National Network for Equitable Library Service

Four centuries ago... did people listen in a different way than we do now? How different were the sounds that they heard? And can we tune into their auditory world? Tracking down ancient sounds that still exist, evoking some which have become extinct, this acoustic film imagines the noises of Elizabethan society through the ears of those who listened four centuries ago.

A centuries-old caroling tradition takes place during Christmas and New Year's in a small Newfoundland outport. The carols and their tunes have been handed down through the ages in the community's oral tradition, and there is no written transcription of the melodies or their origins. For generations villagers have walked from house to house, entered darkened kitchens after midnight, and sung the carols as occupants listened in the darkness.

The story of a wayfaring music. A trio of Canadian folk musicians get together with their English counterparts to trace the roots of traditional melodies that travelled across the Atlantic with early settlers centuries ago. In North America the tunes evolved and changed. Now these musicians bring them back to see how they fit in their original "home." The documentary travels with them to Devon for a series of concerts and comparisons, tracing the relationship between old and modern fishing cultures on both sides of the Atlantic through a fascinating musical genealogy.

This playful report on the state of radio broadcasting in Canada travels from St. John's to Vancouver to the Canadian north, taking a critical look at how and why our radio sounds the way it does. It snoops into stations across the country, visits a radio training school, and asks radio critics to deconstruct the wireless world. Although the series was made in the 1990's, surprisingly little has changed two decades later.

This playful report on the state of radio broadcasting in Canada travels from St. John's to Vancouver to the Canadian north, taking a critical look at how and why our radio sounds the way it does. It snoops into stations across the country, visits a radio training school, and asks radio critics to deconstruct the wireless world. Although the series was made in the 1990's, surprisingly little has changed two decades later.

This playful report on the state of radio broadcasting in Canada travels from St. John's to Vancouver to the Canadian north, taking a critical look at how and why our radio sounds the way it does. It snoops into stations across the country, visits a radio training school, and asks radio critics to deconstruct the wireless world. Although the series was made in the 1990's, surprisingly little has changed two decades later.

Musicologists today give him credit for creating the modern canon of Newfoundland folksong. A star of regional radio and television with over a dozen record albums to his credit, Omar Blondahl was once a household name in Newfoundland. Then at the peak of his career four decades ago he suddenly disappeared, never to sing again. Even his family had no idea where he went. Beginning with genealogical records in Reykjavik and ending with an old man and a box of mementos in a Vancouver apartment, THE MAN WHO SANG GOODBYE sleuths out what happened.

This series presents Renee Rosnes in conversation with nine Canadian "statesmen of jazz" -- internationally- recognised musicians who have been instrumental in laying the foundations of today's jazz scene in Canada. Each 52-minute portrait features documentary recordings and music spanning the artist's career. Host Renee Rosnes may be the most accomplished Canadian pianist since Oscar Peterson, widely acclaimed as a performer, composer and bandleader.

This series presents Renee Rosnes in conversation with nine Canadian "statesmen of jazz" -- internationally- recognised musicians who have been instrumental in laying the foundations of today's jazz scene in Canada. Each 52-minute portrait features documentary recordings and music spanning the artist's career. Host Renee Rosnes may be the most accomplished Canadian pianist since Oscar Peterson, widely acclaimed as a performer, composer and bandleader.

This series presents Renee Rosnes in conversation with nine Canadian "statesmen of jazz" -- internationally- recognised musicians who have been instrumental in laying the foundations of today's jazz scene in Canada. Each 52-minute portrait features documentary recordings and music spanning the artist's career. Host Renee Rosnes may be the most accomplished Canadian pianist since Oscar Peterson, widely acclaimed as a performer, composer and bandleader.