Ernest Gagnon

Canadian (Québec) composer, organist, teacher, historian, and great defender of folk heritage born November 7, 1834, in Louiseville and died September 15, 1915, in Québec City. He began studying music with his older sister, a training he would continue as part of his classical course. He spent a few years in Montréal, where he refined his musical studies. He was hired as organist at L'Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Quebec City (1853-64) and at the Québec Basilica (1864-76) and began a career as a teacher at the École Normale Laval, of which he was one of the founding members and the first music teacher. He also spent some time in Paris, where he perfected his musical education. Today, he is best known for his collection entitled "Chansons Populaires Du Canada" where he published and annotated many traditional songs, and his book was reprinted 13 times between 1865 and 1955. This collection is one of the most widely distributed music books in Canada that helped conserve a rich heritage and alerted the musical world to the dignity and beauty of Québec's oral song tradition. He also took a keen interest in First Peoples' music and wrote a piano composition, Stadaconé (1858), which appears to be the first notated composition genuinely based on Aboriginal materials in North America. He was also a founding member of the Académie De Musique Du Québec. He was a provincial civil servant at the end of his career.