Other Riel Songs

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(From: Fowke, Edith Fulton and Richard Johnston, eds. More Folk Songs of Canada. Waterloo, Ontario: Waterloo Music Company Limited, 1967.)


=== “Riel’s Retreat” === p.36-38 (about, not by Riel)

  • dates to Red River Rebellion of 1870
  • after Riel seized Upper Fort Garry in Nov. 1869, English speaking settlers became increasingly uneasy
  • in December Dr. John C. Schultz, Riel’s most active enemy, was taken prisoner with fifty of his followers.
  • a month later he escaped, made his way to Lower Fort Garry and rallied a force to march against Riel and free the prisoners
  • night of Feb. 15, 1870, he led a band of settlers from Lower Fort Garry to Kildonan, and as they marched they sang a verse that Alexander Hunter Murray, a retired HBC officer, set to the tune of an old Scottish Jacobite song, Johnny Cope”
  • at Kildonan the clergy persuaded the marchers to give up their plans to avoid unnecessary bloodshed
  • Riel captured some of the marchers before they could return home and on March 4, executed one of them, Thomas Scott ….and we know how that went
  • after Riel went into exile in the US, Murray expanded “The Marching Song” he had composed during the winter to describe the final episode of the Red River drama
  • lyrics are in a kind of Scottish brogue, paints Riel as a coward, thief, etc


=== “Riel’s Letter” === – p. 39-41 (also by Riel)

  • collected by Richard Johnston (ed of music in the book) from two old Métis living in Batoche and St. Louis SK
  • Riel apparently wrote it for his younger sister when he returned to visit her after he had fled to the US
  • records show that he returned several times to visit his family at St. Vital, and in 1883 he attended his sister’s wedding.
  • verses sung to the tune of the French chanson, “L’Hirondelle”


=== “Riel’s Farewell” === (our Chanson de Riel), p. 42-433

  • English words by Barbara Cass-Beggs
  • no new information