Formal music has a rich tradition in Louisiana. As early as 1791, New Orleans was enthusiastically receiving theatrical groups traveling to the city. In the late 1700's and early 1800's, many of these groups would vacation at St. Martinville in the heart of Cajun country. They presented operas for the entertainment of the royalists and bourgeois who had fled to Louisiana to escape the French Revolution, taking up residency in St. Martinville.
New Orleans was the first southern city to establish an opera company. For more than half a century the city was recognized as one of the leading music centers of the country. It is doubtful that the majority of the Cajuns were exposed to this type of music. However, they were well- acquainted with the various ethnic folk-music around them. They absorbed it all and created one of the best liked folk- music to come out of the state; one that is now very popular world wide. This popularity can be credited to people like the late Dewey Balfa, a Cajun fiddler, whose untiring effort helped introduce Cajun music to the world. His foremost ambition was to promote and preserve the Cajun music and culture. He and others like him who devoted much of their life and time toward promoting the music did an excellent job.
Not very much is written about the music of the Acadians before they reached Louisiana. It is believed that the roots reach back to the settlers of Northern and Western France. Folk songs and Old World ballads were sung at gatherings and celebrations such as weddings, Christmas and New Years. Even before their expulsion, the Acadians had devised a way to make music without instruments by humming, singing, clapping, tapping their feet and perhaps using sticks or kitchen implements to amplify the beat. This style of recreation, along with their strong will to preserve the customs and family values, probably helped many of them make it through expulsion. This style was also used during lent since instruments were not permitted by the Catholic church during this season. This type of music was all the early Acadian emigrants had. It was still popular in the late 1940's and early 50's when large extended families met at gatherings and celebrations.
The fiddle was probably one of the few European instruments to accompany the emigrants to the New World in the early 1600s. It was presumably used by the new world settlers as the lead instrument. When these people finally made it to Louisiana, they had very few possessions. It is very doubtful that their belongings included musical instruments. When they could afford such luxuries, the fiddle once again became the lead instrument of the music loving Acadians.
Early Cajun music consisted of old French ballads from France and dance tunes brought by the Acadians. They also adopted dance tunes from various local ethnic groups' polka, quadrille and mazurka. The early instruments of Cajun Music were two fiddles. One played lead and the other harmony. Crude escorts such as spoons and scrub-boards helped supply the beat and amplify the sounds. Out of this environment, emerged the triangle ('te fer) with a ringing bell-like sound.
Some of the fiddlers of modern time that could still play the old fiddle tunes of the 1800's, were Dennis McGee, Sady Courville and Wade Furge. In the late 1920s Dennis McGee and Sady Courville recorded several of these old fiddle tunes.
Although we now think of the diatonic accordion invented in 1829 in Vienna, Austria, as a significant instrument in Cajun music. The Cajuns were not acquainted with it till the late 1800's, probably introduced by the German settlers of the Midwest who had migrated south to Louisiana. By the 1920's, the accordion had gained widespread popularity, probably due to its durability and amplification. At that time it had replaced the fiddle as melody lead, reducing the fiddle to a seconding situation. Along with the fiddle, escorts such as spoons, scrub-boards and the triangle helped supply the beat and amplify the sounds. In the late 1920s, the rhythm guitar was added to assist the fiddle in its seconding backup of the accordion. The first Cajun music recording by Joe Falcon was accompanied by Cleoma Breaux on the guitar.
Authentic Cajun music, as we know it today, saw it greatest development by musicians with little or no formal training in the prairie parishes of Southwest Louisiana in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The accordion had simplified Cajun music. With its limited notes, it could not handle many of the old world tunes. The Cajuns kept the tunes that could be handled by the accordion and created new ones that were applicable with the accordion lead. The music was influenced by the anglo-saxons, blacks and Germans who introduced the accordion. The Spanish furnished the guitar, the high pitched wailing and mournful sound in their singing is derived from the Indians. The music is unequally Cajun. It tells sad stories of lost love and long journeys with no end, recalling their odyssey and the many loved ones separated during the expulsion.
Cajun Music was first recorded on April 27, 1928 when Joe Falcon recorded "Allons a Lafayette", a spin-off of the older traditional tune "Jeunes Gens de la Campagne" (Young gents from the country). This piece was later recorded by Iry LeJeune as "Jeunes Filles de la Campagne" (Don't get married) - worded three different ways but basically the same tune. The flip-side, "La Valse Qui Ma Porter A Ma Fosse" (The Waltz That Carried me to my Grave), was later recorded as "La Valse des Grande Chemins" by Iry LeJeune. Joe and Cleoma recorded such great songs as Fe Fe Poncheaux, "La Marche De la Noce" (Wedding March), a very beautiful tune played at Cajun wedding dances. Along with "Poche Town", later recorded by Shirly Bergeron as (La Valse De La Belle) and as (Crying Waltz) by Blackie Forestier with Robert Thibodeaux on the vocals. A popular 1930's piece, "Quand Je Suis Partis pour Le Texas" (When I Left For Texas) was recently recorded by The Basin Brothers.
Only six months after the initial recording by Joe Falcon, Mayeus LaFleur an orphan, accompanied by the fiddler Leo Soileau, recorded "Hey, Mom" ( Mama, Where You At?) a mournful song asking where is his mother and "La Valse Criminale" (Criminal Waltz). Before the records were released, LaFleur, an innocent bystander, was shot to death in a gun battle in a bar room in Basile. I remember listening to his recordings in the early 1940s. My parents and neighbors would discuss him like he was heroic idol. The facts with regard to his tragedies made him and his songs famous in southwest Louisiana.
Amedee Breaux recorded several old traditional songs. The best known Cajun tune of all time was recorded in April 1929, by Amedee as "Ma Blonde est Partie" (My Blond Has Left Me). Angelas LeJeune recorded the same tune as "La Fille de La Veuve", (The Widows Daughter). Leo Soileau recorded the tune in 1935 as "La Valse De Gueydan" (Gueydan Waltz). The first time it was recorded as "Jolie Blonde" was by Luderin Darbone and The Hackberry Ramblers in October 1936. The Most celebrated of these tunes was Harry Choates's release of "Jolie Blonde" in 1946 which was a huge success in Southern Louisiana and East Texas. It also enjoyed some popularity nation wide. On that date April 1929 Amedee also recorded "Les Tracas Du Hobo",also popularized by Harry Choates as (Poor Hobo)
In late 1929 Angelas LeJeune on the accordion along with Dennis McGee and Ernest Fruge on the fiddles recorded "La Valse de Pointe Noire". After the return of the accordion it became "La Valse De Kaplan" recorded by Nathan Abshire. and by Andrew Cormier's band with vocals by Dalles Roy. Angelas also recorded "Bayou Pom Pom" at that time. In the 1950s Iry LeJeune recorded it and has been recorded by just about every modern Cajun Bands. He also recorded "La Valse a Tee Dom Hanks" which was later made famous by Lawrence Walker as (Chere Alice) and "La Fille de La Veuve" as mentioned before to the tune of (Jolie Blonde) later recorded by Iry LeJeune and still later by Rodney LeJeune. I am told he composed "Chere Tout-Tout" but never did record it. It was first recorded in the string band era by J.B. Fuselier. The first to record it with a modern accordion band was Joe Bonsall.
Amedee Ardoin a black accordionist of the late 1920s and 1930s usually accompanied by the white fiddler Dennis McGee, were very popular at house parties and Cajun dance halls. Amedee took the music handed down by both white and black and laid the ground work for many of the Cajun songs heard today. From 1929 to 1934 he had several recording sessions in which he recorded songs like "Eunice Two-Step" made over by Iry LeJeune as (Jolie Catin), "La Valse a Austin Ardoin" by Iry as the (Convict Waltz) and by the Balfa Brothers (La Valse D'Orphelin), "La Valse Des Amities" became (Parting Waltz) by Iry. Amedee's "Oberlin" is (Te Monde) by Iry and his famous "Amedee Two-Step" is being played by every accordionist of today. Amedee played with all the great fiddlers of that time such as Dennis McGee, Sady Courville and Wade Fruge.
All the songs you hear today were adapted in one way or another from the music that was recorded in the late 1920s, and early 30s. Yet none of these selections that made up the first recording had ever been written, They were handed down orally, for many generations.
During the late 1930's and early 1940's, the Cajun people were in the darkest period of their history they were reluctantly trying to Americanize their habits, all ethnic customs were out nation wide, every thing had to be American and English. The Cajuns had become ashamed of their music, language and customs, because they didn't live up to the image of the English speaking community. The accordion faded from the seen in favor of the string bands with western swing and country music. Several of the well-known accordion players put their instrument in the closet. A few went under- ground playing only at house parties and for family and friends. What helped the Cajun folk-music survive was the fact that most groups like Leo Soileau's Three Aces, J.B. Fuselier and his merrymakers, The Hackberry Ramblers with Luderin Darbone and Happy Fats and The Rayne-Bo Ramblers, recorded most of the old traditional tunes. However the biggest boost to the come-back of Cajun music was Harry Choates's famous "Jolie Blonde", along with determined accordion players like Nathan Abshire and Iry Lejeune who kept playing their music till finally in 1948 Lejeune recorded "Love Bridge Waltz" and Abshire with his very popular "Pinegrove Blues' to the tune of (Milk-Cow Blues) was the turning point in Cajun music, accordions were back in and the rest is history. Cajuns became proud of their music and customs once again.
The return of the accordion was accompanied by such sounds as the drum, bass and the steel guitar popular instruments in the string band era. The accordion was popular briefly East of the Atchafalaya but did not make the come back after the string band revolution as it did west of the basin. They stayed with the music of Vin Bruce taking English songs and translating in French.
Dancing in one form or another has always accompanied Acadian Music, It is evident that by the early 1740's the Acadians had developed an interest in community dancing as evening entertainment, which is still practiced today. Probably the only dance step to accompany the Acadians to the new world was the waltz or some form of it. In colonial Louisiana the polka, the quadrille and the mazurka were danced. With the accordion simplifying Cajun music, non of these steps survived in Louisiana. Leaving only the separate unit couple, the waltz and the two step to be danced by the Cajuns. The jitterbug has been in the Cajun dance hall for the last fifty years but it has been losing ground because of the crowded Cajun dance floors. Since the late nineteen seventies the younger generation does a sort of jitterbug of their own invention, using the two-step rhythm and a fancy dance step out the disco club and Dick Clark era. But like the jitterbug it can hardly be used because of space. It is too complicated to be preformed right by just anybody unless you go through professional training.
Bibilography
Cajun Country: (By Barry Jean Ancelet, Jay Edwards and Glen Pitre) / Tears Love and Laughter: (By Pierre V. Daigle) Cajun Music: (by Ann Allen Savoy) / Cajun Music Its Origins and Development: (by Barry Jean Ancelet) / Traditional Cajun Dance Music: (by Raymond E. Francois) / The Louisiana Guide: A Guide To Cities and Towns. / New Orleans City Guide.