Voici le Printemps

Composed in 2014, Voici le Printemps is based on a melody sung by the voyageurs, French-Canadian men who guided and paddled the canoes of explorers and fur traders from Quebec and Montreal to the regions bordering the Great Lakes and on to the Mackenzie and Columbia Rivers during the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. While they paddled hour after hour in their cramped canoes, the voyageurs sang of their canoes, their country, their life and their loves. At least two of my ancestors, both named Antoine Pepin, were voyageurs. The melody of the voyageur song Voici le Printemps ("See the Spring is Here") is played by the clarinet at letter A.