Annotation:Marche à Quêteux Pomerleau

Back to Marche à Quêteux Pomerleau

MARCHE A THOMAS POMERLEAU, LE. AKA - "Air en Re d'Henri Landry," "Beggar Thomas Pomerleau's March," "Marche du quêteux Pomerleau," "Marche a Quêteux Pomerleau." French-Canadian, March. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BB'. A crooked tune from the playing of Henri Landry (Pontbriand, near Thetford Mines, Quebec). Thomas "Quêteux" Pomerleau (d. 1940) was a poor rural fiddler who lived in a humble dwelling in Québec. Quêteux means beggar, a name given to poor or itinerant musicians who would sometimes trade music for shelter or a meal and often relied on the charity of the community. Apparently the term could be more endearing than pejorative. Pomerleau was an influence on fiddler Landri and others who lived in his area.

See also the melodically unrelated but similarly-titled "Marche de Thomas Pomerleau." See also other Pomerleau tunes: "Reel du gaucher," "Bedeau de l'enfer (Le)."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Remon & Bouchard (25 Crooked Tunes, vol. 2), 1997; No. 14.

Recorded sources: Dorian 90295, Greenfire - "A Roof for the Rain." Nightingale - "The Coming Dawn" (1994). 30 Below TB 001CD, Les têtes de violon (Bouchard et al) - "Airs Tordus/Crooked Tunes" (1998). Lisa Ornstein and Dan Compton - "The Magic Paintbrush:" (2010)."

See also listing at:
Eric Lortie's Identitairs Québécois [1]
See/hear fiddler Andre Brunet play the march on youtube.com [2] [3]