TRINKETS OF LITTLE VALUE (original version)

performed by New World Consort Nov. 16, 1986
Suzie Leblanc - soprano
Peter Hannan - recorder, viola da gamba
Ray Nurse - lute, viola da gamba, recorder
Natalie Mackie - viola da gamba

recorded by CBC radio


TRINKETS OF LITTLE VALUE 
1. Theguehoaca 
2.  Assomaha: Honnesca 
3. Canada Undagneny 

The texts for these songs are taken from a “dictionary” of about 200 native words found at the end of Jacques Cartier’s account of his second voyage to Canada in 1535 – the language of the newly “discovered” land. The words are not arranged alphabetically, but rather by association or subject. I have preserved the associations in these songs – sometimes even the order of the word lists. 

The title refers to Cartier’s own description of the currency he used to win over the people of this new land. As he described in the “Voyages” , gifts of these trinkets provoked ecstatic singing and dancing among the “savages”. “We gave them knives, 
glass beads, combs, and other articles of little value, which pleased them greatly: they lifted their hands to heaven as they sang and danced in their canoes”. 

1. theguehoaca - sing  
    thegoaca - dance  
    cahezem - laugh    
    agguenda - cry    
    thedoathady - run    
    quedaque - walk    
    aggondec - an exclamation    

2. assomaha - moon    
    signehoham - stars    
    cahoha - wind    
    agogasy - sea    
    quenhia - sky    
    damga - earth    
    isnez - sun    
    honnesca - ice    
    canisa - snow    
    a than - cold    
    odazan - warm    
    azista - fire    
    quea - smoke     
    canocha - house  
  
3. canada undagneny - where are you from   
    napen tondamen assurtah - we don’t mean you any harm

Trinkets of Little Value - Peter Hannan (1986)

peterjh

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