ERNEST GAGNON (1834-1915) studied music initially at Joliette College, then after 1850 in Montreal. In 1853 Gagnon became organist at St-Jean-Baptiste Church in Quebec City and in 1857 one of the founding members and later first music instructor at the École normale Laval. For a year he studied in Paris and met European musicians of the stature of Rossini, Theodore Thomas, and Verdi. Upon his return to Canada he began to write on various musical subjects, was organist 1864-76 at the Quebec Basilica, first director of the choral society Union Musicale de Québec and co-founder and first president of the Académie de musique de Québec. From 1865 to 1867 Gagnon's collection of over 100 Chansons populaires du Canada appeared in six issues of Le foyer canadien with transcribed melodies from oral renditions that Gagnon had heard, full texts, and annotations. The revised collection published as a book in 1880 was reprinted thirteen times by 1955. After 1875 in addition to his duties as a civil servant he continued to write on various musical topics and in 1906 gave an address entitled "Les Sauvages de l'Amérique et l'art musical".