Sounds of the St. Lawrence - A Quebec Folk Song Suite

2008 marked the 400th anniversary of the 1608 founding of Quebec City in Canada. The Band of Les Voltigeurs de Quebec, an infantry regiment of the Canadian forces, commissioned this piece as part of the anniversary celebrations. The folk songs of Quebec share, for obvious reasons, a history with the folk songs of France, but many can also claim to originate in Canada. All three movements of this suite use different settings of the evocative "La'-haut sur ces montagnes" as an introduction, and are then based on two popular folk songs. The first movement uses "Veillee rustique" and "Petit Jean," the second uses "A la claire fontaine" and "Vive les matelots," and the third is based on "C'est l'aviron" and "Au cabaret."