Category Archives: Quebec Art

Chronicling COVID-19

25 Wednesday Mar 2020

Posted by in Canadian art, Canadian wilderness, Music in Canada, Pandemic, Quebec Art

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133cfc7f9aa5492d9b9da3943c7c99be_18

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

My posts are delayed because of essential business. Quebec is closed.

My main meal comes from meals-on-wheels. As I was going to pick it up, wearing protective gear, I bumped into an assembly of people who doubted we should take authorities seriously. They were not standing at a distance from one another and I saw a person coming out of the swimming pool room.

I didn’t think I had it in me to transform myself into the manager of the building. It was an incredible moment. What I said and wrote in emails was, basically,

disperse immediately and do not let anyone into the building. If something is delivered, it stays in the lobby and someone rings your apartment. Three apartments are for sale. Real Estate is not an essential service. No one comes to visit apartments. If a rule is broken, I’ll call the police, the RCMP (Mounted Police), la GRC (Gendarmerie royale canadienne)  …

This morning I saw a sign asking people not to use the swimming pool.

Our worst enemies are the people who are too arrogant to obey the law. They don’t know that their freedom ends where the freedom of others begin. Only food, medication and the mail can be delivered.

I then had a conversation with a friend who is a postmaster. Mailmen will not ask you to sign if there is a delivery. That is contact. Covid rests on surfaces, which may include the mail.

One must also realize that there is very little medical help. I often tell people that if they wish to be well treated, they should go to the vet’s office. They have to learn medicine carefully as animals do not speak, except “en son langage.”

I am embedding music played by Hank Knox, a member, by marriage, of Sir Ernest MacMillan‘s family. My dear friend Andrea, whom I lost to cancer recently, was Sir Ernest’s niece. I knew the family but not closely, except for Andrea. We became friends when David and I rented the lower floor of her house.

David had found employment in Toronto. We were in a hotel looking for a home. David drove through streets he knew I would like. He saw a sign on a big tree and Andrea standing outside. He learned that she loved music and cats. So David said he would pick me up because he was certain I wanted to live in that house and that a friendship would grow. I must phone Betsy. She sent me harpsichord music.

https://www.mcgill.ca/music/hank-knox

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Hank+Knox&&view=detail&mid=4484F90DC0AD59DEDB0C4484F90DC0AD59DEDB0C&&FORM=VDRVRV

© Micheline Walker
25 March 2020
WordPress

The Last Few Days: Details

12 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by in Québec Songs, Quebec Art, Sharing

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les-ursulines

Les Ursulines, Jean-Paul Lemieux, Wikiart

It’s Sunday, which remains a sacred day for me. Other days serve different purposes and have an origin. Saturday is Saturn as in Saturnalia, a Roman festival taking place on the day of the longest night: Christmas. Humanity has always cherished symbols, but these change from culture to culture. They attach a story to things otherwise “ordinary.”

Jean-Paul Lemieux

To decorate my post, I chose Jean-Paul Lemieux (18 November 1904 – 7 December 1990) who lived in Berkeley, California for several years. His family may have wished to escape cold winters. He and Leclerc were born the same year and were good persons. Lemieux returned to Québec, despite the cold, the snow, various ice storms and numerous heat waves.

Félix Leclerc

Félix Leclerc (2 August 1914 – 8 August 1988), was born in La Tuque, Quebec and studied at the University of Ottawa until the Great Depression. There was no money. He then found work in radio stations, as speaker or writer. In 1939, he was employed by Ici Radio-Canada, the French counterpart of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the CBC. He may have written radio dramas, which my father did, at approximately the same time in the history of Quebec.

After the war, Félix Leclerc, and his guitar, went to France where he took courses. He met kindred spirits, such as Boris Vian. In 1950, at the age of 36, he was discovered by French impresario Jacques Canetti. His daughter says that he divided his life between l’île d’Orléans, where he owned a house, and Paris.

In Le Tour de l’île, Leclerc also mentions a blue-eyed grandfather standing guard, which reminds me of Octave Crémazie‘s poem, entitled « Le Vieux Soldat canadien » . The first French ship to sail down the Saint Lawrence after the “Conquest” was La Capricieuse, in 1855.[1]

Other Quebec Singer-Songwriters

Félix Leclerc was the first of a group of Quebec singer-songwriters. These include Raymond Lévesque who wrote “Quand les hommes vivront d’amour,” Claude Léveillée  who wrote songs for Édith Piaf, and also wrote Frédéric (1961), is also a major singer-songwriter. So are Jean-Pierre Ferland, the composer of Fais du feu dans la cheminée, Robert Charlebois, the author of Ordinaire, and Diane Dufresne. The best performers were Monique Leyrac and Pauline Julien. (Please click on the title of songs I have chosen to hear it.)

However, the most celebrated Québecois singer-songwriter is Gilles Vigneault. Vigneault wrote: “Mon Pays.”

Independence

You will have noticed that Leclerc mentions independence. As paradoxical as this may seem, I believe Québécois have their own country, albeit informally. But, their country is in Canada, where it is probably a safer and more stable place than outside Canada. Québec has yet to sign the Patriated Constitution (1982).

Lemieux’ Ursulines

Les Ursulines are a teaching order founded by Marie de l’Incarnation (née Marie Guyart), in 1639. The Ursulines’ main monastery, built in Quebec City, is the oldest institution of learning for women in North America. As a religious order, the Ursulines were founded in Italy.

—ooo—

I have worked on the Battle of Quebec and grouped the lines differently. Folklore has its rules, but the “Battle of Quebec” is a challenge. Lines vary in length.  The French lines would be called “octaves.” The words “La Danaé” would be at the end of each octave.The English lines (4 stanzas containing 4 lines) seem a response.

La Récréation (playtime)

Before the Révolution tranquille, teachers were nuns and school girls wore a navy blue pinafore dress over a white blouse.

Related image

Jean-Paul Lemieux, 1957 (Galerie d’Art Michel Bigué)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Le peintre Jean-Paul Lemieux. Le musicien Philippe Lauters.

RELATED ARTICLE

Sources and Resources

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[1] Jacques Portes, “Visite de la Capricieuse en 1855: point tournant des relations France-Canada,” l’Encyclopédie du Patrimoine culturel de l’Amérique française

 

 

 

 

Félix Leclerc chante “Le Tour de l’île”

11 Saturday Aug 2018

Posted by in Québec Songs, Quebec Art

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Québec, vue de l’île d’Orléans, Jean-Paul Lemieux, 1963 (Wikiart)

La Récréation, Jean-Paul Lemieux, 1961 (Wikiart)

Paroles de la chanson « Le Tour de l’île »

Félix Leclerc (1914-1988)

Pour supporter     To bear
Le difficile     The difficult
Et l’inutile      And the useless
Y a l’tour de l’île     There’s the island to go round
Quarante-deux milles     Forty-two miles (67 km)
De choses tranquilles     Of things quiet
Pour oublier     To forget
Grande blessure     Gaping wounds
Dessous l’armure     ‘neath the shield
Eté, hiver     Summer, winter
Y a l’tour de l’île     There’s the island to go round
L’Ile d’Orléans      L’île d’Orléans

L’Île c’est comme Chartres     The island’s like Chartres
C’est haut et propre     It’s high and clean
Avec des nefs      With naves
Avec des arcs     With arches
Des corridors     Corridors
Et des falaises     And cliffs

En février     In February
La neige est rose     The snow is pink
Comme chair de femme     Like a woman’s flesh
Et en juillet     And in July
Le fleuve est tiède     The river’s tepid
Sur les battures     On the sandbars
Au mois de mai     In the month of May
A marée basse     At low tide
Voilà les oies     Here come the geese
Depuis des siècles     For centuries
Au mois de juin     In the month of June
Parties les oies     The geese have gone
Mais nous les gens     But we the people
Les descendants     Descendants of people
De La Rochelle     From La Rochelle
Présents tout l’temps     We’re here all the time
Surtout l’hiver     In winter mostly
Comme les arbres      Like trees

Mais c’est pas vrai      But it’s not true
Ben oui c’est vrai      Well, yes it’s true
Écoute encore     Listen again

Maisons de bois     Wooden houses
Maisons de pierre     Stone houses
Clochers pointus     Pointed bell towers
Et dans les fonds     And in the back
Des pâturages     Grazing fields
De silence     Of silence
Des enfants blonds     Blond children
Nourris d’azur     Fed by the sky
Comme les anges     Like angels
Jouent à la guerre     Play war
Imaginaire     War imaginary  

Imaginons     Let’s imagine
L’Ile d’Orléans    L’île d’Orléans
Un dépotoir     A dump
Un cimetière     A cemetery
Parcs à vidanges     Parks of sewage
Boîte à déchets    A box of waste
U. S. parkings     U. S. parking
On veut la mettre     They want to put her
En mini-jupe     In a mini-skirt
And speak English     And speak English
Faire ça à elle     Do that to her
L’Ile d’Orléans     L’île d’Orléans
Notre fleur de lys     Our fleur de lys

Mais c’est pas vrai     But it’s not true
Ben oui c’est vrai     Well, yes it’s true
Raconte encore     Tell me again

Sous un nuage     Under a cloud
Près d’un cours d’eau     Near a stream
C’est un berceau     It’s a cradle
Et un grand-père     And a blue-eyed
Au regard bleu     Grandfather
Qui monte la garde     Stands guard
Il sait pas trop     He doesn’t quite know
Ce qu’on dit dans     What they say
Les capitales     In large cities (capitals)
L’œil vers le golfe     Looking towards the gulf
Ou Montréal     Or Montréal
Guette le signal     He watches for the signal

Pour célébrer    To celebrate
L’indépendance     Independence
Quand on y pense     When one thinks about it
C’est-y en France     Is it in France
C’est comme en France     It’s like France
Le tour de l’île    Round the island
Quarante-deux milles     Forty-two miles
Comme des vagues    Like waves
Les montagnes     Mountains
Les fruits sont mûrs    The fruit is ripe
Dans les vergers     In the orchards
De mon pays     Of my land

Ça signifie     It means
L’heure est venue     The hour has come
Si t’as compris     If you understood

Related image

Jeune Fille, Jean-Paul Lemieux, 1957 (Galerie d’Art Michel Bigué)

© Micheline Walker
11 August 2018
WordPress