Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 4, No. 11 (1930-08)

366 The Phonograph Monthly Review August, 1930 operatic appearances. But these were only pre- liminary and preparatory to what is her true life work, the study and propagation of the varied folk music of her native Canada. Her work in collecting the folk music of the French-Canadians, Acadians, Eskimos, and In- dians, and presenting the songs in costume re- citals, with authentic motion pictures, is under the patronage of the National Museum of Canada, and has been endorsed by the American Museum of Natural History, the Archaeological Institute of America, and many distinguished anthrop- ologists as well as musicians, owing to the care and accuracy with which the music has been trans- cribed and the authenticity of the presentation —free from false harmonizations, and accompan- ied only by such instruments as the native musi- cians themselves use. The songs recorded are characteristic examples of various types, and the recorded performances like those in concert are sung to the unelaborated taps of the tom-tom, in the case of the Eskimo and Indian songs, or simple chords on the harp cithare in the Acadian music. My interest in Miss Gaultier's first records led me to write to her in search of material on her folk music work and collections. Her reply was so interesting and informatative that I cannot forbear reproducing it as nearly as possible in her own words. The task of making these records was not a small one, the tom-toms being the cause of much trouble. The British Col- umbia tom-tom is very large and powerful, and the Eskimo one—played on the rim—having too much vibration. The small harp cithare proved a delightful surprise, a continual echo following each cord somewhat like the returning echo one hears in the famous old baptistry of Pisa, Italy, when singing certain notes in thirds and fifths on which this small harp is also based. This harp is used purposely for its sound, which imitates so well the sound of the old troubadour harps used in the 12th century in France. The cithare was also used in Rome at the time of the emperors, and in more recent times the first presentation of Faust given in Rome was sung to the accompaniment of several cithares and different string instruments. I also have some fifty obbligati for viola d’amour, viola, viola da gamba, which have been arranged by Marian Bauer. And I have arranged obbligati for violin and for humming voices such as used by our boatmen along the Ottawa rivers or the' St. Lawrence while driving logs down the river. You may have heard my two choral arrangements sung over the radio last year (WJZ) in two Great Northern Railway pro- grams, in which I featured my own family. You may be interested to know that my entire research work and transcriptions have been made with the help of the violin, which has been a wonderful aid in the study of such intricate music. In Canada, our folk music, including the jigs, dance songs, in fact songs for all occasions, number six thousand recorded. Oftentimes one man can sing some three hundred songs, all by memory, in a week’s time, which proves that in Canada folk songs and singers are as abundant as those one finds in either Hungary or Russia. Perhaps I may say that Canada has more choice: the Eskimo, Indian, French-Canadian, Acadian, the songs of Newfoundland and old English (of which three hundred were collected last sum- mer by the Yassar Folk Lore Fund Department). My last trip to Acadia among the old French fisher-folk added some few hundred new songs to my collection and many old legends and short plays. One must not mistake the so-called French-Canadian habitant song with that of Acadia and Nova Scotia. The langauge is that of the seven- teenth century, spoken only by French Acadians and not by the Quebec habitant. The songs themselves are not the same, and have different versions and melodies. The Cajun does not exist in Nova Scotia, therefore my songs are not Cajun, as they call these songs in Louisiana. The word comes from Cadie, the old Indian Micmac; Canayen has also been given to Canadien. This Cajun word is not used in our part of the country. The word Acadian is sacred to our French people. The Louisiana songs are not as pure French as those of Canada, many of them containing a mixture of Negro rhythms. I already have several plays which I hope to publish soon, written in the old French seventeenth century langauge of Acadia. (I am equally interested in the literature—which has great value—of our aboriginal races of Canada.) I am leaving again shortly 1 for Nome, Alaska, where I will spend some time among the Eskimos. Coming back I shall visit the Queen Char- lotte Islands to be among the Haida Indians. My travels through Canada have been from coast to coast, and at times I have journeyed twenty thousand miles in one season. My work has been accepted scientifically as well as music- ally because I do not believe in any false harmonization of these songs. Not one note has been changed from the original. I have studied the languages as much as possible, so as to give the music authentically. My greatest interest today is to hear reproduced the songs of our North American aboriginal races, sung either by the natives themselves or at least when sung by white people they should be preserved in their natural form and the songs sung or harmonized to native instruments only. Our greatest difficulty today is to obtain inexpensive trans- portative recording apparatus which will enable us to work with more ease and less expense. Last summer alone I could have used hundreds of cylinders for both songs and legends which instead I had to write by day and almost by night to eliminate the high cost of wax cylinder recordings. I found it easier to travel from door to door, village to village, with a light violin tucked under my arm, notating each song as I went along. Besides the peasants enjoy hearing the violin, and the Eskimos or Indians are more apt to sing for you if they hear you play or sing to them first. Miss Gaultier does not speak about the high estimation in which her work is held by musi- cians as well as scientists, but in a pamphlet is- sued by her concert management I find the follow- ing remarkable tribute from perhaps the greatest of all pr6ponents of the best in music through the medium of the phonograph—Dr. Leopold Stokow- ski. He wrote to Miss Gaultier: I am still under the spell of your wonderful singing of the remarkable Eskimaux songs. You did not ask me to, but yesterday I spoke to the heads of the Victor Company about them, and they are very inter- ested. You may hear sometime from them about it, as I think they might like to record some of them. Thank you for so much musical pleasure. The melodic out- lines and the rhythms of those songs are quite extraordinary. The fruits of Dr. Stokowski's suggestion are now available, and an appreciative reception on the part of the musical public should lead to fur- ther exploitation on the parts of the phonograph of the treasure store of folk music in America and throughout the world. R. D. D.