Jeanette Gallant: The Huron Carol—The Construction of a Canadian Cultural Icon

Examining an iconic choral piece that was used as a tool of religious conversion, and identifying how people might appreciate or disparage the Huron Carol in today’s context given its history.

Friday, Oct. 16
7 pm

Join Zoom meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89579339284?pwd=ZzNrMjVHOURvOUk5aE5oNHhZZ05RUT09

Meeting ID: 895 7933 9284

Passcode: 908281

Free and open to the public

There is tremendous misunderstanding about The Huron Carol. Thus, the content and purpose of this talk is to explain that it has been used as a tool of religious conversion and of French nationalism; that there have been three different textual versions of this piece (Wendat, French, and English—all with little relationship to each other); and that the origins of the tune are not what we believe them to be. Armed with that knowledge, students/community members will be better able to assess if this piece might be suitable for future performances.

Dr. Jeanette Gallant (DPhil) is a Canadian musician with over 25 years of experience as a singing teacher, music lecturer, composer, conductor, performer and administrator in Canada, S.E. Asia and the United Kingdom. Gallant has a doctorate from the University of Oxford and has held positions at the University of Reading (U.K.), Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts (HKAPA), Red Deer College (Alberta), Havergal College (Toronto), the University of Windsor (Ontario) and various Oxford Colleges (U.K.). As an online voice teacher, Gallant specializes in young voices, vocal physiology, and rehabilitating damaged voices using vocal massage and other embodied vocal techniques. Jeanette has recently returned to Vancouver after many years of living overseas and is a longstanding member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. An accomplished ethnomusicologist, Gallant has published and presented her work internationally and has created a number of cross-cultural and community engagement choral projects through which educators can explore issues of diversity in their community or classroom.

This talk is part of the Fine Arts Research Lecture Series in Music (FARLS) from the Department of Music.

FARLS host: Dr. Jennifer Lang (PhD)

Indigenous facilitator: Dr. Kevin Lewis

Info: dean.mcneill@usask.ca

Upcoming Events