Philippe Tatartcheff | |
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Born | Geneva, Switzerland |
Origin | Ontario, Canada |
Occupation(s) | Poet, songwriter |
Philippe Tatartcheff (born in Geneva, Switzerland) is a Canadian poet and songwriter. He is best known as the lyricist who wrote French language songs recorded by folk duo Kate & Anna McGarrigle. [1]: 229–238
Tatartcheff's family was originally from the Swiss Cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Neuchatel and Fribourg.[ citation needed] After moving to Montreal in the early 1950s, they eventually settled in Timmins, Ontario, where his father, Dr. Michael Tatartcheff, was a physician and surgeon, and the town doctor. [1]: 229 His grandfather, Dr. Assen Tatartcheff, was a member of the Macedonian Liberation Front IMRE.[ citation needed]
Tatartcheff attended a French collège classique in Timmins, then McGill University before leaving for Paris in early 1969, to study for a master's in French literature [1]: 229–230 at the Sorbonne, where he presented a thesis on the subject of Jules Vallès. [2] While at McGill, he met Anna McGarrigle, who was studying at Beaux-Arts at the time (1964-1968). [1]: 212, 229–230
In 1974, after Tatartcheff's return to Montreal, Anna McGarrigle asked him to help her write a song, which became " Complainte pour Ste. Catherine", featured on the sisters' debut album, Kate & Anna McGarrigle [1]: 233–234 As McGarrigle recalled many years later:
In late spring of 1973, [...] I wrote a song in French on the accordion about Henri Richard, the Montreal Canadiens's beloved captain, with Richard Baker, a young musician from BC. [...] The idea was to release it in time for the 1974 hockey playoffs, but we needed another French song for the B-side and I asked Philippe, now back in Montreal, to help me write something. The song we banged out was "Complainte pour Ste. Catherine." It took us all of twenty minutes. [...] Most people who heard "Complainte pour Ste. Catherine" liked it, and when Kate and I were signed to Warner Brothers a while later, our producer, Joe Boyd, wanted us to re-record it.
—Anna McGarrigle, Mountain City Girls by Anna & Jane McGarrigle. [1]: 233–234
Tatartcheff would go on to contribute a total of twenty-four songs recorded by the McGarrigle sisters, most of them in French.
At some stage, he also became a farmer in Dunham, Quebec, according to the sleeve notes of the album The McGarrigle Hour. [2]
Tatartcheff has also uploaded some videos: [13]
Lanken, Dane (2007). Kate and Anna McGarrigle Songs and Stories. Canada: Penumbra Press. ISBN 978-18-9732-304-5.
Lanken, Dane (2007). Thirty-three Kate and Anna McGarrigle Songs. Canada: Penumbra Press. ISBN 978-18-9732-305-2.
McGarrigle, Anna & Jane (2015). Mountain City Girls. Canada: Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-0-345-81402-9.
A longtime collaborator, Philippe contributed many lyrics in French and English to various Kate and Anna projects. Still, it's a long way from Jules Vallès, the subject of his U. of Paris Master's thesis, to keeping those cows milked in Dunham, Quebec.