The Library and Archives Canada’s Canadiana sheet music collection, the most comprehensive in the country, includes over 20,000 pieces of music including the Canadian national anthem “O Canada.” “Sheet music” refers to the unbound music printed on one or more folded sheets of paper that is used by musicians and singers. Intended as a patriotic French Canadian hymn, “O Canada” was originally written in French by poet and judge Adolphe-Basile Routhier (1839-1920). Calixa Lavallée (1842-1891) set the composition to music and the song was performed on June 24, 1880 at a banquet in the Pavillion des Patineurs in Quebec City at the Congrès National des Canadiens-Français (National Congress of French-Canadians). This was held on the same day as the Saint Jean Baptiste Day ceremonies. The popularity of “O Canada” grew rapidly. The English version, probably first performed in 1901, when the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall (later to be King George V and Queen Mary) toured Canada, was followed by many other renditions. The English text most widely used today is by the poet Robert Stanley Weir (1856-1926). It was published in November 1908 in honour of the 30th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City. In 1970, the copyright to Weir’s version was sold to the Canadian government for the symbolic sum of one dollar. “O Canada” became Canada’s official national anthem on July 1, 1980, when it was signed into law as part of that year’s Canada Day celebrations. At public events, participants sing both the French and English versions, usually switching languages three or four lines before the end of the song.

Jennifer Patterson