Annotation:Rivière-du-Loup (La)
X:1 T:Rivière-du-Loup, La C:Fortunat Malouin M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Reel K:D a/|f/d/c/d/ B/d/A/f/|g/e/f/d/ c/d/e/a/|f/d/c/d/ B/d/A/f/|g/e/e/a/ f/d/d/a/|...
RIVIÈRE-DU-LOUP, LA. French-Canadian, Reel. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABB' (Joyal/Malouin): AABBCC' (Boucher). Rivière-du-Loup [1] is a town located on the east bank of the St. Lawrence river, above Quebec City. The tune was one of ten sides recorded by fiddler Fortunat Malouin (1870-1935) for Columbia records in New York in 1928, accompanied by his daughter on piano. He also recorded some sides for the Starr label in Montreal. Originally from St-Sauveur, Quebec, he learned music from his mother. As an adult Malouin was a traveling salesman based in Quebec City. There is a record of a Canadian patent for a milk-pail and strainer combination [2] devised by a Fortunat Malouin of Quebec, Canada, and it is possible the inventor and fiddler were the same person. Malouin had an improvisatory style, varying his melody lines and inventing new tunes on the spot.
J.A. Boucher included the reel in his 1933 collection as a three-part reel, inserting a new second strain in between the parts recorded by Malouin.
The reel played today as "Reel de Rivière-du-Loup" is actually the variation parts of Malouin's 1928 recording, popularized by harmonica played Gabriel Labbe with Philippe Bruneau on their 1980 Folkways recording. Fiddler Jos Bouchard () popularized some of Malouin's compositions in the 1940s.
