Vive la Canadienne [first line] (AU1998-1073-003)
Dublin Core
Title
Vive la Canadienne [first line] (AU1998-1073-003)
Subject
Description
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1073-003) 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.
Alberta Gagné’s “Vive la Canadienne” (”Long Live the French-Canadian Woman“) presents five of sixteen verses penned by Abbé F.-X. Burke (1851-1923). Abbé Burque was born in St-Hyacinthe, Quebec. He studied at the St-Hyacinthe Seminary and was engaged there to teach philosophy while still a student. Following his ordination as a priest in 1874, he was made a professor of philosophy and mathematics at the Seminary He abruptly left Quebec in 1882 and served briefly as a vicar before becoming parish priest for the St-Louis parish of Fort Kent, ME until 1904. He returned to Canada in 1904 and retired in Quebec City.
During his retirement, he published original poems and, in 1921, a collection of songs titled Nouveau Chansonnier canadien-français, recueil de chansons populaires, chansons nouvelles et chansons restaurées (= A New French-Canadian Songster: Collection of folk songs, new songs, and restored songs). Abbé Burque wished to champion the cause of authentic French-Canadian song, which he feared was being polluted by the influences of modern pop music. He did not, however, feel that the old French-language songs could survive on their own merits; they were too unpolished, too full of degrading subject matter, their lyrics too marred by process of oral transmission. What these songs needed was to be “rehabilitated” through a process of polishing, purification and textual “restoration.” His songbook includes some fifty traditional songs, along with contemporary songs on patriotic, religious, nostalgic and anti-modernist themes. The folk songs were classified as either first-class (songs requiring little or no touch-ups), second class (songs requiring considerable touch-ups, but whose original narratives were still recognizable) or third class (songs whose defects were so massive that they required a complete overhaul and rewriting).
Into the “third-class” category, Abbé Burque placed “Vive la Canadienne,” a traditional chanson en laisse which appears in some of the earliest published collections of French-Canadian folk song, such as Ernest Gagnon’s Chansons populaires du Canada recueillies et publiées avec annotations, etc. (Québec, City: Bureau du Foyer canadien, 1865-1867). The song appears to have originated in Quebec; Folk song scholar Conrad Laforte classified it in his catalogue under the title “Vive la Canadienne,” code I, M-16.
Abbé Burque took Gagnon to task for publishing “Vive la Canadienne” (which celebrates the wedding bride and the delights of the wedding party, including dancing, merry-making, and drinking to excess). In Abbé Burque’s opinion, only the opening line of the song had any merit, while all the others were repugnant to superior classes of society. He completely rewrote the remaining lyrics, transforming the song into a hymn of praise to the virtuous, hard-working, self-sacrificing, French-Canadian housewife, that paragon of Christian and domestic virtues whose unending devotion to her family ended only in the grave. Burque’s rewriting of the song was published by Abbé Charles-Émile Gadbois in his immensely popular moralizing songbook series, La Bonne Chanson, which was widely disseminated throughout Franco-American New England in the mid-20th century.
Alberta Gagné’s “Vive la Canadienne” (”Long Live the French-Canadian Woman“) presents five of sixteen verses penned by Abbé F.-X. Burke (1851-1923). Abbé Burque was born in St-Hyacinthe, Quebec. He studied at the St-Hyacinthe Seminary and was engaged there to teach philosophy while still a student. Following his ordination as a priest in 1874, he was made a professor of philosophy and mathematics at the Seminary He abruptly left Quebec in 1882 and served briefly as a vicar before becoming parish priest for the St-Louis parish of Fort Kent, ME until 1904. He returned to Canada in 1904 and retired in Quebec City.
During his retirement, he published original poems and, in 1921, a collection of songs titled Nouveau Chansonnier canadien-français, recueil de chansons populaires, chansons nouvelles et chansons restaurées (= A New French-Canadian Songster: Collection of folk songs, new songs, and restored songs). Abbé Burque wished to champion the cause of authentic French-Canadian song, which he feared was being polluted by the influences of modern pop music. He did not, however, feel that the old French-language songs could survive on their own merits; they were too unpolished, too full of degrading subject matter, their lyrics too marred by process of oral transmission. What these songs needed was to be “rehabilitated” through a process of polishing, purification and textual “restoration.” His songbook includes some fifty traditional songs, along with contemporary songs on patriotic, religious, nostalgic and anti-modernist themes. The folk songs were classified as either first-class (songs requiring little or no touch-ups), second class (songs requiring considerable touch-ups, but whose original narratives were still recognizable) or third class (songs whose defects were so massive that they required a complete overhaul and rewriting).
Into the “third-class” category, Abbé Burque placed “Vive la Canadienne,” a traditional chanson en laisse which appears in some of the earliest published collections of French-Canadian folk song, such as Ernest Gagnon’s Chansons populaires du Canada recueillies et publiées avec annotations, etc. (Québec, City: Bureau du Foyer canadien, 1865-1867). The song appears to have originated in Quebec; Folk song scholar Conrad Laforte classified it in his catalogue under the title “Vive la Canadienne,” code I, M-16.
Abbé Burque took Gagnon to task for publishing “Vive la Canadienne” (which celebrates the wedding bride and the delights of the wedding party, including dancing, merry-making, and drinking to excess). In Abbé Burque’s opinion, only the opening line of the song had any merit, while all the others were repugnant to superior classes of society. He completely rewrote the remaining lyrics, transforming the song into a hymn of praise to the virtuous, hard-working, self-sacrificing, French-Canadian housewife, that paragon of Christian and domestic virtues whose unending devotion to her family ended only in the grave. Burque’s rewriting of the song was published by Abbé Charles-Émile Gadbois in his immensely popular moralizing songbook series, La Bonne Chanson, which was widely disseminated throughout Franco-American New England in the mid-20th century.
Abstract
Long live the Canadian woman and her soft, pretty eyes; she is truly Christian, the treasure of her husband; she sews by hand our clothing and overclothes; she makes good cabbage soup to perfection; to her last hour, her life is all about us.
Source
VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1073 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
Date
Rights
Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
Relation
Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1073
Language
fra
Identifier
vfc1998-0007_tc1998-1073-001a-003
Song Item Type Metadata
Supplied Title
Vive la Canadienne
Standard Title
Vive la Canadienne
Standard Title Reference
[not catalogued]
First Line
Vive la Canadienne
Transcription
(BEGIN SINGING)
Vive la Canadienne,
Vole, mon cœur, vole,
Vive la Canadienne et ses jolis yeux doux.
Et ses jolis yeux doux, tout doux,
Et ses jolis yeux doux.
Elle est vraiment chrétienne,
Vole, mon cœur, vole,
Elle est vraiment chrétienne, trésor de son époux.
Trésor de son époux, tout doux,
Trésor de son époux.
Elle fait à l'aiguille,
Vole, mon cœur, vole,
Elle fait à l'aiguille nos habits, nos surtouts.
Nos habits, nos surtouts, tout doux,
Nos habits, nos surtouts.
Elle fait à merveille,
Vole, mon cœur, vole,
Elle fait à merveille la bonne soupe aux choux.
La bonne soupe aux choux, tout doux,
La bonne soupe aux choux.
Jusqu'à l'heure dernière.
Vole, mon cœur, vole,
Jusqu'à l'heure dernière,
Sa vie est toute à nous,
Sa vie est toute à nous, tout doux,
Sa vie est toute à nous.
Vive la Canadienne,
Vole, mon cœur, vole,
Vive la Canadienne et ses jolis yeux doux.
(END SINGING)
Translation
laisse; 14-syllable lines (“ou” end-rhyme), five lines (first line repeated at the end of the song)
Interviewer
Location
Original Format
sound cassette (analog)
Files
Citation
“Vive la Canadienne [first line] (AU1998-1073-003),” Vermont Folklife Center Digital Collections, accessed December 26, 2024, https://vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/items/show/318.
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