11) The transmission of traditional music via radio broadcasts, Éric Favreau, June and September 1997.

This article is part of a research project on the learning and the transmission of traditional fiddle music, and examines the influences of the media of radio broadcasting on the methods of socialization of the fiddle players in the Sherbrooke region.

As dancing was the prime function of this type of music and as social dancing has practically disappeared from the everyday scene, the methods of learning and the transmission of this style of music have shifted to other means. Originally passed on through the family and the community in an informal way, musicians have turned towards other methods during their apprenticeship of the instrument and to perfect their technique. During the 20th century, new ways of doing this have surfaced for the transmission of traditional music, making it far more accessible, through the medium of radio shows, recordings on disk, tape and video, television, galas, and traditional music competitions. Therefore no longer was the knowledge of this musical heritage passed on directly through exchanges between fiddlers, but through these modern techniques of diffusion, which have influenced the perception and taste of the public at large, as well as the orientation of traditional music.

The radio has had an important role in the diffusion of traditional music. For the majority of those from todays the older generation of fiddlers, most of them became acquainted with diverse styles and traditional repertoires via the radio. There is no doubt radio had an important role: "allowing new groups to have direct and regular access to cultural activities from which they had been practically cut off, due to the lack of financial means or to geographical isolation" . It became the principal means for the expression and the diffusion of culture throughout Quebec, even though more empoverished or isolated groups remained cut off for a longer time. In 1931, only 27% of homes in Quebec had a radio - 37% in the cities and a mere 8% in rural areas. Rural electrification slowly established itself throughout rural area, and in the meantime, many were using battery-powered radios, less powerful, but adequate for local reception. It was the fifties before the majority of Quebeckers owned a radio, both in the urban and rural areas. At the time, radio shows broadcast traditional music and the new rhythms of the popular music of the day, much of it from 78 rpm records. Fans of this style of music tuned in regularly to their favorite shows, creating a new tradition.

Between 1930 and 1965, the main radio shows of this type in the Sherbrooke area are those of Omer Dumas and his Ministrels, featured on the morning show of Radio-Canada in Montreal (Réveil rural) from 1938 to 1967, the Montagnards Laurentiens [Laurentian Mountaineers] from 1930 to 1950 on CHRC in Quebec City, la Famille Soucy from 1956-1960 on CKVL Montreal, as well as the CBC radio program from the Maritimes, Don Messer's Jamboree which was broadcast across Canada from 1944 to 1956. From 1986 to 1988, the show Folklore entre nous [Folklore among us] broadcast form CFIN (Coaticook) achieved a certain measure of success in the region, however it played many recordings of traditional musicians from Ontario, Manitoba and the Maritimes, but few from Quebec.

The heyday of radio broadcasts of traditional music was between 1930 to 1960. Consequently, musicians now over fifty years of age benefitted the most from them and cite these sources as an important addition to their musical heritage. For these musicians, the radio became the second technological method of learning music, as the gramophone was already very popular. Even in rural areas with no electricity or radio, wind-up gramophones abounded. Towards 1940, radio became more accessible in rural areas, and with this came a great diffusion of the music of a multitude of traditional musicians, be it by the daily live radio show or by recordings broadcast by these stations. Those who owned a radio could tune in to several stations and their special programs, and afterwards would share what they had learned with their friends and neighbours. In this way, radio gve them access to repertoires and styles which normally they would never had heard, all this without ever having to leave home. As with the gramophone, it was no longer necessary to go out to listen to other musicians.

The radio, like the gramophone, was very slowly implanted in the homes of Quebeckers. However, all of the musicians which we spoke to in the course of this research met had a radio at home by the beginning of the forties. In many cases, the purchase of a radio coincided with electrification in the region, although many were also familiar with battery-operated radios. Reception with battery operated radios generally was not as good, but they still heard Isidore Soucy, Gérard Joyal, Jos Bouchard and Ti-Blanc. The situation was not always better with electric radios, sometimes other household appliances created interference and listeners remembered sometimes having to unplug the refrigerator so as to better hear a broadcast. In spite of these setbacks, traditional music fans tuned regularly, one farmer even trained his cows to come in an hour later for the milking so that he would not miss a regular program. All in all, radio was widely popular and for traditional musicians, radio became a learning tool.

Learning from the radio had its advantages, particularly as concerned increasing one's repertoire, but the major inconvenient was the irregularity of the airing of the tunes. This was a major problem, rarely was the same tune repeated during the same week, and one might have to listen three or four weeks before it was once again aired. As nothing could be done about this, the remedy was the turlutte (mouth music), a technique with which most musicians were familiar. In this way, they would sing and quickly learn one part of the tune on first hearing, and upon the next hearing, learn the following part, and on and on. Rather than take an hour to learn a tune, it might take three weeks or a month. Some enrolled members of the family in the effort, each person learning a part, and each lilting his part of the tune after the show. One informant noted that "we spent a great deal of time arguing about who had it right." Some would seek out the notes with the fiddle, while the other members of the family worked at lilting the tune. But they still usually took a few weeks to get the tune right, as they waiting to hear the tune again. Others were more fortunate, in that some radio shows had request lines. This facilitated the task of learning, and there was sometimes as many as 35 requests for the same tune. In one region, Ti-Noir Joyal's tunes were extremely popular and might be heard 4 or 5 times a day.

Not all musicians readily accepted this new method of learning music. One 83 year old fiddler only began to learn tunes from the radio when reel to reel tape recorders became available. With this tool, and later with the cassette recorder, more musicians proceeded to learn tunes heard on the radio. However, this method of learning seems to have been limited to a repertoire of ten or so tunes, the more popular tunes of the day, often those of a local musician, such as Ti-Blanc Richard or Ti-Noir Joyal. As these well-known musicians played at local dances in the region, the diffusion of their recordings via radio increased their popularity.

There is no doubt that radio shows had an impact on the way fiddlers learned tunes, although the basic method remained memorizing the tune by listening to it over and over. Fiddlers would generally hasten to play the tune on the fiddle after hearing it so as to remember the main points of it. Once it was memorized enough to be able to replay it in one's head, the hardest part was done. But it remains, that instead of learning from a member of the family or a fiddler in the region, music could now be heard and learned from a little box which was kept in a corner of the kitchen or of the living room.

par Éric Favreau, juin et septembre 1997

1)Robert Durocher et Richard Linteau, Histoire du Québec contemporain, [...], pp. 162; 165, translation Juliette Champagne