Helen Creighton

Helen Creighton, circa 1957

Mary Helen Creighton (born September 5, 1899 in Dartmouth , † December 12, 1989 in Halifax ) was a Canadian music ethnologist and folk song collector.

Creighton received a junior music degree from McGill University in 1915 and graduated from Halifax Ladies' College in 1916 . In the early 1920s she was a social worker in Halifax, teaching at the American School in Guadalajara. On a radio series of the CHNS Halifax she worked 1927-28 as "Aunt Helen".

Inspired by W. Roy Mackenzie , she began collecting folk songs in her home province in 1928. In the 1930s she was supported by the English musician Doreen H. Senior . From 1939 to 1941 she was Dean of Woman at the University of King's College in Halifax. In 1942 she attended the University of Indiana Summer Institute of Folklore . With support from the Library of Congress and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation , she continued her work as a folk song collector in the 1940s. She recorded folk songs from Nova Scotia initially on acetate records, and from 1949 on on tape.

As an employee of the Canadian Museum of Civilization , she pursued this task until 1967, during which time she recorded more than 4000 songs in English, French, German, Gaelic and the language of the Mi'kmaq. Among others sang Catherine Gallagher , Enos Hartlan , Ben Henneberry , William Riley , Freeman Young and the Redden family from Nova Scotia, Angelo Dornan from New Brunswick and Ernest Sellick , Charlie Chamberlain and Duke Neilsen Prince Edward Iceland for them.

The The Nova Scotia Song ( Farewell to Nova Scotia ) was in the 1960s by Catherine McKinnon announced. Many composers took up motifs from Creighton's collection, such as Michel Perrault in Sea Gallows (1958), Trevor Morgan Jones and Donald Wetmore in the opera The Broken Ring (1953), Klaro Mizerit in Two Maritime Aquarelles (1970), and Alex Tilley in Maritime Folk Song Medley (1977) and Scott Macmillan in Tribute to Helen Creighton (1987) and Homage to Helen (1991). In the commercial sector, Diane Oxner performed with Traditional Folksongs of Nova Scotia and Clary Croft with False Knight upon the Road . Creighton himself participated in numerous radio and television productions of the CBC and was portrayed by Glen Walton in the film Nova Scotia Song (1986).

In addition to folk music itself, Creighton was also interested in its performance. In 1956 she discovered Finvola Redden Bower and helped the Redden Family to appear on TV on the CBC. From 1967 to 1973 she managed the Nova Scotia Folk Singers , led by Kaye Pottie . She also gave lectures in Canada and the USA, gave a speech at the International Folk Music Congress in Romania in 1959 and was considered an authority on ghost stories from Nova Scotia.

Creighton has received many awards for her work. She was a fellow of the American Folk Music Society and the American Anthropological Association , Correspondent of the International Folk Music Council and Vice President (1957–67) or Honorary President (from 1974 of the Canadian Folk Music Society (now: Canadian Society for Traditional Music )). In 1974 she received the Canadian Music Council Medal and in 1976 she became a member of the Order of Canada . With the piece The Collector , she received a musical honor at Mount Saint Vincent University in 1980 . The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame honored her with the 2011 Frank Davies Legacy Award .

The Helen Creighton Folklore Society emerged from the Helen Creighton Folklore Festival of Dartmouth , which was founded in 1989 on her 90th birthday and took place annually until 1994 . The Province of Nova Scotia established the Helen Creighton Foundation in 1990 , which merged with the Folklore Society in 1997.

Fonts

Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia (1932, Reprint 1966)
Twelve Folksongs from Nova Scotia (with Doreen Senior) (1940)
Folklore of Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia (1950, reprint 1976)
Traditional Songs from Nova Scotia (with Doreen Senior) (1950)
Bluenose Ghosts (1957)
Maritime Folk Songs (1962, 1972)
Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia , in National Museum of Man Bulletin , 198 (with Calum MacLeod ) (1964)
Bluenose Magic (1968)
Folksongs from Southern New Brunswick , in: National Museum of Man: Publications in Folk Culture 1 (1971)
A Life in Folklore (1975)
Eight Ethnic Songs for Young Children (with Eunice Sircom ) (1977)
Nine Ethnic Songs for Older Children (with Eunice Sircum ) (1977)
La Fleur du Rosier (with Ronald Lanbelle ) (1988)
A Folk Tale Journey through the Maritimes (1994)

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personal data
SURNAME	Creighton, Helen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Creighton, Mary Helen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Canadian ethnomusicologist and folk song collector
DATE OF BIRTH	September 5, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH	Dartmouth (Nova Scotia)
DATE OF DEATH	December 12, 1989
Place of death	Halifax (Nova Scotia)