Nous voilà tous rassemblés [first line] (AU1998-1075-016)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: 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.
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1075 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-12-06
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1075
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

Le bonhomme frappe à la porte (AU1998-1075-017)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: 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…
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1075 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-12-06
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1075
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

C’est un petit cordonnier (AU1998-1075-018)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-018) 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 un petit cordonnier” (“It Was a Little Cobbler”) is one of many, many settings of a very old French song for which printed settings already abounded in France in the first half of the 1700s. The settings of this song vary widely in degree of completeness: some, like Alberta Gagné’s version, focus primarily on the cobbler’s courtship and his looking forward to the marriage and wedding night; others eliminate the courtship part of the song and paint a fanciful picture of the marriage bed, surrounded by the symbols of love (apples, nightingales, a clear fountain, etc.). The cobbler is a frequent player in French singing tradition, always seeking courtship or romance, often vilified for his poverty or poor workmanship, but sometimes, as in this case, successful in his quest. Versions of this song have been documented widely in France, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, Connecticut, Maine, and Belgium.
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1075 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-12-06
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1075
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

J'ai fait une rencontre (AU1998-1075-019)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-019) 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 fait une rencontre” (“I Had an Encounter”) is one of the most ancient of French songs, a dialogue in which a young woman and man take turns imagining themselves metamorphosing into different creatures, the woman taking a new form to elude the young man, and he in turn transforming himself in order to pursue her new form. When the woman ultimately proposes taking the extreme step of choosing death and burial, her undeterred suitor proposes to transform into St. Peter and open the gates of heaven. This song appears in countless variants in Belgium, France, England, Catalonia, Greece, Italy, Moravia, Poland, Russia, and Romania and echoes the plot of a number of Greek myths, such as that of Apollo and Daphnaie. In North America, it has been documented in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, Saskatchewan, Indiana, Louisiana, and Maine.
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1075 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-12-06
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1075
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

Interview excerpt (AU1998-1075-020)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-020) 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.
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1075 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-12-06
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1075
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

Interview excerpt (AU1998-1070-001)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070) 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.
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-01-09
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1070
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

Derrière chez nous il y a un champ de pois [first line] (AU1998-1070-002)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-002) 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. “Derrière chez nous y a t-un champ d’pois” (“Behind our house there’s a field of peas”) is a song which has traveled long and widely in French-speaking Europe and North American. It’s earliest known printing dates to 1602, though it is very likely that the song was in circulation prior to that date. Ballad scholar Conrad Laforte documented more than forty French versions and almost 140 Canadian versions of this song, in addition to versions from Belgium, Switzerland, and Maine. Some early French versions of this song tell of a maiden who drinks too deeply from a claire fontaine (clear fountain) and falls ill; in French medieval poetry, the claire fontaine symbolizes the trysting place of lovers. In other versions, the maiden is collecting nuts (or, as in the case of Alberta Gagné’s version, peas) and falls ill after eating some her harvest; like the clear fountain, the harvesting of fruits and nuts symbolizes the act of making love in medieval French poetry. In all versions of the song, the maiden lays ill in bed, sometimes for three months, sometimes for nine months. During that time, her relatives visit, but not her lover. Eventually the lover shows up and either pledges fidelity, or toasts the maiden with a bottle of wine, or engages in some hanky-panky. In Alberta Gagné’s version, the lover arrives with a white glove in hand, symbolizing his commitment of fidelity. After singing the song, Mrs. Gagné remarked that she had learned the song from her sister Blanche, who heard it on the radio. Mrs. Gagné already knew the lyrics, but with a different refrain.
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-01-09
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1070
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

Viens avec moi pour fêter le printemps [first line] (AU1998-1070-003 )
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-003) 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. “Viens avec moi pour fêter le printemps” (‘’Come with me to celebrate Springtime’’) is an excerpt from a much longer song, “Les roses!” first published in Paris in 1867, with words by Marc Constantin and music by Olivier Métra. Constantin (1810-1888) was a prolific and celebrated Parisian song lyric writer born in Bordeaux, who provide texts for more than 1500 songs, many of which, like this song, were in a romantic and sentimental vein. He also was a poet, a writer, a composer, a librettist, a journalist, and a playwright. Métra (1830) was a French composer and conductor who became famous in part thanks to waltzes such as the one to which Constantin set the words of this song. “Les Roses!” enjoyed great success: at least fourteen editions (both in vocal and instrumental versions) were published between 1867 and 1902 in five different languages. A shorter version of the song seems to have enjoyed some success in Quebec. Constantin’s song. Two of Constantin’s songs (“Le petit mousse noir’’ and ‘’Attisez le feu’’) were published in the La bonne chansons song book series, which was circulated widely in Quebec Franco-American New England between the late 1930s and the 1960s. Mrs. Gagné commented after singing that Normand Gagné’s mother, Dolores (Betournay) Gagné, also sang this song.
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-01-09
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1070
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

Interview excerpt (AU1998-1070-004)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-004) 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.
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-01-09
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1070
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
language: eng
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

Trois jeunes faucheurs s’en allaient en fauchant (AU1998-1070-005)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-005) 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. “Trois jeunes faucheurs s'en allait en fauchant’’ (“Three Young Reapers were Going to Reap’’) is a version of an old French song about an unmarried young woman who drowns her newborn child. The theme of infanticide by young unmarried woman has inspired a number of French traditional songs. This particular song has been documented in France, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Franco-American New England. After singing the song, Alberta Gagné related that she first sang this song at the age of five.
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-01-09
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1070
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: eng
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

Que de joie et de bonheur [first line] (AU1998-1070-006)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-006) 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. “Ange de mon berceau’’ (“Angel of my cradle”) is a French-language setting of the 1925 American hit song “Pal of my Cradle Days,” with original words by Tin Pan Alley lyricist Marshall Montgomery and music by Albert Joseph “Al” Piantadosi (1882-1955). This “beautiful mother waltz ballad” (to borrow the description on. the front cover description of the 1925 sheet music version) was a runaway success in 1925, resulting in at least a dozen recordings of the song that same year on the Victor, Columbia, OKeh, Brunswick, Edison and Vocalion labels, mostly sung by male vocalists, with the occasional orchestral version. That same year, Montreal songwriter, composer, pianist, and recording studio owner/producer Roméo Beaudry (1882-1932 was busily turning out French-language translations and re-workings of popular American hit songs. Beaudry was, along with his friend Herbert Berliner, the most important producer of Canadian artists in the first half of the 20th century. During the 1920s, Beaudry’s Montreal-based Starr studio produced 693 francophone records, featuring almost every great name in Quebec lyric, folk and variety song with equal success. Although Beaudry often completely reimagined the narrative in his French-language settings of American pop songs, his setting of “Pal of my Cradle Days” is a fairly faithful translation, particularly in the first verse and chorus; Beaudry’s second verse conveys the sentiments of Marshall’s second verse but is significantly different in its expression. Beaudry lost no time getting “Ange de mon berceau” published on his Compo/Starr label: in November 1925, the studio rel…
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-01-09
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1070
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

C’est notre grand-père Noé [first line] (AU1998-1070-007)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-007) 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. ‘’C’est notre grand-père Noé” (“Our Grandfather Noah”) is a very ancient French drinking song honoring the biblical Noah for having preserved the grapevine during the Flood and Moses for having the good sense to not mistake the Red Sea for wine. In addition, some French versions include additional verses relating drinking adventures of other figures from Antiquity such as Alexander and Loth. Versions of this song have been widely documented in French, Acadian, Quebecois, and Franco-American communities. There are actually two 17th century songs with similar texts, but different poetic structures: the first type is set out in straight-forward verses; the second type contains wordplay based on deconstructing into syllables words from the last line of each verse. Almost all versions from Canada and Franco-American New England, including Alberta Gagné’s, are the second type. The melody of Aberta Gagné’s song is typical and has a history of being pressed into service for lyrics about drinking dating back to early 17th century Paris. This melody was so catchy that it eventually was used as the music for a wide variety of French songs, including at least three well known carols (“Prenez bergers vos hautbois,” “Allons bergers allons tous,” and “Quand Dieu naquit à Noêl”), political songs from the French Revolution, sea shanties and bawdy ballads. You can hear a second recording of this song from. Alberta Gagné at AU1998-1071-002.
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-01-09
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1070
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

Interview excerpt (AU1998-1070-008)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-008) 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.
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-01-09
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1070
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: eng
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

Ma femme avait un beau chapeau [first line] (AU1998-1070-009)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-009) 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. “Ma femme avait un beau chapeau’’ (‘’My wife had a beautiful hat’’). This counting song was popularized in the 1950s by Montreal harmonica player and singer Aldor Morin (1921-1998), and again the 1960’s under the title “Tire mon billet” by Montreal actor, folk singer, and songwriter Pierre Daignault (1925-2003). Morin is sometimes credited with its composition, although the song is highly derivative, borrowing both text elements and a melody which has been pressed into service for many different traditional French counting songs such as “Si j’avais des beaux souliers” and “Savez-vous ce qu’il y a.” This particular song appears to have been sung by Laurianne Gagné. Her text and melody closely follow the Morin setting.
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-01-09
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1070
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

Bonheur de se revoir [first line] (AU1998-1070-010)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-010) 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. “Le bonheur de se revoir” (“The Happinesss of Meeting Again”) is an early 19th century Parisian pop song, with music by Parisian composer Amédée de Beauplan (1790-1853) and lyrics by Guttinguer. De Beauplan was by turns a playwright, composer, and painter, whose songs, musicales were sung widely in France and in Quebec for more than a century. The earliest known printings of the song are from Paris and Brussels ca. 1825. The lyrics appeared in the Quebec City mid-19th century song collection of popular songs of the day, Lyre Canadienne, Répertoire des meilleurs chanson et romances du jour. (Quebec [City]: Imprimerie Wm. et Fils, 1847): 134. 3 v.). There are no known 20th century recordings of the song from either Canada or Europe. Alberta Gagné’s version generally replicates the original lyrics, although some of the lyrics in the first verse seem to have gotten lost along the way and replaced by borrowing words from the second verse.
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-01-09
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1070
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

La Pitoune (AU1998-1070-011)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-011) 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. “La Pitoune” (“The Gal”) is a 1930 original song 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. In addition to her talents as a singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Mme. Bolduc was an e…
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-01-09
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1070
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

Aujourd'hui comme vous savez (AU1998-1070-012)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-012) 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. “Pauvre bonhomme” (‘’Poor Fellow”) began its existence as a 1926 Tin Pan Alley pop hit titled “Poor Papa, He’s Got Nuthin at All,” with lyrics from songwriter and Broadway producer Billy Rose (born William Samuel Rosenberg, 1899-1966) and music by songwriter-composer Henry MacGregor “Harry” Woods (1896-1970). American vaudeville and cabaret singer Dora Kirschenbaum (aka Dolly Kay and Sally Freeman first recorded “Poor Papa” in January 1926 on Columbia Record’s Harmony label (Columbia matrix W141565). You can hear this recording at the University of California at Santa Barbara Library’s Discography of American Historical Recordings website: https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/2000031329/W141565-Poor_papa “Poor Papa,” was an instant success both as a song and an instrumental foxtrot. With its catchy jazz and ragtime-influenced melody and its comic lyrics about a husband who is reduced to penury and servitude while his wife enjoys a life of luxury, Poor Papa” was widely covered by vocal and instrumental ensembles across the United States the year of its publication. In 1926, Montreal songwriter, composer, pianist, and recording studio owner/producer Roméo Beaudry (1882-1932) is busily turning out French-language translations and re-workings of popular American hit songs. Beaudry was, along with his friend Herbert Berliner, the most important producer of Canadian artists in the first half of the 20th century. During the 1920s, Beaudry’s Montreal-based Starr studio produced 693 francophone records, featuring almost every great name in Quebec lyric, folk and variety song with equal success. Beau…
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-01-09
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1070
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

J’allais voir les filles, j’avais pas quinze ans [first line] (AU1998-1070-013)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-013) 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’allais voir les filles, j’avais pas quinze ans” (“I Went to See the Girls, I Wasn’t Yet Fifteen”) is a song with a complex and ancient lineage which includes both mild-mannered nursery rhymes (and defiantly obscene schoolyard parodies) as well as a narrative song about a precocious teenager whose amorous ambitions are quashed by his mother. Alberta Gagné’s song falls into the latter category. Her particular version seems to have been popular in Franco-American Vermont in the mid-to-late 20th century. The Desrosiers Family Collection at the Vermont Folklife Center includes both highly similar hand-written lyrics (VFC2011-0009 Desrosiers Family Collection. MS 2011-3212-002 Pp. 2-4) as well as an equally similar 1983 sound recording of family member Rose Bourgeois (“J'allais Voir les Fille J'avais pas 15 Ans,” Vermont Folklife Center Digital Collections, accessed November 21, 2020, http://explore.vermontfolklifecenter.org/digital-archive/collections/items/show/1709.) All three versions have the same narrative as well as essentially identical refrains. Franco-American Aliette Couturier of Lewiston, Maine sang a slightly different version with a totally different refrain for a 2017 Ethnomusicology class recording project by Colby College students. You can hear this version, sung by Les Troubadours, a Franco-American women’s vocal group on the Franco Memory Through Song website which the students created for this project: http://web.colby.edu/memorythroughsong/quand-jetais-petit/ Versions of Alberta Gagné’s song have also been documented in France, Belgium, Quebec, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Louisiana.
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-01-09
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1070
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

Je m’en va z-au marché [first line] (AU1998-1070-014)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-014) 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. “Je m’en va z-au marché” (“I Went to the Market) is one of thousands of versions of this ancient and widespread song, which has been widely documented in Europe (Belgium, France, Switzerland, Spain) and in French-speaking regions across Canada, Louisiana, and Franco-American New England. Longer versions of the song open with a young woman telling of a heavily laden orange tree (sometimes an apple tree) on her father’s land and asking her parents when the fruit can be picked. In some versions, she is told that the fruit can be picked when her lover comes; in others, the harvest will coincide with the feast day of Saint-Jean. The oranges ripen, but the lover fails to appear, or the feast day arrives and no-one picks the fruit. In either case, the young woman harvests the fruit and off she goes, basket in hand, to sell it. She meets up with a young man, most often the son of a lawyer. Here the story goes one of several ways. Sometimes the song concludes with the young woman being cheated of her sales by the conniving lawyer’s son or his father. In other versions, she is raped as well; in still others, she makes a narrow escape. Alberta Gagné’s version is a short version in which the young man’s exploitation of the young woman is limited to his father cheating her out of her sales money. The young man is not identified as a lawyer’s son; he is however clearly an anglophone who speaks primarily in English. The dialogue in Alberta Gagné’s song is “macaronic” (a term used to designate lyrics sung in two or more languages). Macaronic versions of this song have been documented in both Canada and the United States. …
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-01-09
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1070
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)

C’est au marché de Bonsecours [first line] (AU1998-1070-015)
subject: Franco-Americans--New England
subject: French-Canadians--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--New England
subject: Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
subject: Franco-Americans--Music
subject: French-Canadians--Music
description: Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-015) 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. “C’est au marché d’Bonsecours” (“It was at the Bonsecours Market”). This humorous and sentimentalizing courtship song has the hallmarks of an early 20th century popular composition, perhaps composed in Montreal, where the Bonsecours Market was the main farmers’ public market between 1847 and 1963. Montreal in the early 1900s was home to a thriving musical entertainment industry which included composers, singers, and actors specializing in comical and sentimentalizing songs and skits about rural life.
source: VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
date: 1995-01-09
rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
relation: Full Interview: vfc1998-0007_au1998-1070
format: sound cassette (analog)
format: digital audio file (MP3)
language: fra
type: sound recording
type: text
coverage: Vermont (state)
coverage: New England (general region)
coverage: Quebec (province)
coverage: Highgate Center (inhabited place)