Philippe Tatartcheff
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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
Career
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.
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]
List of songs
- with Anna McGarrigle
- "Complainte pour Ste. Catherine"[3][4]
- "Naufragée du Tendre"[5]
- "Mais quand tu danses"[6]
- "Excursion à Venise"[6]
- "Avant la guerre"[6]
- "À boire"[6]
- "Rainbow Ride"[7]
- "Arbre"[8]
- "Forever and the Same"[9]
- with Kate McGarrigle
- with both Kate and Anna McGarrigle
- "Prends ton manteau" (a.k.a. "Pronto Monto")[10]
- "La valse du maître draveur", performed by the Mountain City Four (Written by Wade Hemsworth & translated into French by Philippe Tatartcheff)[11]
- "Hang Out Your Heart"[8]
- "Petite annonce amoureuse"[12]
- "Ah tournesol"[12]
- "Hurle le vent"[12]
- "La Vache qui pleure"[12]
- "Rose blanche"[12]
- "Tant le monde"[12]
- "Ce matin"[12]
- "Dans le silence"[12]
- solo (recorded by Kate and Anna McGarrigle)
- "DJ Serenade"[7]
- solo
