Return of the White Fleet
Newfoundland’s foremost traditional music songstress Pamela Morgan staging encore performance celebrating Portugal’s ties to Newfoundland
By Olivia Bradbury/Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
For one night only on November 8th, there will be an encore performance of Pamela Morgan’s White Fleet Suite at the Arts and Culture Centre in St. John’s.
For the Grand Falls native, whose name has been synonymous with Newfoundland traditional music since her days with Figgy Duff and through a singular career as a solo artist, songwriter, musical collaborator and producer, this is a unique project that has been a long time percolating.
But it was a visit to Dublin, Ireland about a decade ago that made Morgan realize what she had long been brewing. While there, she attended a concert of the orchestral suite The Brendan Voyage at the local arts centre. “It was a musical depiction of the Brendan voyage from Ireland to Newfoundland,” explained Morgan. “And it was absolutely gorgeous, and I think that was when the idea took root.”
In Morgan’s early years, when she first came to St. John’s, the Portuguese fishing fleet, known as the White Fleet because of the colour of the boats, was very active on the waterfront, with the sailors as much a part of the downtown as the old mercantile houses, alleyways and corner boys.
“I was totally fascinated with the waterfront and the international flavour,” Morgan said. “All the Portuguese sailors and the smell of the tobacco and the music and the language and everything. I just thought it was incredible.”
While working in St. John’s she befriended Teofilo Cerqueira, a Portuguese student attending Memorial University. Cerqueira brought Morgan aboard the boats, introduced her to Portuguese music, and translated for her when they spoke to the Portuguese sailors. Later, around 1983, Morgan visited Cerqueira in Portugal for a few months.
“We were good friends, and I think that that kind of also planted a seed because I’ve always had an interest in the Portuguese connection.”
Figgy Duff’s first accordion player, Art Stoyles, grew up on the waterfront and “knew more Portuguese tunes than he knew Newfoundland ones,” said Morgan, which she believes also contributed to her interest. “I had all those influences, and they were kind of in the back of my mind.”
Attending the Brendan Voyage concert may have been the spark that lit the fire under a pot full of ingredients that were just waiting for the right time to boil.
While Morgan has made a career out of crossing genres, the White Fleet Suite is her first time combining traditional folk music with classical music – a string quartet and rhythm section are elements of the performance.
Morgan revisited Portugal to conduct research for the pieces. She was combining Newfoundland folk songs with Portuguese folk songs that had the same theme — for example, the theme of a woman who believes her lover is alive even though everyone else thinks he was lost at sea. Along with melding traditional songs together, Morgan wrote music to go with the stories — “evocative things from the mood and the mystery of it all,” she allowed.
On one of her research trips, someone organized a meeting between Morgan and eight Portuguese dorymen who had fished off Newfoundland. The men shared their stories, which Cerqueira translated. Some of the stories made it into the suite. Another element was the poetry of Agnes Walsh. That was fitting given that when most Newfoundland folk music afficionados think of folk music, the top two songstresses who come to mind are Morgan and Walsh. The first poet laureate of St. John’s has long been a close friend and musical collaborator of Morgan.
“She’s written extensively about the White Fleet,” noted Morgan, who commissioned Walsh to write a set of poems for the suite, some of which made it into the lyrics and some of which are recited.
Morgan has already toured the White Fleet Suite in Portugal where it got a positive reception. They started inland in Cerqueira’s hometown. The shows included a Portuguese string section and rhythm section — altogether there were nine Portuguese musicians and three Newfoundland musicians. After its premiere, the show moved outward, focusing on coastal communities the White Fleet would have left from and where residents would have connections to the fleet, and by extension, Newfoundland.
The encore performance on November 8th at the Arts and Culture Centre in St. John’s is part of the Year of the Arts, a title given to 2024 as a celebration of Newfoundland and Labrador’s arts and culture. The show will be an enhanced production. Both a lighting designer and visual designer have been hired, and there will be a multimedia presentation. Behind the musicians onstage will be a backdrop displaying archival footage and photographs collected by Morgan and her team. The performance will also be filmed for a documentary. A documentary crew followed Morgan and team of musicians when they were in Portugal.
“They’re going to really refine what we did last year,” said Morgan of this coming performance. “We’re doing one show for an audience and one show for the cameras.”
Serendipity conspired to tie the Nov. 8 concert in with the suite’s album release. Morgan had received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts to record the suite, so the record was already in the works.
The digital album will be available on Morgan’s website, pamelamorgan.ca. The physical album will be released in tandem with the concert and can also be purchased through Morgan’s website, or at Fred’s Records and at The Rooms. Physical copies can also be purchased at Morgan’s encore performance at the Arts and Culture Centre on November 8th.
The queen of Newfoundland traditional music, Pamela Morgan