FOLK-SONGS OF OLD QUEBEC 
ORIGIN AND VARIETIES OF CANADIAN FOLK-SONGS 
F OLK-SONGS were once a feature of the daily life of the 
French Canadians, They were as familiar as barley-bread to 
the home-keeping villagers of Quebec, Acadia, Detroit, and 
Louisiana, They escorted the fur traders in their early explora- 
tions across the continent, and enlivened the echoes whenever 
the lumberjacks and the raftsmen appeared on the eastern Cana- 
dian rivers. Threshing and winnowing in the barn moved on to 
the rhythm of work tunes, as did spinning, weaving, beating the 
wash, or rocking the cradle by the fireside. Children, lovers, 
mothers, workers, drinkers, all had their songs. People were 
musical in the old days. 
When the coureurs des bois started on their long journeys 
along the rivers and the trails of the Far West, one or two hun- 
dred years ago, their outstanding qualities were imagination, en- 
durance, a love of fun, and a craving for adventure. Picking up the 
paddle, the canoemen burst into song at once, the better to work 
in unison and keep their spirits from flagging. Their songs were 
truly indispensable. A legacy of the past, they proved a valu- 
able asset to the discoverers and the fur trading companies for 
over two centuries, and contributed much to the formation of 
the national character of the French Canadians. 
Not many song records antedating 1865 have come down 
to us, however. At that date, Ernest Gagnon published his 
Chansons populaires da Canada , a small but valuable collection. 
The idea then went abroad that his effort, modest though it was, 
had drained the fount of local tradition. More songs might have 
been recorded before they had passed away, but modern life had 
hushed all folk-singers alike. Tale and legend had vanished for- 
ever. The impression among the musicians was that our folk- 
songs, as represented in the Gagnon collection, were very limited 
in number and of no great musical importance. 
The writer was under this false impression for many years, 
until some interesting survivals by the roadside piqued his 
