Canadian Journal for Traditional Music (1993)
Editorial Notes
This issue features two, closely related articles about Métis music: one about a Métis song, the other about a Métis singer. Donald Deschênes, of Sudbury's Centre Franco-Ontarien de Folklore, discusses 28 songs sung by Joe Venne, five in English, the rest in French. Philip J. Thomas, of Vancouver, first heard Venne's version of one of these, "La chanson de Louis Riel," during the mid-1980s and traces its publication history, analyzing 29 versions of the text.
I. Sheldon Posen, an Ottawa folklorist and singer, gives a history of English-language, folk music for children and analyzes the remarkable growth of this part of the music industry, providing reasons why the Canadian branch has had greater success than its American counterpart.
Huang Jinpei, of the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou and currently in residence at U.B.C., and Alan Thrasher, of U.B.C.'s School of Music, survey historically and socially Vancouver's Cantonese music societies, describing the use of opera and instrumental music by these societies in local festivals and other activities.
Robert Klymasz, of the Centre for Folk Culture Studies, Canadian Museum of Civilization, has collected much Eastern European music. Here, he surveys Doukhobor songs in Canada since the turn of the century, noting that at first they were preserved entirely by oral transmission but gradually print and recordings began to affect the tradition.
Paula Conlon, currently at Carleton University, interviewed Tom Kines, an Ottawa singer who had been involved in the Society during the 1960s. Kines had urged the Board to emphasize folk-music performance at their meetings, instead of concentrating on academic lectures. Dr. Conlon advocates this policy and recounts how successful songs and workshops were at the Society's 1993 Annual General Meeting.
Ethnomusicologist Beverley Diamond, of York University, discusses problems of definition that arose while she and James Robbins prepared the survey article on ethnomusicology for the 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, considering what might be comprised under the rubrics ethnomusicology, ethnomusicologist, and Canada over the centuries.
Margaret Bennett, a Scottish folklorist who studied at Memorial University, reviews a book of Gaelic songs from Cape Breton, collected and edited by noted Scottish folk-song scholar John L. Campbell.
A review of an important reprint of Edward Ives' first book, Larry Gorman: The Man Who Made the Songs, completes this issue.
As usual, we express our thanks to the Ontario Arts Council, whose continued support has made it possible for us to publish this journal.
© Canadian Journal for Traditional Music