This exhibition is part of a research project led by the Canada Research Chair in Music and Politics, and aims to document and analyze the resistance songs transcribed by Yvonne Oddon. This project has previously been featured in UdeMNouvelles and an episode of the Sonorités podcast by the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Music. It also includes scholarly publications, some of which were still in preparation as of the exhibition’s launch; those already published or in press as of March 27, 2025 are listed in this website’s Bibliography section.
Throughout this exhibition, we have chosen to transcribe the French lyrics of the source songs as they appear in the published sheet music we have selected for display, rather than as they are sung in the period recordings. This is why, in some cases, there are discrepancies between the French lyrics in the audio excerpts presented and those seen in the comparative transcriptions; this is especially true for traditional folk songs, which typically circulated in multiple variations.
Permission to reproduce and display all the documents featured in this exhibition has been sought. Despite our best efforts, we have been unable to locate some of the copyright holders; should you hold the rights to any of the documents on display here, please do not hesitate to contact us.
This virtual exhibition accompanies a travelling physical exhibition, presented at the following locations:
We would like to thank the organizations and institutions that contributed to this project, from the initial research stages to the presentation of the exhibition in its virtual and physical formats: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (through the Canada Research Chairs Program and the Connection grants), the Regroupement interuniversitaire de recherche et création · musiques et sociétés and especially the Équipe de recherche sur la musique française, the Laboratoire d’innovation de l’Université de Montréal, the Centre de Recherche universitaire lorrain d’Histoire de l’Université de Lorraine, the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies at the Université de Montréal, the Bibliothèque La Contemporaine, the university libraries of the Université de Lorraine and the Bibliothèque Yvonne Oddon du Musée de l’Homme.
We would also like to express our deep gratitude to the following individuals, who generously answered our questions throughout the research process or provided essential support in bringing this project to fruition: Analays Alvarez Hernandez, Christine Antier, Deborah Barton, Rémy Besson, Julien Blanc, Pascal Blanchet, Louis-Philippe Boisvert, Éric Bouchard, Nicolas Calvé, Rosalie Carignan, Marc Clérivet, Sébastien Daigle, Michel Duchesneau, Colin Earp-Lavergne, Jacqueline Fleury, Nelly Forget, Jean-François “Maxou” Heintzen, Eckard John, Véronic Joly, Tara Karmous, Salomé Kintz, Marie-Pier Leduc, Djemaa Maazouzi, Gudrun Mattes, Anne-Marie Pavillard, Laurent Piché-Vernet, Jennifer Rietz, Andreas Rühl, Manuela Schwartz, Jonathan Thomas, Jacqueline Waeber, Sylvie Zaidman.
This exhibition is the result of a team effort; each text was finalized collaboratively through a joint review and proofreading process. The research and writing tasks were divided up as follows:
Benoit Fredette recorded and edited the re-created musical excerpts presented during a lecture-recital by Marie-Hélène Benoit-Otis, Catherine Harrison-Boisvert, and Monica Han on January 30, 2023 at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, as part of the Belles Heures de l’Université de Montréal (under the direction of Helena Urfer, whom we would like to thank for welcoming us).
Alexandre Ruffier (Laboratoire CinéMédias / partenariat CinEXmedia) created the video on the homepage of this virtual exhibition.
