Canadian Journal for Traditional Music (1981)

Editorial Notes

Edith Fowke

The lead article is of particular importance to Canadian folk music scholars. Prepared by Laurel Doucette and Cohn Quigley, graduate students in the Folklore Department of Memorial University, it gives the most complete survey to date of the Child ballads in Canada, indicating both the frequency of the individual ballads and the regional distribution. Laurel has published Skill and Status:

Traditional Expertise within a Rural Canadian Family and edited Cultural Retention and Demographic Change: Studies of the Hebridean Scots in Eastern Townships of Quebec in the Mercury Series, Nos. 28 and 34, Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies. Colin published an extensive article on "The Child Ballads as Found in Newfoundland" in Culture and Tradition.

Georges Arsenault's discussion of local Acadian ballads is of interest not simply for its picture of the variety of songs in one area but for the light it throws on the types of locally-composed songs that pass into oral tradition. In the 1977 issue of the Journal he published a detailed study of one Acadian ballad, "Le Meurtre de Timothy McCarthy: Un complainte acadienne."

Lynn Whidden, who presents an interesting study of a contemporary Inuit singer, wrote an M.A. paper on "Three Generations of Eskimo Songs from Eskimo Point, Northwest Territories." She is currently preparing a doctoral dissertation on the Cree Indians of Quebec at the Université de Montréal.

Jay kahn, who teaches in the Music Department of York University, has undertaken a study of the tunes of children's singing games: a topic that has had little previous attention. He previously contributed a study of the "Text Underlay in Gagnon's Collection of French-Canadian Songs" to our Journal.

Harry Hadeed, a graduate music student at York, has analyzed the tune types found in the repertoire of one Canadian traditional singer. This kind of study focussing on traditional Canadian songs is a new and welcome development.

Donald Deschênes, who has collected a large number of songs from a fine French-Canadian singer, outlines the detailed study he is making of her repertoire.

Once again we must express our thanks to the Ontario Arts Council. Without its generous support we could not continue to publish this magazine.