Music and the Staged Veillée in Quebec

Name: Music and the Staged Veillée in Quebec
Price: 66.99 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9780252089336

Performing Tradition

Laura Risk

$66.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

University of Illinois Press
26 May 2026

Theory of music & musicology; Folk & traditional music; History of the Americas

Series: Music in American Life

The story of a cultural touchstone and its impact

Fiddlers, step dancers, storytellers, traditional singers, and folklorists staged Montreal’s first veillée in 1919. All that was missing, announced one of the organizers, was a magic carpet to transport the audience into the countryside and a kiss of forgetfulness to erase the woes of modern life.

Laura Risk tells the story of the veillées and explores how these commercial performances of idealized rural life became part of Quebec’s cultural heritage. Her in-depth examinations of key performances and recordings follow traditional music and dance from the stage onto radio, records and other audio media, and television. Throughout, Risk documents how veillÉes redefined folklore in twentieth-century Quebec and illuminates how their distinctive framing of traditional musicians and repertoire impacts the performance and reception of the music to the present day.

Astute and evocative, Music and the Staged Veillée in Quebec reveals the music, dancing, call-and-response songs, and extramusical associations winding through century-long conversations about nation, culture, and identity in Quebec.

By: Laura Risk
Imprint: University of Illinois Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9780252089336
ISBN 10: 0252089332
Series: Music in American Life
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 26 May 2026
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Laura Risk is an associate professor of music in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media at the University of Toronto Scarborough, with a cross-appointment in the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto. Risk's album Traverse was awarded the 2024 Prix Opus for Album of the Year in the category Traditional Québécois Music.