Wars, rebellions, and uprisings

Wars, rebellions, and uprisings. A survey of songs and other music written in immediate response to armed conflicts in Canada or involving Canadians on foreign soil. Another entry deals with Battle music, and compositions written in retrospect are dealt with under History of Canada in music.

Keywords

Musicology/Reference

The Conquest Of New France

Of the songs about General James Wolfe, the British commander who died during the battle of Quebec, 'Brave Wolfe' - also known as 'The Death of the Brave General Wolfe' or 'Bold Wolfe' - has achieved the status of a folksong in eastern Canada and New England. Another song that has survived in oral tradition into the 20th century is 'General Wolfe.' Versions of both are among the several war songs printed and commented on in Fowke's Canada's Story in Song. Fowke also provides the words of 'Hot Stuff,' a song - describing the treatment the English soldiers hoped to give the French - written by one of Wolfe's officers and sung to the tune of 'Lilies of France.' The British victory inspired several British composers, among them James Nares, whose 'Not unto Us, O Lord,' a thanksgiving anthem 'for the taking [of] Montreal and making us Masters of all Canada,' is preserved in manuscript at the British Museum. The PAC preserves a printed copy (1760) of John Worgan's 'I Fill not the Glass - A Song on the Taking of Mont-Real [sic] by General Amherst' (the commander-in-chief of the forces in North America and governor-general of Canada 1760-3). Several other songs, for which precise dates of composition and publication are difficult to trace, appeared in the late 18th century. Among these were Charles Thomas Carter's 'The Soldier's Farewell to His Mistress on the Eve of the Battle of Quebec,' Thomas Smart's 'General Wolfe,' and 'On the Death of General Wolfe' (as sung by Mr Sedgwick). Copies of some of these earliest printed examples of musical Canadiana may be found at the Metropolitan Toronto Library, the National Library of Canada, and the New Brunswick Museum.

The Invasion by US Revolutionaries

To celebrate the first anniversary of the Canadian victory over a contingent of US invaders led by General Benedict Arnold in 1775, an Ode was performed in Quebec City (see Cantata). A contemporary report by August Ludwig von Schlözer (see Art songs) refers to songs written in honour of Baron von Riedesel, the commander of the German mercenaries sent by the British to fight against the revolutionaries. 'Marching Down to Old Quebec' and the Acadian song 'Le Sergent,' both printed in Canada's Story in Song, date from the same period.

The War of 1812 (between Great Britain and the USA 1812-14)

This conflict is remembered both in marches and in songs. Victor Pelissier's March to Canada (Taws, Philadelphia, ca 1813) cheered the US soldiers, while F.H. Glackemeyer's Châteauguay (performed in 1818 but possibly written earlier) commemorates Lieut-Col de Salaberry, the hero of that battle. 'Come All You Bold Canadians' and 'The Chesapeake and the Shannon' (sung to the tune of 'A Drop of Brandy O') are given in Fowke's book. A 20th-century work, The Events of November 10, 1812 (1978) by Norman Sherman, was inspired by marching tunes of the era and draws its text from two war proclamations of General Isaac Brock and an eye-witness report of an attack on Upper Canada (Ontario).

The Rebellions Of 1837-8

The most famous song inspired by the unrests of the 1830s is 'Un Canadien errant', with words by Antoine Gérin-Lajoie to the old tune of 'Si tu te mets anguille.' Others, also to be found in Canada's Story in Song, are 'Farewell to Mackenzie,' written in Markham, Ont, in 1832, and 'The Battle of the Windmill' (to the tune of 'The Girl I Left behind Me'), a song that remained popular for over a hundred years in the St Lawrence River area around Prescott, Ont.

The Fenian Raids

These were assaults on the Canadian-US border by the Fenian Brotherhood, an Irish-US movement organized in Dublin in 1858 and in New York in 1859 and dedicated to the independence of Ireland. The US branch's attempted takeover of Canada, in a series of border raids 1866-70, was rebuffed by some 14,000 volunteers. The raids gave rise to several songs and instrumental pieces. A skirmish in 1866 at Lime Hill, near Fort Erie, Upper Canada (Ontario), in which the Queen's Own Rifles of Toronto were defeated roundly, inspired the Irish-Americans to compose the jeering 'Fenian Song,' later sung on Great Lakes ships. However, when more Canadian troops assembled, the Fenians withdrew across the border, and the Canadian volunteers made up 'An Anti-Fenian Song' to the tune of 'Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are Marching.' These verses, credited to Lachlan McGoun (b Scotland 1837, d Napanee, Ont, 1896, a decorator in Montreal and later in Port Hope, Ont), became fairly widely known and inspired fresh parodies during the Saskatchewan Rebellion, the South African War, and World War I. 'The Chatham Volunteers' was inspired by a threatened raid (which did not occur) on Windsor, Ont, to which the Chatham Volunteer Infantry Companies responded. The song appeared in a local paper and was reprinted in 1963 in a Toronto folk magazine (P. Wyborn, 'The Chatham Volunteers,' Hoot, No. 2). W. Roy Mackenzie noted a fragment of a Fenian song in his Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia (1928), and John Murray Gibbon quoted the 'Song of the Fenian Brotherhood' in The Canadian Mosaic (1938).

Among more than a dozen contemporary pieces published with dedications to the volunteers are the songs 'Up Volunteers!' (Nordheimer 1865), 'Shoulder to Shoulder, On to the Border' (with music by its publisher, Henry Prince), and 'The Canadian Volunteer's Farewell' (Nordheimer 1866), as well as the instrumental compositions Fort Erie Quadrilles (R. Morgan, no date) by 'A Lady' and Canadian Band March (Nordheimer 1866) by the bandmaster C.P. Woodlawn.

The Red River And Second Riel Rebellions

This episode of Canadian history also produced both vocal and instrumental music. Several songs are about Louis Riel, for example 'Quand je partis ma chère Henriette' (in Canada's Story in Song) and 'C'est au champ de bataille' (in The Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs, compiled by Edith Fowke, Harmondsworth, England, 1973). The second is known among some Métis in Saskatchewan and Manitoba as 'Chanson de Louis Riel' or 'Louis Riel's Song' but its derivation from the tune and text of 'La lettre de sang' suggests that it was brought from the east and came to be associated with Louis Riel. Versions of the song occur in Barbara Cass-Beggs' Eight Songs from Saskatchewan (Canadian Music Sales 1963) and in Fowke's Singing our history (Toronto 1984). The University of Toronto Song Book (1887) contained 'Pork, Beans, and Hard Tack,' to the tune of 'Solomon Levi,' sung by the volunteers from Winnipeg who were unhappy with their mode of travel and their rations. 'The Toronto Volunteers' on the other hand complained about the cold climate of the prairies. Imrie & Graham published an album Toronto's 'Welcome Home' to Her Brave Defenders, from the North-West Rebellion! July 1885. Other songs of the time may be found in Canada's Story in Song and in Songs of Old Manitoba. Among instrumental pieces were Dingley Brown's The Battleford March (F. Boucher 1885) dedicated to Major General Middleton, Annie Delaney's Batoche Polka (Nordheimer 1885), and Joseph Vézina's march De Calgary à MacLeod, souvenir du Nord-Ouest (A. Lavigne 1889). The LP Une chanson de vérité: Folk songs of the Prairie Métis (1983, The Other Opera Company ACR-4047) by singer Lucinda Clemens accompanied by Morwenna Minneci Jones and Romano Pucci features several songs recalling the Métis struggles for autonomy.

The South African War

Canadian opinion was divided as to the justness of the cause and the need to send troops to South Africa, but enthusiasm ran high among a large segment of English-speaking Canadians, and over 7000 Canadian soldiers participated in the South African War, most of them in battle action. All of the more than 25 Canadian compositions about the war have English titles. Typical examples are 'Bobs and Victory' by Frank.H. Burt, 'Tommy Atkins, You're a Dandy' by Arago Easton, 'Young Canada' by Alexander Muir, The Charge at Dawn, a march by Samuel Davies Schultz of Victoria, BC, and 'The Sons of Canada' by F.H. Torrington. Roberta Geddes-Harvey's opera La Terre bonne, premiered in 1903, was set in Canada and South Africa at the time of the war.

World War I

The fact that World War I involved far larger military forces than Canada had mustered in any previous war accounts for the vast output of music. Over 300 Canadian war and patriotic songs, as well as numerous marches, are known to have been published in the years 1914-18. Most of these were written by those at home, boosting recruitment and morale; not many were born of frontline experience, and Canadian war songs popular in the trenchlines were few.

Other factors contributed to the 'home-front' Canadian boom in war songs. The USA did not join the war until 1917, thus leaving Canadians a North American monopoly in the genre during the first years, and the recent invention of the phonograph had created an additional and most effective means of propagating war music.

It is difficult to single out the most successful among the songs, but certain titles turn up more often than others in piles of old sheet music and recordings. Among these are 'We'll Never Let the Old Flag Fall' by Michael F. Kelly and Albert Erroll MacNutt (1915), 'Dear Old Pal of Mine' by Gitz Rice and Harold Athol (written in France in 1918), 'Good Luck to the Boys of the Allies' by Morris Manley (1915), and 'In Flanders Fields' (with words by John McCrae and music by several different composers). A number of songwriters concentrated on war songs, among them Florence M. Benjamin ('Marching Along' and 'Come with Me in My Aeroplane'), Jules Brazil ('Remember Nurse Cavell' and 'Dreaming of Home'), Morris Manley ('I Love You, Canada' and 'Goodbye Mother Dear'), Geoffrey A. O'Hara ('Highlanders! Fix Bayonets!' and 'K-K-K-Katy!' - not a war song but very popular among the overseas troops), Gitz Rice ('Keep Your Head Down, Fritzie Boy' and 'We Stopped Them at the Marne'), Gordon V. Thompson ('When Your Boy Comes Back to You', 'When We Wind Up the Watch on the Rhine,' and 'For the Glory of the Grand Old Flag'), and Will J. White ('Take Me Back to Dear Old Canada' and 'Hip Hip Hooray for the Boys Who Went Away'). Thompson's claim that his 'When We Wind Up the Watch on the Rhine' sold about 100,000 copies in Canada and another 100,000 in the USA is an indication of the wide circulation enjoyed by many of the songs.

French-language war-time songs included Joseph Vézina's 'En avant' (1915; 'chant dédié aux volontaires canadiens-français'). Other songs, recorded or published, included H.W. Ellerton's 'Belgium Put the Kibosh on the Kaiser' (1916), Irene Humble's 'We're from Canada' (1915), E.W. Miller's 'Call of the Motherland' (1914), N. Fraser Allan 's 'The Made in Canada Campaign Song' (1915), and Michael F. Kelly's 'By Order of the King' (1915).

More erudite composers also tried their hands at patriotic songs. Gena Branscombe wrote 'Dear Lad O' Mine' (1915), Donald Heins 'The Song of the Allies' (1914), and Colin McPhee 'Arm, Canadians!' (1917).

Marches, in addition to those written for specific regiments, included J.-J. Gagnier's Here's to Tommy (ca 1915), Alexis Contant's Les Alliés (1914), and Arthur W. Hughes' March of the Allies (1915).