Description:

Songs for Voice and String Quartet

Métis Songs was commissioned by Harbourfront Centre for their Summer Music in the Garden concert series. Following the Red River Resistance (1869–1870) and the Battle of Batoche (1885), it was often dangerous to publicly identify as Métis. This album includes a cycle of three songs that explore manifestations of Métis identity from the 1800s to the present and our continued struggle to be recognized as a unique people and claim space wherever we might now live.

The set begins with a reworking of Pierre Falcon’s Chanson de la Gornouillèr’ (Battle of Frog Plain), followed by a vocalise, representing the years of hiding (“My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back.” Louis Riel). The work concludes with a setting of Gregory Scofield’s Since When, showing the ever-changing face of the Métis.

Commissioner:

Harbourfront Centre

Duration:

14 minutes

Release date:

September, 2023