David Slater

Slater, David

David (Dick) Slater. Organist, teacher, composer, choir director, b Glasgow 1869, d Toronto 31 Mar 1942. He studied music in Glasgow and in London where he obtained an ARCM. He came to Canada in 1911 to teach voice at the TCM, and he also taught at the Ontario Ladies' College, Whitby. For some years he was an organist-choirmaster in Toronto, first at Parkdale Presbyterian Church and then at Westminster Church. He wrote articles on vocal training for the Conservatory Quarterly Review and a book, Vocal Physiology and the Teaching of Singing (London 1911). Approximately 150 of his compositions were published, mainly by Harris, Larway, and Presser (often in The Etude). These included songs, anthems, piano pieces for pedagogical use, and orchestral transcriptions of some of his piano pieces. In those compositions he published before coming to Canada he often used pseudonyms. For instance, piano pieces were attributed to 'Paul Ambroise,' a number of the earlier songs to 'Kenneth Rae,' and his songs for children to 'Erland Hunt.' A fourth pseudonym was 'Leon Aubry.' Some of the works published in Great Britain and most, if not all, of the North American publications appeared under Slater's own name. Two sets of 12 piano pieces for young players - Pictures from Holidayland (ca 1916) and Pictures from Storyland (ca 1919) - were published by Harris, and a similar set - Pictures from Fairyland - was published by Presser in 1917. Graded Course of Vocal Studies (3 vols) was published by Harris in 1924.