French as an Inspiration to Canadian

By Diane E. Peters Wilfrid Laurier University Library

The of Canada, with the exception of Franqois-Xavier Garneau' S Histoire du indigenous native and music, is unlike Canada (l 845-48), which appeared in reaction that of many other countries, in that it did not to Lord Durham's Report on the Affairs of reach its current state as a result of British North America, written in 1839. development from primitive origins. Durham had stated: Canada's contemporary music has grown from roots transplanted from various mature There can hardly be conceived a nations, each with its own social and religious nationality more destitute of all that traditions, and introduced to diverse regions of can invigorate and elevate a people the country over a period of more than 300 than that which is exhibited by the years. As a result, it is difficult to speak of a descendants of the French in Lower distinctly Canadian musical style. Canada, owing to their retaining their peculiar language and manners. They However, national or regional are a peo le with no history and no characteristics have made themselves evident literature.P in music in a number of ways: through adoption of folkloric content, through Durham further recommended a policy for association with literary or artistic works by gradual assimilation of the French native authors or artists, through allusions to by the British, similar to that which had taken historical events, or through musical evocation place in Louisiana. Garneau, by resurrecting of visual elements such as geographic the past, not only revealed to French Canada features. The aim of this study is to provide a the facts of her secular history, but also the brief overview of the ways in which French essential traits of her national character. Canada has served as an inspiration to Canadian composers. The most immediate results of Garneau's influence were the poems of Octave Cremazie, The French Canadian Folk Heritage the legends and literary criticism of 1'AbbC Casgrain, and the first Canadian novel of merit, Les Anciens Canadiens (1863), by , the predominant form of Philippe Aubert de GaspC. A further impetus music in Canada to the end of the eighteenth to the cause of nostalgic patriotism was the century, was gradually supplanted by arrival of the ship Capricieuse from France in European musical tastes over the course of the 1855, marking the re-establishment of French nineteenth century, especially in urban centres, Canadian ties with her mother country, broken as communications became more rapid. since the days of the British conquest. By However, the rise of a music-conscious 1860, the trend towards the creation of a middle class did not mark the end of folk literature based on the memory of past glories traditions. The mid-nineteenth century and the virtues of the race manifested itself in witnessed a revival of interest in the the works of the Patriotic School of , traditional French , as part which included such figures as Louis of a general nationalistic trend. The first Frechette and William Chapman. literary manifestation of this movement was Musically, the patriotic movement On the whole, however, composers in the produced patriotic and a revival of late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries interest in their folk heritage among the made few attempts to find inspiration in their educated middle classes. This resulted in the folk heritage. At best, the Canadian publication of anumber of chansonniers, most environment was reflected in titles, texts, without printed music. However, these were or libretti. Most composers in the pre- later proved to contain few true folk songs. World War I era undertook their studies The first scholarly consideration of folk songs abroad, and having been trained in European was undertaken by Hubert La Rue (1833-91) methods, showed disdain for the simple folk and Ernest Gagnon (1834-1915), both of music of their homeland. As Gordon Smith whom had studied in France and had come points out in his article on Ernest Gagnon's under the influence of European nationalistic attempts to promote Canadian musical musical movements. La Rue's studies, nationalism, "with few exceptions, other published in Le Foyer canadien in 1863 and in French Canada were more 1865 under the title, "Les chansons populaires preoccupied with establishingtheir reputations et historiques du Canada," focused on based on writing in musical styles derived comparisons between French and Canadian from European traditi~n."~Even in the field versions of the same songs, and are of literary of folk music research little further study was and political rather than musical interest. undertaken. Musicians of the period assumed that Gagnon's collection had exhausted the More influential was Gagnon's Chansons supply of authentic French folk songs, and populaires du Canada, published in Quebec that the encroachments of modem society had City in 1865, a collection which included extinguished the last vestiges of local words and melodies of over 100 songs, with traditions. commentaries and analytical remarks on the musical structure. Gagnon's interest in It was not until the second decade of the folklore also inspired him to harmonize a twentieth century that this assumption was number of French Canadian songs and disproved. In 1910, Edward Sapir began Christmas carols. Similar were systematic research on native Indian folk made by composers such as Achille Fortier, music for the newly-created Anthropological Amedee Tremblay, Antoine Dessane, Oscar Division of the National Museum of Canada Martel, , Paul Gilson, and Jules in Ottawa and, in 1911, Marius Barbeau, Hone, some of whom also arranged folk songs together with a team of other researchers, took into rhapsodies or medleys. One of the most over the task of expanding the collection. notable of the latter was Joseph Vezina's Barbeau's study of native music led him to Mosazque sur des airs populaires canadiens further research on French Canadian (1880), famous chiefly because its first traditional music. In May 19 16, armed with a performance was coupled with the first of , a supply of blank wax records, Calixa Lavallee's 0 Canada. LavallCe was and notebooks, he set out to interview many also responsible for one of the few extended of the remaining folk singers of French compositions using folk material composed in Canada. The result was a collection of two the late nineteenth century. On June 11,1870, hundred folktales and nearly six hundred the official reception of the new Governor- songs. The search continued in subsequent General, the Marquis of Lorne, took place in years, and collaborators such as E-Z. . The cantata of welcome which Massicotte, Adelard Lambert, and Fraqois Lavallee had been commissioned to write for Brassard joined in. Barbeau and Massicotte the occasion was climaxed by a simultaneous published a new collection of folk tunes in rendition of "," "Vive la 1919, and an English language version, Folk canadienne" and "Cornin' Through the Rye," Songs of French Canada, with translations by a combination symbolizing the friendship Edward Sapir, was published by Yale between the French and British elements in University Press in 1925 and widely Canada. circulated. After 1920, the performance of French you will continue to encourage Canadian folk music was promoted by Canadian composers to seek out these baritone Charles Marchand and, sources in their musical works.5 later, by two male quartets which he founded, Le Carillon canadien (1922) and The Bytown While Gagnon's efforts to encourage a Troubadours (l 927). Principal arrangers of the style of folk-based musical nationalism had music for these groups were Pierre Gautier met with only limited success, the re- and Oscar O'Brien. Public interest in discovery of folk song in the 1910s to 1930s, Canadian folk songs was also aroused after and its promotion by such men as Barbeau, May 1927, when Barbeau and John Murray Marchand, and Gibbon, led to the production Gibbon, chief publicity agent for the Canadian of numerous harmonizations, arrangements Pacific Railway, presented the first of what and concert settings by Canadian composers became a series of Festivals of Folk Songs and such as Leo-Pol Morin, , Alfied Handicrafts, organized under the joint Whitehead, Hector Gratton, Sir Ernest auspices of the CPR and the National Macmillan, Alfred Laliberte, and Healey Museum. In Barbeau's words: Willan. During the same period, renewed pride in the national heritage had its Recitals and folksong and handicraft counterpart in literary movements; French festivals marked the revival of folklore Canadian research was carried out in all in the region until, after 1940, the aspects of national history and literature, and universities in French Canada became poetry and novels of rural life came back into interested. Scholars and students vogue. awakened to a new humanism based on the traditions of the pe~ple.~ However, in the 1940s and post-war years, many authors and musicians again began to In 1944, Luc Lacourcikre founded the reject such endeavours in favour of a more Archives de Folklore at Laval University, a international, progressive style, furthered by centre which has gained an international advances in the technology of communication. reputation. Extensive research on French- Nevertheless, folklore influences continued to Canadian music in northern has been be evident in a variety of works, including carried out since the late 1940s, and is many by composers of non-Quebec origin. currently centred at the Centre hco-ontarien Canada's folk heritage proved of particular de folklore in S~dbury.~Acadian music has interest in the years surrounding Canada's been a focus of studies at the Centre d'etudes centennial in 1967. acadiennes, established in 1970 at the Universite de Moncton. The Use of Folkloric Material in Musical Around the time that Barbeau was Composition beginning his folklore collecting activity, Ernest Gagnon had written to him: Folkloric material has been incorporated I have spent my life studying and into musical compositions in a number of documenting the history of our ways. country. It has always been my belief that the "discovery" of our roots True folk songs in their traditional would help establish a sense of environment were usually performed national identity. With particular unaccompanied or with instrumental doubling reference to music, I intended my of melodies, by soloists or unison voices. As work on our folksongs and the music such, they were not restrained by strictures of of our native Indians to lay a musical harmony and temporal measurement. foundation for a musical language Since the folk revival of the late 1920s, based on these repertoires. Perhaps Canadian composers employing direct quotation of French Canadian folk melodies 1929). The Suite was written at the conclusion have usually regulated these by means of of Champagne's term in Paris (1921-28), nineteenth-century metrical and harmonic where he studied counterpoint and fugue with idioms. Andre GCdalge, teacher of Ravel, Milhaud and Honegger. The work consists of four Choral settings of French Canadian folk movements, each a setting of a different folk songs display various treatments. Most song. The melodies are presented simply, but straightforward are the numerous simple the accompaniment incorporates such harrnonizations such as the Three French techniques as dialogue between woodwinds Canadian Folk Songs (1958) of Richard S. and strings, imitation, sycopated accents, long Eaton, or Richard Johnston's Folk Songs of sustained pedals, and the impressionistic use Quebec (1957), for a cappella (SATB). of the harp. There is little contrapuntal development; settings are basically homophonic, harmonies In some cases, composers use of folk song are diatonic, and modulations are avoided. seems inspired more by an interest in its Colour and textural variety are achieved by developmental potential than by the charm alternating verses in 4-part choral settings and simplicity of the original or by its patriotic with ones for male or female voices alone, or or nationalistic sentiment. For example, by increasing the choral weight on certain , in writing her Sonata for phrases of the text. and Piano of 1946, which employed three French Canadian folk songs, noted: In other works, there is more development of the folk material. For example, in "Petit There are certain basic sounds in all Rocher" fiom Violet Archer's collection of very old folk songs from almost any Three French-Canadian Folk Songs (1962) land which transcend race, colour, or for a cappella choir (SATB), textures open up, creed and make it the common with octave doubling on the melody and heritage of all peoples. My share of vocalized scale patterns in the women's voices French ancestry may make me rather on the phrase, "Ah! si j 'avais des ailes cornme partial to these particular songs of our vous." The third verse is shifted in tonality up early settlers and , but it is a minor third, involving a tritone leap between their purely musical qualities and the verses. In the a cappella setting of possibilities which influenced my Bonhomme, bonhomme (1964) by Talivaldis ~hoice.~ Kenins textural complexity results fiom extended use of imitation, rhythmic Folk melodies have been used in this way as a counterpoints, syncopation and antiphonal basis for numerous sets of variations, passages. rhapsodies, and fugues, many of which take considerable liberties in their rhythmic and A common approach, especially among melodic alterations of the folk themes. composers producing instrumental arrangements, is to present folk melodies with little or no development, and with colour and An extension of this approach is the use of interest lying in the accompaniment. One of melodic fragments or motifs fiom folk the most successful early works of this type material rather than entire songs. In-a work was 's Suite canadienne such as Sir Ernest MacMillan's "A Saint for choir and , premiered at the Male," one of his Two Sketches for String Festival of Canadian Song held in Quebec Quartet (1928), the introduction and City in 1928. This score was the first conclusion are based on a simple melodic Canadian symphonic work to be recognized figure derived fiom the second phrase of the internationally, and also the first work to be folk melody. In the middle section, each performed by a major European orchestra (the phrase of the folk melody is presented in turn, Concerts Pasdeloup Orchestre in Paris in but the first phrase returns several times in the course of the development section, suggestive Premiers hivernements (1986), for soprano, of a rondo. tenor and instrumental ensemble, is based on texts by and Marc The general spirit of a people can be Lescarbot that describe the hardships of life in evoked musically not only through the use of the New World. The exploits of the actual folk material, but through the use of seventeenth-century missionary Jean de folk-like melodies or rhythmic patterns. BrCbeuf have inspired several works, Franqois Brassard was one of Marius including ones by (1949), Paul Barbeau's successors as a collector of folkore McIntyre (1961), and R. Murray Schafer and an associate of Luc Lacourciere at Laval (1961). More recent times are reflected in Archives de Folklore. His Suite villageoise of Harry Somers' opera Louis Riel(1967), based 1948 for violin and piano is arranged in three on Metis history, and contemporary history in movements. The first, "Evocation," combines works such Carol Ann Weaver's Fourteen a simple chordal or arpeggiated Women (1 990) for instrumental ensemble, one accompaniment with a lyrical folklike tune. of a number of musical tributes to the victims The second movement, "Gigue simple," was of the 1989 Montreal massacre. inspired by a collected by Brassard in the Lac Saint Jean area. The third As noted earlier, the mid-nineteenth movement, "Conte de feux-follets," is a lively century revival of interest in the French- musical representation of a folk-tale. Canadian past inspired authors such as the poets Octave CrCmazie and Louis Frechette, Brassard's work, like others of its type, and their texts were frequently set to music for suggests the French Canadian spirit primarily patriotic occasions. Renewed pride in the through its use of rhythms. It is also national heritage in the 1910s to 1930s was one of a number of works inspired by also evident in the literary movements of the traditional folk legends. One of the most time. In turn, composeTs were drawn to the notable of these, described at the time of its works of poets such as Emile Nelligan. first production in 1966 as "the first totally original 3-act ballet written and produced in French as a source of North America,"' is 's Rose extra-musical inspiration became increasingly Latulippe. Set in Quebec in the winter of important after the mid-1950s, as Quebec 1740, the story is based on a theme common moved into the era of the Quiet Revolution, a in French Canadian folk literature, that of the period of both rapid change and growing Devil's intervention in everyday life. The nationalism. A younger generation of music incorporates atonality, aleatory composers found inspiration in the works of passages, and contemporary dissonances, but progressive poets such as Hector de Saint- is permeated with the country dance rhythms Denys Garneau, Gatien Lapointe, Wilfiid of an habitant celebration. Lemoine, Femand Ouellette and Paul Chamberland. Such works reflected a variety French Canadian History, Literature and of media and took various forms, e.g., Art Franqois Morel's Borkal(1959) for orchestra based on a text by Yves Prefontaine; Clermont In addition to the folklore heritage, Pepin's Hymne au vent du nord (1960), a broader French Canadian culture has also cantata for tenor and small orchestra, with text provided extra-musical inspiration to by Alfred DesRochers; Serge Garant's Cage composers. d'oiseau (1 962) for tenor and piano on a text by Saint-Denys Garneau; Pierre Mercure's It has not only been folk heroes such as Ti- Psaume pour abri (1963), a cantata for Jean the lumberjack who have captured the narrator. choir. instrumental ensemble and imagination of Canadian musicians, but tape, text by ~BbrielCharpentier; Micheline sometimes real-life heroes and events from Coulombe Saint-Marcoux's Arhalalartoq French Canada's past. John Beckwith's Les (1 971), electroacoustic music based on text by Gilles Marsolais and Noel Audet; Marc Other composers have attempted to evoke Gagnk's opera Menaud (1986), with the atmosphere of French Canada through the by the based on a novel of FClix- use of impressionistic techniques. One of the Antoine Savard; Andre Gagnon's opera most successful musical impressionists was Nelligan (1990), on a libretto by Michel Claude Champagne. His Symphonie Tremblay. While French Canadian literature gaspisienne of 1945 has been described as: primarily provided an impetus to Quebec composers, its influence was also felt outside the province, resulting in such works as descriptive of the GaspC countryside Madrigals (1967-73) for one or two voices and its people: sights and sounds of and instrumental ensemble by -based early morning, the rising fog, and the composer Bruce Mather, based on poems or sound of distant church bells of the fragments of poems by Saint-Denys Garneau. coastal villages, the craggy hills of the landscape, waves breaking upon the In addition to literature, the French shore, the chiming of church bells at Canadian artistic community has also attracted noon, the flight of sea-gulls over the the attention of composers. Franqois Morel's Perc6 rock.8 L 'dtoile noire of 1962, which reflects musically the iqfluence of Varkse, was In painting his musical picture, Champagne inspired by Paul-Ernile Borduas' 1957 stark employs various evocative techniques, black-and-white abstract painting of the same including sustained pedals, themes which rise name. Pierre Mercure, who also came under and fall like the ebb and flow of waves, the influence of Borduas and his circle in the orchestral colour derived fiom the use of late 1940s, began his exploration of instruments such as the harp and celeste, electroacoustic music in the late 1950s. His rhythmic subtleties, and an oboe solo which Structures mktalliques I et I1 (1961), built conjures up the melancholy and solitude of the from concrete sounds transformed GaspC fisherman. The work is not divided electronically and accompanied by into movements, but rather its sub-sections choreographic movement and projections, flow together; in the words of one were based on kinetic sculptures by Armand commentator, Vaillancourt. The movement of the work is free, like the movement of the waves in Musical Impressions of French Canadian ceaseless motion and every-changing Settings shapes, making us forget the tyrannical pulsation of the beats. ... The form renews itself at every Finally, French Canada has influenced moment; it progresses according to composers is through its natural beauty. In associations with musical landscapes, some cases Quebec settings are reflected by a play of perspectives musically by means of some of the approaches corresponding to those found in the suggested above, for example, through the use panorama of the Gaspe coast.9 of folk or folk-like material (William McCauley7sQuebec lumber camp (1953) for chamber orchestra), or through association Epilogue: Nationalism in Canadian Music? with the works of Quebec literature (Andre Prevost's Ode au Saint Laurent (1965) for This paper is rooted in research done string quartet, which employs serial originally for a thesis techniques in conjunction with a spoken text completed in 1973, a time when the interest in by Gatien Lapointe). musical patriotism sparked by the centennial celebrations of 1967 was still strong. Since the mid-1970s some composers, such as John Beckwith, have continued to explore Canadian potential basis of a distinct Canadian music," historical or regional themes in their works.lo has not been fulfilled, and that this is "largely While some of these compositions call upon owing to the poly-racial mix of Canadian the French Canadian heritage, Indian and Inuit society, and also because a distinct national music have also proven popular as sources of idiom presupposes a degree of cultural inspiration. A review of the acquisitions' isolation almost impossible to maintain in an catalogues of the from developed country in the later 20th century."' the past 20 years suggests that a large proportion of the folk-inspired works produced have been piano-vocal settings of It is interesting to speculate as to whether folk songs or choral arrangements designed the twenty-first century will witness a revival for use in schools or commissioned by groups of interest in Canadian history and folklore. such as the Festival Singers and Elmer Iseler Traditionally, difficult times have tended to Singers, although a number of more extended create a desire for a return to a simpler compositions have also been produced. " lifestyle and more traditional value systems. Will the events of fall 2001, and the sense of patriotism they have engendered, lead to a sense of nostalgia for the past which, in turn, Despite the existence of such a body of will have an impact on cultural production in works, it is still difficult to speak of a Canada? Could this translate into a renewed "Canadian" musical style. Helmut Kallmann interest in Canada's musical heritage on the and Stephen Willis have suggested that the part of composers? revival of interest in folk music in the 1910s and 1920s was "as much of a musical 'movement' as Canada has ever had." In We can only wonder. addition, they note that the prophecy of that time, namely, that "in folk idioms lay the true

Endnotes

1. C. P. Lucas, ed., LordDurham 'S Report on the Afairs of British North America, I1 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 19 12), 294.

2. Gordon Smith, "Emest Gagnon onNationalism and Canadian Music: Folk andNative Sources," Canadian Folk Mmic Journal 17 (1989): 38.

3. Marius Barbeau, Jongleur Songs of Old Quebec (Rutgers, NJ: State University Press, 1962), xviii.

4. Germain Lemieux, "Disques et cylindres au Centre franco-ontarien de folklore," CAML Review 29:2 (August 200 l), 26-32.

5. Letter from Gagnon to Barbeau, 8 August 191 1, translated by Gordon Smith, op. cif.,32.

6. Cited by Andrke Desautels, "Canadian Composition," in Aspects of Music in Canada, edited by Arnold Walter (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969), 114- 15.

7. "Standing Ovation for First Full-Length Canadian Ballet," The Canadian Composer (October 1966), 24.

8. Helmut Blume, Thirty-four biographies of Canadian composers (Montreal: CBC International Service, 1964), 25. 9. Andrke Desautels, "Canadian composition," in Aspects of music in Canada, edited by hold Walter (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969), 107.

10. The biography of Beckwith at the Canadian Music Centre Web site notes that, from 1981-91, as performer and arranger with the summer concert series, Music at Sharon, Beckwith produced close to 200 arrangements of earlier folk music and composed music drawn mostly from the Canadian heritage. He also collaborated with prominent Canadian writers, notably James Reaney, Jay MacPherson, Margaret Atwood, Dennis Lee, and bpNichol.

11 .A brief listing of works, compiled by Helmut Kallmann and Stephen Willis, is given in the article, "Folk- music-inspired composition," in the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, 2nd edition, edited by Helmut Kallmann and Gilles Potvin (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992), 482.

12. Ibid.