Martha Pellerin Collection of Franco-American Song
Collection Overview
The Martha Pellerin Collection of Franco-American Song is an online database of French and English language songs drawn from two sources: nine song-book manuscripts collected by Martha Pellerin that date to the mid-twentieth century, and a series of six interviews conducted by Martha with Alberta Gagné of Highgate, Vermont in 1998.
The songs that make up the collection include traditional French Canadian materials, commercial popular songs from Canada, France and the United States, family songs, personal songs, bawdy songs and religious songs. The Pellerin Collection is not a complete or inclusive document of Franco-American and French Canadian song. Rather it is a record of the performance repertoires of particular individuals of French Canadian descent, including Martha's parents Yvonne and Hervé, as well as those of Irma Labonté, Adelard Guay and Alberta Gagné.
These fragile, hand written notebooks and audio recordings preserve music vitally important to each of the individuals who took the time to record them on paper or audio tape. These are songs that were shared socially and tied to the identities of the individual performers, their families, neighborhoods, ethnicity and the periods in time in which they were learned and sung. Whether or not they are songs that traveled from France to Quebec with the earliest Francophone settlers to North America or songs learned from the radio while driving between Highgate, VT and Montreal, these songs and the communal performance of them were a fundamental aspect of what it meant to be Franco-American in Northern New England in the middle part of the twentieth century
As French Canadian families moved across the international border to begin new lives in Vermont–becoming part of the industrial workforce in cities such as Winooski, Barre, Rutland, and Burlington, and farming in the rural countryside in towns throughout the state–they brought with them both the language and traditional culture of French Canada. A key cultural practice that these French families brought to Vermont was music-making–both fiddling for dance (often accompanied by piano, percussive foot tapping, and/or spoons) and acappella song-and-response style singing. These musical traditions were integral to social interaction within the French community, simultaneously affirming connections within family networks, strengthening relationships between families, and asserting French identity and the continuity of French culture in the Anglophone world of their new home.
Into the mid twentieth century Franco Americans in Vermont, although numerous, were often either ignored or treated as second class citizens whose “foreign” traditions were of no particular significance to the cultural make up of the state. As a result, the rich musical heritage of French Canada remained invisible to the cultural mainstream, and musical traditions that were carried on in communities around Vermont were known only to the families that participated in these house parties. Starting in the 1960s this began to change, first with the rise to prominence of Burlington fiddler Louie Beaudoin, and later through the performances of such outstanding artists as La Famille Beaudoin, Martha Pellerin, and most recently Michele Choiniere.
Over the past twenty-five years the Vermont Folklife Center (VFC) has acted in partnership with each of these artists, most especially Martha Pellerin with whom we conducted field research, organized master classes, planned festival presentations, created curriculum materials, booked concerts, and generally worked to build public awareness of Franco American culture and help Franco American descendants connect to their cultural legacy. A traditional singer herself, one of Martha’s passions was to document Franco American song traditions in Vermont, which she accomplished both by making field recordings with older people who knew the tradition and by collecting the personal songbooks of individual singers. These songbooks were always handwritten, usually on discarded paper such as obsolete account books and outdated calendars. And they represented the personal repertoire of the individual singer with the complete lyrics of every song they customarily sang at family gatherings.
Martha’s songbook collection was given to the VFC archive by her husband, John, and shortly before her death we laid the groundwork for a plan to make this material available to a broad public audience. This was particularly important project to Martha because with the changes of contemporary life, the kinds of family events in which this repertoire was conventionally passed from generation to generation were no longer taking place. As Martha observed, “We were able to learn these songs orally because we heard them all the time. We had the opportunity to learn this through oral tradition, and our kids aren’t getting that opportunity...” Although the tradition is well documented in archives such as our own and at Laval University in Quebec City, younger singers and others interested in Franco American culture do no have easy public access to this material. So after ten years in the offing, the occasion of the Quadricentennial is clearly the right time to finally bring the Pellerin Songbook Project forward.
Time Period Covered: circa 1940 - 1998
Parent Collections
Vermont Folklife Center Archives
Published: June 21, 2011, University of Vermont, Bailey/Howe Library, Special Collections
Rights: Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center. Requests to reproduce this item should be sent to the UVM Libraries' Center for Digital Initiatives at cdi@uvm.edu. For more information, see http://cdi.uvm.edu/about/rights.
Browse Options
Creator(s)
- Pellerin, Martha [101]
- Gagné, Alberta [100]
- Gagné, Laurianne [95]
- Delaney, Carol [1]
- Gagné, Mrs. Normand [1]
- Gagné, Normand [1]
- Pellerin, Yvonne [1]
- Rochon, Gaston [1]
- Vigneault, Gilles [1]
Place(s)
- New England (general region) [101]
- Quebec (province) [101]
- Vermont (state) [101]
- Highgate Center (inhabited place) [95]
Format(s)
Genre(s)
- songs (document genre) [90]
- interviews [11]
- oral histories (document genre) [11]
- songbooks [9]
Topic(s)
- Folk Songs, French -- Québec (Province) [110]
- Franco-Americans -- Music [110]
- Franco-Americans -- New England [110]
- French-Canadians -- Music [110]
- French-Canadians -- New England [110]
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Topic: ("French-Canadians -- New England")
Title: La visite du Jour de l’An
Creator: Gagné, Laurianne; Gagné, Alberta; Pellerin, Martha
Date: 1995-11-10
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1074) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
Title: Le bonhomme frappe à la porte
Creator: Gagné, Laurianne; Gagné, Alberta; Pellerin, Martha
Date: 1995-12-06
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
Title: Le chignon de ma sœur
Creator: Gagné, Laurianne; Pellerin, Martha; Gagné, Alberta
Date: 1995-08-31
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1072) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
Title: Le livre d’or de nos souvenirs
Creator: Gagné, Laurianne; Gagné, Alberta; Pellerin, Martha
Date: 1995-10-04
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1073) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
Title: Le p’tit sauvage
Creator: Gagné, Laurianne; Gagné, Alberta; Pellerin, Martha
Date: 1995-11-10
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1074) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
Title: Lison était gentille et sage (first line)
Creator: Gagné, Alberta; Pellerin, Martha; Gagné, Laurianne
Date: 1995-08-31
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1072) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
Title: Lison était gentille et sage (first line)
Creator: Pellerin, Martha; Gagné, Alberta; Gagné, Laurianne
Date: 1995-12-06
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
Title: Lorsque je t'ai connu (first line)
Creator: Gagné, Laurianne; Gagné, Alberta; Pellerin, Martha
Date: 1995-11-10
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1074) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
Title: L’diable dans bricole
Creator: Gagné, Laurianne; Gagné, Alberta; Pellerin, Martha
Date: 1995-11-10
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1074) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
Title: L’habitant d’St-Marc
Creator: Pellerin, Martha; Gagné, Alberta; Gagné, Laurianne
Date: 1995-11-10
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1074) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
Title: M'y promenant dedans la ville (first line)
Creator: Pellerin, Martha; Gagné, Alberta; Gagné, Laurianne
Date: 1995-08-31
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1072) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
Title: MS2008-3090 -- Yvonne Pellerin Songbook 1 of 4
Creator: Pellerin, Yvonne
Resource type: songbooks
MSS contains handwritten lyrics to 82 songs in French. Each song is numbered 1-82. Final four leaves contain numbered list of song titles. Title list begins on verso of final leaf and continues on recto, then on to verso/recto of next-to-last leaf.
Title: MS2008-3091 -- Yvonne Pellerin Songbook 2 of 4
Resource type: songbooks
MSS contains handwritten lyrics to 15 songs in French. All songs except the final song are numbered 1-14. Verso of final leaf contains numbered list of song titles.
Title: MS2008-3092 -- Yvonne Pellerin Songbook 3 of 4
Resource type: songbooks
MSS contains handwritten lyrics to songs in French and includes some English translations. Songs are titled and numbered 3-10, numbering begins on thrid page. Incomplete lyrics to one song appear on page one, and an unnumbered song follows 10.
Title: MS2008-3093 -- Yvonne Pellerin Songbook 4 of 4
Resource type: songbooks
MSS contains handwritten lyrics to songs in French. Songs are titled. Unclear where loose leaf at rear of volume fits in with rest of MSS content.
Title: MS2008-3094 -- Hervé Pellerin Songbook
Resource type: songbooks
French language songbook manuscript attributed to Hervé Pellerin. Additional associated loose leaf of paper includes song text written in blue ink.
Title: MS2008-3095 -- Irma Labonté Songbook
Resource type: songbooks
French language songbook manuscript attributed to Irma Labonté. MSS contains handwritten lyrics to 33 songs in French. Each song is numbered 1-33. Final leaf contains numbered list of song titles. Title list begins on verso of final leaf and continues on recto.
Title: MS2008-3096 -- Adelard Guay Songbook
Resource type: songbooks
French language song book manuscript attributed to Adelard Guay. Recto and verso of first leaf contain letter addressed to "Kim", Kim Chase of Burlington, VT, from J. Armand Guay dated October 18, 1980. Letter attributes contents to Adelard Gecoy, father of J. Armand Guay and describes the contents of the book, the creation of the book, and the context of the performance of the songs, as well as gifting the work to Kim Chase.
Title: MS2008-3097 -- Unattributed Songbook
Resource type: songbooks
Unattributed French language song book manuscript. Recto of first leaf contains phrase, "Cahier De Chant." Verso of first leaf contains adhesive sticker with image of Christ child in manger with the phrase "JESUS dANS LA CRECHE" written below in red wax crayon.
Title: MS2008-3098 -- Unattributed Songbook
Resource type: songbooks
Unattributed French language song book manuscript. Recto of first leave contains word "chanson" in pencil as well as two arithmetic problems in blue ink. Following 6 leaves contain lyrics to a song or songs on recto. Recto of final 4 leaves are blank.
Title: Ma tante avait un beau chapeau
Creator: Gagné, Laurianne; Gagné, Alberta; Pellerin, Martha
Date: 1995-01-09
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
Title: Mais quand on part du Canada (first line)
Creator: Gagné, Laurianne; Pellerin, Martha; Gagné, Alberta
Date: 1995-11-10
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1074) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
Title: Marilou (first word)
Creator: Pellerin, Martha; Gagné, Alberta; Gagné, Laurianne
Date: 1995-07-10
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
Title: Mon chapeau de paille
Creator: Gagné, Laurianne; Gagné, Alberta; Pellerin, Martha
Date: 1995-07-10
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
Title: Mon pere n'avait fille que moi
Creator: Gagné, Laurianne; Pellerin, Martha; Gagné, Alberta
Date: 1995-10-04
Resource type: songs (document genre)
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1073) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.
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