Music
It has always been said that the Acadian people loved to sing. In fact, if our brave and courageous ancestors managed to survive and to maintain their language and culture, through decades and even centuries of oppression, it’s because of their faith and their love for music. They sang to relieve their sufferings.
Our ancestors of l’Acadie brought with them many beautiful songs from France. These songs were passed down from generation to generation orally, since the general public was illiterate at the time. After returning from exile (the Great Upheaval of the Acadians), the founders of various Acadian villages, spread across the coasts of our present day Canada, including our community of Chéticamp, would sing these songs.
These songs brought to us by the founders of Chéticamp have been conserved well for over a century (1785 – 1920), due to our isolation to the rest of the world. It is only with the alphabetization of the population that we began writing these songs books and scribblers for safe keeping amongst families. By this time, songs that were passed down orally were subject to a variety of transformation, being the lyrics or the melody.
Our songs had various themes. Many consisted of laments during the times of Napoleon. Others told stories of seamen that were to set sail for a long voyage, leaving their loved ones behind, but promising to marry them when they returned. Again, some told stories of young girls who fell in love, but were to enter the convent against their will. Many songs were sung to make folks dance, while others were sung to make them laugh. Nevertheless, we can’t forget to mention our bacchic songs, or so to speak, drinking songs.
Our ancestors would sing for days on end, to alleviate the hardships of their daily labour. They would often change the rhythm, or even the melody, to certain pieces, according to the rhythm of the task they were taking. A song could have been sung as a lullaby, or at the same time when cleaning the floors.
Throughout the years, from time to time, new songs would be added to the repertory of our ancient French songs, either learned by lumberjacks during their stay in foreign places, or brought to us by sailors that stopped by our port and so on. Certain songs were composed by local musicians, often times using melodies that were previously known. These songs were particularly written to commemorate tragic or joyful events in the community. Some other times, they were written to mock certain unsuccessful enterprises or simply to make others laugh.
For many decades, our songs were interpreted mainly a cappella. Without the accomanyment of an instrument, folks would tap their feet or beat their hands to help maintain the beat. Without a doubt, Chéticamp has been home to many artists who performed this art. We still have some musicians in the community who sing a cappella, including Loubie Chiasson and his sister Mary, Joséphine Roach, Antoinette (Aucoin) LeFort, Léo H. Aucoin and Placide (à Charles) Boudreau’s entire family. A few of these singers are asked to perform at wedding receptions, during the Chandeleur, during the Mi-carême and parties in general. It was only later that musical instruments made their appearance, with the exception of the fiddle, which seems to have been introduced earlier. Nevertheless, fiddlers mainly played reels to get others to dance. It was rarely accompanied by vocals.
One exception to this rule deserves to be mentioned. Chéticamp was home to a famous singer who accompanied himself with a fiddle, in an original style very few musicians can imitate. It is the late Joseph Athanase Larade, during the first half of the twentieth century, who became greatly appreciated by the people of Chéticamp for his interpretations of old French songs such as L’Orphelin du hameau, Dedans Paris, L’Orpheline mise au couvant, Ma Virginie, Le Prince Eugène, and many more.
Beginning near the 1920s, the isolation of our community that helped preserve our songs was beginning to be a thing of the past. The establishment of roads that linked Chéticamp to exterior communities, the arrival of the radio, musical discs, films, television, newspapers, etc., exposed our community to a great means of assimilation and anglicization. Gradually, people began to loose interest in these old songs in favour of country and rock music, along with Hollywood films.
Thankfully, Chéticamp had a few people who knew that this new culture, which was invading us all, could help us forget our heritage. Between all this, Fathers Anselme Chiasson and Daniel Boudreau, had the mission of collecting as many old songs as they could find, write the lyrics and the music and publishing it. Father Anselme assumed the responsibility of finding these songs and publishing them and distributing them. Father Daniel, a talented singer and musician, knew most of those songs, growing up in a musical family. It was he who recorded these traditional songs. In only a few months, we have managed to record over 560 of these Acadian songs. Sample excerpts of these songs are available to the public on our local radio station’s website (www.ckjm.ca). This will provide access to people all over the world one of our greatest treasures.
