The songs of the French Canadians, which show considerable originality, are in part transplanted from France, modified and localized in the natural course of popular music. But a considerable part are indigenous, with a history dating back, possibly, more than two centuries. They are all, of course, made in imitation of the parent stock, but in many instances they have taken on a new character, befitting the wild and uncouth environment in which they were composed. In some instances they show model characteristics, as in theMon Cri Cra, Tir’ la Liretta, sung by the boatmen on the Red River. This old song shows scarcely any traces of the omnipresent influence of the court of Louis XIV. Other songs bear the marks of the French priests, through whose hands they passed on their way to the Canadian natives, Indians or Frenchmen. Such a song isJesos Ahatonhia, the music of which was evidently an ecclesiastical melody with a strong modal character indicating its great age. But on the whole the refined and graceful influence of French civilization is strongly marked in the Canadian songs, even when these songs originated in the New World. The one department in which they are supreme is that of playful humor—not the humor of the old English songs, which is somewhat bumptious and muscular, but a more delicate humor, into which the singer enters from pure effervescence of human sympathyand childlike playfulness. We must range a long way through folk-song literature before we find a song of this sort to equal ‘The White Duck,’ or ‘I Hear a Mill Go Tick-Tack.’ A provocative playfulness sings in the words of ‘My Faithful Bottle,’ ‘The Lost Chance,’ and the inimitable ‘When Returning from Varennes,’ with its continuous refrain,Cach’ton joli bas de laine. The spirit of Gascony, famous home of the practical joke, is in the ‘Song of Lies,’ in which the singer turns the world topsy-turvy and hopes to be hung if a single word he says is true. The sentimental note is not so often struck, but we find it charmingly in such occasional songs as ‘The Traveller’s Return,’ and ‘From Yonder on the Mountains.’
Gagnon’s collection, made in 1865 (the earliest of all), contains a number of gentle and lovely airs, such asC’est la belle française. We may also notice in this book a number which have been transported from France and forgotten in the home country while they lived and flourished under their foster mother. Such a song isDans les Prisons de Nantes.Mon Per’ n’avait fille que moiis one of the most interesting examples of the old modal style. The Canadian songs are peculiarly addicted to the use of the refrain. This device, which is always a mark of unsophisticated playfulness, is relied upon to such an extent that one would call it excessive if the high spirits of the music and words did not carry the little game through to complete success. As so often happens, the refrain frequently has nothing whatever to do with the sense of the text. The primitive innocence of the mind is absolutely demanded of any singer who attempts, for instance, ‘The White Duck.’ On the whole, the Canadian songs, though very limited in range, can show a few types of folk-expression managed with such consummate art that they deserve a place in the folk-literature of the world.