Musique romantique du Québec, vol. 1

In the 19th century, European guitarist-composers such as Fernando Sor, Mauro Giuliani, Napoléon Coste, and Francisco Tárrega adapted works by notable composers. Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Gioacchino Rossini, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and many others was adapted for guitar and then performed in concert.

This practice does not appear to have been widespread in French America in the 19th century. There are very few documents attesting to the significant use of the guitar during this period in Quebec or elsewhere in Canada (whereas the Baroque guitar and the lute had been present in Quebec City and Montreal in the 17th and 18th centuries under the French regime).

With this collection, I aimed to revive the approach of European master guitarists by presenting, in guitar arrangements, five pieces by Quebec composers who occupied a prominent place in Canadian cultural life in the 19th century: Ernest Lavigne (1851-1909), Calixa Lavallée (1842-1891), and Charles Wugk Sabatier (1819-1862).

 

Drawing inspiration from the guitar writing techniques used during the Romantic era by the leading European guitarist-composers, I wanted to share with today's guitarists a rich Canadian repertoire that has almost completely fallen into oblivion, a work that seems never to have been done to this day.

The harmonic and, above all, melodic qualities of these works, originally written for piano, or for voice and piano, offer a particularly evocative glimpse into the atmosphere of concerts and musical soirées of the time.

François Leclerc

March 2025