Pierre Falcon

Falcon, Pierre
Pierre Falcon. Chansonnier, poet, bard, b Elbow Fort, Swan River, Rupert's Land (Manitoba), 4 Jun 1793, d St François Xavier, Man, 26 Oct 1876. A Métis, he was educated 1797-? in La Prairie, Lower Canada, and returned in 1808 to his native village. He was an employee of the North-West Company 1808-21, and of the Hudson's Bay Company 1821-5, following the merger of those two firms. In 1825 he retired to Grantown, now St François Xavier, Man, to farm; he was appointed a magistrate there in 1855.

Dubbed Pierriche or Pierre the Rhymer, Falcon had a talent for putting into song local happenings, such as the adventures of voyageurs and hunters. Among those of his songs that have survived are 'La Bataille des sept chênes' / 'The Battle of Seven Oaks' or 'La Chanson de la Grenouillère' (Winnipeg 1816), 'La Danse des bois-brülés' / 'Lord Selkirk at Fort William' (1816; this song is attributed to Falcon although he has not been positively identified as the author), 'Le Général Dickson' / 'The Dickson Song' (1837; Dickson was an adventurer who left Grantown that year to found an Indian kingdom in California), and 'Les Tribulations d'un roi malheureux' / 'Misfortunes of an Unlucky King' (1869, to the tune of 'Le Juif errant'). It is reported that his ballads were sung on the Prairies by the Métis to the accompaniment of the violin (crincrin). They were carried throughout Canada, from the St Lawrence to the Mackenzie River. Songs of Old Manitoba by Margaret Arnett MacLeod (Toronto 1960) contains all of Falcon's known songs. Lake Falcon in Manitoba was probably named after him.

Author Denise Ménard

Bibliography

Complin, Margaret. 'Chanson de la Grenouillère,' Royal Society of Canada Transactions, 3rd series, vol 33 (Ottawa 1939)

MacLeod, Margaret Arnett. 'Bard of the Prairies,' Beaver, 286, Spring 1956

- 'Dickson the liberator' and 'Songs of the insurrection,' ibid, 287, Spring 1957

DCB, vol 10

Encyclopedia Canadiana