Canada
Vignettes: The Log Driver’s Waltz
Canada Vignettes: La valse du maître
draveur
The Log Driver’s Waltz (John Weldon,
1978) is one of the NFB’s most popular animated shorts. Made as part of the series Canada
Vignettes, which has aired on Canadian TV since the late 1970s, The Log Driver’s Waltz was also released
theatrically in Canada and did well overseas (learn
more). The popularity of the song
led to it being one of 5
films chosen by Canada Post this spring to commemorate the 75th
anniversary of the NFB with postage stamps.
Many Canadians
who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, take a nostalgic delight in both the song
and the animation – it has deep resonances in my family in particular because
my paternal great-grandfather, who immigrated to Canada from Alsace-Lorraine,
was a log driver. My father speaks
fondly of how strong his grandfather was because of his work, able to perform
acrobatic tricks even in old age.
The music
The song “The
Log Driver’s Waltz”, performed in French as “La valse du maître draveur”, was composed
by Wade Hemsworth (1916-2002), a surveyor and draftsman by day
who performed in folk clubs at night. He
was not a prolific songwriter, but three of his songs – “The Log Driver’s
Waltz”, “The Wild Goose”, and “The Black Fly Song” have become Canadian
classics. In fact, “The Black Fly Song”,
also performed by the McGarrigle Sisters, was also made into an animated short
by Christopher Hinton called Blackfly for the NFB in 1991.
The McGarrigle sisters, Kate (1946-2010, mother
of Rufus and Martha Wainright) and Anna (b.
1944), with their beautiful harmonies, were already at the forefront of the
Canadian folk music scene in the 1970s when “The Log Driver’s Waltz” was
made. They are accompanied by Jack Nissenson and Peter Weldon – members of their 1960s folk group The Mountain City Four.
The two men continue to perform in a group called The What Four with Marvin
Segal, John Knowles and sometimes Jane McGarrigle.
Using the animation to teach about Canadian
culture
The
animation begins with black and white documentary footage of log
drivers at work. As the instrumental
prelude nears an end and the song begins, a lone log driver heading downstream
transforms into brightly painted animation.
He then transforms into a caricature recognizable to all Canadians as a
Quebecer in a traditional rural costume.
A partner film that I use when teaching about Quebec culture is the
short documentary Les raquetteurs
(Michel Brault/Gilles Grouly, 1958) about a snowshoeing festival in the city of
Sherbrooke, Quebec. The snowshoers are
in traditional costume complete with long toques.
The key
elements of this costume are the checked shirt – which fans of Monty Python
will recognize from The
Lumberjack Song – and the toque (variant
spellings: tuque/touque), the Canadian variant of the knit cap. The tuque is believed to have originated with
the coureurs de bois
(lit: runner of the woods), French-Canadian and Métis travelling woodsmen who
traded fur. It is said that they kept
their woollen nightcaps
on during the day for warmth.
The red toque
worn by the log driver is particularly associated with Quebec national identity. It became a symbol of French-Canadian
nationalism during the Lower Canada Rebellion (FR: Patriotes Rebellion) of 1837
and was revived as a patriotic symbol by the separatists in 1960s. In Anglophone Canada, the tuque was
popularized by comedians Rick Moranis
and Dave Thomas in the roles of Bob and Doug McKenzie
in the sketch comedy “Great White North” on the television series SCTV.
Activities to do with students:
- Spot the Canadian icons / stereotypes: lumberjack, moose, beaver, toques. Brainstorm: What other symbols do you associate with Canada?
- Learn and sing the song (sheet music)
- Design your own tuque – show examples of tuque (short/long, with/without the pompom (aka woolly bobble)) and have the students draw their own unique tuque. Knitting a hat might be for the more adventurous teacher, but it is quite easy to make the pompom with very little prep work.
FILM CREDITS
/ GÉNÉRIQUE DU FILM
director / réalisateur
John Weldon
producer / producteur
David
Verrall
animation
John Weldon
music / musique
Kate
McGarrigle
Anna
McGarrigle
The Mountain
City Four
NFB SYNOPSIS
(watch / purchase the film)
“This
lighthearted, animated short is based on the song "The Log Driver's
Waltz" by Wade Hemsworth. Easily one of the most often-requested films in
the NFB collection, Kate and Anna McGarrigle sing along to the tale of a young
girl who loves to dance and chooses to marry a log driver over his more
well-to-do competitor. Driving logs down the river has made the young man the
best dancing partner to be found.”
ONF SYNOPSIS (voyez / achetez le film)
« Animation décrivant l'histoire
d'une jeune femme qui repousse les prétendants qu'on lui destine parce qu'elle
est obnubilée par un draveur, qui finalement l'entraînera dans une valse
effrénée. Une joyeuse animation entremêlée de métrage d'archives sur la drave.
Avec une chanson interprétée par les sœurs McGarrigle. »
English Lyrics / Paroles anglaises:
If you
should ask any girl from the parish around
What pleases
her most from her head to her toes
She'll say “I'm
not sure that it's business of yours
But I do
like to waltz with the log driver.”
CHORUS
For he goes
birling down and down white water
That's where
the log driver learns to step lightly.
He’s birling
down and down white water
A log
driver's waltz pleases girls completely.
When the
drive's nearly over I like to go down and watch
All the lads
as they work on the river.
I know that
come evenin’ they'll be in the town
And we all
like to waltz with the log driver.
CHORUS
For he goes
birling down and down white water
That's where
the log driver learns to step lightly.
He’s birling
down and down white water
A log
driver's waltz pleases girls completely.
To please
both my parents I've had to give way
And dance
with the doctors and merchants and lawyers.
Their
manners are fine but their feet are of clay
But there's
none with the style of my log driver.
CHORUS
For he goes
birling down and down white water
That's where
the log driver learns to step lightly.
He goes
birling down and down white water
A log
driver's waltz pleases girls completely.
Now I’ve had
my chances with all sorts of men
But none is
so fine as my lad on the river
So when the
drive’s over, if he asks me again
I think I
will marry my log driver.
CHORUS
For he goes
birling down and down white water
That's where
the log driver learns to step lightly.
He’s birling
down and down white water
A log
driver's waltz pleases girls completely.
Birling down
and down white water
A log
driver's waltz pleases girls completely.
Vocabulary:
log driver: (PQ: le draveur) a person
who drives logs down the river. Log
driving (FR: le flottage du bois / PQ: la drave) (see: Wikipedia) was a method of
transporting logs by river from a forest upstream to sawmills downstream in
North America and Europe. The log driver
would ride along with the logs and use their pike poles (see: Wikipedia)
to prevent logs from jamming up.
parish: (FR: une paroisse) a church
territorial unit constituting a division of a diocese. In the time of log driving (19th
century – early 20th century), the church would have been the center
of rural communities.
birling: (FR: voliger) English for
spinning or whirling; log birling as a sport is also called logrolling (see: Wikipedia)
the drive: (PQ: la drave) an
abbreviation of “log drive” – OED Defn. 3: “an organized effort by a number of
people to achieve a purpose”
feet of clay: this biblical idiom (Daniel
2:31-33) usually means that a person has weaknesses. In this context; however, it suggests that the
men are heavy-footed, unlike the agility of the log driver.
lad: boy or young man. This British word usage is uncommon in
Canada, but could be heard in communities settled by the Scottish or the
Irish.
References:
Ohayon,
Albert. “Canada
Vignettes: Essential Canadiana, eh!” NFB
blog, November 16, 2011.
McGarrigle,
Anna. Official website of Kate and Anna McGarrigle.
Rosholt,
Malcolm. Lumbermen
on the Chippewa, Rosholt House, 1982.
Rosholt,
Malcolm. The
Wisconsin Logging Book, 1839-1939, Rosholt House, 1980.
Schneider,
Jason. Whispering
Pines: The Northern Roots of American Music. . . from Hank Snow to The Band.
Toronto: ECW Press, 2009.
The
Patriotes Rebellion, Quebec 1837-1839, Marxists Internet Archive.
“Thrills
of the Spring Log Drive”, Popular Mechanics (February 1931), pp. 242-47. A contemporary description of a log drive in
Quebec
