Music and the Staged Veillée in Quebec: Performing Tradition (Music in American Life) - Softcover

Laura Risk

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0252089332 ISBN 13: 9780252089336

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2026

Synopsis

The story of a cultural touchstone and its impact

Fiddlers, step dancers, storytellers, traditional singers, and folklorists staged Montreal’s first veillée in 1919. All that was missing, announced one of the organizers, was a magic carpet to transport the audience into the countryside and a kiss of forgetfulness to erase the woes of modern life.

Laura Risk tells the story of the veillées and explores how these commercial performances of idealized rural life became part of Quebec’s cultural heritage. Her in-depth examinations of key performances and recordings follow traditional music and dance from the stage onto radio, records and other audio media, and television. Throughout, Risk documents how veillÉes redefined folklore in twentieth-century Quebec and illuminates how their distinctive framing of traditional musicians and repertoire impacts the performance and reception of the music to the present day.

Astute and evocative, Music and the Staged Veillée in Quebec reveals the music, dancing, call-and-response songs, and extramusical associations winding through century-long conversations about nation, culture, and identity in Quebec.

About this title

About the Author

Laura Risk is an associate professor of music in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media at the University of Toronto Scarborough, with a cross-appointment in the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto. Risk's album Traverse was awarded the 2024 Prix Opus for Album of the Year in the category Traditional Québécois Music.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0252089332
• ISBN 13: 9780252089336
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280