imported>BD2412: clean up spacing around commas and other punctuation, replaced: ; → ; (4), p.1 → p. 1

2025-11-13T02:14:54Z

clean up spacing around commas and other punctuation, replaced: ; → ; (4), p.1 → p. 1

New page

{{short description|Canadian composer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2014}}
{{Infobox person
|name =Calixa Lavallée
|image =Calixa Lavallée.png
|alt =
|caption = An illustration of Lavallée from 1873
| other names =
|birth_name =Calixte Paquet dit Lavallée
|birth_date ={{Birth date|1842|12|28}}
|birth_place =[[Verchères]], [[Province of Canada]]
|death_date ={{Death date and age|1891|1|21|1842|12|28}}
|death_place =[[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], U.S.
| resting_place = [[Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery]], [[Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce]], Montreal
|occupation = Musician and composer
|nationality = British Empire ([[Canadians|Canadian]])
|citizenship =
|education =
|alma_mater =
|movement =
| notable works =
|known_for = composing the music of the Canadian [[national anthem]] "[[O Canada]]"
|spouse ={{marriage|Josephine Gentilly|1867}}
|partner =
|children =
|relatives =
|awards =
|signature =
|signature_alt =
|website =
|module={{infobox military person
|allegiance={{Flagicon image|Flag of the United States (1863-1865).svg|size=23px}} United States
|unit={{Flagicon image|Flag of Rhode Island (1877–1882).svg|size=23px}} [[4th Rhode Island Infantry Regiment]]
|battles=
[[American Civil War]]
*[[Battle of Roanoke Island]]
*[[Battle of New Bern]]
*[[Battle of South Mountain]]
*[[Battle of Antietam]]
|rank= [[Private (United States)|Private]] (Musician)
|embed=yes}}
}}
[[File:Calixa Lavallee.JPG|right|thumb|200px|''Calixa Lavallée'', 1967 art by Frédéric Back at [[Place-des-Arts (Montreal Metro)|Place-des-Arts metro station]] in Montreal.]]
'''Calixa Lavallée''' ({{IPA|fr|kaliksa lavale}}; December 28, 1842 – January 21, 1891) was a [[Canadians|Canadian]] musician and [[Union Army]] band musician during the [[American Civil War]]. He was born in the [[Province of Canada]]. He is best known for composing the music for "[[O Canada]]", which officially became the [[national anthem]] of Canada in 1980, after a vote in the [[Senate of Canada|Senate]] and the [[House of Commons of Canada|House of Commons]]. The same 1980 Act of Parliament also changed some of the English lyrics. A further alteration to the English lyrics was made again in 2018. The original French lyrics and the music, however, have remained unchanged since 1880.<ref name="canada">{{cite news|access-date=2008-04-22 |url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/o-canada-emc/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213085250/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/o-canada-emc/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 13, 2013 |title='O Canada' |publisher=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] }}</ref><ref name="anthem-fr">{{cite web|author=Government of Canada|title=Hymne national du Canada|work=Canadian Heritage|publisher=Government of Canada|date=June 23, 2008|url=http://www.pch.gc.ca/pgm/ceem-cced/symbl/anthem-fra.cfm|access-date=2008-06-26|archive-date=January 29, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090129084708/http://www.pch.gc.ca/pgm/ceem-cced/symbl/anthem-fra.cfm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Lavallée was born '''Calixte Paquet [[Dit name|dit]] Lavallée''', the son of Jean Baptiste Augustin Paquet dit Lavallée and Charlotte Valentine. He was born near [[Verchères]], a village near present-day [[Montreal]] in the [[Province of Canada]] (now the Canadian province of [[Quebec]]). 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 worked as a blacksmith, logger, bandmaster, self-taught [[luthier]]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/augustin-lavallee-emc |title=Lavallée, Augustin |encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia|year=2010 |access-date=2010-06-30}}</ref> and [[bandleader]], 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, Angus|Montrose]], Scotland who married a Quebecer by the name of Louise Leclerc and then settled down in [[Verchères]], Québec.

Lavallée began his musical education with his father, who taught him organ by age 11. Lavallée also studied in Montréal with Paul Letondal and [[Charles Wugk Sabatier]].<ref name=slemon>Slemon, Peter, [http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/thesescanada/vol1/QMM/TC-QMM-53737.pdf "Montreal's musical life under the Union"]. McMaster University, 1845. via Library and Archives Canada</ref>

==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.<ref>Thompson, Brian (2015). Anthems and Minstrel Shows: The Life and Times of Calixa Lavallée, 1842-1891. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press: p. 19.</ref> 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 September 17, 1861, Lavallée enlisted in the [[4th Rhode Island Infantry Regiment]] in Providence, as a private and a [[United States military bands|musician]] in the regimental band. He served with the 4th in the [[American Civil War]] until he was mustered out on October 3, 1862.<ref>Thompson, Brian (2015). Anthems and Minstrel Shows: The Life and Times of Calixa Lavallée, 1842-1891. Montreal; Kingston; Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press: pp. 40-1</ref> 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.<ref>Thompson, Brian (2015). Anthems and Minstrel Shows: The Life and Times of Calixa Lavallée, 1842-1891. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press: pp. 54-84.</ref> 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.<ref>Thompson, Brian. The Life and Times of Calixa Lavallée (1842-1891) Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2015: p. 142</ref> 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 [[Montreal Academy of Music (concert hall)|Montréal Academy of Music]] in Montréal, Quebec City and in many U.S. cities. Among his pupils was composer [[Alexis Contant]].<ref name="CE">{{Cite web |title=Alexis Contant |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/alexis-contant-emc |access-date=2024-12-22 |website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca |language=en}}</ref>

To celebrate [[Fête nationale du Québec|St. Jean-Baptiste Day]] in 1880, the Lieutenant Governor of Québec, [[Théodore Robitaille]], commissioned Lavallée to compose "[[O Canada]]" to a patriotic poem by [[Adolphe-Basile Routhier]].<ref name="anthem-fr" /> After some financial difficulties in Canada, Lavallée again moved to the United States.<ref name= "Francis-Jones p. 216">{{harvnb|Francis|Jones|2011| p=216}}</ref> In his later life he promoted the idea of union between Canada and the U.S.<ref name= "Francis-Jones p. 216"/>

==Later life and death==
During the later years of his life, Lavallée was the choirmaster at the [[Cathedral of the Holy Cross (Boston)|Cathedral of the Holy Cross]] in Boston, and he died penniless in that city in 1891.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Kuitenbrouwer|first1=Peter|title=The Strange History of 'O Canada'|url=https://thewalrus.ca/the-strange-history-of-o-canada/|access-date=7 July 2017|work=[[The Walrus]]|date=27 June 2017}}</ref> 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 [[Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery|Côte-des-Neiges Cemetery]] in 1933.<ref name="canada" />

== Selected musical works ==

*''Peacocks in Difficulties/Loulou'', [[comic opera]]
*''The Bridal Rose Overture'', [[operetta]]
*''The King of Diamonds'', overture
*''L'Absence'', lyrics by Remi Tremblay, 1882–1885<ref name="imslp.org">[http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Lavall%C3%A9e,_Calixa Petrucci Music Library IMSLP Forum], including public domain scores</ref>
*''L'Oiseau Mouche'', Bluette de Salon, Op.11, 1865?<ref name="imslp.org"/>
*''La Rose Nuptiale'', [[brass quintet]]
*''Une Couronne de Lauriers'', Caprice de Genre, Op.10, 1865<ref name="imslp.org"/>
*''Le Papillon'' (The Butterfly) Étude de Concert for piano, 1874/1884<ref name="imslp.org"/>
*''La Patrie'' (1874).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.musiccentre.ca/node/152550|title=La Patrie - Our Canada {{!}} Canadian Music Centre {{!}} Centre de Musique Canadienne|website=www.musiccentre.ca|language=en|access-date=2018-09-19|archive-date=October 7, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181007050541/http://musiccentre.ca/node/152550|url-status=dead}}</ref>
*''Marche funèbre'', 1878<ref name="imslp.org"/>
*''Violette'', cantilène, lyrics by Napoleon Legendre and P.J. Curran, 1879<ref name="imslp.org"/>
*"[[O Canada]]", 1880<ref name="imslp.org"/>
*''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, Quebec|Calixa-Lavallée]], southeast of Montreal, is named after him. The professional training school [https://web.archive.org/web/20081230020130/http://www.cspi.qc.ca/calixa-lavallee/ Calixa-Lavallée] in Quebec also bears his name. The following roads were named to honour Calixa Lavallée:
*Avenue Calixa-Lavallée, located in [[Shawinigan]], Quebec, Canada.
*Avenue Calixa-Lavallée, located in [[Quebec City|Quebec]], Quebec, Canada.
*Rue Calixa-Lavallée, located in [[Magog, Quebec|Magog]], Quebec, Canada.
*Rue Calixa-Lavallée, located in [[Boucherville, Quebec|Boucherville]], Quebec, Canada.
*Rue Calixa-Lavallée, located in [[Repentigny, Quebec|Repentigny]], Quebec, Canada.
*Rue Calixa-Lavallée, a dead-end street entering into Lafontaine Park, [[Montreal]], Quebec, Canada.
*Avenue Calixa-Lavallée located in [[Laval, Quebec|Laval]], Québec, Canada.
*Calixa-Lavallée Privée (Calixa-Lavallée Pvt.) a small dead-end laneway on the [https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=ottawa&ie=UTF8&om=1&ll=45.422341,-75.684595&spn=0.002605,0.004592&z=18 University of Ottawa campus]

== See also ==
{{Portal|Biography|Music|Canada}}
* [[Calixa-Lavallée Award]]
* [[Music of Canada]]
* [[List of Canadian composers]]
* [[Canada in the American Civil War]]

==Bibliography==
'''Notes'''
{{reflist|20em}}

'''References'''
*{{cite book |last1=Francis|first1=R. Douglas |last2=Jones|first2=Richard &Donald Smith, Robert Wardhaugh| title = Destinies: Canadian History Since Confederation|edition=2011|year=2011| publisher = Nelson Education Limited| isbn=9780176502515}} <small>- Total pages: 608</small>
*{{cite book |last=Thompson |first=Brian |date=2015 |title=Anthems and Minstrel Shows: The Life and Times of Calixa Lavallée, 1842-1891. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QMCeCQAAQBAJ |location=Montreal; Kingston; Ithaca |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |isbn=9780773545557}}

== External links ==
*[https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/calixa-lavallee The Canadian Encyclopedia]
*[http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=6217 Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'']
*{{IMSLP|id=Lavallée, Calixa}}
*{{ChoralWiki|id=Calixa Lavallée}}
*[https://www.academia.edu/2763803/Calixa_Lavallée_1842-1891_A_Critical_Biography Doctoral dissertation by Brian C. Thompson]
*[http://www.mqup.ca/anthems-and-minstrel-shows-products-9780773545557.php?page_id=46& ''Anthems and Minstrel Shows: The Life and Times of Calixa Lavallée'' (2015) biography by Brian C. Thompson]
*[https://archive.org/details/CSM_01142 The Canadian Sheet Music Collection from the [University of Toronto Libraries], hosted at the [Internet Archive]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lavallee, Calixa}}
[[Category:1842 births]]
[[Category:1891 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Canadian composers]]
[[Category:19th-century Canadian musicians]]
[[Category:19th-century classical composers]]
[[Category:19th-century Canadian male musicians]]
[[Category:Burials at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery]]
[[Category:Canadian choral conductors]]
[[Category:Canadian classical composers]]
[[Category:Canadian male songwriters]]
[[Category:Canadian military musicians]]
[[Category:Canadian musical theatre composers]]
[[Category:Canadian opera composers]]
[[Category:Canadian people of the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Emigrants from pre-Confederation Quebec to the United States]]
[[Category:Male musical theatre composers]]
[[Category:Canadian male opera composers]]
[[Category:Military music composers]]
[[Category:Musicians from Quebec]]
[[Category:National anthem writers]]
[[Category:People from Verchères, Quebec]]
[[Category:People of Rhode Island in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)]]
[[Category:Romantic composers]]
[[Category:United States military musicians]]

Calixa Lavallée - Revision history

imported>BD2412: clean up spacing around commas and other punctuation, replaced: ; → ; (4), p.1 → p. 1