Musician who directed Men of the Deeps remembered for preserving coal miners' story

Men of the Deeps mourn loss Friends and family are mourning the loss of Jack O’Donnell, long-time conductor of Cape Breton’s Men of the Deeps.

A musician and teacher who served for 50 years as director of the well-known Cape Breton choir Men of the Deeps is being remembered for preserving the culture of coal miners through song.

John (Jack) O'Donnell died Thursday in Antigonish, N.S., surrounded by family. He was 83.

Former miners who sang for him say while O'Donnell was trained in piano and Gregorian chant, he was also a down-to-earth leader who gained a passion for collecting and arranging songs about the lives of the soot-covered men who made their living underground.

Longtime choir member Stan (Nipper) MacLeod, 66, said many of the choir's members had sung in church and around campfires, but O'Donnell taught them to sing in four-part harmonies that captivated audiences around the world.

They performed in their coveralls, workboots and hard hats with traditional miner's lamps, in venues that have ranged from community centres to Massey Hall in Toronto.

"He had some hard work to do when he got ahold of a bunch of miners," said MacLeod. "When he came on board, it was just somebody's idea. Jack made it happen. He did all the hard work."

The miner says sheet music wasn't used after he signed on at the age of 24. Instead, O'Donnell patiently taught the singers by ear, "over and over again, until we got it right."

The choir was formed in 1966 by Nina Cohen, who had founded the Miners' Museum in Glace Bay, N.S. Its first director was Steve MacGillivray, but later that year O'Donnell was engaged to conduct the choir and continued to do so until leaving for England in 1969.

The miners remained together and after O'Donnell returned in 1973, the Cape Breton Development Corp. hired O'Donnell on a full-time basis.

Stephen Muise, the current director of the Men of the Deeps, says he fell in love with their music as a boy, listening to his coal miner father learning the songs as a member of the choir. Eleven years ago, Muise became the assistant director, gradually taking over O'Donnell's role as his mentor received treatment for cancer.

"Jack was able to transform these campfire singers into a polished act that tours the world," he said, estimating that O'Donnell researched and arranged about 150 songs.

"His legacy is intertwined with the culture that comes from Cape Breton coal mining," he said. "Without Jack's continued support and research of that particular field, that story could be lost."

Perhaps the best-known example is Rita MacNeil's song, "Working Man," which O'Donnell re-worked for the choir's diverse voices -- ranging from bass to tenor --fine tuning it into the choir's signature piece.

Another song, "Their Lights will Shine," by Ron MacDonald of New Glasgow, N.S., spoke of the tragedy of the Westray mining disaster, with the lyrics, "Time and space cannot part this bond among us / Trees and stone mark the sacred place to be."

"Jack would often take songs that were written for a guitar player and a solo voice, and it was up to him to make it work for a 28-piece choir," recalled Muise.

Muise said the story of coal mining is similar in parts of the United Kingdom or in West Virginia, and O'Donnell included folk songs from around the globe in the repertoire.

Often, O'Donnell's gentle humour came into play, as he'd take on the persona of strict professor arguing on the stage with the miners about singing a country music tune, ending with a soloist donning a cowboy hat and defiantly proceeding with the tune.

In 1976, the Men of the Deeps became the first Canadian performing group to tour China after diplomatic relations between Canada and China were re-established in 1972.

The group also toured mining communities around North America under O'Donnell's leadership, while also performing at Roy Thomson Hall as part of the 1989 International Choral Festival.

O'Donnell was also a professor emeritus and former chair of the department of music at his alma mater, St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, where he worked for 40 years.

MacLeod says he'll miss a teacher whose sharpest rebuke for an off-key note was, "There's something a bit off with the tenors," without singling out the perpetrator.

"When he was with us, he was part of us, for sure. He was the boss and the leader, but he was certainly one of us."