O Canada composer Calixa Lavallée
Melody
"O Canada" is a 28-bar song originally written in the key of F major for four voices and piano, as a march in 4/4 time to be played "maestoso e risoluto" ("majestic and resolved"). The original manuscript has been lost.Musicologist Ross Duffin has argued that Lavallée constructed the melody for "O Canada" by adapting material by Mozart ("March of the Priests", measures 1–8), Wagner ("Wach auf, es nahet gen den Tag", measures 9–16), Liszt ("Festklänge", measures 17–20), and Matthias Keller ("The American Hymn", measures 21–28).History
The French lyrics of "O Canada" were written by Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier, to music composed by Calixa Lavallée, as a French Canadian patriotic song for the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society and first performed on June 24, 1880, at a Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day banquet in Quebec City. At that time, the "Chant National", also by Routhier, was popular amongst Francophones as an anthem, while "God Save the Queen" and "The Maple Leaf Forever" had, since 1867, been competing as unofficial national anthems in English Canada. "O Canada" joined that fray when a group of school children sang it for the 1901 tour of Canada by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall (later King George V and Queen Mary). This was the first known performance of the song outside Quebec.
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