Programs for schools - Song lyrics for classrooms

CONTACT - Donna Hébert: info at dhebert dot com OR Josée Vachon: josee at mapinternet dot com

CHANTERELLE offers a joyous bilingual French & English program of tunes, stories, rhythms and songs to schools in the Northeast, bringing the culture of the French in America to classrooms and assemblies (K-college) with exciting Franco-American, Acadian and Cajun music. This is the vocal and instrumental music of the French-speaking people who came to New England to work the mills of the Industrial Revolution. It is also the music of the Acadians who settled before 1620 in what are now the Canadian Maritimes and northern Maine, and the Louisiana Cajun music of the Acadian Diaspora.

CHANTERELLE's songs and stories record the inevitable changes that happen when you emigrate to a new place. Included in their resource packet for teachers are a CD sampler, songsheets & bilingual lyrics, as well as recipes for Franco-American favorite foods, including la tortière, our spiced meat pie.

As well as drawing from traditional sources, Chanterelle assemblies feature original songs about the experiences of the French-speaking immigrants, drawing from historical research and family stories. Songs of Québécois mill workers and Acadians driven off their land by the English bring these events to life.

In an assembly, students are involved from the start. They learn the characteristic clogging foot rhythms of "l'accord du pieds." They make instruments of simple kitchen spoons, let loose a Cajun yell. They learn call and response songs and French nonsense-syllable mouth music from the 18th century that sounds contemporary today. We also teach traditional Québécois dance figures and social dances, as well as telling stories documenting the history and character of the French-speaking peoples who settled New England and elsewhere in North America.

Who has presented Chanterelle?

Programs with Chanterelle have been coordinated by Language, Social Studies, and Music departments at Elementary, Middle and High Schools, and by Fine Arts Centers, Language and Ethnomusicology Departments at the college level. Classroom workshops are included in a one to five-day residency, or can be offered along with an assembly. Assemblies are the only thing offered singly as an event, and Chanterelle will perform up to three times in one day at the same venue for your school or college.

Assemblies - 45-60 minute school assemblies present Franco-American history, music and culture in songs, stories, and dancing, involving the student audience, teaching rhythms, lyrics, French-Canadian footwork. and spoons. Chanterelle can perform in one school district for up to three assemblies in one day in the same venue, two if the venues are different.

Classroom workshops are part of a 1-5 day residency, or can be given before or after an assembly. Contracted schools receive a materials packet. Schools in MA, ME, NH and VT have featured Chanterelle during La semaine de français in November and Foreign Language Month (March). Language, music and history departments can work together on a Franco-American history unit that includes reading and writing in French, studying historical background, obtaining oral histories from community members, and learning and performing French-language songs, dances and French-Canadian fiddle tunes, as well as spoons and body percussion. Immersion can even include the cooking classes in designing the final community performance evening of a Franco-American Soirée.

French language immersion: vocabulary, usage, dialects, songs - Josée Vachon presents French as it is spoken in Québec's Beauce region, and touches on how language changes with geography. Vocabulary words in French are from song lyrics. Packet includes lyrics, CD.

A Singing History of the French in America - Vocal and Percussion Workshop - Chanterelle teaches songs, tunes, hand and foot percussion. Songs, from France, New England, Acadia, Quebec, and Louisiana include "chansons à répondre," the French call and response songs, and "complaintes," storytelling ballads. Packet includes CD, lyrics and translations

"Fiddling with a French Accent " - Interpreting Franco-American fiddle music for violinists and other string players- violin, viola, cello, guitar, mandolin, bass - Donna Hébert & Liza Constable present fiddle & dance music with lesson plans and sheet music arrangements enhanced to show string players what's really going on in the tune. Packet includes CD or cassette sampler, sheet music.

Residencies (K - College) - Up to five days of a Franco-American cultural intensive

• Singing in French and English
  
• Speaking "Tout en français" - immersion in the French classroom with Josée Vachon
  
• Learning French-Canadian hand and body percussion, plus spoons and turlutter - singing the tune
  
• Cooking Franco-American, Québécois, and Acadian foods with Josée Vachon and Donna Hébert
  
• Playing Franco-American and Canadian tunes on stringed instruments with Donna Hébert & Liza Constable
  
• Understanding the history of Franco-Americans through stories, songs, music, legends, dances, and foods of this culture that makes up 20 percent of New England's current population.
  
• Performing - A community concert usually ends the residency, and we ask students to join us in performing the music they've learned with us. Is your school's French Club raising money for a trip to France or Québec? This would be a great way to raise awareness.

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