Thread #10324 Message #70771
Posted By: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca
14-Apr-99 - 12:26 AM
Thread Name: Nova Scotia question...
Subject: RE: Nova Scotia question...
The song, titled "The Nova Scotia Song", was collected by Dr. Helen Creighton in the Halifax County area. It was known by a number of people, but as a true folk song, it is NOT know who wrote it originally. There is some speculation on the tune it was based on, but no clear winners there either.There is a funny story told where Dr. Creighton, after a few years heard one of her sources for this song sing it in a different way from when he gave it to her years back. This got her curious so she asked the reason. "Well, I heard this gal, Catherine MacKinnon, do it that way on the radio so I figured she had the right way of it" was his answer.
Just goes to show how the tradition changes.
Oh! This year, Helen Creighton would have been 100 years old. As part of the celebrations, the Helen Creighton Folklore Society is asking the Nova Scotia Legislature to declare the "Nova Scotia Song" to be Nova Scotia's Official Folk Song. We don't have an Official SONG, either. As well a few years ago, it was asked that the Federal Government make a stamp with a depiction of Dr. Creighton. At that time, they said the person had to be dead 10 years. 1999 is the 10th anniversary of her death. Hopefully THAT will come to pass this year as well. It's about time we had more recognition of the woman who single-handedly saved MORE songs than anyone would have considered possible. One exceptional woman.
If you're Canadian, please see if you can speak to your MP about the possibility of the stamp. If you're Nova Scotia, please ask your MLA to support the call to make this song our OFFICIAL FOLK SONG.
The Helen Creighton Folklore Society is also planning to celebrate her birthday with a cake at September's Word On the Street Festival. This is usually the last Sunday of September, and closes for about 6 hours, one of the busiest streets in Halifax. The festival promotes writers, books, magazines and their publishers. IF you are in the area, come attend.
There are other events scheduled over the summer and fall celebrating this anniversary year.
I've gone through all the threads on this song, and I think I've extracted all the pertinent information we have. The one thing we're missing is a documented early version of the lyrics - the earliest "Nova Scotia" lyrics above are from Fowke's 1973 Penguin book. Do we have lyrics as collected by Creighton? I have her Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia, but it does not have the song. Anybody have a copy of Traditional Songs of Nova Scotia?
-Joe Offer-