Remembering R. Murray Schafer

I can easily think of my life in these terms: the time before I knew Murray, 

and after.

I think that there are many who feel this way; who remember 

the precise moment that they first met him. 

He was that sort of person. 

For me, it was the late 1980's and I was visiting friends near Peterborough.

Murray dropped by.

He fixed me with his piercing eye and told me that he had 

AN IDEA.

Murray had a way of making you feel that his idea, an idea of great musical genius, 

was somehow about you.

Or perhaps, you, and the small part that he wanted you to play.

In my case, it was my years spent wilderness camping, cooking over an open fire, 

and being able to handle a canoe that sparked his interest. 

That, and the convenience of my being in the right place at the right time. 

A third person was needed to stern a canoe and help cook for fifteen,

for a three day musical performance planning session in the wilds of Haliburton County.

It was the very beginning of what was to become known as 'The Wolf Project'.

My role in all of this was so minor.

But even so, I felt a deep sense of belonging.

Murray believed that everyone played a part, and so even the 'kitchen staff' and 'sternswomen' 

were part of the brainstorming, the composition, the music, 

and most importantly the ritual of it all, 

from the very beginning.

For five summers, I spent a week as a member of the Wolf Project,

helped create masks, costumes, performances,

and most especially 'Firebird', constructed of tree limbs and twigs,

then floated out over the water at dusk and set on fire,

accompanied by echoing, haunting music in the most beautiful place on earth.

Life's demands led me, by necessity, in other directions.

But that involvement would touch every aspect of my life, influencing my work as a

visual artist, teacher and writer.

I am forever a follower of the creative vision of R. Murray Schafer.

I am forever a Wolf.

As fate would have it, my partner and I have lived for twenty-plus years

three kms south of Murray and his wife Eleanor James.

We became close friends, sharing meals, countless bottles of wine, 

ideas, music, art.

Happily, we were able to spend hours listening to the consummate storyteller 

relate our favourites from his past, 

again and again and again.

In recent years, as his stories slipped away, the bond of friendship turned to caring,

and a deep abiding love. 

We have listened to a great deal of the music of  R. Murray Schafer in the last week or so,

music filled with Murray, the sounds of his world, and as fresh and clear as the first light of dawn 

on that little lake in Haliburton Ontario where, for me, it all began.

It is his voice for the world to hear.

Photo collage: Anne Renouf                   Murray, Oct 2019

 RMS    July 18 1933 - August 14 2021