For a Good Time in French on the Web...

Dateline: 12/19/97

Here is a look at how to have a great time this holiday season with French music from guest columnist Danielle Tremblay.

Happy Holidays everyone!


For a good time in French on the Web . . .

by Danielle Tremblay

To prepare yourself well for francophone festivities in the heart of winter, I propose a few sites that will please all musical tastes and flavors.

en français

Let's start with some popular bands and les chansons des Veillées...


Le Bon Vieux temps - FRANÇAIS
An interesting repertoire of verses to some of the best known chansons à répondre in Québec and the francophonie.


Les Amis du Drum Corps québécois - FRANÇAIS-ANGLAIS
This site presents several marching bands and majorettes in Québec. Lots of links and lovely color photos. Some areas are under construction.


Carnaval d'hiver international de Québec - FRANÇAIS-ANGLAIS
Everything you need to know to get ready for all the family activities and parades held during the Carnaval d'hiver international de Québec, which runs from the January 30 to February 15, 1998.


Montreal Jazz Big Band - FRANÇAIS-ANGLAIS
This band, made up of performers, producers, and composers, organises themed events that have never before been published. A marvoulous site for the quality of its general presentation and its excellent sound clips.


Choirs and religious musique

Choeur de l'Art Neuf - FRANÇAIS-ANGLAIS
A Montreal vocal group as strong in its Christmas offerings as its classical (contemporary) or gospel. Nice site rich in sound clips and information, but not very flexible visually.

Ensemble de musique sacrée de Québec - FRANÇAIS
This well-known choir from Quebec City has a repertoire of Church music covering several centuries. The group will be performing a Christmas concert with the soprano Lyne Fortin. Listen to sound clips from their first album, Musique sacrée à l'époque médiévale, on their lovely site designed by ClicNet.

Finally, some Christmas shopping!

Club-Culture - FRANÇAIS
This site houses a buyer's group of albums, books and videos that's quite complete. The album section benefits from some fairly extensive documentation: critiques of Quebec albums in ALL musical styles. But beware! All the albums critiqued are not necessarily in their catalog. Consult the critiques, then click on the "magasin" link and check if the title exists in the search engine before placing your order. Use short keywords without the accents (the last and first name of the artist, a word from the title, etc.) in your search.

Version française - FRANÇAIS-ANGLAIS
A virtual francophone record store in the U.S.! It's the web site of a store located in Washington D.C. Interesting and varied choice in its inventory of francophone artists. However, there isn't much information on the artists except for the names of the available titles. Clear and precise instructions on how to do your Christmas shopping.

Danielle Tremblay is no stranger to the Québec music scene, having taught courses on the subject at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. She writes for and sings with the Trio Vocal Jennifer Allen, a Sherbrooke group with a wide variety of styles, from ancient medieval airs to songs with a more contemporary beat.

She's also working with Yves Laneville, developing La chanson du Québec et ses cousines, without a doubt the best Web site around on francophone music history.

Traditional Québecois Music
Traditional francophone music, from it's first appearance four centuries ago, has been constantly evolving and adapting to social and cultural influences, which are sometimes contradictory...

World Music in Québec
Let's take a peek at a few places where we can get the lowdown on the francophone world beat.

Joyeux Noël! Happy Holidays!
Danielle Tremblay
Music correspondent
belcanto@microtec.net
http://www.mlink.net/~49e/chanson/chanson/

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