Morning Edition did a piece on a band from Quebec in honor of the city's 400-year anniversary this week. The band is called Le Vent du Nord, and they specialize in collecting and re-interpretting traditional Quebecois music in order to preserve their cultural history in the form of song.
I was particularly taken with how the fiddle music and traditional foot stomping combine to create a driving, pulsing, impossible-to-ignore rhythm that makes your heart pick up and your mouth start to edge upward.
It's beautiful music, throaty and soulful... and as a lover of history, oral traditions, and cultural continua, I found their mission quite inspiring and reassuring.
If you happen to follow the NPR link, I highly recommend listening to Le vieux cheval - it's an excellent example of what the group seems to do best. Magnifique!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Collectors of Culture
Labels:
cultural,
culture,
history,
joy,
Le Vent du Nord,
Le vieux cheval,
Morning Edition,
NPR,
Quebec,
Quebecois,
traditions
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