Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

300 traditional songs, inc sheet music with full piano accompaniment & lyrics.

Share page

Visit Us On FB

	204	OUR FAMILIAR SONOS.
	CANADIAN BOAT SONG.
	The following song of Tom Moore's was written during his journey down the river St. Lawrence. He says, in regard to its composition: "I wrote these words to au air which boatmen sung to us very frequently. The wind was so unfavorable, that they were obliged to row all the way; and we were five days in descending the river from Kingston to Montreal, exposed to an intense sun during the day, and, at night, forced to take shelter from the dews in any miserable hut upon the banks, that would receive us. But the mag­nificent scenery of the St. Lawrence repays all these difficulties. Our voyageurs had good voices, and sang perfectly in tune together. The original words of the air, to which I adapted these stanzas, appeared to be a long, incoherent story, of which I could under­stand but little, from the barbarous pronunciation of the Canadians. It begins:
	' Dans mon chemin j'ai rencontre" Deux Cavaliers tres-bien months.'
	And the refrain to every verse was.
	1 AVombre d'ttn boisje m'en vaisjouer, A Pombre (Pun boisje ra'en vais danser.'
	I ventured to harmonize this air, and have published it. Without that charm which assa