«[…] and most of all, sing! Sing these beautiful songs from our sweet France and do not forget to shed a little tear in recognition to our Canadian friends who have so preciously preserved them.» - Olivier Messiaen, in Chansons folkloriques françaises au Canada, M. et R. d’Harcourt, 1956. Translation: Guillaume Campion In 1918, equipped with his Edison wax cylinder recorder, anthropologist Marius Barbeau arrives in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, on the north shore of the Gaspe Peninsula. In this village and in the neighboring village Saint-Joachim-de-Tourelle, Barbeau recorded an impressive number of 800 folk songs within only eight weeks. Researches led afterwards by Barbeau himself and Marguerite and Raoul d’Harcourt, from the University of Starsbourg, France, revealed that most of these songs originate from as early as the 15th and 16th century France. However, when recorded by Barbeau in the beginning of the 20th century, a good number of them couldn’t be heard anymore in their country of origin, or elsewhere in Quebec outside of these two villages. In an endeavor halfway between acousmatic music and documentary, I offer to tell you a little about this forgotten heritage and the circumstances that led to its preservation along the north coast of the Gaspe Peninsula. Nowadays, it is an heritage forgotten not only in its country of origin, but also in these small villages that had, until recently, «so preciously preserved them »… As its title suggest, this piece if for me a study, a first step in the composition of a cycle of pieces entirely dedicated to this subject. “Étude littorale” was commissioned by the collective Eole from Toulouse. It was premiered on November 11, 2011, at the Music Conservatory of Toulouse, as part of the 14th edition of Novelum Festival.

Source: 2015