Study Guide Québec- Music and Instruments Mauvais Sort Using bygone tunes and lyrics, anecdotes of its own making, contemporary melodies, and legends or stories of yesteryear—everything is amalgamated into a blissful mixture of rhythms from around the globe. Mauvais Sort, whose name translates from French to mean “to put a spell on someone,” has a musical style extremely hard to define, yet unique and proper to its generation. A French-Canadian ensemble from St.-Eugène, Québec, Mauvais Sort has even invented a word of their own for their music: Folk’n’Roll! “Folk” for the inspiration, the foot stomping, the squeeze box (accordion), the fiddle and the guitar. “Roll” for the arrangements, the bass, the drum, the percussion and the energy. The young band members bring together their exceptional musical talents to astonish with a high-quality, high-energy show, infused with a passion for reinventing tradition. About the musicians Nicolas Geoffroy (lead vocals, mandolin, guitar and feet) Nicolas is Mauvais Sort’s founder and leader. He is a native of the Lanaudière area, birthplace of traditional Québec music. He has traveled throughout Canada, France and Belgium to learn more about French folk music. Stéphanie Richard (accordion and vocals) She studied the piano during her youth and started learning to play the accordion at age nine. She has 11 different college degrees, which she completed in six years. Since then, she has been recognized in the traditional music circle as a master of the accordion and has performed in many different countries. Patrick Giroux (violin, mandolin, and vocals) Patrick has been playing since he was three years old. He has been part of the Vivaldi Movement for more than 13 years and participated in a many musical events throughout Canada and Europe. Giroux was a vocal jazz academic studies major. He plays many different instruments and writes many of the vocal arrangements for Mauvais Sort. Guillaume Côté (drums and vocals) Guillaume tried many different instruments before he found his love for the drums at age 15. At first, he taught himself to play. Then, at age19, he attended Laval University in Québec to study classical percussion and jazz drums. From left to right: Patrick Giroux, Guillaume Côté, Nicolas Geoffroy, Stéphanie Richard
Transcript
Study Guide Québec- Music
and Instruments
Mauvais Sort Using bygone tunes and lyrics, anecdotes of its own making, contemporary melodies, and legends or stories of yesteryear—everything is amalgamated into a blissful mixture of rhythms from around the globe. Mauvais Sort, whose name translates from French to mean “to put a spell on someone,” has a musical style extremely hard to define, yet unique and proper to its generation. A French-Canadian ensemble from St.-Eugène, Québec, Mauvais Sort has even invented a word of their own for their music: Folk’n’Roll! “Folk” for the inspiration, the foot stomping, the squeeze box (accordion), the fiddle and the guitar. “Roll” for the arrangements, the bass, the drum, the percussion and the energy. The young band members bring together their exceptional musical talents to astonish with a high-quality, high-energy show, infused with a passion for reinventing tradition. About the musicians Nicolas Geoffroy (lead vocals, mandolin, guitar and feet) Nicolas is Mauvais Sort’s founder and leader. He is a native of the Lanaudière area, birthplace of traditional Québec music. He has traveled throughout Canada, France and Belgium to learn more about French folk music. Stéphanie Richard (accordion and vocals) She studied the piano during her youth and started learning to play the accordion at age nine. She has 11 different college degrees, which she completed in six years. Since then, she has been recognized in the traditional music circle as a master of the accordion and has performed in many different countries. Patrick Giroux (violin, mandolin, and vocals) Patrick has been playing since he was three years old. He has been part of the Vivaldi Movement for more than 13 years and participated in a many musical events throughout Canada and Europe. Giroux was a vocal jazz academic studies major. He plays many different instruments and writes many of the vocal arrangements for Mauvais Sort. Guillaume Côté (drums and vocals) Guillaume tried many different instruments before he found his love for the drums at age 15. At first, he taught himself to play. Then, at age19, he attended Laval University in Québec to study classical percussion and jazz drums.
From left to right: Patrick Giroux, Guillaume Côté, Nicolas Geoffroy, Stéphanie Richard
About the Instruments Because Mauvais Sort combines traditional music with modern arrangements, many of the instruments they play will look familiar. Accordion, violin, guitar, bass, mandolin, drums, percussion, feet, and voice: the ensemble combines their mastery of all these musical instruments and elements with their enthusiasm and love for music to create exciting and enchanting arrangements. Accordion The accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. It is played by compressing or expanding a bellows while pressing buttons or keys, causing valves, called pallets, to open, which allow air to flow across reeds that vibrate to produce sound inside the body. Sometimes considered a one-man-band, the performer normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand manual, and the accompaniment—consisting of bass and pre-set chord buttons—on the left-hand manual. Violin The violin, a bowed string instrument with four strings, is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family. The violin is sometimes informally called a fiddle, regardless of the type of music played on it.
Guitar The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four- to eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar also vary, producing a variety of sounds. Guitars may be played acoustically, where the tone is produced by vibration of the strings and
modulated by the hollow body, or they may rely on an amplifier that can electronically manipulate tone.
Mandolin A mandolin has a body with an oval or teardrop-shaped soundboard and, as a member of the lute family, it is plucked or strummed. Originally mandolins had six double courses of gut strings tuned similarly to lutes,
while the design common today has eight metal strings in four pairs (courses) which are plucked with a plectrum. Additional Resources Mauvais Sort’s Web site http://www.mauvaissort.com/ Encyclopedia of Music in Canada http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com Introducing Québécois culture and history through music http://mailer.fsu.edu/~mshaftel/quebec.htm
Learn more about Arts Midwest World Fest & view a complete list of sponsors online at http://www.artsmidwestworldfest.org
Piano accordion (left) and button accordion (right) Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Accordion
