Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Summer 1999
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly Vol. 19, No. 3, Summer 1999, pp. 167-79.
Abstract
While Margaret Laurence's artistic legacy rests primarily, and rightly so, on her output of novels, her memoirs and published letters reveal tantalizing glimpses into a much less known, and yet not unrelated, aspect of her artistic interests-a lifelong passion for music, which included a desire to explore song-writing as a creative outlet. Drawing on these memoirs and letters, along with my own primary research, I have tried to sketch a portrait of Laurence's musical life, with a particular focus on how her musical interests coalesced in The Diviners' "Album"-four songs included in the text of The Diviners, compiled with melodic notation at the end of the book, and (as hinted in Laurence's letter above) recorded onto a disc which, except for promotional purposes, ultimately was not available for sale with the novel. This recording, I believe, is a significant-and, sadly, little-heard-facet of Laurence's artistry. And, far from being a single, whimsical songwriting experiment, it also represents the beginning of what Laurence saw (but never fully realized) as a potential artistic rebirth.
Very few critics discuss the (printed) "Album" songs beyond commenting briefly on their contextual function within the novelas an orally passed family legacy handed from Jules's generation to Pique's, linking past, present, and future. Only Walter Swayze, to my knowledge, has noted the existence of a recording and (favorably) remarked on its aesthetic qualities. Certainly, the lack of extensive critical investigation into these songs must be attributed in part to the practical inaccessibility of a recording to scholars and, more so, to the general public. Despite the current unavailability of this recording, an inquiry into the "Album" songs offers valuable insight into the unique artistic vision(s) that shaped their style and function in The Diviners. By restoring critical interest in these songs-specifically in the recording of themand demonstrating Laurence's conviction in their artistic integrity and structural importance to her novel, it is not inconceivable that the recording will someday finally reach a wider audience and, as I maintain, significantly enrich a reader's experience of The Diviners.
LAURENCE'S MUSICAL BACKGROUND
Music, in various capacities, always had an integral role in Laurence's life. Although writing was unquestionably the strength through which Laurence defined and distinguished herself during her youth, as a teen she did play violin in the Neepawa Collegiate Institute orchestra. Friends from her student days at United College in Winnipeg fondly remembered "the girl who stamped around the residence room ... singing at the top of her voice with more gusto than tune." A later friend, the noted Canadian folklorist and musicologist Edith Fowke, recalled that Laurence "was particularly fond of labour songs; she knew many of the ones in my book Songs of Work and Freedom, and told me she used to sing them when she worked in Winnipeg [as a journalist for the Winnipeg Citizen] back in the forties."Laurence's years in Africa in the 1950s also gave her a love of African music and dance.
Comments
Copyright 1999 by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln