Calixa Lavalee no doubt was born on December 29, 1842 in Vercheres, Lower Canada (now Quebec), and was a gifted musician.

He joined the Union Army to fight in the American Civil War, was wounded at the battle of Antietam Creek, Maryland, and was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army. What is not mentioned here is that Calixa Lavalee had to take an oath of allegiance to the U.S. when he enlisted as a musician in the 4th Rhode Island Regiment, and thus could no longer claim to be a Canadian (British subject).

He met the American girl Jo Gently of Lowell, Massachusetts and they were married in 1867. But he was still of the opinion that Canada including Quebec should be absorbed into the United States and for that purpose he approached the U.S. president, but his idea did not come to fruition.

It was in the late 1870's that a Catholic priest from Trois-Riviere, Quebec, had raised money for a prize for the best composition of an Anthem for LES CANADIENS. This prize was a clue as to why the Societe St-Jean-Baptiste de Montreal approached Lavalee in Boston to compose the music for a Chant national (which was later called O Canada). The Anthem was to be a HYMN, not for all Canadians, but exclusively for 'les canadiens' a Catholic people mainly from Quebec. And so Calixa Lavalee got down to writing the music of O Canada in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Thus his composition of O Canada was really composed for a distinct people and not Canada as a whole. Calixa Lavalee' composition of music originally called the 'Chant national' (later called O Canada) was played for the very first time at the Congres National des Canadiens-Francais on St-Jean-Baptiste Day (June 24, 1880) at the pavilion de patinage at Quebec City.

In the years after the American Civil War, Lavalee traveled and was a representative of the American professional musicians of America in London in 1888.

Calixa Lavalee suffered from ill-health for many years, and on his final return to Boston, Massachusetts his health became a lot worse and he was bedridden. He died on January 21, 1891, at 49-years of age. He was buried at Mount Benedict Cemetery in Boston. But in 1933 his body was disinterred and brought back to Quebec and laid to rest at the Cote-des-Neiges Cemetery, Montreal.

Lieutenant-governor Theodore Robitaille of Quebec commissioned Judge Adolphe-Basile Routhier to write the words to the music that Calixa Lavalee had composed. For the Chant national. Thus he wrote the words in French with a Catholic slant only recalling France's history and religion. But the words written by Robert Stanley Weir of Montreal were written in English, but without religious connotations whatsoever. Thus while words of Routhier are totally religious and speak of raising the cross and the French exploration of Canada, while Weir's words in English do not make any reference to a certain religion, but encompasses all, and is thus neutral in content.

So indeed history will recall that Calixa Lavalee of Boston died as an American, not a Canadien.

Kenneth T. Tellis