Voisinages (n. Fr. neighborship)
making a joyful noise
Their latest album was released about three weeks ago. They were about to perform in the Chapel. Once an Episcopalian house of worship from 1924 until the early 1940s, it is now used as a venue for a cider brewery just south of Charlottesville. Molly had bought tickets for us weeks ago when she found out that one of our favorite bands was coming to town. Busy, Molly and I had been following Le Vent du Nord (“The North Wind”) for twenty years.
The house lights dimmed and the five gentlemen from Québec processed down the aisle, waving and smiling. Nicholas Boudrice (piano and veille à roue or hardy gurdy), André Brunet (fiddle), Réjean Brunet (bass guitar and accordion), Olivier Demers (fiddle), and Déde Gagné (bouzouki and guitar) took to the stage and began straightaway with an original tune by Nicholas about (we were to find out later) a co-founder of Montreal in 1642, Jeanne Mance. That same year she founded a hospital in her home. Liner notes from the CD say:
Jeanne Mance was able to ingrain the fundamental idea that we must fight for the dignity of the weak, a value we hope continues to be embodied in the way of life of her city’s people.
I knew none of this at the time. I was aware only of a story being told with drive, determination and joy.
You may or may not be familiar with Québécois (pronounced kaybaykwa) music. I’m drawn to the percussive aspect of it. One of the two fiddlers provides a foot patter for many of the faster tunes. My best approximation of the sound is diggy-dah, diggy-dah, diggy-dah with the accent on each dah.
But the real delight for me was watching these fellows perform together. In their smiles and nods to each other they convey a kind of happy reverence for the talent of each other. Québécois is a beautiful and distinct variety of French, with its own history, rhythm, and musicality. Not the least fluent in Québécois or French, I was free to focus on the percussive rhythms and the occasional and surprising “crooked” meter - neither strictly 3/4 “waltz” time, nor the common 4/4 meter.
The slow songs were soothing, the instrumental medleys astonishingly precise and tight, and the camaraderie with the audience and among themselves strong and empathic. Most of their two sets of music was from their new release which they describe this way:
The new album explores the universal theme of Voisinages (neighbourhoods), a subject that encompasses various interpretations of neighbours and connections. There is the closeness between musical neighbours such as the Irish, Scots, Acadians and Americans who have all enriched Québec’s repertoire. Then there are those neighbours with whom we share our rivers and streams, those who bear witness to history – battles won or lost, wrongdoings, losses, friendships, and above all, love.
This kind of heartfelt statement is not an anomaly in the traditional arts. Many purveyors of folk and traditional music describe in words what they are trying to explore or achieve through their art. After the first few tunes were performed, Olivier welcomed us and explained the title of their CD, Voisinages, which can be interpreted as neighbors, neighborhood or neighborship — a state of relatedness based on proximity. But neighborliness is not always about getting along.
“You can have a good neighbor one day, and next day you are, you know, with many conflicts,” said the Canadian musician.
A spontaneous voice from the audience commented, “Yeah, sorry about that,” referring to the current tenuous relationship between our respective country’s leaders.
“I’m sorry too,” replied Olivier with a smile that seemed to say our countries may have conflicts, but not us, not tonight. Tonight we are all a quality of relatedness based on joy and connection.
The harmonies were luscious. The twin fiddle work was unbeatable. The two brothers rejoiced in their melodic relationship. With a break between sets, the whole concert was over an hour and a half. At the end the whole congregation leapt to our feet.
They played three more tunes for an encore.
Live music. Of any kind. Find it. Support it. We need this kind of joy. The band and the audience could have gone on longer, as if we were incapable of fatigue.
Unrelenting joy. Inextinguishable neighborship.
Love it.
Thanks, Stew. Sounds like quite a concert! I appreciate how you describe the music and musicians with such knowledge.
Do you find, as I do, that the acute awareness of what's off the rails in this country is also driving attention toward every possible example of kindness, joy, and voisinages? Or, even better, that it's engendering even more of these? Maybe not enough to counter the damage of all that's wrong, but definitely a source of goodness.