Barbeau, (Charles) Marius

Barbeau, (Charles) Marius, eminent Canadian anthropologist, ethnologist, and folklorist; b. Ste.-Mariede-Beauce, Quebec, March 5, 1883; d. Ottawa, Feb. 27, 1969. He studied music with his mother; after taking courses in the humanities at the Collège de Ste.-Annede-la-Procatière and in law at Laval Univ., he won a Rhodes scholarship in 1907 and pursued training in anthropology, archeology, and ethnology at Oriel Coll., Oxford (graduated with a B.S. degree and a diploma in anthropology, 1910); also took courses at the Sorbonne and the École d’anthropologie in Paris. In 1911 he became anthropologist and ethnologist at the Museum Branch of the Geological Survey of Canada; after it became the National Museum in 1927, he remained with it until 1948; also taught at the Univ. of Ottawa (1942) and at Laval Univ. (1942–45), where he subsequently served as prof. agrégé. He was founder-director of the Canadian Folk Music Soc. (1956–63). Barbeau collected more than 6, 000 melodies and 13, 000 texts of French-Canadian folk songs, as well as many thousands of Canadian Indian melodies. He publ. 30 books and 10 song anthologies, some in collaboration with others. Among his most important writings were “Chants populaires du Canada” Journal of American Folklore (with E. Massicotte; 1919); Folksongs of French Canada (with E. Sapir; New Brunswick, 1925); Folk- songs of Old Quebec (Ottawa, 1935); Where Ancient France Lingers (Toronto, 1936); Modalité dans nos mélodies populaire (Ottawa, 1944); Jongleur Songs of Old Quebec (Toronto, 1962).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire