Backgrounder: O CANADA! OH NO!

Dr. Mary Kennedy, associate professor of music education at the University of Victoria, conducted the “O Canada Project” in January 2010. The study examined how well secondary school choral music students could sing the Canadian national anthem. The cross-Canada study involved 275 participants from 12 schools, two each in six cities representing six provinces:

  • Vancouver, British Columbia (39)
  • Edmonton, Alberta (45)
  • Winnipeg, Manitoba (45)
  • London, Ontario (45)
  • Montreal, Quebec (52)
  • St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador (47)

Participating Schools:
  • Vancouver Technical Secondary School, Vancouver, British Columbia
  • Alpha Secondary School, Burnaby, British Columbia
  • Strathcona Composite High School, Edmonton, Alberta
  • Sturgeon Composite High School, Namao, Alberta
  • Murdoch Mackay Collegiate, Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • Westgate Collegiate, Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • Medway Secondary School, Arva, Ontario
  • Clarke Road Secondary School, London, Ontario
  • Trafalgar School for Girls, Montreal, Quebec
  • FACE School, Montreal, Quebec
  • Gonzaga High School, St. John’s, Newfoundland/Labrador
  • Bishop’s College, St. John’s, Newfoundland/Labrador

Schools differed in size, demographics, and language of instruction. Seven schools were small in size registering between 200 and 930 students while five were large housing over 1,000 students. Among the group were three rural schools, three suburban schools, four city schools, one sectarian school, one fine arts school, and one private girls’ school. All schools, with the exception of the fine arts school in Montreal, use English as the primary language of instruction. Several of these English schools have French Immersion classes; however the majority of the students are educated in English.

Results indicated that few students could sing the national anthem perfectly. Only 67 per cent of the total student sample was judged proficient in lyrics, making an average of two errors or less. More alarming were the results for melodic proficiency where only 46 per cent of students made an average of two melodic errors or less. These results are all the more disturbing due to the fact that students in the sample were enrolled in secondary choral classes where they received regular instruction in singing.

There were stark differences among the six provinces with respect to students’ knowledge of the national anthem (See Table 1 for percentages by province).

 

Table 1 - Results
Percentages of Proficiency of Lyrics and Melody of Canadian National Anthem________________

Lyrics         Melody__
Canada     Canada
67%            46%
NL               MN
87%            62%
AB                NL
83%            60%
BC               ON
76%            50%
ON              AB
65%            39%
MN              QC
57%            28%
QC              BC
36%            27%__

 

Other Highlights

 • The most common mistakes in English lyrics were:
        - Substituting “our” for “thy” at the end of phrase two
        - Substituting “with” for “in” in phrase two
        - Substituting “the” for “thee” at the end of phrase three
        - Substituting “our” for “the” at the beginning of phrase four

• The most common mistakes in French were:
        - Mispronunciation of “brilliants”
        - Singing “des” instead of “de” in phrase two

• Students were tested individually in their language of preference.

• Three qualified judges rated the performances and Pearson correlation tests confirmed their reliability was high.

• The judges rated the students in the accuracy of pitch and lyrics separately, generating two scores per student.