Smith, Arnold Ian

Having graduated from Trinity College of Music in London, England, Dr. Ian Smith taught music for several years in that city before he emigrated to Canada. At the same time, he worked extensively as a piano-accompanist for a wide variety of instrumentalists and singers. Ian’s combined interests in literature and music led him to choose an interdisciplinary topic for his doctorate in English from the Université de Montréal. His love of music and literature led him to develop several courses dealing with literature and music combined, which he taught for twenty years at John Abbot College in Montreal. Dr. Smith also taught Theatre Workshop courses there (acting and literature) before retiring.

Essence of Victorian Opera: The Unheroic and the Heroic Middle-Class Tastes and Mores

2014 0-7734-4301-0
The work focuses on what led to the establishment of the unheroic in Victorian opera. It focuses sharply on two instrumental factors that gave rise to the unheroic; middleclassness and Victorian ideas on the morality and immorality of music.
An interdisciplinary examination of the literary, musical, and sociological aspects of the works written for the Victorian lyric stage. It presents a vivid picture of the 19th century English lyric stage and provides a framework for this study by examining some of the 17th and 18th century forerunners of the Victorian operatic repertoire.