The Forgotten Songs of the Newfoundland Outports

Description

The Forgotten Songs of the Newfoundland Outports: As Taken from Kenneth Peacock’s Newfoundland Field Collection, 1951–1961

By Anna Guigné

November 2016, ISBN 978-0-7766-2384-9
Mercury Series, Cultural Studies Paper 87
460 pages, 17 illustrations, 17 x 24 cm

Kenneth Peacock’s 1965 three-volume collection Songs of the Newfoundland Outports is considered a bible for Newfoundland singers and an invaluable resource for researchers. In this new book, author Anna Guigné brings to light the best of the remaining unpublished material from Peacock’s 1951–1961 field collection.

With 127 songs arranged under 115 titles along with extensive song notes and brief biographies of the 58 different singers, The Forgotten Songs of the Newfoundland Outports presents a far-ranging and eclectic collection. Including British and American broadsides, musical hall and vaudeville material, alongside country and western songs and local compositions, the book highlights the influence of the popular media on the Newfoundland song tradition and contextualizes a number of locally composed songs. Original recordings of 26 songs are included with the e-book edition and are also available on the YouTube channel of the Canadian Museum of History.

The Forgotten Songs of the Newfoundland Outports provides a key link between what Kenneth Peacock actually recorded and the material he eventually published. As several of the songs have not previously appeared in the standard Newfoundland collections, this book sheds new light on the extent of Peacock’s collecting. Overall, the book aims to create a new awareness of Peacock’s extensive contribution to the Canada’s musical collections, as well as to rejuvenate interest in his extensive research into the musical traditions of the outports of Newfoundland.