Music and the Staged Veillée in Quebec
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1919
A01=Laura Risk
audio media
Author_Laura Risk
call-and-response
Canadien
Category=AVA
Category=AVLT
Category=NHK
commercial performance
culture
dancer
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
extramusical
folklorist
forthcoming
idealize
identity
Montreal
nation
radio
records
rural life
singer
songs
storyteller
television
tradition
Product details
- ISBN 9780252089336
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 26 May 2026
- Publisher: University of Illinois Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The story of a cultural touchstone and its impact
Fiddlers, step dancers, storytellers, traditional singers, and folklorists staged Montreal’s first veillée in 1919. All that was missing, announced one of the organizers, was a magic carpet to transport the audience into the countryside and a kiss of forgetfulness to erase the woes of modern life.
Laura Risk tells the story of the veillées and explores how these commercial performances of idealized rural life became part of Quebec’s cultural heritage. Her in-depth examinations of key performances and recordings follow traditional music and dance from the stage onto radio, records and other audio media, and television. Throughout, Risk documents how veillÉes redefined folklore in twentieth-century Quebec and illuminates how their distinctive framing of traditional musicians and repertoire impacts the performance and reception of the music to the present day.
Astute and evocative, Music and the Staged Veillée in Quebec reveals the music, dancing, call-and-response songs, and extramusical associations winding through century-long conversations about nation, culture, and identity in Quebec.
Fiddlers, step dancers, storytellers, traditional singers, and folklorists staged Montreal’s first veillée in 1919. All that was missing, announced one of the organizers, was a magic carpet to transport the audience into the countryside and a kiss of forgetfulness to erase the woes of modern life.
Laura Risk tells the story of the veillées and explores how these commercial performances of idealized rural life became part of Quebec’s cultural heritage. Her in-depth examinations of key performances and recordings follow traditional music and dance from the stage onto radio, records and other audio media, and television. Throughout, Risk documents how veillÉes redefined folklore in twentieth-century Quebec and illuminates how their distinctive framing of traditional musicians and repertoire impacts the performance and reception of the music to the present day.
Astute and evocative, Music and the Staged Veillée in Quebec reveals the music, dancing, call-and-response songs, and extramusical associations winding through century-long conversations about nation, culture, and identity in Quebec.
Laura Risk is an associate professor of music in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media at the University of Toronto Scarborough, with a cross-appointment in the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto. Risk's album Traverse was awarded the 2024 Prix Opus for Album of the Year in the category Traditional Québécois Music.
