Les sortilèges à l'émission de télévision "Soirée canadienne". Soirée canadienne, Télé-7, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada. CDMB Duchemin, Claude, photographe. 2 mars 1974.
Image above: a photograph from the famous variety show from the 70s till the 90s, La soirée canadienne (whose episodes are available on YouTube.) They visit villages all over Quebec and have locals sing and dance their traditional songs, all beautifully dressed. This played often at my grandparents' homes on their TVs. There are a LOT of call and response songs in those episodes!
Call and Response Songs
In French Canadian and Acadian cultures, we have a lot of call and response songs that liven up those dark winter nights. I have some memories of these songs being sung to me when I was a kid, and my cousins responding in song too.
In my practice, I can use these call and response songs to engage in a meditation, to invite someone in, or to center myself. The songs are often structured so that you have to remember what you just sang a few verses ago, so, what better way to enter a meditation state??
Here's a list of songs easily found on Spotify in that format:
Artist: Les charbonniers de l'enfer
La ziguezon
La pointe du jour
Allons vidons
Sur ces terres labourées
La perdriole
Prenez plaisir à m'aimer
La femme à pitou
Artist: La bottine souriante
Trinque l'amourette
Tiguidou Pack-Sack
Artist: Le rêve du Diable
Sautons les deux pieds dans l'ragoût
Séraphine
Many call and response songs made their way in my childhood's repertoire, thanks to Carmen Campagne. Many artists have interpreted these songs since the 70s easily. These are mostly traditional songs, some of them enmeshed in our French heritage, and some combined with Irish songs (reputedly "L'arbre est dans ses feuilles" is modelled after an Irish song, though famously interpreted by Zachary Richard in 1978)
J'entends le loup, le renard et la belette
L'arbre est dans ses feuilles
La destinée la rose au bois
"J'ai vu le loup, le renard, le lièvre" interpreted by Mme Gérard Rhéaume (women were referred by their husband's name back then).
AND here's over an hour of clips from the show!
