The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #92837   Message #1779584
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
09-Jul-06 - 02:22 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: La Metisse / Song of the Metis Maiden
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: LA MÉTISSE- METIS MAIDEN
Lin, I will send the music to Joe Offer; he may be so kind as to do the midi.
Métis music remained outside of the interest of the eastern collectors. Many were songs of the French-Canadians and the fiddle music of both French and Scotch Canadians. Like the song by Louis Riel, some are squirreled away in various archives.
I know of no serious collector who collected from Métis settlements. I have a ponderous two-volume work (by a Frenchman) on Métis history (and other volumes), but it contains no music.
Some songs of the voyageurs exist, but they are called French-Canadian, ignoring the fact that most of the rowers were mixed-bloodIndian-French and Scotch-Indian, Hawaiian (a little known fact) and Indian. I have been told that these songs had been sanitized for polite company before publication.
Little volumes worth looking at (authentic) are "Songs of Old Manitoba" (see previous post) and "Seven Métis Songs of Saskatchewan" (collector's item), and, for some current music, see "Red River Echoes; the Life and Music of Marcel Meilleur," Meilleur et al.
I will copy more in the coming weeks.

I recall your request for "Baptiste's Lament," and wondering at the time if it wasn't fictional, a title made up by Bowen for the Du Pre character. Try writing Bowen through his publisher.