About Summer Music in the Garden

Tamara Bernstein
Artistic Director
Summer Music in the Garden at Home

About Toronto Music Garden

Guided tours of the Toronto Music Garden have been cancelled for the 2020 season; as well, the rental of hand-held audio players for self-guided tours has been halted for the time being. Harbourfront Centre's priority is the health and safety of both tour guides and tour participants given the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency. We encourage you to read more about the Toronto Music Garden below and invite you to explore its intricate pathways and beautiful landscaping on your next physically-distanced walk by the waterfront!

Harbourfont.live is home to our digital campus, a place where Harbourfront Centre brings you the magic of our in-person events virtually. Each venue page represents one of our physical spaces, with this page standing in for the beautiful Toronto Music Garden.

This delightful garden — a reflection in landscape of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G Major for unaccompanied cello, BWV 1007 — was designed by internationally renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma and landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy, in collaboration with landscape architects from the City of Toronto's Parks and Recreation department.

Two Canadian artists created special features for the Music Garden: Tom Tollefson, architectural blacksmith, fabricated the Music Pavilion; and Anne Roberts, Feir Mill Design Inc., designed the Maypole. The Toronto Music Garden is a City of Toronto park, located at 479 Queen’s Quay West on the waterfront between Bathurst Street and Spadina Avenue. It is open year-round and there is no admission fee. The Toronto Music Garden is wheelchair-accessible.

The Garden's Design: Hearing the Toronto Music Garden

Each dance movement within Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G Major for unaccompanied cello, BWV 1007 corresponds to a different section of the Toronto Music Garden.

Prelude – An undulating river scape with curves and bends

The first movement of the suite imparts the feeling of a flowing river through which the visitor can stroll. Granite boulders from the southern edge of the Canadian Shield are placed to represent a stream bed with low-growing plants softening its banks. The whole is overtopped by an alley of native Hackberry trees (Celtis occidentalis), whose straight trunks and regular spacing suggest measures of music.

Allemande – A forest grove of wandering trails

The allemande is an ancient German dance. Interpreted here as a Birch forest, the movement invites the visitor to swirl inward to various contemplative sitting areas, that move higher and higher up the hillside, culminating in a rocky vantage point that looks over the harbour through a circle of Dawn Redwood trees.

Courante – A swirling path through a wildflower meadow

Originally an Italian and French dance form, the courante is an exuberant movement that is interpreted here as a huge, upward-spiralling swirl through a lush field of grasses and brightly-coloured perennials that attract birds and butterflies. At the top, a Maypole spins in the wind.

Sarabande – A conifer grove in the shape of an arc

This movement is based on an ancient Spanish dance form. Its contemplative quality is interpreted here as an inward-arcing circle that is enclosed by tall needle-leaf evergreen trees. Envisioned as a poet's corner, the garden’s centerpiece is a huge stone that acts as a stage for readings, and holds a small pool with water that reflects the sky.

Minuets – A formal flower parterre

This French dance was contemporary to Bach’s time. Its formality and grace are reflected in the symmetry and geometry of this movement’s design. Hand-crafted with ornamental steel, a circular pavilion is designed to shelter small musical ensembles or dance groups.

Gigue – Giant grass steps that dance you down to the outside world

The gigue, or “jog,” is an English dance, whose jaunty, rollicking music is interpreted here as a series of giant grass steps that offer views onto the harbour. The steps form a curved amphitheatre that focus on a stone stage set under a weeping willow tree; a place for informal performances. Shrubs and perennials act as large, enclosing arms, framing views out onto the harbour.