Calixa Lavallée (December 28, 1842 – January 21, 1891) was a

French-Canadian French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fre ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

musician and

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

band musician during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

. He is best known for composing the music for "

O Canada "O Canada" (french: Ô Canada, italic=no) is the national anthem of Canada. The song was originally commissioned by Lieutenant Governor of Quebec Théodore Robitaille for the 1880 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony; Calixa Lavallée composed the ...

," which officially became the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and Europea ...

of Canada in 1980, after a vote in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

. The same 1980 Act of Parliament also changed some of the English lyrics. A slight alteration to the English lyrics was made again in 2018. The original French lyrics and the music, however, have remained unchanged since 1880.

Early life and education

Lavallée was born Calixte Paquet dit Lavallée, the son of Jean Baptiste Paquet and Charlotte Valentine. He was born near

Verchères Verchères is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in Montérégie, Quebec, located on the south bank of the Saint Lawrence River. The population as of the Canada 2011 Census was 5,692. History In the 17th century, the settlement at Verchères w ...

, a village near present-day

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

in the

Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report on the ...

(now the Canadian province of

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

). He was a descendant of Isaac Pasquier, from Poitou, France, who arrived in Nouvelle-France in 1665 as a soldier in the Carignan-Salières regiment. Lavallée's father Augustin Lavallée, worked as a blacksmith, logger, bandmaster, self-taught

luthier A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers of ...

and

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues o ...

, and also worked for the pipe organ builder Joseph Casavant. Calixa Lavallée's mother was Charlotte-Caroline Valentine, descendant of James Valentine, a soldier from Montrose, Scotland who married a Quebecer by the name of Louise Leclerc and then settled down in

, Québec. Lavallée began his musical education with his father (Eli Grande), who taught him organ by age 11. Lavallée also studied in Montréal with Paul Letondal and Charles Wugk Sabatier.Slemon, Peter
"Montreal's musical life under the Union"
McMaster University, 1845. via Library and Archives Canada

Career

Lavallée gave his first performance at Montreal's Theatre Royal (on Côté Street) on 28 February 1859 and later that year he was hired by Charles Duprez to play violin, cornet, and piano in a travelling minstrel troupe. With this company, the New Orleans Minstrels, Lavallée travelled through much of the United States in the years leading up to the outbreak of the Civil War. On 17 September 1861, Lavallée joined the 4th Rhode Island Infantry Regiment of volunteers, as a private and a band musician, and he remained in the military until he was mustered out on 16 August 1862. He then rejoined Duprez's company and continued to tour until the fall of 1863, when he returned to Montreal. Between December 1863 and the early months of 1866 Lavallée organized concerts, composed and taught. In 1866, he was hired once again by Duprez and left for the US, where he would remain until 1872. In December 1867, he married an American woman, Josephine Gentilly, while in Lowell, Massachusetts. After two years in Paris, Lavallée returned to Montreal in July 1875, where he continued to perform and compose. Between 1875 and 1880, he lived in Montreal and Quebec City, where he worked as a pianist, organist and music teacher, and also conducted orchestral and operatic productions in concert halls, including the Montréal Academy of Music in Montréal, Quebec City and in many U.S. cities. Among his pupils was composer

Alexis Contant Joseph Pierre Alexis Contant (12 November 1858 – 28 November 1918) was a Canadian composer, organist, pianist, and music educator. Trained as a pianist, he became one of the first Canadians to compose large-scale choral and orchestral works, ...

.The Canadian Encyclopedia, ''Alexis Contant''
/ref> To celebrate St. Jean-Baptiste Day in 1880, the Lieutenant Governor of Québec,

Théodore Robitaille Théodore Robitaille, (29 January 1834 – 17 August 1897) was a Canadian physician, politician, and the fourth Lieutenant Governor of Quebec. Born in Varennes, Lower Canada, the son of Louis-Adolphe Robitaille (pronounced "ro-bee-tie") a ...

, commissioned Lavallée to compose "

" to a patriotic poem by Adolphe-Basile Routhier. After some financial difficulties in Canada, Lavallée again moved to the United States. In his later life he promoted the idea of union between Canada and the U.S.

Later life and death

During the later years of his life, Lavallée was the choirmaster at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, and he died penniless in that city in 1891. As the result of the campaign by the Montréal-based music director of the Victoria's Rifles, Joseph-Laurent Gariépy, his remains were returned to Montréal and reinterred at Côte-des-Neiges Cemetery in 1933.

Selected musical works

*''Peacocks in Difficulties/Loulou'',

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a n ...

*''The Bridal Rose Overture'',

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its ...

*''The King of Diamonds'', overture *''L'Absence'', lyrics by Remi Tremblay, 1882–1885Petrucci Music Library IMSLP Forum
including public domain scores *''L'Oiseau Mouche'', Bluette de Salon, Op.11, 1865? *''La Rose Nuptiale'', brass quintet *''Une Couronne de Lauriers'', Caprice de Genre, Op.10, 1865 *''Le Papillon'' (The Butterfly) Étude de Concert for piano, 1874/1884 *''La Patrie'' (1874). *''Marche funèbre'', 1878 *''Violette'', cantilène, lyrics by Napoleon Legendre and P.J. Curran, 1879 *"

", 1880 *''The Widow'', 1881, comic opera (known in French as ''La veuve'') * ''TIQ (The Indian Question), Settled at Last'', 1882, comic opera

Legacy

The village of Calixa-Lavallée, southeast of Montreal, is named after him. The professional training schoo
Calixa-Lavallée
in Quebec also bears his name. The following roads were named to honour Calixa Lavallée: *Avenue Calixa-Lavallée, located in

Shawinigan Shawinigan () is a city located on the Saint-Maurice River in the Mauricie area in Quebec, Canada. It had a population of 49,349 as of the 2016 Canadian census. Shawinigan is also a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) an ...

, Quebec, Canada. *Avenue Calixa-Lavallée, located in

, Quebec, Canada. *Rue Calixa-Lavallée, located in Magog, Quebec, Canada. *Rue Calixa-Lavallée, located in

Boucherville Boucherville is a city in the Montérégie region in Quebec, Canada. It is a suburb of Montreal on the South shore of the Saint Lawrence River. Boucherville is part of both the urban agglomeration of Longueuil and Montreal Metropolitan Commu ...

, Quebec, Canada. *Rue Calixa-Lavallée, located in Repentigny, Quebec, Canada. *Rue Calixa-Lavallée, a dead-end street entering into Lafontaine Park,

, Quebec, Canada. *Avenue Calixa-Lavallée located in Laval, Québec, Canada. *Calixa-Lavallée Privée (Calixa-Lavallée Pvt.) a small dead-end laneway on th
University of Ottawa campus

Bibliography

Notes References * - Total pages: 608 *

External links

The Canadian Encyclopedia

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
* *
Doctoral dissertation by Brian C. Thompson''Anthems and Minstrel Shows: The Life and Times of Calixa Lavallée'' (2015) biography by Brian C. ThompsonThe_Canadian_Sheet_Music_Collection_from_the_[University_of_Toronto_Libraries
_hosted_at_the_[Internet_Archive.html" ;"title="niversity of Toronto Libraries">The Canadian Sheet Music Collection from the [University of Toronto Libraries
hosted at the [Internet Archive">niversity of Toronto Libraries">The Canadian Sheet Music Collection from the [University of Toronto Libraries
hosted at the [Internet Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Lavallee, Calixa 1842 births 1891 deaths 19th-century Canadian composers 19th-century Canadian musicians 19th-century classical composers 19th-century male musicians Canadian choral conductors Canadian classical composers Canadian male classical composers Canadian musical theatre composers Canadian opera composers Canadian people of the American Civil War Canadian songwriters French Quebecers Male musical theatre composers Male opera composers Musicians from Quebec National anthem writers Burials at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery People from Verchères, Quebec People of Rhode Island in the American Civil War Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) Romantic composers United States military musicians