One of the most visible expres- 1ons of the bigotry and:‘chauvinism h Canada is the almost ritualistic ing at sports events when. the ational anthem is sung in French. The boos are carried by radio and television into the living rooms of tench Canadians, about to decide leir future as a nation. The problem prompted Joe ark, who rejects in principle the S of French Canada, to speak in October with a caution to ish Canada to put a damper on distasteful booing. The referen- is approaching, he warned. he irony of the matter is that the Oing crowds were totally un- e, and Joe Clark did nothing to rect the misconception, that ir’ anthem was in fact com- Ns. And from’ the time it was t sung, 100 years ago, O Canada 'Symbolized the partnership of Nations in one country. he origins of O Canada is no a rebuff to the narrow nation- m of Rene Levesque and the sep- Tatists, for the composer of the Ting musical score was an inter- Onalist in the front ranks of the democratic movement of the 19th Century, is name is Calixa Lavallee, a Tgotten man of Canadian history, “ose life was wrapped up in the ocratic traditions of Canada the United States: Remarkably; le is knowh “about Lavallee-Few" adian historians have even td of him. But his story is one Should be told, both in the a Of the referendum debate in ec, and the stadiums of Eng- Canada. : 3 Oday, there is a single landmark ae On a\secondary highway The eo miles ‘east of Montreal. ee Ighway goes to Vercheres, a Wn on the banks of the St. Law- : a Just before Vercheres, the _ , 8d forks to the south and passes oe a small village, Calixa Lav- + a Old church, the Calixa Lav- Otel and a couple of dozen op ct buildings are about the extent e rural village. The main road infortunately widespread in Eng-— d in French, by French Cana-_ George Gidora Sr. Stan and Sylvia Lowe The Padghams, Popkum winds through the town with large bends, and around one of them at the edge of the village there is a pla- que: ‘‘Calixa Lavallee, composer of the national anthem ‘O Canada’ was born in this house on the 28th December, 1842. Died at Boston, - 1891.’’ But behind the marker at the side of the road there is nothing, just an empty field. The open plot of land where Lav- alee’s home once stood symbolizes the gap in the Canadian historical record where his name is concerned. And if his memory has received less than just treatment, what is known about his life indicates that he re- ceived no better while alive from the Canadian authorities. Lavallee was born into a revolu- tionary age which gripped both Europe and North America. Only five years before his village, origin- ally known as St. Theodose, had been in the centre of the Patriot up- rising, strategically located in the centre of a triangle of Vercheres, St. Denis and St. Hyacinthe, all strong- holds of the Patriot revolutionaries. Gustin Lavallee was a blacksmith who could not have avoided the conflict of 1837. Like most smiths he was versatile and adept with his hands and he both made and repair- ed violins. Soon after the birth of his son, Lavallee moved his family to St. Hyacinthe where he became employed with the Caravant family of organ makers. (The family busi- ness is still ~producing organs in ‘ i‘. ‘: * Québéc today.) ~~ ~ : By the age of nine, Calixa Laval- lee is reported to have played the or- gan in St. Hyacinthe church masses. His talents were evident and a Mon- treal butcher named Leon Derome, a friend of the family, assisted the boy to study music in Montreal. It was in Montreal that the young music student first heard American free Blacks performing in city the- atres, and he was impressed with their music. Only 15, Lavallee left Montreal with a Black group and travelled to New Orleans, where he was at home in his French language and in one of the cultural centres of the continent, birthplace of Ameri- can jazz. : Lavallee continued his classical music education in New Orleans and quickly fused it with the de- veloping jazz music he found in the theatres and cabarets of the bustling city. Compositions credited to Lay- allee years after retain a strong jazz sound. More important for the Canadien in New Orleans was the political ed- ucation he received as a first-hand observer of the brutality of slavery. After winning a piano contest, he was hired as a piano accompanist for a Spanish violinist on tour through the Confederate states and the West Indies. The more he saw, the more confirmed abolitionist he became, and when the American Civil War began April 12, 1861, Lavallee easily chose his side. Before the end of the first year of the war, the 19-year-old French Ca- nadian was himself in battle regalia, a volunteer with the Rhode Island regiment of the Union army, one of the few Canadians to offer them- selves for the liberation of the U.S. south, ; He served one year, a trombonist with the regimental band, before being wounded in action at Antie- tam in the Carolinas. In 1863, Lavallee returned from the war to Montreal where he found shelter in Derome’s Montreal home. He tried his hand at teaching and performing, but there was little opportunity to earn a decent living in the cultural scene in Montreal, and two years later Lavallee left Canada, again, for; Boston, je ic ser) conference was convened in Quebec City to conduct a competition for a musical score to Routhier’s O Can- ada. It was Lavallee’s score which was picked. Routhier’s O Canada was entirely in French, and four verses long. An 1886 translation sounds very differ- ent from that which we are used to today. As was the case in most things, the national and religious sentiments of Frenth Canada are: bound up together in the lyrics: *““O Canada, land of our sires, Whose brow is bound with glortous bays, The sword thy valorous hand can wield. And bear the cross that faith inspires, What mighty deeds has thou beheld, An epogee of glor- ious sights. The faith, thy shield through all thy days, Shall still pro- tect our homes and rights.”’ In 1880 Sullivan arrived in Ot- tawa to score Lorne’s Dominion Hymn, and it was published the same year. But there have been: few kind words for it from critics. The For several years the musician ™% travelled around the New England states, and for a period was director of the New York city New Grand Opera House. Lavallee became as- sociated with the colony of exiled Patriots who fled south after 1837, and aparently composed several songs for them. Soon after, with the help of his old friend Derome, he left for France where he spent two years in. the Paris Conservatory of Music. Unable to earn a living a few years before, he returned to Montreal from Paris to be hailed as Canada’s greatest musician. The son of a worker himself, but a student in one of the finest musi- cal schools of the world, Lavallee knew that Canadian culture would need assistance to develop. It be- came a dream and a cause for him, and in 1837 he moved to Quebec Ci- ty to convince the De Boucherville government to give state support for a national conservatory of mu- sic. His answer was a refrain repeat- ed often since then. There was no money for the arts in Canada. £ As Calixa Lavalle arrived in Que- bec City, Canada’s new governor- general, the Marquis of Lorne, had taken up station in Ottawa. Lorne was a poet, although not a particu- larly good one, and he soon. an- nounced with fanfare that he had written a song for Canada and that the celebrated British composer Sir Arthur Sullivan — as in Gilbert and Sullivan — had consented to write the music for it. Called. the Dominion Hymn, Lorne’s song had an imperial ring to it that went over in some Ontario circles, but fell flat in Quebec. “Oh bless our wide Dominion, true freedom’s fairest