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Georges (Henri) Dor (b Dore). Singer-songwriter, author, b Drummondville, Que 10 Mar 1931. The youngest of a family of 11 children, he worked 1948-52 in a factory, 1952-7 for private radio stations where he wrote his first radio sketches, and 1957-67 at CBC Montreal as an announcer, a news editor, and a producer. The poet Gaston Miron urged him to turn to songwriting. His song 'La Manic,' which describes the solitude of the dam builders on the river Manicouagan, brought him considerable popularity and marked his debut as a chansonnier in 1966. It was included on his first LP, (Georges Dor). 'Chanson pour ma femme,' 'Les Ancêtres,' 'Le Vent' and 'La Chanson difficile' also became very popular. In 1968, he performed for a week at the Comédie-Canadienne and won the Prix Félix-Leclerc at the Festival du disque in Montreal. The impresario Jacques Canetti invited him to France where he sang at the Trois Baudets de Paris and at the Palais des festivals de Cannes. Dor then gave recitals at the Comédie-Canadienne in 1969 and at the Théâtre Port-Royal (PDA) in 1970 and also performed at the boîte à chansons La Butte à Mathieu in Val-David (north of Montreal) and at the Art Centre in Percé. In 1972 CKAC radio designated 'La Manic' as the most popular song of the last fifty years. That year he opened an art gallery in Longueuil, in the outskirts of Montreal. Shortly after, he gave up his stage career but continued to record and began writing lyrics for music of the pianist Robert Séguin. Starting in 1954 he began to publish short stories and plays, numerous collection of poems and two novels, D'aussi loin que l'amour nous vienne (Montreal 1974) and Il neige, amour (Montreal 1990). He wrote a text for the theatre troupe Le Grand cirque ordinaire and, with Louis-Georges Carrier, the musical comedy Un simple mariage double, which was premiered at the Théâtre de Marjolaine in 1978. In 1976, he opened a summer theater in St-Germain-de-Grantham, Quebec, which featured the premiere of his plays Entre le rire et le rêve, Du sang bleu dans les veines, Quivivra verrat! as well as Les Moineau chez les Pinson and L'Âme soeur which both led to TV serials at Télé-Métropole. Although his career was brief, Dor profoundly marked the Quebec chanson. His compositions, performed in particular by Pauline Julien and Catherine Sauvage, and orchestrated by François Cousineau, Gaston Brisson, and Jean-Claude Tremblay, have drawn a mythic portrait of women and of the country through the events of everyday life. Few chansonniers have sung of love with such simplicity. Gaston Miron thus assessed Georges Dor's travel through song: 'It was the society of 1965, among and with others, a man who became aware of himself and of his situation, who lucidly and with faith took hold of himself. It was beautiful (...). He truly identified us, from everyday life. In this, George Dor did not belong to a new generation of chansonniers; he was a new man, the new man that we were all striving to become'. (Georges Dor, Poèmes et chansons, d'amour et d'autre chose, Montreal 1991).
Author
Christian Rioux
Discography
Georges Dor. 1967. Gamma GS-108. Mes ormes dans la plaine. 1968. Gamma GS-113. Georges Dor à la Comédie-Canadienne. 1968. Gamma GS-117. Georges Dor entre autres. 1969. Gamma GS-122. Poèmes et chansons. 1971. Gamma GS-142. Les Grands succès de Georges Dor. 2-Gamma G2-1002. Au ralenti. 1972. Sillon DS-500. Amour. 1974. Sillon DS-501. Maudit pays. 1975. Deram XDEF-108. Fidélité. 1976. Sillon DS-502. Georges Dor chante encore. .. et en choeur. 1978. Solo 255-12.
Bibliography
Gingras, Claude. 'To me, the lyrics themselves are music,' CanComp, 28, Apr 1968 Brien, Lucien. 'Georges Dor,' CanComp, 40, May 1969 Robitaille, Pierrette. 'This Quebec lyricist has found serenity,' CanComp, 68, Mar 1972 Canetti, Jacques. On cherche jeune homme aimant la musique (Paris 1978)
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