It’s not a moment that many Winnipeg Jets fans will remember – a random game from April 1978 in the World Hockey Association that saw the Jets taking on the Birmingham Bulls. It’s perhaps also unremarkable that the Jets’ caustic star of the age, Bobby Hull, got into a fight in the second period. It’s what happened next that makes this game go down in infamy. “Basically, Bobby Hull ended up in a bit of a fight on the ice with Dave Hanson,” explains Lawrence Wiliford, “... and Dave Hanson accidentally knocked off Bobby Hull’s wig, and it ended up on the ice.” Fast forward nearly five decades, and this moment has been immortalized in classical music by the Canadian Art Song Project. Using music written about the incident by the Manitoba-born composer Jocelyn Morlock with words by the Leacock-Award winning writer Bill Richardson, the group created a short film called The Piece Atop His Pate, which sees the music paired with animation. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } For Wiliford, who serves as the Canadian Art Song Project’s managing director and co-artistic director, the project serves a far deeper purpose of trying to engage new audiences in the genre. “I’ve always thought back to my early childhood and my upbringing,” he says, “and the things that really engaged me in classical music or introduced me to classical music were things like Disney shorts that explained what the orchestra was doing.” “My interest was to figure out how to bring more of this kind of classical music storytelling into a kind of digital space that people can just enjoy in little bits and engage with in a fun way.” .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } The Piece Atop His Pate features performances by baritone Keith Lam and pianist Stephen Philcox in Toronto, with the animation provided by students from Ontario College of Art and Design University’s experimental animation department that were on a field placement program. Together, the performers and production team produced a piece that has obvious nods to the hockey culture of 1970’s with its animation style and quotes from the old Hockey Night in Canada theme song embedded in the music while also creating an avenue for people to experience the intimate nature of art song on their own terms. “We don’t live only in the history of the old,” says Wiliford of those who perform art song. “We are very excited to be in the creative process, in the making new and telling stories that are of now. We’re just trying to say, ‘We are here, we are relevant, our stories are relevant, our Canadian stories are fun and silly and poignant, and we want to talk about that and be part of our contemporary culture.’” Audiences can learn more about The Piece Atop His Pate and the Canadian Art Song Project’s work by visiting their website.