Canadian Journal for Traditional Music (1979)

Editorial Notes

Edith Fowke

In an attempt to improve our coverage of folk music in Canada we have asked two outstanding music scholars to act as Associate Editors of the Journal. Robert Bouthillier of the Centre de la Arts et Traditions de l'Université Lava! de Québec, is well versed in the folk music of French Canada and has already contributed a number of items to our Journal. Neil Rosenberg, a professor in the Folklore Department of Memorial University of Newfoundland and an executive member of the American Folklore Society and the Folk Studies Association of Canada, has written extensively on Anglo-Canadian folk music. We hope that through their contacts with folk music students in Quebec and Newfoundland they will be able to secure articles that will make our Journal more representative of the various aspects of Canadian folk music.

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The present issue has fewer articles than usual because half of it is devoted to a selective index of the 'tOld Favourites" page of the Family Herald and Weekly Star. We believe that this index will be a useful reference tool for Canadian folk-song collectors.

In addition, we are pleased to present an extensive scholarly study of a very interesting French-Canadian ballad, "Le garçon empoisonné," which is not known in France and is apparently an Acadian translation of a well-known Child ballad, "Lord Randall." It might be noted that a similar process probably produced another Acadian ballad, "OU vas-tu, mon petit garçon?" which Marius Barbeau published in Alouette (Montréal: Lumen, 1946, pp. 161-63). Again it is a song that is not known in France and parallels closely another Child ballad, "The False Knight upon the Road."

Another note: "Le garçon empoisonné" has been recorded on a recent record, Traditional Music of France, Ireland, & England sung by John Wright and Catherine Perrier, on Green Linnet SLP 1011.

Laurel Doucette, who has contributed a study of the music traditions of an Ottawa Valley community, holds an M.A. in folklore from Memorial University, has spent some time classifying songs in the folk music section of the Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies, the Museum of Man, Ottawa, and. has now returned to Memorial to work for her Ph.D.

Linda Long, the author of the short article about her grandfather's songs, is a student of Dr. Catherine Jolicoeur at the Centre universitaire SLM, Edmunston, Nouveau-Brunswick.

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Libraries and new members who might like to obtain a set of the previous issues of the Canadian Folk Music Journal are reminded that the six volumes from 1973 to 1978 inclusive can be ordered from the treasurer, T. B. Rogers, 1314 Shelbourne St. S.W., Calgary, Alberta T3C 2K8, for $17.00.

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As in previous years, we wish to express our gratitude to the Ontario Arts Council for the grant which makes this magazine possible.