La Bolduc
Encyclopedia
Mary Rose-Anna Travers, was a French Canadian
singer and musician. She was known as Madame Bolduc or La Bolduc. During the peak of her popularity in the 1930s, she was known as the Queen of Canadian Folksingers. Bolduc is often considered to be Quebec's first singer/songwriter. Her style combined the traditional folk music of Ireland and Quebec, usually in upbeat, comedic songs.
in the Gaspé Peninsula
, Mary Rose Anna Travers "La Bolduc" was a Native descendant Micmac Métis. Bolduc was the daughter of Gaspesians, Lawrence Travers, and Adéline Cyr. Her family included five full siblings, and an additional six half-siblings from her father's first marriage. Bolduc and her eleven siblings spoke English at home, but also spoke French fluently. The family was extremely poor, but Bolduc attended school for a time, becoming literate in French.
Her only music teacher was her father, who taught her how to play the instruments that were traditional in Quebec culture of the era: the fiddle
, accordion
, harmonica
, spoons
and jaw harp. She learnt traditional music from the two heritages, both Irish melodies and French-Canadian folk tunes. The family did not own a record player, piano or sheet music, so Bolduc learned jig
s and folk songs from memory or by ear. She was giving casual public performances by the spring of 1908, when she played the accordion at the logging camp where she worked as a cook and her father as a lumberjack
.
. Mary-Ann worked as a maid and had secured Bolduc a job as a maid in the house of Dr Lesage. She was paid $15 per month, in addition to room and board
. A few years later she took a job at a textile mill
, which paid $15 weekly for 60 hours of work per week.
On August 17, 1914, she married Édouard Bolduc, a plumber
. The couple's first child was stillborn
. Denise Bolduc was born in July 1916, Jeannette Bolduc in July 1917 and Roger Bolduc in August 1918. Roger died at the age of ten months and Jeanette at two years. The couple experienced more bad fortune with pregnancies and children; of the twelve or thirteen pregnancies, only four children reached adulthood. The family was quite poor, and in 1921 when Édouard had difficulty finding work they decided to move to Springfield, Massachusetts
. Édouard Bolduc's sister was living there at the time. They returned to Montreal a year later, as Édouard had been unable to secure work in Springfield. During this time Mary Bolduc entertained both friends and family with her musical talents. Among her friends were amateur musicians who sometimes performed with the Veillées du bon vieux temps at the Monument-National
under Conrad Gauthier.
When Conrad Gauthier's troupe was missing a folk violinist for a performance, one of Bolduc's friends arranged for her to fill in for the absent performer. Gauthier was suitably impressed by her performance and asked her to return for subsequent productions. The family was always in need of money and the small income she earned this way was useful. Bolduc became a regular player with Gauthier's troupe by 1928, playing the violin or the jaw harp. Her work with them expanded to include other instrumental work and even some comic acting.
Bolduc was recommended by folk singer Ovila Légaré to musical producer Roméo Beaudry
of the Compo Company
. Beaudry signed musicians for French language
recordings on the Starr Records
label. Beaudry signed her to a recording contract to make four 78 rpm records, paying her $25 per side. She made her first recording in April 1929, the French folk song Y'a longtemps que je couche par terre on side A, and an instrumental reel
on side B. The record was a commercial flop. Her next two recordings also had meagre sales.
Bolduc's second recording was released for Christmas
of 1929. The first side had an original song of Bolduc's, La Cuisinière
. Side B was an adaptation of an English folk song titled Johnny Monfarleau. The record sold more than twelve thousand copies, which was unprecedented in Quebec. Bolduc earned a total of $450 from the sales and became a household name in Quebec. With this success, Beaudry had Bolduc releasing a double-sided record every month. Bolduc recorded an additional four songs in January 1930. Nine more songs were recorded in April that year. By the end of 1930, she had recorded more than 30 songs. During this time, she collaborated on not less than fifty-six recordings of other artists. Most of these recordings did not credit her. Bolduc sang accompaniments or played instruments for recordings by Juliette Béliveau
, Eugène Daignault, Ovila Légaré, Alfred Montmarquette, Adélard St. Jean, and possibly others.
Bolduc's first headlining performance came in November 1930, in Lachute at a costume ball. The audience was extremely receptive to her music and she was inspired to start a show that focused on her own songs. In March 1931 she took an offer from a burlesque
company at the Théâtre Arlequin de Québec to perform as their main act. From this, she embarked on a three month tour of Quebec with Juliette d'Argère. Starting in Hull
in May 1931, they travelled western Quebec and Montreal, finishing in Sept-Îles
in July. In 1931, her rising popularity increased the cost of her sheet music from four for one dollar to three for one dollar.
Bolduc formed her own touring troupe in 1932, named La Troupe du bon vieux temps. She hired Jean Grimaldi to direct the tours. The performances contained elements of both vaudeville
and traditional folk music. Their first tours were around the Montreal area, and from August through December 1932 they gave fifty shows. The tours were a great success in Quebec with Bolduc earning $2000 from her first tour, compared to $500 – $1000 annually she got from royalties. The troupe went on a tour of New England
from April through June 1934, and a second tour of New England that autumn. They toured across Quebec, and in 1935 toured the French speaking areas of northern Ontario
. They went on additional tours of New England in 1937 and 1939.
As the 1930s progressed, Bolduc's record sales began to slump, but her income from touring remained good. Bolduc stuck to her folk music style as the record buying public turned increasingly to jazz and popular music
. She produced eighteen records in 1930 and 10 in 1931, but with her declining sales she recorded nothing from July 1932 until she released a single album in March 1935, and then four more in 1936. In 1936, the family was able to afford a nanny
to attend to the children while Bolduc toured.
Beginning in 1935, her daughter Denise appeared with her as a pianist. Other children occasionally appeared as backup singers, and her daughter Lucienne recorded L'Enfant volé.
Bolduc was seriously injured in June 1937 in Rivière-du-Loup when her tour company's car was in a head-on collision. She suffered a broken leg, a broken nose and a concussion. She was sent to a hospital in Rimouski for treatment, where doctors discovered a cancerous tumour. She began radiation treatment at the Radium Institute in Montreal, and engaged in practically no musical endeavours at this point, making no stage appearances for a full year. Her insurance company refused to pay for her damages, notably the concussion that caused memory loss and loss of concentration, which prevented her from writing songs. The suit ended badly as Bolduc did not use banks and had no record of her income to prove loss of income. Of her total damages and lost income, Bolduc recovered only $1500.
Bolduc began limited touring again in the summer of 1938, only in the Montreal area. She made a radio broadcast in January 1939, and made two recordings in February 1939. One of those songs, Les Souffrances de mon accident (French
"The sufferings of my accident") was on her accident. She died of cancer on February 20, 1941 in Montreal and was buried in the Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges.
Bolduc never had any formal music lessons, and developed her own style under the influence of her father's teaching and the musical traditions of Irish folk music and Québécois
folk tunes. Her songs tended to be happy and comical with lively rhythms. Her self-written songs often used existing melodies from folk tunes or dances, combined with lyrics she wrote herself. For instance, she wrote the song Les Cinq Jumelles about the Dionne Quintuplets
, which was set to the tune of "Little Brown Jug
". In other cases, she adapted popular contemporary American songs.
Bolduc often used the technique of the enumerative song, which lists something such as foods or tasks. This technique was traditional in French-Canadian folk songs, derived from similar French traditions. Bolduc also employed the traditional French folk song style of the dialogue song, usually a duet with a man, where the song is a conversation or debate between the man and the woman. One such song was Mademoiselle, dites-moi donc, which she recorded with Ovila Légaré and featured the two of them bantering and flirting comedicly. She often wrote in the style derived from traditional English broadside ballads, which tell current news to the tunes of traditional songs. One such song by Bolduc is La chanson du bavard, which notably employs an introduction inviting the listener to hear a tale, as is common in broadside ballads. Other topical ballads by Bolduc include Les Américains about Americans coming to Montreal during Prohibition
to obtain liquor and the unrecorded Si je pouvais tenir Hitler, which she wrote a few days after the outbreak of World War II
.
Her music relied heavily upon the harmonica and the fiddle, the traditional instruments of reels in Quebec. Her singing also adopted a nasal style, and her pitch was relaxed, both of which are found traditionally. Her singing often featured turlutage, which derives from Irish and Scottish musical traditions. Most often she employed this technique in reels, such as her song Reel turluté.
Her touring troupe La Troupe du bon vieux temps gave fairly consistent performances. Mary Bolduc opened the show with her newest songs. The troupe then performed comedy sketches, ensemble songs, folk songs and vaudeville routines. Most performances included a segment where amateurs performed, sometimes for cash prizes. Bolduc closed with some of her newest or most topical songs.
Bolduc's lyrics are predominantly French, but frequently include a few words or lines in English
. This was reflective of her country upbringing in Gaspésie, where the two languages mingle. The recordings were marketed to working class francophone audiences, in small towns and rural areas where people had traditional values.
Singing and stage careers were not well regarded in Quebec society of the 1920s and 1930s, especially for women. To avoid gossip and to keep a good reputation, Bolduc was always credited under her married name Madame Édouard Bolduc, both at live performances and on recordings. She attempted to include her family in her activities as much as possible. Her husband Édouard accompanied her troupe on their 1932 and 1934 tours. Her eldest daughter Denise joined the troupe in 1935 as a pianist.
should be identified as Quebec's first singer/songwriter. Either way, both had significant influence on the development of Quebec's folk music culture from the 1930s onwards. Bolduc was the most widely known folk music singer of Quebec in the 1930s. Her humorous images of daily life, her realism in depicting the society of the time, and her satirical characters all appear in the work of subsequent singer/songwriters. Although it was received poorly by critics of the day, Bolduc's use of colloquialisms and working-class vocabulary influenced future musicians like Gilles Vigneault
and Clémence Desrochers. Other Québécois musicians with notable influences from Bolduc include Oscar Thiffault, whose style was descended from Bolduc, André Gagnon
, whose composition Les Turluteries is based on Bolduc's use of Turlutage, and Robert Charlebois
, who also sang in the dual French Canadian and English derived style and used the everyday slang
of Quebec.
On August 12, 1994, a stamp was released that honoured her with her portrait on a Canadian postage stamp. The stamp was designed by Pierre Fontaine based on images from Bernard Leduc. Seven and a half million copies were printed. The same year, a park was created in her hometown of Newport named Mary Travers Park.
In 2002, Mary Bolduc was made a MasterWorks honouree by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada
.
French Canadian
French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...
singer and musician. She was known as Madame Bolduc or La Bolduc. During the peak of her popularity in the 1930s, she was known as the Queen of Canadian Folksingers. Bolduc is often considered to be Quebec's first singer/songwriter. Her style combined the traditional folk music of Ireland and Quebec, usually in upbeat, comedic songs.
Childhood
Born in Newport, QuebecChandler, Quebec
The port of Chandler was founded in 1912 when Percy Milton Chandler, a Philadelphia manufacturer, built the first pulp and paper mill in the Gaspésie at the site. This city of 7914 is the birthplace of NHL player Mathieu Garon. It is located at 48°21′N latitude, 64°41′ longitude. Its elevation is...
in the Gaspé Peninsula
Gaspé Peninsula
The Gaspésie , or Gaspé Peninsula or the Gaspé, is a peninsula along the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada, extending into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
, Mary Rose Anna Travers "La Bolduc" was a Native descendant Micmac Métis. Bolduc was the daughter of Gaspesians, Lawrence Travers, and Adéline Cyr. Her family included five full siblings, and an additional six half-siblings from her father's first marriage. Bolduc and her eleven siblings spoke English at home, but also spoke French fluently. The family was extremely poor, but Bolduc attended school for a time, becoming literate in French.
Her only music teacher was her father, who taught her how to play the instruments that were traditional in Quebec culture of the era: the fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
, accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
, spoons
Spoon (musical instrument)
Spoons can be played as a makeshift percussion instrument, or more specifically, an idiophone related to the castanets. "Playing the spoons" originated in Ireland as "playing the bones," in which the convex sides of a pair of sheep rib bones were rattled in the same way.- Techniques :# A pair of...
and jaw harp. She learnt traditional music from the two heritages, both Irish melodies and French-Canadian folk tunes. The family did not own a record player, piano or sheet music, so Bolduc learned jig
Jig
The Jig is a form of lively folk dance, as well as the accompanying dance tune, originating in England in the 16th century and today most associated with Irish dance music and Scottish country dance music...
s and folk songs from memory or by ear. She was giving casual public performances by the spring of 1908, when she played the accordion at the logging camp where she worked as a cook and her father as a lumberjack
Lumberjack
A lumberjack is a worker in the logging industry who performs the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to a bygone era when hand tools were used in harvesting trees principally from virgin forest...
.
Early working life
In 1908 at the age of thirteen, Bolduc was sent to live with her half-sister Mary-Ann in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. Mary-Ann worked as a maid and had secured Bolduc a job as a maid in the house of Dr Lesage. She was paid $15 per month, in addition to room and board
Room and board
Room and board describes a situation where, in exchange for money, labor or other considerations, a person is provided with a place to live as well as meals on a comprehensive basis...
. A few years later she took a job at a textile mill
Cotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
, which paid $15 weekly for 60 hours of work per week.
On August 17, 1914, she married Édouard Bolduc, a plumber
Plumber
A plumber is a tradesperson who specializes in installing and maintaining systems used for potable water, sewage, and drainage in plumbing systems. The term dates from ancient times, and is related to the Latin word for lead, "plumbum." A person engaged in fixing metaphorical "leaks" may also be...
. The couple's first child was stillborn
Stillbirth
A stillbirth occurs when a fetus has died in the uterus. The Australian definition specifies that fetal death is termed a stillbirth after 20 weeks gestation or the fetus weighs more than . Once the fetus has died the mother still has contractions and remains undelivered. The term is often used in...
. Denise Bolduc was born in July 1916, Jeannette Bolduc in July 1917 and Roger Bolduc in August 1918. Roger died at the age of ten months and Jeanette at two years. The couple experienced more bad fortune with pregnancies and children; of the twelve or thirteen pregnancies, only four children reached adulthood. The family was quite poor, and in 1921 when Édouard had difficulty finding work they decided to move to Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...
. Édouard Bolduc's sister was living there at the time. They returned to Montreal a year later, as Édouard had been unable to secure work in Springfield. During this time Mary Bolduc entertained both friends and family with her musical talents. Among her friends were amateur musicians who sometimes performed with the Veillées du bon vieux temps at the Monument-National
Monument-National
The Monument-National is a historic Canadian theatre located at 1182 Saint Laurent Boulevard in Montreal, Quebec. Erected between 1891 and 1894, it was originally the Cultural centre of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society.-Yiddish theatre:...
under Conrad Gauthier.
Musical career
Bolduc was recommended by folk singer Ovila Légaré to musical producer Roméo Beaudry
Roméo Beaudry
- External links :*...
of the Compo Company
Compo Company
Compo Company Ltd. was Canada's first independent record company.The Compo Company was founded in 1918 in Lachine, Quebec by Herbert Berliner, an executive of Berliner Gramophone of Canada and the oldest son of disc record inventor Emile Berliner....
. Beaudry signed musicians for French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
recordings on the Starr Records
Starr Records
Starr Records was a record label manufactured by the Starr Piano Company of Richmond, Indiana, which was also the parent company of the better known Gennett Records....
label. Beaudry signed her to a recording contract to make four 78 rpm records, paying her $25 per side. She made her first recording in April 1929, the French folk song Y'a longtemps que je couche par terre on side A, and an instrumental reel
Reel (dance)
The reel is a folk dance type as well as the accompanying dance tune type. In Scottish country dancing, the reel is one of the four traditional dances, the others being the jig, the strathspey and the waltz, and is also the name of a dance figure ....
on side B. The record was a commercial flop. Her next two recordings also had meagre sales.
Bolduc's second recording was released for Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
of 1929. The first side had an original song of Bolduc's, La Cuisinière
La Cuisinière
La Cuisinière is a song written by Mary Bolduc and released by the Starr Record Company on her fourth record, alongside Johnny Monfarleau. Although it was her fourth release, this was her first record to achieve any commercial success. La Cuisinière was very successful, selling twelve thousand...
. Side B was an adaptation of an English folk song titled Johnny Monfarleau. The record sold more than twelve thousand copies, which was unprecedented in Quebec. Bolduc earned a total of $450 from the sales and became a household name in Quebec. With this success, Beaudry had Bolduc releasing a double-sided record every month. Bolduc recorded an additional four songs in January 1930. Nine more songs were recorded in April that year. By the end of 1930, she had recorded more than 30 songs. During this time, she collaborated on not less than fifty-six recordings of other artists. Most of these recordings did not credit her. Bolduc sang accompaniments or played instruments for recordings by Juliette Béliveau
Juliette Béliveau
Juliette Béliveau was a French Canadian actress and singer, who starred in various radio and television comedies and dramas, as well as in theatre productions...
, Eugène Daignault, Ovila Légaré, Alfred Montmarquette, Adélard St. Jean, and possibly others.
Bolduc's first headlining performance came in November 1930, in Lachute at a costume ball. The audience was extremely receptive to her music and she was inspired to start a show that focused on her own songs. In March 1931 she took an offer from a burlesque
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
company at the Théâtre Arlequin de Québec to perform as their main act. From this, she embarked on a three month tour of Quebec with Juliette d'Argère. Starting in Hull
Hull, Quebec
Hull is the central and oldest part of the city of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the west bank of the Gatineau River and the north shore of the Ottawa River, directly opposite Ottawa. As part of the Canadian National Capital Region, it contains offices for twenty thousand...
in May 1931, they travelled western Quebec and Montreal, finishing in Sept-Îles
Sept-Îles, Quebec
For the islands in north of Brittany, see JentilezSept-Îles is a city in the Côte-Nord region of eastern Quebec, Canada. It is the northernmost town in Quebec with any significant population...
in July. In 1931, her rising popularity increased the cost of her sheet music from four for one dollar to three for one dollar.
Bolduc formed her own touring troupe in 1932, named La Troupe du bon vieux temps. She hired Jean Grimaldi to direct the tours. The performances contained elements of both vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
and traditional folk music. Their first tours were around the Montreal area, and from August through December 1932 they gave fifty shows. The tours were a great success in Quebec with Bolduc earning $2000 from her first tour, compared to $500 – $1000 annually she got from royalties. The troupe went on a tour of New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
from April through June 1934, and a second tour of New England that autumn. They toured across Quebec, and in 1935 toured the French speaking areas of northern Ontario
Franco-Ontarian
Franco-Ontarians are French Canadian or francophone residents of the Canadian province of Ontario. They are sometimes known as "Ontarois"....
. They went on additional tours of New England in 1937 and 1939.
As the 1930s progressed, Bolduc's record sales began to slump, but her income from touring remained good. Bolduc stuck to her folk music style as the record buying public turned increasingly to jazz and popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
. She produced eighteen records in 1930 and 10 in 1931, but with her declining sales she recorded nothing from July 1932 until she released a single album in March 1935, and then four more in 1936. In 1936, the family was able to afford a nanny
Nanny
A nanny, childminder or child care provider, is an individual who provides care for one or more children in a family as a service...
to attend to the children while Bolduc toured.
Bolduc was seriously injured in June 1937 in Rivière-du-Loup when her tour company's car was in a head-on collision. She suffered a broken leg, a broken nose and a concussion. She was sent to a hospital in Rimouski for treatment, where doctors discovered a cancerous tumour. She began radiation treatment at the Radium Institute in Montreal, and engaged in practically no musical endeavours at this point, making no stage appearances for a full year. Her insurance company refused to pay for her damages, notably the concussion that caused memory loss and loss of concentration, which prevented her from writing songs. The suit ended badly as Bolduc did not use banks and had no record of her income to prove loss of income. Of her total damages and lost income, Bolduc recovered only $1500.
Bolduc began limited touring again in the summer of 1938, only in the Montreal area. She made a radio broadcast in January 1939, and made two recordings in February 1939. One of those songs, Les Souffrances de mon accident (French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
"The sufferings of my accident") was on her accident. She died of cancer on February 20, 1941 in Montreal and was buried in the Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges.
Musical style
Music of Quebec
Being a modern cosmopolitan society, today, all types of music can be found in the Canadian province of Quebec. What is specific to Quebec though are traditional songs, a unique variety of Celtic music, legions of excellent jazz musicians, a culture of classical music, and a love of foreign rhythms...
folk tunes. Her songs tended to be happy and comical with lively rhythms. Her self-written songs often used existing melodies from folk tunes or dances, combined with lyrics she wrote herself. For instance, she wrote the song Les Cinq Jumelles about the Dionne Quintuplets
Dionne quintuplets
The Dionne quintuplets are the first quintuplets known to survive their infancy. The sisters were born just outside Callander, Ontario, Canada near the village of Corbeil.The Dionne girls were born two months premature...
, which was set to the tune of "Little Brown Jug
Little Brown Jug (song)
"Little Brown Jug" is a song written in 1869 by Joseph Winner, originally published credited to "Eastburn" .It was originally a drinking song. It remained well known as a folk song into the early 20th century. Like many songs which make reference to alcoholic beverages, it enjoyed new popularity...
". In other cases, she adapted popular contemporary American songs.
Bolduc often used the technique of the enumerative song, which lists something such as foods or tasks. This technique was traditional in French-Canadian folk songs, derived from similar French traditions. Bolduc also employed the traditional French folk song style of the dialogue song, usually a duet with a man, where the song is a conversation or debate between the man and the woman. One such song was Mademoiselle, dites-moi donc, which she recorded with Ovila Légaré and featured the two of them bantering and flirting comedicly. She often wrote in the style derived from traditional English broadside ballads, which tell current news to the tunes of traditional songs. One such song by Bolduc is La chanson du bavard, which notably employs an introduction inviting the listener to hear a tale, as is common in broadside ballads. Other topical ballads by Bolduc include Les Américains about Americans coming to Montreal during Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
to obtain liquor and the unrecorded Si je pouvais tenir Hitler, which she wrote a few days after the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Her music relied heavily upon the harmonica and the fiddle, the traditional instruments of reels in Quebec. Her singing also adopted a nasal style, and her pitch was relaxed, both of which are found traditionally. Her singing often featured turlutage, which derives from Irish and Scottish musical traditions. Most often she employed this technique in reels, such as her song Reel turluté.
Her touring troupe La Troupe du bon vieux temps gave fairly consistent performances. Mary Bolduc opened the show with her newest songs. The troupe then performed comedy sketches, ensemble songs, folk songs and vaudeville routines. Most performances included a segment where amateurs performed, sometimes for cash prizes. Bolduc closed with some of her newest or most topical songs.
Bolduc's lyrics are predominantly French, but frequently include a few words or lines in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. This was reflective of her country upbringing in Gaspésie, where the two languages mingle. The recordings were marketed to working class francophone audiences, in small towns and rural areas where people had traditional values.
Professional image
Recordings
Recordings of about 100 of her songs survive. Many of those that don't survive were written for special occasions. Perhaps the best known today is "Si Vous Avez une Fille qui Veut se Marier" (If You Have a Daughter who Wants to get Married).- April 12, 1929: Ya longtemps que je couche par terre and La Gaspésienne.
- August 13, 1929: Gendre and belle-mère and Quand on s'est vu.
- November 22, 1929: Valse Denise and Reel de la goélette.
- December 6, 1929: La cuisinièreLa CuisinièreLa Cuisinière is a song written by Mary Bolduc and released by the Starr Record Company on her fourth record, alongside Johnny Monfarleau. Although it was her fourth release, this was her first record to achieve any commercial success. La Cuisinière was very successful, selling twelve thousand...
and Johnny Monfarleau. - January 15, 1930: La servante and Regardez donc mouman.
- January 29, 1930: Arthimise marie le bedeau and Tourne ma roulette.
- March 11, 1930: Le bonhomme et la bonne femme and Si vous avez une fille qui veut se marier.
- March 18, 1930: Reel comique and Galop des pompiers.
- April 3, 1930: Le joueur de violon and Ton amour, ma Catherine.
- April 30, 1930: Reel turluté, Gigue des commères (Duet with Alfred Monmarquette), Fantaisie écossaise (Duet with Alfred Monmarquette) and Reel Balmoral (Duet with Alfred Monmarquette).
- May 14, 1930: Fricassez-vous, Valse turlutée and La morue.
- May 20, 1930: Clogue à Ti-Zeph Parent (with Alfred Monmarquette and Adélard Saint-Jean), Reel des barbouillés (with Alfred Monmarquette and Adélard Saint-Jean).
- June 18, 1930: Mon vieux est jaloux and La pitonne.
- June 27, 1930: Un petit bonhomme avec un nez pointu and Chez ma tante Gervais.
- August 21, 1930: Toujours «L'R-100» and Les maringouins.
- September 23, 1930: Ça va venir découragez-vous pas and Fin Fin Bigaouette.
- October 27, 1930: La bastringue and Mademoiselle, dites-moi donc.
- November 4, 1930: Les agents d'assurance.
- November 5, 1930: Chapleau fait son Jour de l'An (Duet with Ovila Légaré) and C'est comme ça qu'ça s'passe (Duet with Ovila Légaré).
- November 13, 1930: Rouge carotte.
- November 14, 1930: Le Jour de lAn and Le bas de Noël.
- December 9, 1930: La petite boulangère (Duet with Ovila Légaré) and Mechetagouine (Duet with Ovila Légaré).
- December 10, 1930: La grocerie du coin and La gigueuse (with Albertine Villeneuve and Thomas).
- December 12, 1930: Le propriétaire.
- January 15, 1931: Fêtons le Mardi-gras and Un vieux garçon gêné.
- February 3, 1931: Les filles de campagne and Nos braves habitants.
- March 26, 1931: Le sauvage du nord and Jean-Baptiste Beaufouette.
- April 9, 1931: L'ouvrage aux Canadiens and La chanson du bavard.
- July 7, 1931: C'est la fille du vieux Roupi and Il va m'faire mourir c'gars-là.
- July 8, 1931: La côte Nord and Aux chauffeurs d'automobile.
- September 15, 1931: Ah! C'qu'il est slow 'Tit Joe, Chanson de la bourgeoise and Le commerçant des rues.
- October 8, 1931: Tit Noir a le mal imaginaire.
- November 6, 1931: R'garde donc c'que t'as d'l'air and Danse en souliers d'boeufs.
- November 7, 1931: Bien vite c'est le Jour de l'an and Voilà le père Noël qui nous arrive.
- January 20, 1932: J'ai un bouton sur la langue, Rose cherche à se marier, Quand j'étais chez mon père and Les femmes.
- May 5, 1932: L'enfant volé, Si les saucisses pouvaient parler, Les policemen and Les Américains.
- July 2, 1932: En revenant des foins, Les conducteurs de chars, Les vacances and Sans travail.
- March 6, 1935: Les cinq jumelles and La Gaspésienne pure laine.
- March 20, 1936: Les colons Canadiens and La lune de miel.
- April 15, 1936: Les médecins, Gédéon amateur and Les pompiers de St-Éloi.
- April 27, 1936: Arrête donc, Mary.
- August 24, 1936: Les belles-mères and Quand J'ai vingt ans.
- February 23, 1939: Tout le monde a la grippe, Le voleur de poule, Je m'en vais au marché and Les souffrances de mon accident.
Unrecorded original songs
Songs known to have been written and performed by Mary Bolduc but never recorded include:- La Reine des Bières
- As-tu vu l'éclipse?
- Le nouveau gouvernement
- La visite royale
- Si je pouvais tenir Hitler
- Roosevelt est un peu là
- On déménage
- Le secours direct
Legacy
Some debate exists among historians as to whether Mary Bolduc or Félix LeclercFélix Leclerc
Félix Leclerc, was a French-Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, writer, actor and Québécois political activist. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on December 20, 1968...
should be identified as Quebec's first singer/songwriter. Either way, both had significant influence on the development of Quebec's folk music culture from the 1930s onwards. Bolduc was the most widely known folk music singer of Quebec in the 1930s. Her humorous images of daily life, her realism in depicting the society of the time, and her satirical characters all appear in the work of subsequent singer/songwriters. Although it was received poorly by critics of the day, Bolduc's use of colloquialisms and working-class vocabulary influenced future musicians like Gilles Vigneault
Gilles Vigneault
Gilles Vigneault, is a Canadian poet, publisher and singer-songwriter, and well-known Quebec nationalist and sovereigntist.A poet deeply rooted in his native Quebec, Vigneault has become an icon at home and Quebec ambassador abroad...
and Clémence Desrochers. Other Québécois musicians with notable influences from Bolduc include Oscar Thiffault, whose style was descended from Bolduc, André Gagnon
André Gagnon
André Gagnon, OC is a Canadian musician and composer. He shifted from a classical musical style to an adult contemporary style in the mid-1970s with albums such as Neiges....
, whose composition Les Turluteries is based on Bolduc's use of Turlutage, and Robert Charlebois
Robert Charlebois
Robert Charlebois, OC, OQ is a Quebec author, composer, musician, performer and actor. He is an important figure in French language song....
, who also sang in the dual French Canadian and English derived style and used the everyday slang
Joual
Joual is the common name for the linguistic features of basilectal Quebec French that are associated with the French-speaking working class in Montreal which has become a symbol of national identity for a large number of artists from that area...
of Quebec.
On August 12, 1994, a stamp was released that honoured her with her portrait on a Canadian postage stamp. The stamp was designed by Pierre Fontaine based on images from Bernard Leduc. Seven and a half million copies were printed. The same year, a park was created in her hometown of Newport named Mary Travers Park.
In 2002, Mary Bolduc was made a MasterWorks honouree by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada
Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada
The Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada was a charitable non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the preservation of Canada’s audio-visual heritage, and to facilitating access to regional and national collections through partnerships with members of Canada's audio-visual community...
.
See also
- List of Quebec musicians
- Music of QuebecMusic of QuebecBeing a modern cosmopolitan society, today, all types of music can be found in the Canadian province of Quebec. What is specific to Quebec though are traditional songs, a unique variety of Celtic music, legions of excellent jazz musicians, a culture of classical music, and a love of foreign rhythms...
- Culture of QuebecCulture of QuebecThe Culture of Quebec emerged over the last few hundred years, resulting from the shared history of the French-speaking majority in Quebec. It is unique to the Western World; Quebec is the only region in North America with a French-speaking majority, as well as one of only two provinces in Canada...