Les Draveurs de la Gatineau
| Publisher | Cypress Choral Music - from Canada |
| Composer | Stephen Hatfield |
| Voice/Instrument | SATB - piano |
| Difficulty | Unrated |
I learned this piece from a lady singing in her kitchen. Robert Fillion, who introduced me to the song and commissioned the arrangement, was also invaluable in checking the accuracy of my manuscript. I arranged the song as the kind of waltz the loggers and raftsmen would have danced to as they celebrated the end of the drive, and I imagine the accompaniment having something of the driving, percussive edge of a player piano.
The text illustrates some of the hardships of the raftsman's life, but also the pride taken in meeting those hardships. I think it's a telling detail that the trading post of Monsieur Gouin is on a green lawn, a symbol of human order imposed on the wilderness.
