Le bonhomme frappe à la porte (AU1998-1075-017)
Franco-Americans--New England
French-Canadians--New England
Folk Songs, French--New England
Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
Franco-Americans--Music
French-Canadians--Music
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-017) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “Le bonhomme frappe à la porte“, (“The guy knocked at the door“) is the song commonly known in Québec as “Le Rapide blanc,” created by the singer/songwriter Oscar Thiffault (1912-1998). Thiffault, born in Estrie, Quebec, lived for most of his life in Ste-Étienne-des-Grès (north of Trois-Rivières). He got his start singing at a very early age in a variety of folklore ensembles and country-and-western bands. Drawing from the repertory of Quebec traditional song themes, motifs, and structures with which he grew up, Thiffault began making up original songs about current events (with the occasional bawdy ballad and drinking song) at an early age and continued doing so throughout his life. He also often borrowed his melodies from the repertory of well-known traditional French-Canadian songs, but also borrowed occasionally from popular commercial song melodies as well. After having worked in logging shanties and textile factories for most of his life, Thiffault finally landed a hit song in 1954 (Apex label: 17084, side B) with “Le Rapide blanc,” his recasting of an ancient French ballad, “Le moine tremblant et la dame,” the earliest known printing of which dates back to 1602. Thiffault came up with this new twist on the original song’s narrative (about a monk who makes an amorous house call to a willing wife during her husband’s absence) in 1935 when he was working on the construction of a Hydro-Québec Dam in Rapide-Blanc on the St-Maurice River (north of La Tuque, Quebec). The song was an instant hit and has been recorded over and over in subsequent generations. From 1954 to the end of his life, Thiffault was an indefatigable touring artist who built up a big fan base in Quebec, singing his original songs about topical themes such as Sputnik, hockey players, parking meters, and television. His blend of original lyrics inspired by French-Canadian traditional song with a side order of country-and-western gained him a loyal following until the end of his life. In Alberta Gagné’s setting there is no mention of the Rapide Blanc hydroelectric station; instead, the absent husband is out in the fields. Her version also omits the verse in which the male protagonist asks to embrace her.
VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1075 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1075
sound cassette (analog)
digital audio file (MP3)
sound recording
text
Vermont (state)
New England (general region)
Quebec (province)
Highgate Center (inhabited place)
Nous voilà tous rassemblés [first line] (AU1998-1075-016)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-016) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “Nous voilà tous rassemblés” (“Here we are, all assembled”) is a wedding song, one of the dozens which have been sung over the generations. Traditional French wedding songs run the gamut from the mournful to the joyous, from the pious to the ribald. This particular song celebrates the joyful obligations of festive assembly and drinking, with a chorus which has done service in many other songs about the pleasures of the table.
Ce sont les gens de par chez nous (AU1998-1075-015)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-015) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “Ce sont les gens de par chez nous” (“The guys from our region”) is a version of a French song which dates back at least to the early 1700s. and which, over time, has developed a number of different narrative arcs. The focus of the song is about a soldier’s return home, a time-honored theme in French traditional song about which there are dozens of songs. This particular song has been documented in Belgium, France, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. The opening circumstances of most versions of “Ce sont les gens de par chez nous” seem to be fairly consistent: young men leave for war without saying farewell to their sweethearts. From there the narrative begins to vary: sometimes, the youngest of them repents his decision early on and returns home; in others, the most handsome of them returns home after seven years; in yet others (including Alberta Gagné’s setting), all the soldiers return home when the war is over. The narrative then focuses on a particular solider who asks after his beloved and is told that she is in her room. In most cases, the young woman is perturbed and tells the soldier that she no longer cares for him; there ensues a dialogue in which he asks for the return of various love tokens he gave her, which sometimes ends with his departure, but occasionally ends with the young woman’s pardon and the lovers’ reconciliation. In some settings, including that of Alberta Gagné, the song narrative omits the rejection theme altogether: the soldier finds his sweetheart in her room; asks her to make him a bouquet as pink as the rose on the rosebush, speaks of his long tramp, carrying his military weapons, and observes that his lovemaking is not for anyone else.
Sur le pont de Londres (AU1998-1075-014)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-014) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “Sur le pont de Londres” (“On London Bridge”) is an ancient French song composed in the “laisse” rhyme scheme, a form of single-line verses with end rhymes, which dates back to medieval France. Unlike most laisse songs, which tend towards light-heartedness, this song relates a tragic cautionary tale in which a willful daughter insists against her mother’s wishes in attending a dance on a bridge, and drowns when the bridge collapses, despite her brother’s efforts to save her. This song also stands out as a chanson en laisse because in most versions, including that of Alberta Gagné, there are no refrains (a filler chorus which separates the lines of the song and also sometimes is interspersed within the lines themselves). Versions of the narrative of this song date back to the 13th century and are documented in Begium, Switzerland, France, Switzerland, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, and Louisiana. The locale of the bridge varies: in French versions, it is often (but not always) located in Nantes, or it is the “pont du Nord” (The North Bridge). In France, this song enjoyed durable popularity as a children’s singing game, sharing both its vocation as a singing game and its theme of a treacherous bridge with the Anglo-American children’s singing game “London Bridge is Falling Down.” Another time-honored traditional French children’s song, “Sur le pont d’Avignon” also references this long bygone tradition of dancing on bridges.
J'ai descendu dans mon jardin (AU1998-1075-013)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-013) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “J'ai descendu dans mon jardin“ (“I went down to my garden“) is a version of a traditional French song which has been in circulation since at least the 1500s. Versions of this song have been widely documented in France and Quebec, as well as Belgium, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Italy, and Switzerland. The motif of a bird (often identified as a nightingale) making pronouncements about love, and using Latin to do so, shows up in several songs from medieval France. In that period, “parler en son latin” (to speak in one’s Latin) meant “to speak using one’s own special terminology.”
Mon père m’a donné t-un mari [first line] (AU1998-1075-012)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-012) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. This is a version of a very well-known traditional French song which has been in circulation since at least the mid-17th century. It one of a number of tragi-comical songs about brides whose fathers have married them off to unsuitable spouses, and whose failings in the marriage bed are ridiculed and, in some cases, punished. This particular song has been widely documented songs in both France and Quebec, and has also been collected in Belgium, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Louisiana, and Maine.
C’est une valse amoureuse [first line] (AU1998-1075-011)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-011) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “C’est une valse amoureuse” (“It is a Waltz of Love”) presents a bilingual setting of the chorus of the hit song "Three O’Clock in the Morning," composed by Argentinean pianist and composer Julián Robledo as a piano solo and first published in New Orleans 1919. In 1921, Dorothy Terris wrote a set of lyrics. The song created a sensation when it was performed in New York in the Greenwich Village Follies of 1921. In 1922, New York City Band leader Paul Whiteman released a recording on the Victor label in 1922, resulting in sales of over 3.5 million copies of the record, and over 1 million copies of the sheet music. A mere few months later, Montreal actor Jean Nel (1892-1942) translated the song in order to be able to sing it and sell it as sheet music to French-speaking theatergoers, a common practice in the Montreal theater district which helped actors augment their meager salaries. Montreal Lyric tenor Hector Pellerin (1887-1953) recorded Nel’s setting on the Victor label (issue # 263134, side A) in 1922. Not to be outdone, indefatigable Montreal songwriter, composer, pianist, and recording studio owner/producer Roméo Beaudry (1882-1932) quickly created a second French-language version, “Trois heures du matin,” which Montreal baritone J.-Hervey Germain recorded in 1922 on the Starr/Gennett label (issue #12052, side A). The Montreal Victor studio also put out a recording of the original English-language song that year, featuring tenor Harold Harvey. Alberta Gagné sings the chorus from Jean Nel’s translation, followed by the chorus from the English-language original song.
Je vous dis que ces années-ci (AU1998-1075-010)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-010) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. This song is a mystery. It is a social commentary song which good-naturedly takes to task folks who spend beyond their means and run short of cash for food before the month’s end and young men who drink too much, while praising fiddle players who play good old-fashioned tunes. It’s thematic material, colloquial language, and rambling narrative are reminiscent of the songs penned by Québécois singer-songwriter, fiddler, and harmonica player Madame Édouard Bolduc (1894-1941, née Mary Rose Anne Travers), but it is, to the best of the cataloguer’s knowledge, not one of her songs. Alberta Gagné told Martha that she and her sister learned this song in Newport, New Hampshire, from Québécois lumberjacks who were working in a lumbercamp outside of town. The lumberjacks would rent rooms in Newport during the weekends, and Alberta Gagné’s husband met them and brought them over for house parties. She made two recordings of this song for Martha Pellerin; the other is AU1998-1078-011.
Lison était gentille et sage [first line] (AU1998-1075-009)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-009) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “Lison était gentille et sage” (“Lison was kind and maidenly”) is a sentimental song about a young woman who succumbs to the charms of a young man at the village dance, but after two months of happiness, believes herself to be abandoned, until, suddenly, her “Jean” returns to ask her hand in marriage. It has all the hallmarks of a late 19th or early 20th century “pop” song, but to date no references to printed or recorded sources have surfaced. Alberta Gagné sang this song twice during Martha Pellerin’s field recording visits; the other recording is AU1998-1072-015.
Dites-moi donc, mademoiselle (AU1998-1075-008)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-008) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “Dites-moi donc, mademoiselle’’ (“Tell me, Miss”) is a version of the late 19th century French music-hall song,“Anatole and Amanda,” which was a hit in Paris’s seedy and thriving café-concert circuit, where the bourgeois mingled with artists, composers, singers, and prostitutes, enjoying songs which were light-hearted, comical, racy or just plain pornographic. “Anatole et Amanda” was the creation of songwriter Jules Jouy (1855-1897) and composer Henri d’Arsay (1857-1914), first published in 1885 (Paris: Maillard). It was popular enough to be mentioned with withering derision by French literary critic Ferdinand Brunetière in a chapter on café-concerts from his three-volume work, Histoire et littérature (Paris: C. Lévy, 1886-93) and also, somewhat more sympathetically, by historian and social commentator Victor du Bled in an article titled “Les cafés-concerts” which was published in the August 1887 edition of the bi-monthly Paris journal, Revue illustrée. Both Brunetière and du Bled’s texts include song text excerpts which clearly identify “Anatole et Amanda” as the song from which Alberta Gagné’s version derives. Although “Anatole et Amanda” seems to have enjoyed only short-term popularity in Paris, it gained durable popularity in Quebec, where it passed into oral tradition within a couple of generations. In 1927, it was recorded as a “folklore” vocal duet by Montreal singer Béatrice Latour-Lapierre and singer, songwriter, actor, concert impresario, and jack-of-all-trades Conrad Gauthier (1885-1964) on the Victor label (issue # 263515, side B) under the title “Anatole et Amanda.” Gauthier was at various times a director of silent movies, a journalist, an accountant, and a municipal officer, but it was as a singer, songwriter, and actor that he made his name in Canada and the United States. In the 1920s, Gauthier was a pioneer in radio and in the recording of Quebec folk music, making 78s of more than 100 songs and monologues for the Victor and Columbia labels. He also was a concert impresario, founder and lead vocalist at the immensely popular Veillées du bon vieux temps, a Montreal musical theatre show featuring skits, songs, dances, and monologues evoking rural Quebec traditions, music, and dances. Gauthier founded the Veillées in 1921 and produced them until 1941 at the Monument national theatre in Montreal. The Gauthier and Latour-Lapierre recording was evidently enough of a commercial success for Montreal actor, folk singer, and songwriter Eugène Daignault (1895-1960) to issue a second recording in 1928, featuring himself and Aline Mailhiot, on the Compo/Starr label (issue #15438, matrix #3256, side B) under the title “Anatole et ‘Manda.” Versions of this song continue to circulate in oral tradition in French-speaking traditional singing circles in many regions of Quebec, as well as Nova Scotia and New England. Perhaps one of the reasons for the enduring popularity of this song in French North America is that it is a “zipper song”: an enumerative song whose text has situationally based elements which easily lend themselves to replacement with local references which are more relevant to the singer, and to which new verses can be readily added. For example, the place names in the first verse, in which Anatole and Amanda query each other about where they are from, tend to localize when there are local references which rhyme appropriately with the names Anatole and Amanda. Hence, in the Gauthier version, all the place names are Quebec or Canadian references (Sorel, Trois-Pistoles, and Canada). In Alberta Gagné’s version, the Trois-Pistoles reference remains, but Amanda’s responses make New England/United States references (Lowell, Les États).
Par un beau jour [first line] (AU1998-1075-007)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-007) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “Par un beau jour” (“One Fine Day”) is a traditional French ballad which dates back at least several hundred years. It has been documented in France, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Connecticut, Maine, and Indiana. It is one of a score of documented dialogue songs between a lovestruck daughter and one or both of her parents, who seldom share her enthusiasm, either for marriage, or her choice of suitor. In some versions of this song, the objection of the parent concerns the low social or economic status of the daughter’s beloved, who is a “plafonneur” (a plasterer) or a “bambocheur” (a party goer). In 1945, Aurore Beaulé, daugher of Montreal-region fiddler and music store owner J. O. Lamadeleine (1880-1973), recorded this song on the Starr label with her father on fiddle and Marcel Madeleine on guitar (issue #16629, side B), with a text that is virtually identical to Alberta Gagné’s version.
Oh ! Combien souvent sur la terre (AU1998-1075-006)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-006) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “Oh ! Combien souvent sur la terre” (“Oh ! How often in this world”) is the opening line of an early 1930s sentimental, romantic Paris pop song more commonly titled “Quand on s’aime bien tous les deux.“ The song’s lyricist was Charlys,” a pseudonym for songwriter Charles Andde Cachan (1896-1955), who collaborated with composer Vincent Scotto (1874-1952) for the melody. “Quand on s’aime bien tous les deux” was popular in France both as a song and an instrumental waltz: the latter made its way into the repertory of French accordionists and a number of popular Parisian singers recorded the song in the early 1930s. In 1935, Montreal tenor Ludovic Huot, accompanied by pianist Allan McIver recorded the song on the Starr/Compo label (issue # 15908, matrix # 7171, side B). Alberta Gagné’s version is very complete and closely follows the lyrics (with a few changes of words or expressions here and there) of the original song.
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-005) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “C'était une bergère” (“It Was a Shepherdess”) is a traditional French song with medieval roots and a tangled history. At first glance, Alberta Gagné’s song relates an innocent, if slightly peculiar, tale of a shepherdess who makes cheese from the milk of her sheep under the watchful eyes of her cat, who tells her that it looks tasty. She warns the cat that if it so much as puts its paw into the cheese, it will also get a taste of her shepherdess staff. The cat sticks in its chin, and the angered shepherdess kills the cat. She goes to the confessional where she accuses herself of “catricide,” receiving a penance which she finds both severe and, quite literally, distasteful: the priest orders her to eat her cat. Versions of this song have been sung by generations of children in France and Canada as a children’s nursery song and ronde (singing game), usually with the refrain featured in Alberta Gagne’s version. If, however, we back up to the 16th century, a quite different reading emerges. The attempted seduction of young maidens was a popular trope in songs of the period, and a “bergère” was often used to represent the female in these songs. Moreover, a popular expression of the day for young maidens who succumbed to the entreaties of their seducers was “laisser le chat aller au fromage” (“to let the cat get at the cheese”). There are a multitude of narrative variations: the woman is sometimes an old lady rather than young maid; the confession is completely absent; the priest is amorous and his advances are either rejected or welcomed by the confessing young woman. Versions of this song have been documented in Belgium, Switzerland, France, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Indiana.
Je suis une nature très accommodante (AU1998-1075-004)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-004) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “Je suis une nature très accommodante” (“I have a very accommodating nature”) is a comical song/recitation about a young man who thinks himself a born diplomat, but in fact has an unerring talent for tactlessness which he demonstrates in every verse. No known printed or recorded versions have been located at the time of the creation of this item-level description; it could easily be a music hall song from early 20th century France or Quebec.
J'ai bientôt seize ans [first line] (AU1998-1075-003)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-003) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “J'ai bientôt seize ans” (“I will soon be sixteen”) is more commonly known as “Y’a des loups” (“There are Wolves”), a French pop song with lyrics by Suzanne Quentin and melody by René de Buxeuil, first published as sheet music in Paris by E. Lacroix in 1923. René de Buxeuil is a pseudonym for Jean-Baptiste Chevrier (1881- 1959), a popular French composer, songwriter, and singer in the first half of the 20th century. Suzanne-Marguerite Quintin (1882-1969) was a poet and song lyricist who co-authored more than two thousand songs. The two collaborated on a number of pop songs in the 1920s and de Buxeuil made a 78rpm recording of it shortly after the song’s publication. Across the Atlantic, the Montreal commercial recording industry lost no time coming out with a Canadian cover of the song. In 1924, lyric baritone Charles-Émile Brodeur recorded “Y’a des loups” on the Starr/Gennett label (issue #15177, side A); four years later Georges Beauchemin (1891-1957) recorded this song under the title “Y-a des loups” for Victor Talking Machine Co of Canada, (issue # 2635210, side A). You can hear Brodeur’s recording on the Library and Archives Canada website, The Virtual Gramophone: https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/virtual-gramophone/Pages/Item.aspx?idNumber=937693383 In addition, sheet music for the song was published in the first issue of Canada qui chante (January 1927), a magazine promoting hit songs and popular singers of the day which was published in Montreal by Almer Perrault J. and Hervé Germain between 1927 and 1930. Alberta Gagné’s version is missing the third verse in which the rich suitor marries Muguette and, having settled into a life of luxury in Paris, finds himself a little concerned about Muguette’s enthusiasm for going out dancing, and reminds her of her grandmother’s warning. Alberta Gagné’s version is also missing the fifth line of the first verse; this may explain why she falters there and re-starts the song, only to falter once again before moving on.
Mon père, il m’y marie avec un bossu (AU1998-1075-002)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-002) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “Mon père, il m’y marie avec un bossu” (“My father, he married me to a hunchback”) is a song which has been sung since at least the early 1600s and probably dates back to medieval France where is was used to accompany dancing. It has been widely documented in France and in eastern French-speaking Canada; this is the first documented version from the United States. “Mon père, il m’y marie avec un bossu” is one of a number of songs in French-language tradition about a young woman married off by her father to a husband who she did not choose. The husband is frequently ill-suited: he is old, impotent, decrepit or otherwise physically unfit (in this song, a hunchback. In addition, these husbands are also mentally or physically neglectful or abusive—in this song, the hunchback groom beats his bride on their wedding night. These ancient French dance songs about ill-sorted unions tend to make a mockery of the whole business of marriage, unsparingly skewering the father’s greed, the bride’s naivety, and the groom’s unfitness, stupidity, and/or brutality. In many cases, the bride attempts, and sometimes succeeds, in leaving the husband. In other cases, she is thwarted by her recalcitrant parents, but takes her revenge by cuckolding the husband. In this song, however, the young bride prays for deliverance (in some cases, to Venus, but in this version, to Jesus) and her wish is fulfilled: the husband dies. Alberta Gagné’s version goes on to describe the ensuing funeral, which, in keeping with the satirical nature of the song, unfolds as an absurdist fantasy in which everyone, from the pallbearers, to the priest, congregants, and, ultimately, the widow herself, are all hunchbacks. My father married me to a hunchback; on our wedding night, he beat me; he sent me to church to pray to Jesus; my prayers were answered: he died; I had him borne to his grave by four hunchbacks; the priest who officiated was a hunchback; the congregants at the service were all hunchbacks; and I am a hunchback.
Dans l’bon vieux temps, ça s'passait d'même (AU1998-1075-001)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-001) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “Dans l’bon vieux temps, ça s'passait d'même’’ (“In the good old days, that’s how it happened”) is a sentimental dialogue song in which an elderly couple reminisces about their rustic courting days. Both lyrics and melody are generally credited to Montreal singer, songwriter, actor, concert impresario, and jack-of-all-trades Conrad Gauthier (1885-1964) and the song is usually titled “Dans le bon vieux temps.” Gauthier was at various times a director of silent movies, a journalist, an accountant, and a municipal officer, but it was as a singer, songwriter, and actor that he made his name in Canada and the United States. In the 1920s, Gauthier was a pioneer in radio and in the recording of Quebec folk music, making 78s of more than 100 songs and monologues for the Victor and Columbia labels, often with Elzéar Hamel. He also was a concert impresario, founder and lead vocalist at the immensely popular Veillées du bon vieux temps, a Montreal musical theatre show featuring skits, songs, dances, and monologues evoking rural Quebec traditions, music, and dances. Gauthier founded the Veillées in 1921 and produced them until 1941 at the Monument national theatre in Montreal. In December 1927, Conrad Gauthier and Béatrice Lapierre-Latour recorded ‘’Dans le bon vieux temps’’ on the Victor label (issue #263513, side A). The recording was published in March 1928 and that same month, Eugène Daignault and his wife recorded the song on the Starr/Compo label (issue # 15438, matrix # 3255, side A). Singer, storyteller, and actor Eugène Daignault (1895-1960) worked as a food inspector for the city of Montreal in the 1920s but moonlighted as a star of Conrad Gauthier’s Veillées du bon Vieux temps troupe. He signed a contract with Roméo Beaudry’s Montreal-based Starr label in 1926 and recorded 93 songs for that label. He was also a popular radio singer and radio, television, and film actor actor in Montreal. You can hear Mr. and Mrs. Daignault’s 1928 Compo/Starr recording of ‘’Dans le bon vieux temps’’ on the Library and Archives Canada website, The Virtual Gramophone: https://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/m2/f7/15816.mp3 Gauthier also published the song in a 1932 compendium titled 40 Chansons d’autrefois (Montreal: Thérrien frères, limitée: 1932): 7. Alberta Gagné’s version contains all the verses of the original song with a few minor changes and an essentially similar melody.
Savez-vous ce qu'une fille doit faire tous les jours du Jour de l'An ? [first line] (AU1998-1074-017)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1074-017) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “Savez-vous ce qu'une fille doit faire tous les jours du Jour de l'An ?” (“Do you know what a young woman must do on all the days of the New Year?”) is an unusual version of a song which has been well-known in Quebec for more than 100 years. The origins of this song remain a mystery. No European versions have been found and its literary style suggests that it might well have originated as one of a number of sentimental songs and poems penned in Quebec in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, memorializing traditional customs and practices. Whatever its origins, this song was already in oral tradition by the early 1900s. Folklorist Édouard-Zotique Massicotte collected five versions in the 1910s and Marius Barbeau recorded a version from Louis Simard L’Aveugle of Charlevoix in 1916. Alberta Gagné’s version is outstanding because of its unusual and beautiful melody, which is nothing like the melody universally associated with this song in Quebec.
VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1074 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1074
Viens avec moi, son père, pour fêter le Jour de l'An [first line] (AU1998-1074-016)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1074-016) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “Viens avec moi, son père, pour fêter le Jour de l'An” (“Come with me, old man, to celebrate New Year’s Day”) presents four of seven verses from the 1930 original song, “Le Jour de l’An” (“New Year’s Day”) by Québécois singer-songwriter, fiddler, and harmonica player Madame Édouard Bolduc (1894-1941, née Mary Rose Anne Travers). “La Bolduc,” as she was affectionately known by her audiences, learned to play fiddle, jaw harp, and to sing traditional songs from her family before leaving her small village in the Gaspé region in her teens to work as a domestic in Montreal. She married factory worker Édouard Bolduc when she was barely twenty. By the second half of the 1920s, a poor housewife and mother struggling to help her invalid husband make ends meet, Bolduc joined a Conrad Gauthier’s popular theatrical company, Les veillées du bon vieux temps, which presented “old-fashioned country-style” stage shows in Montreal to the delight of large, working class audiences. Bolduc’s popularity with audiences led to her being signed on as a Compo studio artist in 1929 by songwriter, composer, pianist, and recording studio owner/producer Roméo Beaudry (1882-1932). Beaudry was, along with his friend Herbert Berliner, the most important producer of Canadian artists in the first half of the 20th century. Bolduc’s songs, often set to fiddle tunes she had learned back home or on the Montreal stage, humorously related current events and the tribulations of the working poor of French-speaking Montreal. Her recordings sold by the thousands in Quebec and she also had a dedicated following among Franco-Americans in the mill towns of New England, where her records were distributed by Columbia. You can hear Madame Bolduc’s 1930 recording of “Le Jour de l’An” on the Compo/Starr label (issue # 15771; matrix # 4649) on the Library and Archives Canada website, The Virtual Gramophone: http://amicus.collectionscanada.gc.ca/gramophone-bin/Main/ItemDisplay?l=0&l_ef_l=-1&id=109656.166940&v=1&lvl=1&coll=24&rt=1&itm=31394108&rsn=S_WWWpfaEiWPPs&all=1&dt=AW+|le|+AND+|jour|+AND+|de|+AND+|l%27an|&spi=-&rp=1&v=1
Ô quel beau jour [first line] (AU1998-1074-015)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1074-015) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné. “O quel beau jour “(“Oh what a beautiful day“) is a wedding day song, one of a many such songs of farewell and blessings which were sung by the bride to their parents. This particular song has a healthy dose of traditional attitudes about the role of a respectable French-Canadian bride, with promises of docile submission to her husband as well as her parents and in-laws. No documented sources for this song are known. After singing this song, Alberta Gagné related that she had learned it from her sister Béatrice and that she (Alberta) sang it at her own wedding.