From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Quebec has been a province of Canada since the 1867 Act of Confederation, but it has always been culturally distinct as the most French-influenced section of the country. The Quebecois settlers were mostly from northern France, and they played a variety of French folk musicss. 100 of these songs were collected by Ernest Gagnon for an 1865 compilation, one of the first such to be published in Canada.
This article is part of theMusic of Canada series. |
Quebec |
Maritime Provinces and Cape Breton Island |
Prairie Provinces |
Inuit |
First Nations''' |
The early part of the 20th century saw growth in opera, and the foundation of the Montreal Opera Company in 1910, and opera singers became popular. Perhaps the most remarkable phenomenon in popular music was the career of La Bolduc, who became extremely popular singing satirical and sometimes racy songs based on the Québécois and irish folk traditions, and who also was expert in the wordless vocalization known as turlutte.
By the 1960s, radio and television had begun to help disseminate French folk songs, especially after the 1967 foundation of the Centennial Collection of Canadian Folk Songs, including recordings of Quebecois performers like Yves Albert and Jacques Labrecque, as well as Acadien Edith Butler. The most important performers of this period were Gilles Vigneault and Felix Leclerc, who brought more influences, especially from Anglo Canada, to the music of French singing stars like Jacques Brel. Leclerc, from Ile d'Orleans, and Vigneault, from Natashquan in the north of Quebec, became heroes for a new generation of Quebecois youth. It was Vigneault's "Mon pays" which became a rallying anthem for Quebecois nationalism for a 1965 performance by Monique Leyrac, and established a tradition of Quebecois artists supporting sovereignity.
In 1974, Vigneault and Leclerc played on the Plains of Abraham with Robert Charlebois, who used local French dialects in his rock and roll fusions. The 70s also saw roots performers like La Bottine Souriante gain critical and commercial acclaim within Quebec. Jim Corcoran and Bertrand Gosselin released La tête en gigue, a influential album that helped bring Quebecois roots to crossover audiences across Canada.
More recent Quebecois performers include Danielle Martineau, Michel Faubert and Richard Dejardins.
