Keys to History

Many composers have been inspired by Longfellow's poem. A number of pieces, including songs, cantatas, waltzes and operas, have been written. In Acadia, at nationalist rallies and family reunions alike, everyone sings Évangéline, a song written by André T. Bourque in 1910.

The Americans beat Acadian authors in being the first to put on a musical show about the Acadian heroine: the comic opera Evangeline by Rice and Goodwin, written in 1873. Frenchman Xavier Leroux composed the music for the opera Évangéline, légende acadienne en quatre actes, which premiered in Brussels in 1895. Other renowned American composers, such as Gilbert and Wayne, and Noble Cain, also wrote music on the same theme. The popular singer Al Jolsen cowrote, with Billy Rose, the song Evangeline, published by Irving Berlin in 1929.