Hark! The herald Angels sing (MS2008-3097-012)
Folk Songs, French--New England
Folk Songs, French--Quèbec (Province)
Franco-Americans--Music
French-Canadians--Music
Song text from VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. MS2008-3097-012 Unattributed Songbook 1 of 1. Pp. 30-31.
VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. MS2008-3097 Unattributed Songbook 1 of 1. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
Complete Manuscript: vfc1998-0007_ms2008-3097
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text
Song text from VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. MS2008-3098-001 Unattributed Songbook 1 of 1. p. 3.
VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. MS2008-3098 Unattributed Songbook 1 of 1. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
Complete Manuscript: vfc1998-0007_ms2008-3098
Cheveux blonds cheveux blanc (MS2008-3098-002)
Song text from VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. MS2008-3098-002 Unattributed Songbook 1 of 1. Pp. 5, 7.
Song text from VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. MS2008-3098-003 Unattributed Songbook 1 of 1. Pp. 7, 9, 11.
Complete Manuscript: vfc1998-0007_au2008-3098
MS2008-3098-004 Dans le bon vieux temps
Song text from VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. MS2008-3098-004 Unattributed Songbook 1 of 1. Pp. 11, 13.
Ça va venir, ça va venir, mais décourageons-nous pas (AU1998-1071-001)
Franco-Americans--New England
French-Canadians--New England
Folk Songs, French--Québec (Province)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071-001) 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. “Ça va venir, ça va venir, mais décourageons-nous pas” (“It’s coming, It’s coming, let’s not get discouraged”) is a 1930 song written by Gaspé-born Montreal singer, songwriter, jaw harp, harmonica and fiddle player Mary Travers Bolduc (known affectionately to her audiences as “Madame Bolduc” or simply “La Bolduc”), titled “Ça va venir découragez-vous pas.” The song was inspired by the challenges of the Depression for working class Montreal families and by the August 1930 election of Richard Bennett to the position of Canadian Prime Minister. Mary Travers Bolduc (1894-1941) was born to a father of Irish descent and a French-Canadian mother in eastern Quebec. Like many poor young country women of her era, she was sent to live in Montreal at the age of thirteen where she worked as a domestic. She married Édouard Bolduc, a plumber by trade, and they and their children scraped by through the 1920s until Mary was asked to fill in as a fiddler for Conrad Gauthier’s popular theatrical show, a kind of French-Canadian Grand Ole Opry, which featured sketches and music and song with down-home French-Canadian content. She was a hit, and her stage success eventually brought her to the attention of Montreal recording entrepreneur Roméo Beaudry, who launched her short but immensely successful recording career. Mrs. Bolduc wrote most of her own songs and in the 1932 formed her own touring troupe, which for five years traveled widely in Quebec as well as Franco-American New England. As is often the case in Mrs. Bolduc’s songs, the words to “Ça va venir découragez-vous pas” are original and employ both lyrics and lilting, for which she was renowned, while the melody itself borrows from Quebec’s traditional dance music repertory: the first two phrases echo a tune popularized by Montreal fiddler Joseph Allard, one of Mrs. Bolduc’s contemporaries, who recorded it in 1928 under the title “Quadrille de chez nous” on the Victor label. Allard’s melody is very likely a duple-meter recasting of “Home Sweet Home,” a waltz composed by Sir Henry Bishop (1786-1855), an operatic conductor, composer and arranger. It first appeared in the play Clari, or the Maid of Milan, by John Howard Payne, produced in London in 1823. This popular and soon-familiar melody quickly was transformed into a waltz for dancing, as well as employed as a song and hymn tune. In 1930, Mrs. Bolduc recorded this song for the Compo/Starr label (issue # 15761, matrix # 4573, side A). You can hear her recording of this song on the Library and Archives Canada website, the Virtual Gramophone: https://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/m2/f7/13505.mp3
VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1071 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1071
Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
digital audio file (MP3)
sound recording
Vermont (state)
New England (general region)
Quebec (province)
Highgate Center (inhabited place)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071-002) 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. “Grand-père Noé” (“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. Alberta Gagné learned this song from her brother-in-law, Émile Gagné. You can hear a second recording of Alberta Gagné singing “Notre grand-père Noé” in this collection (AU1998-1071-007).
sound cassette (analog)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071-003) 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. Mon chapeau de paille” (“My straw hat”) is a song of unknown authorship composed in Quebec in the 1800s memorializing the Battle of Saint-Denis, fought on November 23, 1837 in Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu between British colonial authorities and Patriote citizen rebels as part of the Lower Canada Rebellion. In his memoirs, journalist and politician Télésphore-Damien Bouchard. (1881-1962), who was raised in St-Hyacinthe, less than 20 miles from Saint-Denis, reported that anti-British sentiment was common among college students at the local seminary at the turn of the 20th century, who embraced “Mon chapeau de paille” as an iconic song. Bouchard also mentioned that the rumor at the time was that the song was authored by historian, priest, and nationalist Mgr Lionel Groulx (1878-1967). The lyrics of this song, along with two additional verses, were anonymously submitted to and printed by the Montreal daily newspaper La Presse in 1905 in a readers’ column with a note stating that the reader had heard this song sung by an old man (La Presse, 23 September,1905, p.16). In 1926, a 78rpm recording of this song under the title “Le chapeau de paille” was released by Victor (matrix 263208, side A) featuring Conrad Gauthier (1885-1964); Gauthier recorded a second version with the same title for the same label in 1930. In 1928, Eugène Daignault (1895-1960) recorded a version under the title for the Starr label (issue # 15500, matrix # 3451, side A). Settings of this song with the first four verses of Gauthier’s version were popularized in Franco-American New England in the late 1930s via La Bonne Chanson, the ten-booklet series published between 1938 and 1954) by Quebecois priest, musician, publisher, composer, and impresario Abbé Charles-Émile Gadbois (1906-1981). Alberta Gagné learned this song from her older brother.
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071-004) 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. “Marilou” is the Montreal songwriter, composer, pianist, and recording studio owner/producer Roméo Beaudry’s 1926 song, “Mary Lou.” Beaudry’s is a French-language setting of the 1926 hit song by the same name, with music by American band leader by Abe Lyman (1897-1957) and American American ragtime-and-Dixieland jazz pianist and composer. J. Russel Robinson (1892-1963). The lyrics to the original song were written by actor, director, producer and writer George Waggner (1894-1984), best known for directing Lon Chaney Jr. in the 1941 film The Wolf Man. Abe Lyman’s California Orchestra first recorded “Mary Lou” in March 1926; in December of that year, Montreal baritone Odilon Rochon recorded Beaudry’s setting for the Compo/Starr label (issue # 15309; matrix # E2633). Beaudry’s lyrics consisted of two verses with a refrain. Alberta Gagné sang the first verse and then began to hesitate about the lyrics. She apparently had a manuscript of songs which she had written out lyrics for when she was in her early sixties; she located the song text, started from the beginning and sang the whole song. She afterwards related that she learned this song while honeymooning with her newlywed husband in August 1926. You can see a more complete transcription of the lyrics to the Beaudry song in VFC2006-0002 Beaudoin Family Collection. MS2011-3222-038 Eva Lacourse Songbook. Pp. 66-67.
Dans l’bon vieux temps (AU1998-1071-005)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071-005) 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. “Dans le bon vieux temps” (“In the good old days”) is a song whose language and references suggest that it was composed in Quebec in the early decades of the 20th century. To date, no other printed references or recordings have been found.
Au temps jadis [first line] (AU1998-1071-006)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071-006) 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. “Au temps jadis” (“In the old days”) is a song which originated in France, probably in the late 1800s or more likely in the early 1900s. The cataloguer has come across only two other versions: the first is a recording by the French Pyrenees traditional music trio Eths Bandolets, titled “L’ancienne méthode,” which includes an additional verse, recorded on their 2004 CD titled Drin de tot. The other version is a somewhat more distantly related song text of the same title from the VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. MS2008-3095-030 Irma Labonté Songbook 1 of 1, pp. 69-72.
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071-007) 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. “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. Beaudry borrowed Woods’ melody and Rose’s theme of the impoverished father, but in his completely re-imagined and equally comic lyrics, the cause of poverty is his sixteen children, daughters all. Keeping them fashionably dressed and receiving their suitors at home has driven the “pauvre bonhomme” (“poor fellow”) into near destitution and exhaustion. Irving Berlin published Beaudry’s version, titled “Pauvre bonhomme” in 1926 as sheet music, and Arthur LaFleur recorded a 78rpm on Beaudry’s Starr label in December of that year (issue # 15292, matrix # 2544, side A). You can see a copy of Beaudry’s 1926 sheet music setting at the online archives of the Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec: https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/2067327 “Pauvre bonhomme” clearly was a hit song on both sides of the Canadian border, making its way into the repertories of Franco-American singers in Maine and Vermont as even into French-language communities in Newfoundland. Alberta Gagné’s lyrics are almost identical to the Beaudry setting; the only notable difference is that the long-suffering parent is instead the mother (“pauvre bonne femme”). She sang this song for Martha twice: the other recording is titled “Aujourd’hui comme vous savez” (AU1998-1070-013).
En lisant les billets doux (AU1998-1071-008)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071-008) 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. “En lisant les billets doux” (‘While reading the love letters”) is a French-language setting by Roméo Beaudry of the 1922 American hit song “Why Should I Cry Over You,” with words and music by composer-publisher Chester Conn (born Master Chester Cohn, 1894-1973) and British-born co-writer Ned Miller. The song was published in April 1922 and first recorded in June of that year by American tenor Billy Jones, under the alias of Victor Robert, on the Victor label (issue # 18922, side B). In the 1920s, 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. Shortly after the publication of “Why Should I Cry Over You,” Beaudry set to work creating a French-language transliteration titled “Je ne veux plus pleurer pour toi.” Beaudry self-published the song in sheet music form that same year and baritone J. Hervey Germain recorded Beaudry’s setting on the Starr label in August 1922 (issue # 12051, side B).
Quand on s'en va le cœur en détresse [first line] (AU1998-1071-009)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071-009) 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. “Le livre d’or de nos souvenirs” (”The golden book of our memories“) is a song whose authorship has yet to be identified, but which clearly enjoyed some popularity in Quebec in the first half of the 20th century. Almost identical lyrics are quoted in a privately published collection of songs from the repertory of Georges-Alphonse Olivier (1907-1993), who hailed from Ste-Élisabeth, Quebec (Les anciennes chansons que mon père chantait dans son jeune âge. Édité par Réjean Olivier 3e édition, Joliette : Édition privée, 2015) under the title “Le livre d’or de mes souvenirs.” Celebrated Quebec singer-songwriter Gilles Vigneault quotes the opening lines of the refrain of this song in an original 1968 song entitled “Le Nord du Nord,” using it as an evocation of a collective memory of well-known tunes of yore. Alberta Gagné sang this song for Martha Pellerin on two occasions; the other recording is titled “Le livre d’or de nos souvenirs” [first line] (AU1998-1073-015).
La prière d’un vieillard (AU1998-1071-010)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071-010) 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. “La prière d’un vieillard” (“The old man’s prayer”) is a song of unknown authorship which is more commonly known in Quebec and Franco-American New England as “Souvenir(s) d’un vieillard.” The earliest known appearances of this song date to late 1930 when the song was recorded on the Starr label by Eugène Daignault (issue # 15784; matrix # 4611, side A) and early 1931, when the song was recorded for the Victor label by Conrad Gauthier (issue # 263794, side A). In both cases, the record label information includes the information “vieille chanson” (“old song”) but furnishes no information about its composer. 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 version includes the usual first, fifth and sixth verses of this song, but omits the second, third, and fourth verses.
Je vous dis que ces années-ci (AU1998-1071-011)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071-011) 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. 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 AU1998-1075-010.
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071-012) 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.
La destinée la rose au bois (AU1998-1071-014)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071-014) 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. “La destinée la rose au bois’’ (“The destiny, the rose of the woods”) is a very old and widespread French song dating back at least to the sixteenth century. Versions of this song have been documented throughout France, Switzerland Belgium, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, and in various regions of the United States, including Missouri, Maine, and Louisiana.
Bientôt l'ombre va luire, belle ne pleure pas (AU1998-1072-001)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1072-001) 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. “Bientôt l'ombre va luire, belle ne pleure pas” (”Soon the shadows will glimmer, sweetheart, do not cry “) is a sentimental, patriotic song which Alberta Gagné identified as a song from WWI. It has not been possible to find a printed setting of this song, but sentimental patriotic songs were a staple of French commercial songwriting during the First World War.
VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1072 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1072
C’est le jour du départ [first line] (AU1998-1072-002)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1072-002) 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. “C’est le jour du départ“ (“It’s the day of departure”) is a sentimental, patriotic French-Canadian WWI song published in 1915, with words by René Brisson and music by Montreal music publisher Louis Payette. Payette’s business was small, but he nonetheless 10 songs in the 1910s with lyrics by Brisson and original music which Payette either created alone or in collaboration with other composers. The song “Mon soldat” gained sufficient popularity to be published in bilingual sheet music settings which circulated on both sides of the Atlantic as early as 1916. “Mon soldat” was recorded for the Victor label (issue #67537, side A) in 1915 by baritone Torcom Bézazian. You can hear that recording on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/78_mon-soldat_torcom-bzazian-louis-payette_gbia0199277a. You can see a digital copy of a bilingual sheet music setting published in London, England in 1916 at Payette, Louis; Brisson, R; and Lucas, "Mon soldat = (My soldier lad)" (1916). Vocal Popular Sheet Music Collection. Score 1131: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/1131 Alberta Gagné’s version is faithful to the original printing, with the exception of a few lines in the first verse which are somewhat garbled or borrowed from the second verse.