Un Canadien errant
"" is a song written in 1842 by Antoine Gérin-Lajoie after the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837–1838. Some of the rebels were condemned to death, others forced into exile to the United States and as far as Australia. Gérin-Lajoie wrote the song, about the pain of exile, while taking his classical exams at the. The song has become a patriotic anthem for certain groups of Canadians who have at some point in their history experienced the pain of exile. Like with Canadians exiled following the Lower Canada Rebellion, the song has come to hold particular importance for the rebels of the Upper Canada Rebellion, and for the Acadians, who suffered mass deportation from their homeland in the Great Upheaval between 1755 and 1763. The Acadian version is known as "".
Origins
Accounts of the origins of this song vary. In Souvenirs de collège, Antoine Gérin-Lajoie writes that he based his verse on an existing folk tune:In that publication the song was titled "" and the tune said to be "".
The melody is from the French Canadian folk tune "". The musical form is "AABB" or double-binary, with the A phrase repeated before moving to the B phrase, which is also repeated. The musical form is reflected in the lyrics as follows:
'A' phrase, with repeat:
'B' phrase, with repeat:
The rise in the tune on the first line of the B phrase is inverted on the repeat, to make the phrase period, and thus provide closure to the AABB form.
Paul Robeson performed a bilingual version under the title "" and recorded it in the 1950s. This version was included in his 1969 East German compilation album Amerikanische Ballade; the album was released posthumously in the United States in 1977 as American Balladeer.
American audiences were introduced to the song in 1963 with French-language performances by Ian & Sylvia. They included "" on their debut 1962 album Ian & Sylvia. They gave it further prominence at the Newport Folk Festival as recorded on the 1996 album Ian & Sylvia Live at Newport.
In the 1969 film, My Side of the Mountain, the folk singer and musicologist Theodore Bikel sings the first part of "" and then plays a bit of it on a "homemade" reed flute. The melody refrains throughout the film.
Leonard Cohen recorded "" as "The Lost Canadian" on his 1979 Recent Songs album. His own song "The Faith", on his 2004 album Dear Heather, is based on the same melody.
American folk duo John & Mary included an arrangement by Mary Ramsey on their 1991 album Victory Gardens.
Canadian folk rock duo Whitehorse recorded "" and included it on their 2013 covers album The Road to Massey Hall. A version performed by the duo is featured on the soundtrack to One Week, a 2008 film starring Joshua Jackson.
The song also made an appearance as the location music for Canada in the Where in [the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1996)|Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego] video game, performed by Terry Gadsden and Frederik Kinck-Petersen.
History
Ernest Gagnon in Chansons populaires du Canada says "the original tune was , of which the words of the variant are fragments." Gagnon's analysis is considered definitive.An Acadian variation appeared in 1844 as "", sung to the Gregorian tune "". Otherwise, to a few, the original song remains a patriotic song; to all, it is a poignant recollection of French Canadian history.
Original lyrics
Original French lyrics:'''English translation'''