Alfred Montmarquette
Alfred Montmarquette (born April 6, 1871 in New York City , † May 24, 1944 in Montreal ) was a Canadian folk music composer and accordionist.
The musical autodidact learned to play the accordion in his youth and acquired a repertoire of folk songs. At the age of over fifty he came to Montreal in the early 1920s, where he became known as a guest in Conrad Gauthier's Veillées du bon vieux temps . With Adélard Saint-Jean and Henri Langlois , he formed a trio that recorded more than 100 pieces under the names Trio du Vieux-Québec , Trio Sainte-Catherine , Vieux Quatuor québécois and Vagabonds de Montréal between 1928 and 1932 on the Brunswick and Starr labels , including Marche Montmarquette , Marche Cécilia , Valse Clarisse , Valleyfield Reel , Valse des nations and Marche de Trois-Rivières . Ovila Légaré , Eugène Daigneault , Arthur Lefebvre and the singer Mary Bolduc also participated in many recordings .
Like most folk musicians of his generation, Montmarquette could not live off his music and worked as a stonemason. He died in 1944 impoverished and alcoholic in a nursing home.
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SURNAME | Montmarquette, Alfred |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian folk music composer and accordionist |
DATE OF BIRTH | April 6, 1871 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |
DATE OF DEATH | May 24, 1944 |
Place of death | Montreal |