Re: The Emigrant's Adieu
That was an interesting documentary, Richard. There wasn't much new to me, but it was presented well. In recent years with so much hostility to refugees and "economic migrants," I've often wondered who do people think the rest of us people of European descent, in North America are descended from. In my own background, I have "United Empire Loyalists" who fled the USA after being persecuted for taking the wrong side in the Revolution; Huguenots who fled religious persecution in France; Hebridean islanders driven from Scotland by the Highland Clearances; a Hebridean couple fleeing bigotry because of a cross-religious marriage (Prot/RC); as well as numerous people who, although not refugees, came to better themselves in a new land (which by and large, they did, economically at least), and others I have no idea about. I don't think I'm in much of a position to criticize either refugees or economic migrants.
A couple of small points: "Garryowen" (Eóin's Garden), from which the tune takes its name, is a village in Ireland, now a neighbourhood of Limerick. I read somewhere that there was a military base close by in the 19th Century, but can't find the reference today. When you speak of Irish tunes in the French-Canadian repertoire, not only the tunes but people crossed cultures. A great many French-Canadians have Irish ancestors. A list of prominent Quebecois includes Claude, Frank, and Yves Ryan, Daniel Johnson, Jean-Baptiste Kelly, and Mary Rose-Anna Travers (La Bolduc). I've seen similar names among Cajuns. Generally where there wasn't great isolation or a religious divide, new migrants intermarried with older settlers. In Canada until recent years, not many people of Irish and British Protestant background married French Catholics. French Hugenots married with Proestants, so that their Huguenot religion and French language disappeared. However, from what I've seen, musicians generally aren't too picky about a tune's origins. As long as they like a tune and can figure it out, most will play it and pass it on.
Good work. Thanks.
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
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