigné published a supplement to SNO titled: The Forgotten Songs of the Newfoundland Outports. It includes 127 songs taken from Peacock’s extensive archival collection at the Canadian Museum of History, which he had excluded from the original three-volume collection. This publication also includes extensive notes on the songs and brief biographies of 58 of the singers who provided this material. This new publication is far-ranging and eclectic. It includes music hall and vaudeville material along with country and western songs.

Forgotten Songs was launched November 30, 2016, in the MMaP Gallery, Memorial University of Newfoundland. An hour video (56 min.) of the event is online with extensive discussion of his work by the author and three professors. Anna is well introduced at minute 35:50 and describes this project she started in 2010, going back to Peacock's arrival in Newfoundland in 1951. (Reference 15 below)

For more than two decades after his death, Peacock's work has been publicly discussed:

2018 — the latest review of Forgotten Songs was published by Sparling, nearly 2 decades after Peacock died. (Reference 14 below)
2020 — Dr. Guigné launched her project Doughboys and Molasses, Oh!: Traditional Songs from the Gros Morne Region, video, (51 min) — She introduces Peacock at min. 16:50. (Reference 16 below)
2021 — Anna was interviewed on local St. John's radio to promote her new project-album — Doughboys and Molasses Oh!'. She extensively spoke about Peacock. (Reference 17 below)
2024 — a sample of 12 songs from SNO are online on the YouTube channel of the Canadian Museum of History.

Ken was a memorable human being. I was glad to have been friends with him from our first meeting in 1964 to his death in 2000. He is not forgotten.

Photo credits: (Left to right) (1) Appendix 5 : Plate 1, Photos of Kenneth Peacock (Caption: Kenneth Peacock, age 5 [1927]), Anna Kearney Guigné, 'Kenneth Peacock's Songs of the Newfoundland Outports: ..., Ph.D. thesis, 2004. PDF, page 845; (2) Taken for the 1956 Folkways album Songs and Ballads of Newfoundland, in Koozma J. Tarasoff collection, c. 1964; (3) K.J. Tarasoff collection, c. 1979, from a newspaper clipping; (4) 'Photographer unknown, Ralph Schlüter Archive (cropped)', Kenneth Peacock, Biographical information, Olympedia.