Un Canadien errant - Theme and variations

A Wandering Canadian - Once a Canadian Lad

This score is an arrangement of the French Canadian folk song Un Canadien errant for intermediate-level viola with piano accompaniment.

It is set in the key of B flat Major.

The viola part is appropriate for Grade 5 viola students.

It is to be played in the first five positions.

This beautiful song Un Canadien errant is a traditional French Canadian song.

Ernest Gagnon, in his book Chansons populaires du Canada (Québec, 1865), explains that the melody is that of the French Canadian folk song J'ai fait une maîtresse, or that of its variant Si tu te mets anguille.

The words were written in 1842 by Antoine Gérin-Lajoie (1824-1882).

Gérin-Lajoie, who was then a student at the Collège de Nicolet, was later to become one of Quebec's most distinguished literary men.

He composed the poem Un Canadien errant, about the pain of exile, after the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837 and 1838.

When this Rebellion failed, some of the rebels were condemned to death, while others were forced into exile to the United States and other countries.

The song has become a patriotic anthem for those who have at a point in their history experienced the pain of exile, namely for the Acadians, who suffered mass deportation from their homeland in the Great Upheaval between 1755 and 1763.

The Acadian version is known as Un Acadien errant.

The lyrics of Un Canadien errant tell of a sad man wandering in faraway countries. One day, he sits by the banks of a river that flows toward his homeland and asks the river to go and tell his beloved people that he remembers them and that he will cherish his country until his very last breath.

Duration : 03:06

Source : French Folk Songs