The Power of Stories: Canadian Music Scholarship’s Narratives and Counter-Narratives

This article is a reflection on how narratives of Canadian music scholarship have shifted since the late 1980s, generally moving toward an array of “diversity narratives.” It questions how government policy, academic institution building, increased interdisciplinarity, new configurations of individual and collective experience, and new regional or nationalist discourses have played a role in this shift. It suggests that Canadians may be particularly well poised to lead in the study of how multiple narratives and “sovereign aesthetics” can coexist.