Site designed by Michel-E. Proulx SCOTT ROSS, HARPSICHORDIST, An uncompleted destiny Biography of Scott Ross, Part 3 QUEBEC CITY "Anyway, a hero is always a troublemaker, who takes away their comfort from the others. And the more he succeeds, the more enemies he makes himself." (1)
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The School of Music of Laval University.
If the School of Music (which from now on we shall call the EMUL,after its French Initials) now has its rooms in the former Faculty ofTheology, then, at the beginning of the seventies it occupied, alongwith the Scool of Fine Arts, a small tower surrounded by tall pines,in front of the University's Library.
It is there that Kenneth Gilbert, who is the titular of the classof harpsichord at the EMUL in Quebec City, had his office. But in1973, too busy with his european commitments to be efficient in histeaching, he offered Scott to take his place. Scott thus arrived inQuebec City in October 1973, to give the first of two concerts thatthe authorities of the University have asked for, in order to judgeof his capabilities. Let's not forget, as a matter of fact, thatScott could boast of no scolarity whatsoever apart from hisConservatory degrees. He was welcomed in Quebec City by the Laforge,friends of Kenneth Gilbert, who shall host him and help him toinstall himself in his new life. Hubert Laforge was a professor ofapplied psychology and later was Rector of the Université duQuébec at Chicoutimi, but was also an amateur harpsichordmaker.
In February, he returned for the second concert. But there,accustomed to the mildness of Nice, he almost reboarded the plane onthe spot, as soon as he saw the climate in which he was landing !Those who have had a taste of the climate of Quebec City in Februaryshould understand him easily. And the Laforge needed use all theirpower of persuasion to convince him not to do it (2 ).
It is with the beginning of the 1973 term that he started hisperiod of teaching in Quebec City which would last for 12 years. Hewas at first appointed as lecturer, a temporary and unsteady solutionof which it cannot be said that it enthused him a lot. Concurrently,he rented a small and cheap flat, located in the Rue Sous-le-fort, inthe lower town, at the foot of the Escalier Casse-cou ("BreackneckStairway") which continues the Côte de la Montagne. That PlaceRoyale sector had barely begun to be the object of the Heritagerestoration works which made it the tourist trap it later became. Itstill was a very working class district, indeed, with very low rentsin 17th and 18th century houses that had not been cared for since avery long time. Hubert Laforge then lent him as single manualharpsichord of his own make which occupied by itself almost all ofthe second of the row of three small rooms. This quarter withoutdoubt evoked for him the old city of Nice, with the proximity of theharbour : he'd stay there for two years before he would move to therue Ste-Angèle, at the corner of the rue St-Jean, in the upperpart of Old Quebec.
His lecturer's contract with Laval University was to be renewedfour years in a row, which could not fail but to annoy him, for healways had a very high awareness of his worth. It was not until 1977that the EMUL would bestow him his first contract as a probatoryprofessor, part time, for three quarters time, and that for aduration of three years, starting on September first ‐‐ that isthe opening of the 1977 term. He was at that time responsible for theharpsichord class on the basis of eight hours a week, of the baroquemusic workshops on the basis of four hours a week, of the appliedstylistics course, of two hours of thorough bass course, of thesupervision of the auxiliaries, and took part in research activitiesin musical data processing along with his colleague, Martin Prevel, anow deceased guitar teacher (3).
In his Rue Ste-Angèle apartment, he started to collect hisminerals, and in a room in the back of the flat, he set a the loomwhich he had just bought. He truly loved that apartment which wasrather larger than the Rue Sous-le-Fort flat, with its windows thatgave upon the Rue St-Jean which is Old Quebec's busiest street.Inside, the party wall bore the traces of the rebuildiing of thestreet, at the end of the 19th century, and the wal's irregularitiesformed shelves upon which laid his collections. In the main frontroom, under the roof, a mezzanine made for the bedroom.
This was the time when he received his new harpsichord, built bythe American maker Willard Martin. They had met in Paris whereWillard worked in William Dowd's workshop (nowadays Atelier vonNagel). In the meantime, Willard had settled in his hometown ofBethlehem, Pennsylvania, which almost made them fellow countrymen(Pennsylvanian, that is...). This double manual instrument finallyreplaced the single manual harpsichord lent by Hubert Laforge, andwhich couldn't suffice to his daily work. Moreover, contrarily to theRue Sous-le-Fort apartment, the living room was large enough for theharpsichord not to stand into too cramped a space.
Moving Away to Limoilou.
Alas, following a dispute with the landlord of his RueSte-Angèle apartment, he had to move. He chose to go out tothe working class district of Limoilou, in the lower town of QuebecCity, at number 551 of 3rd Avenue. He there occupied a large 5 roomsflat, kitchen included, almost empty of furniture, with his WillardMartin harpsichord in the front room, his brass bed in the middleone, his loom in the back room, and a low table knocked up with aboard and some crates in the dining room which occupied the centralspace. Against this dining-room's wall, he built a large glassdresser which took the whole width, and in which were set his books,but most of all his collections of minerals, passion which he hadextrapolated from his fascination for precious stones. Theharpsichord room became for a half a greenhouse where plantsproliferated. Some times later, he was to make the back room into adarkroom, when he started doing photographs.
The Official Recognition.
In 1978, Scott decided to avail himself of a disposition of thestatutes of Laval University, which allow a teacher, where hispersonal curriculum justifies it, to ask for a Ph.D.'s equivalence,in the case that the pursuit of a university career should requirethe possession of the said doctorate (Philosophiae Doctor). He was bythe way the first ever to avail himself of that disposition. And itis thus that, in April 1978, he appeared before a jury composed withspecialists from Toronto and Calgary, as well as from LavalUniversity, who listened to him for an hour, before they startedquestioning him. It must be here precised that he would have arrivedempty handed, had it not been for Hubert Laforge who insisted that heshould at least bring his recordings (4) ‐‐ at that time, hehad already made "Mr Bach", the Rameau, and the Couperin completeworks. But the jury soon had to admit the worth of the candidate'sknowledge, and the Ph. D.'s equivalence was unanimously granted,which allowed the deacon of the Faculté des Arts to recommendhim, on June 19th of the same year, for the position of assistantprofessor, if possible with retroactivity to September 1st 1977, orotherwise, at the date of the Ph.D.'s equivalence. Which shall bedone on October 12, with retroactivity to June 1st 1978.
In August 1979, the contract was extended to May 31 1983, underthe part time clause, which was to give rise to a dispute with theUniversity, while they would not take account of his years of serviceas Kenneth Gilbert's assistant for the calculation of his seniorityyears. The Director of the EMUL did deem the demand legitimate, butthe deacon opposed the professor's young age to the recognition ofhis establishment (5).
At the same time he was thinking about moving. This was an olddream of his, and so he signed a buying option for an old house some15 miles north of Quebec City, in Valcartier. We often saw each otherat that time, while he often called at my workshop, and willinglytold me of his projects. He had the intention, did he say, to buildan organ there, a French Baroque organ. He'd open the ceiling of themain floor for it, as well as other fabulous projects. Was he trulyprepared for the isolation of the country life, especially in winter? The truth is that the project soon fell through. It might have beena convenient excuse but anyhow, he denounced the contract with thepretext that the vendor had taken away the cast iron stove thatserved for the heating ; and in order to avoid an ill engaged suit,he agreed with the vendor for an out of court settlement.
Candidacy to the Direction.
In 1979, the position of director of the EMUL had to be renewed.Father Antoine Bouchard, an organist, did not stand for electionagain. To a small group of professors the candidate to hissuccession, Elise Paré-Tousignant, seemed to represent acontinuity with the line which Father Bouchard personified, whichsure was a cause of worry. One of Scott's colleagues, Mr MartinPrevel, a professor of guitar involved in top-level research overmusical data processing, told me he had at that time worried aboutwhat little place and consideration that research was allowed in thatline of thinking, a line which was naturally conservative as much onthe musical level than on the organological level. Scott, forhimself, as well as a certain number of professors and students (6) ,did regret that the most recent currents in the interpretation ofancient music should be so ill considered by the School'sauthorities, and wished for an input of some fresh blood.
Scott, thus backed by some of his colleagues, decided to put forthhis candidacy for the position of director of the EMUL. But by doingso he did go against a whole patch of a certain conservatism, notonly in the musical field, but also the social field, and it is wellknown that students are not necessarily the most revolutionnary ofall ! As for the other professors, many fostered some doubts aboutScott's capabilities to hold the part with efficiency, but somenevertheless wanted to bet on the opposite.
The vote was very tight, with many turns of scrutiny, and beingodd the number of the voters, the result never went over 50,5%, withsome "treasons", that is to say someone whose vote shifted in favourof one and then the other, doubtless in the hope to put a term to thelocking. But there was a deadlock, and with the university statutesdemanding that there be a majority of 50% plus one voice, it wasdecided to suspend the vote and to name a provisional director (7) .Scott always held this aborted election for a failure, and so didMartin, who, years later, while mentioning his heart weaknesses andimplying the pressures which had borne on him, refused to talk toomuch, for fear of putting his research program in jeopardy.
This episode had at least the virtue of comforting those who hadregistered elsewhere, desirous as they were to receive Scott'steaching but knew that, if he had been to win the election, he'd havebeen unable to teach. Catherine Perrin was one of them.
