Tuesday, September 24, 2013

"Etlintoq" Mi'kmaq Songs From the past

The oldest existing transcriptions
"Marc Lescarbot, a French lawyer and writer who came to Acadia in 1606 along with Champlain, provides us with the oldest existing transcriptions of a songs from the Americas — three songs by Membertou, Sagamo of the Mi'kmaq."

Using solfège, Lescarbot wrote out the pitch values for three short Mi'kmaw songs. His mulitvolume book is available in French via Gutenberg.org and can be downloaded in a variety of formats. The music transcription is in Chapter 5 of book 6 (Sixième livre contenant les moeurs et façons...) Lescarbot has a poor opinion of the customs of the people he meets and often makes reference to singing and dancing as somehow being directed towards the devil ("vers le diable".) He was unable to appreciate the music of the L'nuk.

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