Georges-Émile Tanguay was a Canadian composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, organist

Organist

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

, pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

, and music educator. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre

Canadian Music Centre

The Canadian Music Centre holds Canada's largest collection of Canadian concert music. The CMC exists to promote the works of its Associate Composers in Canada and around the world....

, his compositional output is relatively small; consisting of 4 orchestral works, 4 chamber music pieces, 9 works for solo piano, 2 works for solo organ, and 4 choral works. The library at Université Laval

Université Laval

Laval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...

 holds many of his original manuscripts and his personal papers.

Life and career

Born in Quebec City

Quebec City

Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...

, Tanquay earned a lauréat diploma from the Académie de musique du Québec where he was a pupil of Léon J. Dessane and Joseph-Arthur Bernier

Joseph-Arthur Bernier

Joseph-Arthur Bernier was a Canadian organist, pianist, composer, and music educator. Born in Lévis, Quebec, he was the senior member of a prominent family of musicians from Quebec City...

. He also studied with Arthur Letondal and Romain Pelletier

Romain Pelletier

Romain Pelletier was a Canadian organist, choir conductor, composer, and music educator. His compositional output consists entirely of works for solo organ and motets...

 in Montreal. From 1912-1914 he studied with Louis Vierne

Louis Vierne

Louis Victor Jules Vierne was a French organist and composer.-Life:Louis Vierne was born in Poitiers, Vienne, nearly blind due to congenital cataracts, but at an early age was discovered to have an unusual gift for music. Louis Victor Jules Vierne (8 October 1870 – 2 June 1937) was a French...

 (organ) and Félix Fourdrain

Félix Fourdrain

Félix Fourdrain was a French organist and composer. He is chiefly known for his operas. Many of them were written in collaboration with librettists and poets Arthur Bernède and Paul de Choudens; the best of which are La Glaneuse , Madame Roland , and Vercingétorix Félix Fourdrain (3 February 1880...

 (harmony) in Paris. He then lived and worked in New York City where he studied the organ with Pietro Yon

Pietro Yon

Pietro Alessandro Yon was an Italian-born organist who made his career in the United States.Yon was born in Settimo Vittone, , and studied at the conservatories of both Milan and Turin, also attending the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome...

 and Gaston Dethier

Gaston Dethier

Gaston Marie Dethier was an American organist, pianist, and composer of Belgian birth. Born in Liège, he was the son of organist Emile Dethier, the brother of violinist Edouard Dethier, and the uncle of physiologist Vincent Dethier. He studied at the Royal Conservatory in his native city with...

.

Tanquay returned to Paris in 1920 to study with Vincent d'Indy

Vincent d'Indy

Vincent d'Indy was a French composer and teacher.-Life:Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine François Marmontel and...

 at the Schola Cantorum

Schola Cantorum

The Schola Cantorum de Paris is a private music school in Paris. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Bordes, Alexandre Guilmant and Vincent d'Indy as a counterbalance to the Paris Conservatoire's emphasis on opera...

. He remained in that city for the next five years studying under Georges Caussade

Georges Caussade

Georges Caussade was a French composer, music theorist, and music educator. Born in Port Louis, Mauritius, he joined the faculty of the Conservatoire de Paris in 1905 as a teacher of counterpoint. He began teaching fugue at the school as well in 1921; a position his wife, composer Simone...

 (harmony and counterpoint), Édouard Mignan

Édouard Mignan

Édouard Mignan was a French organist and composer.He was born in Orléans and 14 years old he became the organist of église Saint Paterne. He studied organ in Paris with Alexandre Guilmant and Louis Vierne and won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1912. He was organist at Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin from 1917...

 (organ), and Simone Plé-Caussade

Simone Plé-Caussade

Simone Plé-Caussade was a French music pedagogue, composer and pianist. She wrote mainly works for solo piano and organ in addition to choral works, songs, chamber music, and sacred music...

 (piano). He returned to Canada in 1925 to assume the post of organist at Église de l'Immaculée-Conception, Montréal. He remained there through 1945.

As an educator, Tanguay taught privately and at a number of institutions. In the 1930s he taught at the Conservatoire national de musique

Conservatoire national de musique

Conservatoire national de musique was a music conservatory in Montreal, Quebec that was actively providing higher education in music during the first eight decades of the 20th century...

. He was one of the original faculty members at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal when the school opened in 1943. He later taught harmony and organ at the Université de Montréal

Université de Montréal

The Université de Montréal is a public francophone research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It comprises thirteen faculties, more than sixty departments and two affiliated schools: the École Polytechnique and HEC Montréal...

. Many of his students had successful careers, including musicians Léon Bernier, Maurice Blackburn

Maurice Blackburn (composer)

Joseph Albert Maurice Blackburn was a Canadian composer, conductor, sound editor for film, builder of string instruments, and musical adviser. A graduate of the Université Laval and the New England Conservatory, he won the George Allan Prize in 1940. From 1942-1978 he worked as a film composer...

, Marcel Laurencelle, Gilberte Martin, Marcelle Martin, Magdeleine Martin, Lucien Martin

Lucien Martin

Lucien Martin was a Canadian violinist, conductor, and composer. Only one of his compositions was published, the art song La Chanson des belles, which was performed by Jeanne Desjardins in its premiere on the CBC Radio program Sérénade pour cordes.-Life and career:Born in Montreal, Martin was the...

, André Mérineau, Renée Morisset

Renée Morisset

Renée Morisset, OC, CQ was a Canadian pianist. She and her husband, Victor Bouchard, were one of the foremost piano duo in Canadian classical music.-Honours:...

, and Micheline Tessier.