Conrad Laforte (November 10, 1921 – September 4, 2008) was a Québécois

ethnologist Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Scien ...

and

librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...

. He created the ''Catalogue de la chanson folklorique française'' which contains 80,000 entries.

Early life and education

Laforte was born in Kénogami. He studied in

Chicoutimi Chicoutimi ( , ) is the most populous borough (arrondissement) of the city of Saguenay in Quebec, Canada. It is situated at the confluence of the Saguenay and Chicoutimi rivers. During the 20th century, it became the main administrative and ...

, the

Université Laval (; English: ''Laval University)'' is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university traces its roots to the Séminaire de Québec, founded by François de Montmorency-Laval in 1663, making it the oldest institutio ...

, and finally the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (; UdeM; ) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on M ...

Career

Laforte studied and wrote about the origins of traditional French and French Canadian music, and worked with anthropologist Marius Barbeau to record many songs and stories that had been until then passed down orally in the culture. Laforte's best-known work is the six volume ''Catalogue de la chanson folklorique française''. Laforte taught folklore at the University of Laval. He also developed a set of criteria for classifying songs by genre. In 1982 he was elected to membership in the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

. His honours include the Marius-Barbeau Medal and the Raymond-Casgrain Prize.

Works

* ''La chanson folklorique et les écrivains du XIX^e siècle en France et au Québec'', 1973. * ''Le catalogue de la chanson folklorique francaise ''; préf. de Luc Lacourcière , Presses de l'Université Laval, Québec, 1977. * ''Menteries drôles et merveilleuses'', 1978 * ''Survivances médiévales dans la chanson folklorique'', 1981. * ''Chansons strophiques'', 1981. * ''Chansons sur des timbres'', 1983. * ''Chansons folkloriques à sujet religieux'', 1988. * ''Poétique de la chanson traditionnelle française'', 1993. * ''Vision d'une societé par les chansons de tradition orale à caractère épique et tragique'', 1997 (with Monique Jutras)

References

*Jean-Nicolas De Surmont (ed.), publiés avec la collaboration de Serge Gauthier, ''M'amie, faites moi un bouquet… », Mélanges posthumes autour de l'œuvre de Conrad Laforte'', Québec, Presses de l'Université Laval, Editions Charlevoix, 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Laforte, Conrad Canadian librarians Canadian ethnologists Université Laval alumni Université de Montréal alumni 1921 births Writers from Saguenay, Quebec 2008 deaths Canadian non-fiction writers in French Canadian male non-fiction writers Academic staff of Université Laval