Launch of Traditional Folk Songs!

Traditional Songs from the collection of Dr. Helen Creighton

The Helen Creighton Folklore Society is having a party!  Our long-awaited song book is here and you are invited to come and sing along.  

On November 10th we will gather at Helen’s former home [now home to our hosts, The Dartmouth Heritage Museum Society] from 2 to 4 p.m.  26 Newcastle Street, Dartmouth.  https://www.dartmouthheritagemuseum.ns.ca/

The folk song collection amassed by Helen Creighton and now housed at the Nova Scotia Archives is one of the richest and most famous in the world.  In this book you will discover 42 songs collected from tradition bearers in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.  This includes songs that Helen collected from a wide range of peoples, including Anglo tradition bearers, Gaelic singers, Black Nova Scotians, early German settlers’ songs from Lunenburg County, Acadian singers, and selections from Helen’s valuable early collection of Mi’kmaw songs.  

Produced and researched by Clary Croft, who worked closely with Helen and assembled her collection for the Nova Scotia Archives; with musical and textual support from Martha Healy, a long-standing music educator in the public school system who has used Helen’s collection extensively in her classroom work.  Music transcriptions and arrangements are by private vocal teacher and composer, Mary Knickle and support and textual advice is from Helen’s grand-niece, Linda Nicholl.  In addition, members of various individual cultural communities worked in helping interpret and explain the important significance of their songs.  

An exciting complement to this book is the Helen Creighton Folklore Society’s partnership with the Nova Scotia Archives which houses Helen’s collection and has a web site dedicated to her work.  Through them, a direct link posted with the text of each song can be accessed via the internet where the original tradition bearer can be heard.  

The cost of the book 1s $25.00 and can be purchased at Evergreen on the day or by ordering directly from The Helen Creighton Folklore Society at https://www.helencreighton.org/

Come and join us in singing songs from the book and celebrating this exciting addition to the folk music world of the Maritime Provinces.