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Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

Summer 1999

Margaret Laurence's ''Album'' Divining For Missing Links And Deeper Meanings

Wes Mantooth George Washington University

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Mantooth, Wes, "'s ''Album'' Songs Divining For Missing Links And Deeper Meanings" (1999). Great Plains Quarterly. 1589. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1589

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Canadian novelist Margaret Laurence at her home in Lakefield, Ontario, ca. 1985. Photograph by Doug Boult, Village of Wellington, Ontario, KOK 3LO, . MARGARET LAURENCE'S ''ALBUM'' SONGS DIVINING FOR MISSING LINKS AND DEEPER MEANINGS

WES MANTOOTH

[The Diviners] still needs a lot of work, general cutting of corny bits and putting things into reasonable shape and so on .... BUT-oh John. Wow. Zonk. Kapow. Etcetera. Goddamn novel is in present typescript 527 pp, and I have written 4 songs for it, and-what I really want is to convince publishers that there should be: this novel, with maps, portraits, songs, for songs, records of songs being sung, and all that. I may have gone berserk, John but I DO NOT SO. I feel great. Jack McClelland [Laurence's publisher], when I tell him, will probably feel lousy, but let us not think of that for the moment.!

While Margaret Laurence's artistic legacy writing as a creative outlet. Drawing on these rests primarily, and rightly so, on her output memoirs and letters, along with my own pri­ of novels, her memoirs and published letters mary research, I have tried to sketch a portrait reveal tantalizing glimpses into a much less of Laurence's musical life, with a particular known, and yet not unrelated, aspect of her focus on how her musical interests coalesced artistic interests-a lifelong passion for mu­ in The Diviners' "Album"-four songs included sic, which included a desire to explore - in the .text of The Diviners, compiled with melodic notation at the end of the , and (as hinted in Laurence's letter above) recorded Wes Mantooth is a doctoral candidate in the English onto a disc which, except for promotional Department at George Washington University. He purposes, ultimately was not available for sale recently won the]. Golden Taylor Award for Outstanding Graduate Paper from the Western Literature Association with the novel. This recording, I believe, is a conference. Please check our website: <

167 168 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1999

Very few critics discuss the (printed) "Al­ also gave her a love of African music and bum" songs beyond commenting briefly on dance.7 their contextual function within the novel­ In an era when adults of Laurence's genera­ as an orally passed family legacy handed from tion often condemned for cor­ Jules's generation to Pique's, linking past, rupting youth and turning them away from present, and future. Only Walter Swayze, to their parents' values, Laurence seems to have my knowledge, has noted the existence of a been unusually open to the music of her recording and (favorably) remarked on its aes­ children's generation. During the decade from thetic qualities.2 Certainly, the lack of exten­ 1963 to 1973, when Laurence lived in the sive critical investigation into these songs sprawling, six-bedroom "Elm Cottage" in Penn, must be attributed in part to the practical in­ Buckinghamshire, England, young Canadian accessibility of a recording to scholars and, artists, including many , frequently so, to the general public. Despite the stayed at her home. One room in Elm Cot­ current unavailability of this recording, an tage, a "sitting room" to previous inhabitants inquiry into the "Album" songs offers valu­ of the house, became a "music room" where able insight into the unique artistic vision(s) impromptu performances often occurred. Near that shaped their style and function in end of her at Elm Cottage, while Diviners. By restoring critical interest in these working on The Diviners' songs, Laurence songs-specifically in the recording of them­ would claim that although she felt "unsure of and demonstrating Laurence's conviction in writing in the idiom of a generation younger their artistic integrity and structural impor­ than myself ... christ knows I've heard thou­ tance to her novel, it is not inconceivable sands of the kids' songs from young Canadians that the recording will someday finally reach a visiting here, not only from records" (VLS, wider audience and, as I maintain, significantly 79). enrich a reader's experience of The Diviners.3 IMPETUS FOR INCLUDING SONGS LAURENCE'S MUSICAL BACKGROUND IN THE DIVINERS

Music, in various capacities, always had an Part of Laurence's creative decision to work integral role in Laurence's life. Although writ­ with song writing characters and, ultimately, ing was unquestionably the strength through actual songs in The Diviners seems to from which Laurence defined and distinguished a personal frustration over the inadequacy of herself during her youth, as a teen she did play words to express inner feelings. In a letter to violin in the Neepawa Collegiate Institute or­ Canadian poet Al Purdy, Laurence articulates chestra.4 Friends from her student days at her trepidation on overcoming inherent limi­ United College in Winnipeg fondly remem­ tations in the printed medium of the work she bered "the girl who stamped around the resi­ knows she must write: "I don't want to think dence room ... at the top of her voice of that goddam novel. Dunno how to tackle it. with more gusto than tune."5 A later friend, I realize more and more that realism bores me the noted Canadian folklorist and musicolo­ to hell, now. No way I can do it in straight gist Edith Fowke, recalled that Laurence "was narration. Can't think of any other way. Stale­ particularly fond of labour songs; she knew mate. Words fail." Not insignificantly, she many of the ones in my book Songs of Work wryly suggests that "maybe I should take up and Freedom, and told me she used to sing painting or music? No? No."8 them when she worked in Winnipeg [as a jour­ Although the (and idiosyncra­ nalist for the Winnipeg Citizen] back in the sies) of language captivate The Diviners' pro­ forties."6Laurence's years in Africa in the 1950s tagonist, Morag, she (like Laurence, a novelist) "ALBUM" SONGS 169 often casts doubt on her choice of words as a from the youth of Laurence's children's gen­ medium of artistic expression: "1 used to think eration, who generally were attuned much that words could do anything. Magic. Sorcery. more closely to the medium and message of Even miracle. But no, only occasionally."9 popular music than to the novel. Laurence, like Morag, chose the novel-a long, complex, and highly literate form-as her pri­ COMPOSING THE SONGS - mary medium of artistic expression. However, THE COLLABORATION she realized (as Morag comes to realize) that people who lack a rich and erudite palette of In her memoir, Dance on the Earth, Laurence language may still find compelling artistic provides an extremely brief sketch of the cir­ forms of self-expression. She further believed cumstances that inspired her in the course of that a wide range of communicative forms­ her work on The Diviners to create these songs: linguistic, visual, aural, and various combina­ "I realized I had a small problem. I was writ­ tions of these-might express ideas and ing about a character [Jules T onnerre] who emotions more directly and forcefully, and to composed songs, but I was trying to describe a wider audience, than the novel could. the songs without the songs themselves actu­ As one such medium of self-expression, a ally existing. I found it unconvincing." At song, by melding verbal and musical language, this point, Ian Cameron enters the story. may potentially enrich or transcend the sur­ Laurence's friend Clara Thomas had intro­ face meaning of its words. As Laurence's mu­ duced Laurence to Ian and his wife, Sandy, in sical collaborator on The Diviners, Ian 1969, when Laurence accepted -year Cameron, speculated in his letter to me, "I (1969-70) writer-in-residence position at the think now ... that what attracted Margaret to University of Toronto. Laurence was at that the songs was the fact that the tune would time living in England with her two adoles­ carry an archetypal pattern, an emotional and cent children, David and Jocelyn. She wanted spiritual wholeness, which words are only a her children to be able to stay in England while part of. The experience of listening to a song, she went to Toronto, and needed someone to particularly a live performance, is one in which look after them. At Thomas's recommenda­ the mind is occupied with the words, the heart tion, Laurence chose the Camerons for this with the music, and the whole of oneself with job. "Clara had known them both for some the being of the song which is greater than time, Ian as a graduate student of hers at words or music." [University, Toronto] and Sandy as a don [Le., So, the characters of Jules and Pique, and tutor at a British college] there" (DE, 201). their songs, provided vehicles for Laurence to The Camerons remained close to Laurence explore and demonstrate this range of ideas. after she returned to England and worked on The songs allow us to see deeper and with The Diviners in 1970-72, often driving up to more sympathy into the characters who wrote visit Laurence's sprawling "cottage" (affection­ them than their spoken words and actions ately known as "Elmcot") on weekends. Sandy alone would allow. They provide powerfully kept a vegetable garden there, and Ian was a condensed and highly emotional alternate frequent participant in Elmcot's musical gath­ "versions" of events which are also approached erings. So, in 1972, Laurence told Ian, "who within The Diviners' narrative from Laurence's composed a lot of songs himself," of the "small (and Morag's) novelistic perspective. And, problem" posed by her songwriting character these songs speak through folk and folk-pop (DE, 201). Ian, as Laurence recalled in her idioms which, in their relative simplicity and memoirs, "suggested I try to write some [songs] familiarity, may elicit deep and immediate re­ of my own. I didn't think I could-I'd never sponses from a wide audience-particularly been a . Ian said, 'How do you know 170 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1999 until you try?' So I did. I had a tune in my was asking me?! ... Now Margaret was speak­ mind for the ballad of Jules T onnerre, so I wrote ing of including songs in her novel, but she the words and whistled the tune to Ian. A said that she wasn't sure she could write them. week or so later, he came back with his guitar I longed to say, so OK, let me do it! But what and played the song to me. I was so encour­ I said was, you won't know if you can aged that I went on and wrote the words for write songs until you try. And I thought, I'm three more songs, with Ian composing the bloody sure you can do it."IO music. The completion of The Diviners was, in Contrary to what she says in her memoirs, a sense a team effort" (DE, 201). This recol­ Laurence did much more in the first unveiling lection, written more than a decade after com­ of "The Ballad oOules Tonnerre" than merely pleting The Diviners, glosses over many "whistle the tune" to Ian. As Cameron recalls, revealing and fascinating details about this "team effort" (although Laurence's very label­ Margaret asked Sandy and Bob and Paula ing of her book's composition as such is an [Berrypl and me to Elm Cot in a week or so astonishing acknowledgment of how integral [after the encounter described in the previ­ and essential she felt these four songs were to ous quote]. In the old sitting room (the the finished novel-even many years after the music room, called it) she finally sum­ initial euphoria and wonder over their com­ moned up enough courage to appear. Be­ position must have passed). fore that, she'd been in her study with Many of Laurence's published letters from Sandy, talking about the characters she'd late 1972 to late 1973 refer briefly to the com­ created.... Then finally Margaret came position and recording of these songs, and to room, and stood like some later negotiations over inclusion of a record­ girl at a Sunday School presentation, hands ing of them with the.noveL These letters leave folded and alL And she started, then no doubt as to Laurence's astonishment and stopped, and then we got her started again, joy at being "given" several songs (she held a and she sang 'The Ballad of Jules T onnerre'. view-part humble, part mystical-that her The Sunday School presence disappeared, songs had formed somewhere beyond her con­ and she thumped her foot on the floor like scious imagination) and to her firm commit­ a backwoods singer. Bob and I looked at ment to their artistic contribution to her noveL each other, found the key, and started play­ Ian Cameron's invaluable letter to me, how­ ing along. Margaret finished, and we were ever, provides the most coherent and com­ all knocked out. Dead simple tune and all, plete story of this unusual artistic collaboration but it worked, and what ! But all and most fully documents his own highly sig­ Margaret could repeat, over and over, was nificant role-along with that of the other that Bob and I had turned it into music by involved in this project-in bring­ playing three chords to it! It was a high, ing these songs to fruition. and Margaret decided that she could, after Ironically, because it shows the author from all, continue to work on the remaining songs a third-person, and yet intimate, perspective, (I suspect that they were already drafted Cameron's letter at times gives more colorful out). insight into Laurence's passionate relationship to these songs than Laurence's own words: Despite this quick fruition of her new found "Margaret first approached me in the hallway ability to create songs, Laurence still felt some outside her study early in the New Year of trepidation about including them in her noveL 1973, and with a coyness which was most un­ In a letter to Dale Zieroth, a writer from her like her, asked whether I thought there could hometown (Neepawa, ), she admits be a place for in her noveL I was self-doubt about this artistically risky venture: quite as taken aback as excited-the writer "This is perhaps very foolhardy of me, I mean "ALBUM" SONGS 171 to compose songs in the name of several of my So, though I am credited with the music, characters, but it the right thing. Of and Margaret with the words, that is an course, it adds to the already huge length of oversimple convenience. She created the the damn thing, too!" (VLS, 230). And, when tune for 'The Ballad', and we both worked Purdy expressed "misgivings about the accom­ on her words for the rest of the songs. I still panying song bit and all that," Laurence con­ have drafts where I've scratched out bits ceded that, "Yeh, I agree about the songs, she wrote and tried whole different ways of actually-it's just that I've enjoyed doing setting words. But I couldn't say for sure them, as it is very different from anything I've now whose words are whose-we worked ever done. The novel does not hinge on them together and then, as she heard the song at all, and in fact they take up a very small part sung, we both began to know what held the of the book. They simply express a part of magic. The tunes for the three songs are Jules which he could not express in ordinary mine, but then again, I was responding to speech, or would not"(FL, 2 71, 275). But the emotion about the characters which she Laurence clearly did see the songs as some­ expressed with so much power. thing important to her book: although exces­ sive length was a prime concern as she sent RECORDINGS AND NEGOTIATIONS the manuscript to her publisher, the songs were never cut. Two recordings of Laurence and Cameron's While Laurence suggests that she simply songs were made before the book's publica­ gave Cameron the in their final form to tion in 1974. In late February of 1973, Ian be set to music, Cameron's letter details a more Cameron and Bob and Paula Berry recorded complex back-and-forth collaboration, show­ the songs at Elmcot on Cameron's Tandberg ing Laurence's firm aesthetic control and de­ recorder while Ian's wife, Sandy, and termination to make these songs exactly mesh Laurence's son, David, engineered. In a letter with her conception of the characters in whose from this time, Laurence remarked, "this house name they were written: is filled with recording equipment.... I find all this kind of exciting" (VLS, 231-32). She Over the next few weeks she sent me a draft took this recording with her on a Canadian of 'Song for Lazarus', then 'Song for reading tour in support of her new novel later Piquette', and finally 'Pique's Song'. She that year. A letter to Al Purdy from this time didn't give any ideas for tunes to these suggests that Laurence actually made this re­ songs .... So, for each of the songs, I just cording the feature of her appearances: "Well, received the words she'd send, and I'd pick I have to state that if one is gonna put a show out a tune to it, find where the words she'd on the road, it had better be as good a show as written didn't fit, or seemed awkward or possible. I do have a kind of feeling of profes­ wrong, and I'd send her back are-draft. sionalism about that .... Got together with She'd redraft again, and then on the week­ the sound technician in each place, to get right end I'd come to Elm Cot and sing what I what I wanted done re: the songs"(FL, 301). had , and she'd always insist that I'd During this time in Canada, Laurence re­ done . But she'd never ported that "I am still trying (vainly, I think) agree to a change of words unless she was to persuade M&S [her publisher, McClelland sure that it fitted with her basic feeling and & Stewart] to put out a 45-record with each conception. These were songs created by copy of THE DIVINERS. McClelland thinks her characters. She certainly told me that it is a lousy notion, but might be okay to do Skinner played in bars, and some for publicity purposes" (FL, 296-97). that we had to remain true to the words and McClelland could not be persuaded to sup­ the tunes of that genre .... port the issuing of a recording with every copy 172 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1999 of The Diviners, and agreed only to finance the news of you, a bit, a short time ago, when an pressing of a thousand 7 -inch, 33-rpm records old friend of mine ... went out to see you and (Laurence would have to pay for the actual you were listening to the tape of THE DIVIN­ production of the recording herself). "That," ERs .... Thanks. " (VLS, 68). Cameron feels, "set the tone for the amateur­ Cameron (who still lives in England and ish way in which the project was carried works as a "media studies" advisor and a coun­ through. It was basically left to ML to get the selor) re-recorded The Diviners' "Album" songs record put out. We were all enthusiastic, but with his partner, Dee Kraaij, for a 1994 album, terribly inexperienced. I should have had Divining. He still feels that the someone who could act as a producer, some­ is lacking in some regards: "'The Ballad of one who understood recording and also had a Jules Tonnerre' is still far from what I would deep sense of what ML and I wanted." like-the melodeon [an accordion-like instru­ Because Laurence had to personally finance ment] player was unsympathetic, and my gui­ the recording, Cameron felt pressured to keep tar playing is not what I wanted. But the other the project as low-budget as possible. He songs are pretty good."13 booked time at Gooseberry Studio in London's China Town and, with Bob Berry, recorded ASSESSING THE MERITS OF "The Ballad ofJules Tonnerre," "Lazarus," and THE DIVINERS' "ALBUM" "Song for Piquette" during one night in Feb­ ruary 1973. After this recording session, One could argue that each reader should Cameron "sent the tape to Peter MacLachlan, be left to imagine the sound of these songs, whom Margaret had agreed should handle the much as we generally rely solely on the Canadian side of the recording organisation."12 author's written clues to form our own visual Although Bob Berry's wife, Paula, had sung images of characters. Certainly, if the record­ "Pique's Song" on the earlier "Elmcot" record­ ing somehow lessened the aesthetic value of ing, Laurence "said that her Buckinghamshire Laurence's descriptions of the songs, this could accent just wouldn't do for the final record­ be a valid argument. In this case, however, I ing. So Peter [MacLachlan] got Joan Minkoff, believe that Cameron's matching of melody a Boston based midwestern American woman, and stylistic texture to Laurence's words and to sing Pique's Song. He [MacLachlan] played established fictional performance contexts is guitar." In Cameron's view, the choice of essential to bringing the songs to life off the Minkoff for "Pique's Song" was "all wrong. paper, especially given that the text of The She's a great lady, but the wrong age, and it Diviners provides very few written clues as to just isn't Pique's voice." the stylistic realization of the lyrics and melo­ Instead of becoming an integral part of The dies in a live performance. Cameron took care Diviners' text, as Laurence had fervently hoped, to make the instrumentation and singing real­ this recording was only sold in record stores istically reflect of the performers and perfor­ and during Laurence's readings as a "publicity mances in the book. In their stylistic traits, gimmick" (Cameron); it was thus destined for these songs also convincingly suggest a range quick obscurity. No more copies of the record of plausible influences on Jules Tonnerre as a were ever pressed. Sandy Cameron remem­ traveling singer-songwriter during the 1950s bers "stacks" of unsold records around and 1960s and on Pique as an adolescent dur­ Laurence's house, and doubts that many people ing the 1960s. In creating these songs, who read the book were even aware of the Laurence and Cameron drew on a familiarity recording. Still, Laurence would express her with a wide range of folk-influenced music, gratitude for those who continued to appreci­ from traditional songs to current products of ate these songs in following years, writing to the singer-songwriter movement. Within her friend Hubert Evans in 1977 that "I had these four songs alone, Laurence's lyrics range "ALBUM" SONGS 173 from the long, narrative style of traditional THE INFLUENCE OF METIS HISTORY ON ballads ("Jules Tonnerre" and "Lazarus"), to a THE DIVINERS' SONGS highly condensed and poetically symbolic lyri­ cal song ("Piquette's Song"), to a first-person In the section entitled "Skinner's Tale of "confessional" style ("Pique's Song") evoca­ Lazarus' Tale of Rider Tonnerre," Jules, as a tive in its spirit of individualism and quest­ teenager, shows a vague awareness of a par­ ing of such 1960s songwriters as Buffy ticular ballad having been in his family's oral Sainte-Marie. Likewise, Cameron drew from heritage. Talking to Morag, he describes a diverse and appropriate folk- and popular­ conflict between the Metis and "a bunch of based influences: "I had been listening to Bob Englishmen [who] ... came in to take away Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and the whole singer­ the Metis land and to stop the people from songwriter movement of the 60s, but I had hunting buffalo." In the resulting battle, ac­ also been heavily influenced by traditional cording to Jules, "every single one of [the En­ Appalachian songs, Canadian and French glish and Scotchmen] got killed." And, he says, Canadian stuff, and, since Sandy and I had "one of Rider's men made up a song about it, come to England in 1969 ... had been heavily only myoId man, he don't remember it. But involved in the folk club movement, and had he said his father, Old Jules, used to sing it heard a lot of traditional English, Scottish, sometimes." Morag suddenly connects Jules's and Irish song." tale with her historical knowledge: '''Hey-I An important thematic concept in The Di­ know. That would be "Falcon's Song," and the viners-symbolized by the river appearing to battle would be Seven Oaks, where they killed flow in two directions-is that past events the Governor.' 'That so?' Jules replies. 'I never inform the present, and present circumstances connected it with that, because my dad's ver­ color perspectives of the past. Through allu­ sion was a whole lot different'" (D, 118). sions to past and present musical traditions The song in question is "La Bataille des Sept that are subtle and yet rich with meaning, The Chenes" ("The Battle of Seven Oaks"), also Diviners' songs illustrate and embody this known as "Chanson de la Grenonillere" ("Song theme. The songs are, of course, intimately of Frog Plain"), written by Pierre Falcon (1793- bound to the characters who ostensibly cre­ 1876), a man known through his numerous ated them, and to the socio-historical forces songs as "The Bard of the Prairie Metis."14 A that engendered their styles of musical ex­ single verse from this song, loosely translated pression. With a minimum of scattered de­ by James Reaney, amply shows the jubilance tails, Laurence manages to evoke realistic and and pride of these "lords of the prairie" follow­ specific times and places from which these ing their victory: "You should have seen those songs emerge. When, for instance, Morag Englishmen- / Bois-Bro.les chasing them, identifies a particular Metis song that Jules's chasing them / From bluff to bluff they grandfather used to sing, or when we encoun­ stumbled that day / While the Bois-Bro.les / ter a list of several popular singer-songwriters Shouted 'Hurray! "'15 whom Pique admires, Laurence may be hint­ "The Ballad ofJules Tonnerre" gains addi­ ing at a wealth of significant material be­ tional richness as a song of social protest by neath the surface of these allusions. Although consciously or unconsciously tapping into and the scope of this paper does not allow a full updating this Metis tradition of reliving battle­ investigation of this argument, a look into a field glories through song. Jules's song sug­ couple of these songs' potential influences, gests continuity by using form of past and present, will at least suggest one way balladry, and by employing 6/8 meter and what in which they enrich the novel-particularly Margaret MacLeod describes as the "rollick­ when heard in recorded form. ing tune" characteristic of Metis song. 16 In 174 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1999 marked contrast, however, to the traditional Massachusetts) and faced similar alienation: bravado of "Seven Oaks," Jules's ballad is " I was of Indian descent. But I steeped in a solemn understanding of the hor­ didn't say much about it. It got bad recep­ rors of warfare that must come in no small part tion.... Being Indian, that's funny. You get from his having survived the calamitous land­ the 'WOO-WOO-WOOS."'18 ing at Dieppe, France, during World War II. Sainte-Marie's reflections from the time Rather than poking fun at the English sol­ period may help to verify the accuracy of diers-the "young Anglais from Ontario"­ Laurence's portrayal of white antagonism to­ Jules sympathizes that "They don't know what wards Jules's songs. As Laurence aptly demon­ they're fighting for, / But they've got the can­ strates within her novel, white Canadians non, so it must be war" (D, 374). While the during this time were still passionately divided 1816 Battle of Seven Oaks ended with only in their opinions about the 1885 rebellion and one Metis casualty and twenty English colo­ held onto many ignorant prejudices about the nists killed and their Governor mortally Metis people. Although Sainte-Marie's best wounded,17 the Metis suffered bitter defeat at known protest songs, "Now That the Buffalo's Batoche in 1885. So, in Jules' "Ballad," a song Gone" and "My Country 'Tis of Thy People form traditionally associated with victory gains You're Dying" (both recorded in the mid- a postmodern ambivalence: while Jules can­ 1960s), are much more explicitly topical than not celebrate a Metis victory, he can still take Jules's songs, all arise out of anger toward un­ pride in his grandfather's having survived this just white treatment of Native peoples. As battle and, more importantly, carried on with Sainte-Marie became widely known for po­ his life and raised his family. litical activism, she "would speak of being 'blacklisted' for her strong human rights stance. A REFLECTION OF THE CONTEMPORARY 'On the "Tonight Show,'" she has said, 'I was FOLK PROTEST MOVEMENT IN told not to sing anything to do with the In­ THE DIVINERS' SONGS dian people."'19 Similarly, Laurence shows that Jules's white From the mid-1960s through the mid- audiences tend to respond to his songs with 1970s, Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Cree Indian born indifference or antagonism. In one instance­ in 1941 on a reservation in Saskatchewan's as Jules' musical partner, Billy Joe, later tells Qu'Appelle Valley, was the most visible, if Morag-whenJules plays his "Ballad," "at first not the only, widely known Native American they didn't listen. Then they laughed, some" writing and singing songs that ex­ (D, 229). At another time, Jules tells Morag plicitly protested the oppression of Native that white audience members "about my age" people by whites. It is surely not insignificant either simply find this ballad too long, "or they that Laurence mentions Sainte-Marie among don't wanna know about it" (D, 283). How­ the various singer-songwriters whom Pique ever this audience responds to his songs, to admires: "She plays the records of Uoan] Baez Jules they are all related to ancestors who and [Bob] Dylan and [Leonard] Cohen and fought against and defeated his grandfather at Joni Mitchell and Buffy Sainte-Marie and Batoche. They share ethnicity with the J ames Taylor and Bruce Cockburn and a dozen Mounties who "threw [Lazarus] in the Mana­ others whose names Morag frequently mis­ waka jail," and with "my sister's man" in places, over and over and over, trying to learn "Piquette's Song," who abandoned Piquette from them. Pique listens to groups, too, but it and drove her into drunken despair. Performed is the solitary singers, singing their own songs, in this confrontational context, all three of who really absorb her" (D, 347). Like Pique, Jules's songs embody a spirit of both tradi­ Sainte-Marie grew up in a predominantly white tional and contemporary protest songs, de­ society (she was raised by adoptive parents in scribed by Greenway as "the struggle songs of "ALBUM" SONGS 175 the people .... outburst of bitterness, of ha­ tell you" (0, 60). Time and again, Jules has tred for the oppressor, of determination to seen majority representations of history de­ endure hardships together and to fight for a grade or delete his family's place in this narra­ better life. "20 tive. Confronting such prejudice, Jules's ballad immediately establishes the Metis view on the THE SONGS AS EXPRESSIONS revolt: "to keep their lands, to keep them free" OF RECONCILIATION (374). Although his sung version of the upris­ ing, unlike that printed in textbooks, may only But these songs express emotions more com­ be "one that the wind will tell," he still ex­ plex than outrage or blame. Laurence once presses hope that white Canadians may come commented that writing, however bleak, "is to sympathize with the rebellion: "They say more than an act of will. It is an act of hope the dead don't always die; / They say the truth and faith; it says life is worth living."2! In this outlives the lie" (0,375). philosophical vein, she uses the songs of Jules The song "Lazarus" brings Jules yet closer (and Pique) to counteract certain self-destruc­ to exorcizing the shame and anger that have tive tendencies in these characters. Although compelled him to distance himself from his Jules does at times find the spoken words to immediate family. Once, as a teenager, Jules make sense of the pain in his life, such mo­ had told Morag that "MyoId man's always ments are rare and often contradicted by other drunk ... and the girls, they're about the same. words and actions. Through crafting his bitter The little kids are just dumb brats. The old experiences into art, Jules shows that this life lady my Ma, she ain't coming back, and good has not been futile and without meaning. His riddance to bad rubbish" (0, 104). As Jules willingness to perform for members of the so­ grows older, he does demonstrate consider­ ciety he holds largely responsible for his able sympathy for his family-"Lazarus" and people's oppression acknowledges the poten­ "Piquette's Song" showing, perhaps, the cul­ tial for forgiveness and healing. Because they mination of this maturing. In "Lazarus," for must be crafted and withstand repeated per­ example, Jules identifies with the increasing formances, Jules's songs can be seen to reveal loneliness and despair his father must have his deepest convictions more than anything felt when he "lost his woman" and "lost some said in passing conversation. They help to open of [his] children" (0,377). Finally, like the windows into his guarded personality, show­ "Ballad," this song again subtly addresses an ing a pride in his Metis heritage and a love for oppressive white majority, not directly, but by his family and, in this way, revising both the calling on his dead father to "rise up out of the other views Jules has expressed and the major­ Valley; / Tell them what it really means to ity white Canadian views-on the Tonnerre try." The attempt to forgive in the words "Go family in particular and the Metis people in tell them in the town; though they always put general. And, in her song, Pique also shows a you down" (0,378) has surely not come easily new acceptance of her heritage and family to Jules. By exposing such painful sentiments upbringing. for a white audience, he allows himself to live As a performed song, the "Ballad" power­ out the forgiveness that his lyrics seem to dis­ fully corrects the ambivalence toward his fam­ place onto his dead father. ily history that Jules has sometimes shown "Piquette's Song" also represents Jules's at­ conversationally. Once, Jules had mentioned tempt to look into a life he never really tried to Morag (when both were teenagers) that his to know until it was lost to him forever. While grandfather had fought in "the Troubles" (the Jules's lyrics conceal his relationship to the 1885 North West Rebellion). But when Morag subject of "Lazarus," he starts each stanza of asks for details, Jules refuses: "Shit, I can't "Piquette's Song," significantly, with the words remember. It's all crap. Anyhow, I wouldn' "my sister," showing a release of his past shame, 176 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1999 and an acceptance of his sister's hardships as after Pique unveils her song for her mother­ unavoidably linked to his own life. Like the first of Pique's own songs that Morag has "Lazarus," this song subtly challenges white heard-we learn that Jules is dying of throat listeners to sympathize with people their soci­ cancer. Morag feels sure that Pique will some­ ety has marginalized. The former song chal­ day "[make] a song for [Jules], ... the song he lenges the listener who would dismiss the mere never brought himself to make for himself" fact that Lazarus didn't kill himself to "just try (367). Thus, Pique affirms at a crucial mo­ walking in his shoes." And "Song for Piquette" ment that she will carry her Metis heritage again challenges a listener to see the life in­ into the next generation. Like Pique, we ab­ side his sister's impenetrable eyes: Jules's open­ sorb the songs and, in this transaction, par­ ing verse claims that "What [her eyes] were ticipate in the struggle for cultural survival telling / You couldn't know"; he concludes in which The Diviners dramatizes. the final verse that "You'll never know" (0, 379-80). "ONE WRITES WHAT IS GIVEN": Pique has two important reasons for trea­ LAURENCE AND SONGWRITING suring these few songs that Jules leaves her. AFTER THE DIVINERS First, they give her a legacy, bitter but real, of a family and Metis heritage she knows little Laurence's post-Diviners letters contain about, from a father she sees only a few times some rather curious and poignant comments, in her life. Second, because Pique guards her which mix tongue-in-cheek self-deprecation deepest feelings, much as her father does, about her lack of formal musical training with Jules's songs model for her another way of an apprehensive, yet sincere, desire to work communication. We see Pique, then, trying more with pure songwriting as a serious cre­ through her song to explain to Morag, as she ative form. Laurence's children, David and cannot in conversation, why she must go away Jocelyn, young adults at the time Laurence to Galloping Mountain, where some of her was writing The Diviners (Jocelyn was born in Metis relatives live. Through Pique's singing, 1952 and David in 1955), may have instilled Morag grasps the sharp reality of all the pain in Laurence a desire to "connect" with their and confusion, "unwittingly inflicted on her generation through songs-a desire that Morag by her mother, by circumstances," she has been also feels regarding Pique. Morag, in fact, se­ afraid to acknowledge that her daughter must cretly envies that while Pique may not read feel. But, as Jules's songs seek forgiveness, her novels for many years, if ever, Jules's songs "Pique's Song," Morag realizes, "was not as­ touch Pique profoundly: "Jealous of the fact signing any blame-that was not what it was that [Jules] had [songs] to give .... Could you all about" (360). And, like her father, Pique hand over a stack of to someone? Only does not ask for pity in her song; she simply to someone who wanted to read, presumably" gives her perspective on the difficult path she (0, 192). After completing the first three Di­ has been down. viners songs, she wrote Purdy that "I may be­ The inclusion of "Pique's Song" in the Di­ come like Leonard Cohen yet!" (FL, 262). viners' "Album" achieves what may be this Incidentally, Cohen-a Canadian singer, novel's greatest affirmation of hope. This song songwriter, and novelist-is one of the musi­ indicates that Jules has successfully passed his cians Pique admires (0, 347). Later, Laurence songwriting on to his daughter. As Cecil perhaps half-jokingly admitted to Purdy a wish Abrahams notes, the "task of the oral story­ to "break into the Pop Song business" (FL, teller [is] to further the myths ... by inspiring 297). the birth of another teller."22 Through a lim­ Evidence of Laurence wanting to work with ited number of encounters with his daughter, songwriting grows even stronger up through Jules has been able to inspire such a birth. Just the early 1980s. After completing The Diviners, "ALBUM" SONGS 177 she felt that she had drained her reservoir of This letter further mentions "Old Woman's novel material and even stated publicly that Song," which Laurence had written (and also she would not write another novel. Despite included with melodic notation in Dance on subsequent attempts to write longer fiction the Earth). Because it represents Laurence's again-Ian Cameron notes that she "occa­ direct songwriting voice, rather than that of a sionally spoke of another novel, about Louis fictional character, "Old Woman's Song" of­ Riel"-The Diviners ultimately proved to be fers a valuable stylistic comparison with the Laurence's last published novel. In January songs by Jules and Pique. While the "Album" 1983, she wrote to that "I songs draw from traditional ballad, country have spent the past two years in trying, with­ and western, and modern pop-folk styles, "Old out much success, to write the novel I have Woman's Song," in its meter and tune, evokes been attempting to do for so long. Maybe I a Protestant hymn tradition: "I see old women will do it-maybe not. We will see .... I do dancing / dancing on the earth / I hear old not tell many people about this anguish" women singing / singing children's birth / great (VLS, 189). is their caring / strong is their measure / danc­ During this time of "anguish," however, ing andsinging/life's frail treasure" (DE, 225). Laurence seemed to see songwriting as an al­ Appropriate to a folk-song tradition, "Old luring and untapped creative avenue. In April Woman's Song" uses a timeless vocabulary to of 1980, Laurence told her Canadian writer present equally timeless sentiments. Still, it friend Silver Don Cameron about a song she advances the folk and hymn traditions by pre­ had written for her new children's book, Six senting, from a maternal viewpoint, messages Darn Cows: "The tune is MINE! How about of peace more reflective of modern folk pro­ that? I am .... hem hem .... a " test songs: "through all the ages / children have (VLS, 59). In Dance on the Earth, Laurence been taken / accidents, diseases, / parents left also recalls this collaboration, remarking that forsaken / may the holy spirit / teach us to "I ... thought, for , that I might know why / but may we not conspire / in wars have a new career-but then I'd thought that to let them die" (DE, 225). Though crafted in when I did the songs for The Diviners, too" some respects, stanzas such as these, as com­ (DE,218). pared to the sophisticated and complex struc­ But surely Laurence's most poigna_nt expres­ ture of Laurence's novels, show that Laurence sion of an unrealized desire to do more with had the ability to approach the composition the folk-song genre came in a letter to Timo­ of a folk song from a radically different per­ thy Findley from late November 1983-just a spective than that from which she wrote a few years before her de~th of cancer: "I'm writ­ novel's narrative. In their simple rhythms, ing very different stuff now. Seems absurd, but rhymes, and repetitions, these lyrics do not one writes what is given. I'm writing a few nece~sarily stand up, divorced from their melo­ songs, with no musical training. How embar­ dies, as poetry. But Laurence means for these rassing, in a way .... I've got a swell voice in songs (like those of Jules and Pique) to be church, to belt out the old and noble hymns, junctional-for readers to try them out, sing with the organ and the congregation. A differ­ them to a group, teach the words and melodies ent matter when singing alone, with the old to others. Thus, the notation incites curiosity tobacco voice! However, we will see. There and encourages the physical act of singing. are so many things I want to do, and am doing, Despite the aesthetic differences between but not enough time .... What I'm hoping to the highly polished "Old Woman's Song" and find one of these days is a young woman who the more rough and organic "Album" songs, plays guitar and who might not intimidate me Laurence writes from both perspectives with­ and who might agree to listen for awhile and out artifice. In speaking of this song, Laurence maybe ..." (VLS, 86). does not portray herself as an accomplished 178 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 1999 novelist who should naturally be able to toss 12. Mclachlan, according to Cameron, was a off "simple" folk songs. Rather, she allies her­ young Canadian who had frequently visited Elm Cottage and played his songs there. self with "the folk" and admits her own lack of 13. I find Cameron's original recording to be, musical knowledge and sophistication, suggest­ overall, more successful in capturing the context ing to a friend that "folk songs, I guess, are of the novel and the spirit of Jules Tonnerre. Com­ composed by folks who aren't very knowledge­ pared to the rollicking or raucous quality of the able or sophisticated. The tune [of "Old two guitars on the original "Ballad of Jules Tonnerre" (which I imagine to be the playing of Woman's Song"] isn't bad, either. Or so I Jules and his partner, Billy Joe), the newer version think ..." (VLS, 86). This sentiment, like is much more restrained. In the other Diviners songs, other self-effacing comments about her nov­ the use of a flute also detracts from this raucous ice approach to The Diviners' "Album," echoes feel. Since these are songs of protest and a reclaim­ of Jules's comment after five-year-old Pique ing of diminished pride in one's heritage, they should use a "no-holds-barred" style of presenta­ tells him that she does not know how to write tion. I imagine Jules performing in the context of a a song: '''Hell, neither do I,' Jules says, 'but I bar, playing to an unsympathetic or even hostile do it '" (D, 284).23 audience, having to shout to be heard, and yet, above all, determined to convey a sense of dignity NOTES for himself and for his people. 14. Margaret Arnett Macleod, Songs of Old 1. Margaret laurence to John Metcalf, 26 Janu­ Manitoba (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, ary 1973, A Very large Soul: Selected Letters from 1993), p. 2. Margaret Laurence to Canadian Writers, ed. John 15. Ibid., p. 9. Of his translation, James Reaney Wainwright (Dunvegan, Ontario: Cormorant, states that "I have attempted to make only an En­ 1995), pp. 132-33, hereafter cited in parentheses glish equivalenCdfFalcon'& ballad and so translate in the text as VLS. the really important thing-its high spirits." The 2. Walter E. Swayze, "Margaret laurence: Nov­ original French is as follows: Si vous aviez vu tous elist-as-Poet," in' New Perspectives on Margaret ces Anglais / Et tous ces Bois-Brules apres / De butte Laurence: Poetic Narrative, Multiculturalism, and en butte les Anglais culbutaient./ Les Bois-Brules Feminism, ed. Greta M. K. McCormick Coger jetaient des cris de joie. (Westport: Greenwood, 1996), pp. 3-16. 16. Macleod (note 14 above), p. 2. Ian Cameron 3. Cameron agreed: "As you say, it is important writes that "I believe [laurence] met Edith Fowke, that the songs get to a wider audience, and I've the great Canadian folk song collector, in Canada always been frustrated in that" (Ian Cameron, let­ in 1969-70, while she was writer-in-residence at ter to author, 18 January 1997). All subsequent the U of [Toronto]. Edith played her some record­ quotes from Cameron come from this letter. ings of Metis singers, and it was on that that she 4. Joan Hind-Smith, Three Voices (Toronto: based her tune for 'The Ballad oOules Tonnerre.'" Clark, Irwin, 1975), p. 10. In response to my inquiry on possible traditional 5. Clara Thomas, Margaret Laurence (Toronto: origins of the tune, Canadian ethnomusicologist McClelland and Stewart, 1969), p. 7. Anne Lederman responded that "I don't recognize 6. Edith Fowke, "Songs for Margaret laurence," the tune ... and it is in an odd form; abc a (first Canadian Woman Studies 8, no. 3 (1987): 54-55. and last phrase are the same). Most six-eight song 7. Margaret laurence, Dance on the Earth tunes in French Metis tradition that I have come (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1989), p. 17, across are three or four different musical phrases hereafter cited in parentheses in the text as DE. (a a b, or a a b a). It seems kind of generic, like the 8. Quoted in John lennox ed., Margaret kind of tune someone might come up with having Laurence-AI Purdy: A Friendship in Letters heard a couple of similar 6/8 melodies without re­ (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1993), p. 177, ally knowing the tradition (hence the odd form)" hereafter cited in the text as FL. (e-mail to author, 15 April 1997). 9. Margaret laurence, The Diviners (Chicago: 17. Macleod (note 14 above), p. 3. University of Chicago Press, 1974), p. 4, hereafter 18. Quoted in Victoria Koppe, "Driven by Danc­ cited in parentheses in the text as D. ing Gods and Bathtub Whales," in The Buffy Sainte­ 10. laurence's dated letters actually place this Marie Songbook, ed. Buffy Sainte-Marie (N ew York: event in early December of 1972. Grosset and Dunlap, 1971), p. 159. 11. As Cameron told me, "Bob and Paula Berry 19. Dave DiMartino, Singer-Songwriters: Pop were members of the High Wycombe Folk Club Music's Performer-, From A to Zevon (New (near Penn, where Margaret lived)," p. 1. York: Billboard, 1994), p. 150. "ALBUM" SONGS 179

20. Quoted in David A. DeTurk and A. Poulin, garet Laurence: Poetic Narrative, Multiculturalism, Jr., eds. The American Folk Scene: Dimensions of the and Feminism, ed. Greta M. K. McCormick Coger Folksong Revival (New York: Dell, 1967), p. 12l. (Westport: Greenwood, 1996), p. 139. 21. Hind-Smith, Three Voices (note 4 above), 23. Laurence also suggests her artistic identifi­ p.59. cation with Jules in noting that Jules's songs were 22. Cecil Abrahams, "Margaret Laurence and the written "in the of a Manitoba Metis of Ancestral Tradition," in New Perspectives on Mar- about my age" (VLS, 79).