Lâche pas: Cajun Artsongs

“LÂCHE PAS” CAJUN ART SONGS

Lâche pas is the work of soprano/ethnomusicologist Nancy Carey and composer Costas Dafnis. The set of songs for voice and piano was featured in JE NE VAIS PAS PARLER FRANÇAIS À L’ÉCOLE: Preservation of Cajun Culture Through Song (University of Memphis, 2019) and previous performances include recitals and conferences in New Orleans, Memphis, Shreveport and Monroe.

Lâche pas will be recorded in Spring 2026 in San Francisco, with generous support from ________________.

NANCY CAREY, SOPRANO & ETHNOMUSICOLOGIST

Soprano and Northeast Louisiana native Nancy Carey has performed throughout the United States and Europe. Recent opera roles include the title role in Opera Memphis' 2017 Midtown Opera Festival production of The Lovely Galatea, Edith in Pirates of Penzance with Shreveport Opera, and Tish in the critically acclaimed premier of Destiny: Hope, a chamber opera by composer Costas Dafnis. Recent solo engagements include concerts with Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, South Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and Prisma Vocal Ensemble.

Nancy completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Memphis, and holds a Master of Music degree from Louisiana State University and a Bachelor of Music degree from Centenary College. She has been a vocal division winner of the Marjorie Stricklin Emerging Artist Competition, and was selected as a 2018 Teaching Fellow with the International Performing Arts Institute in Germany.

In addition to being a lifelong performer, Nancy is an ethnomusicologist whose focus is the relationship between Cajun song traditions and the sustainability of Louisiana’s francophone culture. Dr. Carey is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at ULM, where she teaches applied Voice and Freshman Aural Skills.

JE NE VAIS PAS PARLER FRANÇAIS À L’ÉCOLE: Preservation of Cajun Culture Through Song

The purpose of this dissertation is to identify gaps in existing literature and records of Cajun folksongs, and to validate art song arrangements of this repertoire as a significant contribution to the canon of Cajun music. Though it continues to evolve and thrive as a commercial music genre, Cajun folk music is underrepresented in notated form. Transcription is vital to the preservation of folk music; however, previously published collections of these folksongs offer incomplete analysis.

Composer Costas Dafnis’ arrangements of these songs for voice and piano have the potential to increase their exposure with classical musicians in professional and academic settings, and also to ameliorate existing collections of these songs. Art songs serve as ideal vessels for disseminating folk music. Through the arranging process, a strict lens of analysis isolates rhythmic structure, individual components of melody, and harmonic function in a manner which may illuminate previously unexamined style traits. This process of analysis is its own contribution to the literature of folk traditions, and offers a further contribution by introducing this rich song tradition to a new audience of performers and scholars who are custodians of historical music.

The title of this dissertation makes reference to the eradication of the French language from Louisiana schools during the 20th century. Students who used French in spoken or written form were sternly punished and famously asked to write one hundred lines of: I will not speak French in school. Songs became the primary vehicle for oral tradition during and following this French language moratorium.