Page 8 - Pere Anselme Chiasson: Conversation and a Family Album

ISSUE : Issue 56

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1991/1/1

was very, very, very bright. She was near? ly blind, though. She knew over 500 songs by heart. She could sing well.... So, we had those songs, and we were togeth? er in Montreal. I was a teacher and he was still a student. We had those songs in hand. We didn't know what to do with it, see? We knew that it was worth some? thing. L'Abb6 Gadbois had started to pub? lish songbooks like that, called La Bonne Chanson. So I wrote to him and I asked him if he would be interested in our songs. I just gave him a description of the songs we had. He didn't even answer. So, we started to publish. First one in 1942--25 songs-- that I illustrated myself. And it was hard because we had a small machine--it was only zinc plate. I had to draw on the zinc. I couldn't touch the zinc, because if I touched it wouldn't print--the grease of my skin would make a spot. Couldn't touch. I couldn't correct. So my drawings are not so good, I know. But, I did them, in the first one and the second one. So we published the first one. It was for Cheticamp especially, and to save them. I put a small quantity in the big music store in Montreal. And L'Abb6 Gadbois, who was publishing La Bonne Chanson, found them there. Wow! He ran to our convent, and then he wanted our songs. I told him. ''' ?' Ice Cream Company Ltd, Cape Breton Shopping Plaza Sydney River, N. S. , 539-0424 • I'e finest Ice Cream Made Here "EspeciatCy Jor C/bu OPEN 7 Days a Week ICE CREAM PARLOUR and BAKERY "It's too late now. You didn't answer the first time, so we did it." But Jacques Labrecque, a folklore singer, found them too.* And he came too, and asked me if he could sing them. He had a program on the radio, and he was singing here and there. It was a blessing from heaven for us. Jacques Labrecque has made our songs-- Acadian songs--known all over Quebec and Canada, and even in Europe. He has been in Europe. And he has made his career with our songs. He's still singing, but I think he's nearing 68 or 70. Retired now. We published a second songbook in 1944, and a third book in 1946. And then Fr. Daniel -was a priest, and he went to ??the India mission, for a long time. So I couldn't... Pere Anselme continues on page 79 'f / at the ' y' '' f MARITIME MUSEUM ' '' j'y / at the 'A '' I NOVA SrOTTA MTISFTTM t*-* Maritime Museum of the Atlantic 1075 Lower Water Street Halifax, N.S. 429-8210 N.S.M. Complex 23 locations throughout the province Nova Scotia Museum 1747 Summer Street Halifax, N.S. 429-4610 N.S.M. Complex 23 locations throughout the province >CI

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