Introduction: Music in Newfoundland and Labrador‪.‬

THE STUDY OF MUSIC IN Newfoundland and Labrador has come a long way since the pioneering song collections of Maud Karpeles, Elisabeth Greenleaf, and Gerald S. Doyle in the early decades of the last century. (1) With the post-Confederation development of programs in folklore and music at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the establishment of a Centre for Newfoundland Studies at the same institution, the past several decades have witnessed an explosion in scholarship pertaining to the province's music traditions, (2) a trend that promises to continue with newly founded graduate programs in ethnomusicology and continuing fascination with the province's music worldwide. Yet in certain respects, music in Newfoundland and Labrador has only recently begun to attract the scholarly attention long accorded the musical traditions of mainland Canada and the United States. The historical studies of authors such as Louise Whiteway, (3) Sr. Kathleen Rex, (4) and Paul Woodford (5) sparked renewed interest in the province's long-standing traditions of formalized music, a heritage largely ignored until the late twentieth century, and while the life stories of many of the province's finest musicians are still waiting to be told, there has been a modest increase in focused biographical studies in recent years (among them the compelling tales of opera diva Georgina Stirling and fiddling legend Emile Benoit). (6) Even recent Canadian Idol contestant Rex Goudie has had his young life chronicled in print, a striking illustration of just how dramatically the intellectual climate has changed in a relatively short period. (7)