Biography
Born in 1842 within the modest yet musically inclined household of Verchères, Quebec, Calixa Lavallée pursued careers as pianist, composer, and educator throughout the closing decades of the nineteenth century. Recognition rests chiefly on his authorship of Canada’s national anthem, O Canada. Initial instruction came from his father, a conductor and instrument maker, until the family relocated to St. Hyacinthe in 1850 so that the boy could attend local schooling. At eleven he stepped in as last-minute organist for the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montréal chorus during its St. Hyacinthe appearance; chorus master Laxare-Arsène Barbarin, struck by the performance, foresaw a distinguished musical future. Two years afterward Lavallée moved to Montreal for piano study under Paul Letondal and Charles Wugk Sabatier. At fifteen he concluded that Canada lacked sufficient musical opportunity and therefore left for Rhode Island, where he earned his living playing violin, cornet, and piano with a touring minstrel troupe until the Civil War erupted in 1861. Enlisting as a bandsman with the 4th Rhode Island Infantry Regiment, he sustained wounds at Antietam and received his discharge in 1862. A brief return to minstrel work preceded his journey back to Verchères late in 1863. He resided and worked in Montreal through 1864 and 1865, then resumed travel across the United States, passing through California, Louisiana, and New England. During this period he met Josephine Gentilly; the couple married in 1867. By 1870 they had settled in New York, where Lavallée directed the New York Grand Opera House until the theater owner’s murder ended the post in 1872. These events prompted his return to Montreal, where patron Léon Derome arranged a subscription concert series that financed further study at the Paris Conservatory from 1873 to 1875. There his teachers included Antoine-François Marmontel for piano and François Bazin together with Adrien Louis Victor Boieldieu for composition. Upon completing the program he spent the next five years in Canada, giving piano lessons and performing in Montreal and Quebec City while unsuccessfully petitioning the government for support of a national conservatory. In 1879 the province of Quebec commissioned a cantata to mark the governor general’s visit; although the work succeeded, Lavallée was never reimbursed for the musicians he engaged and consequently incurred heavy debt. The following year he completed O Canada, which received official status as the Canadian national anthem in 1980. Throughout the 1880s he toured the United States as accompanist to Hungarian soprano Etelka Gerster and also performed aboard the Boston–New York ferry. Tuberculosis, contracted in 1890, caused his death the next year.