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A vignette of coal mines in New Waterford and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, featuring traditional Cape Breton folk songs sung by Men of the Deeps, a miners' choral group.
Production Agency: National Film Board of Canada
Production Year: 1978
he Cape Breton Coal Miners was written by Ray Holland; it describes the nature of being a coal miner, the satisfaction they gained from their job and their close connection to Cape Breton. He wrote the words to this song to serve as an introduction to the Men of the Deeps at Man and His World - Expo '67 - and chose the age-old "Villikens And His Dinah" as the tune following their debut performance in Montreal.
This version is from a live recording of the Men of the Deeps on March 25, 1968, when they performed with the University Singers at Holy Angels High School auditorium. Francis H. Stevens of the Cape Breton Post reviewed the show the following day saying, "[they] gave vocal evidence of the beginning of a great tradition. There cannot be any doubt about it." This archival recording can be found on T-062 at The Beaton Institute.
The Cape Breton Coal Miners, 1968. The Men of the Deeps. T-062. Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University.
About the Artists
Ray Holland, one of the original members of The Men of the Deeps, began working in the mines in February, 1953, first at No. 20 Colliery where he drove a horse and later on the long wall at No. 16, loading coal. From 1956 until 1963, he was a member of the military. Upon his return to Glace Bay in 1963, he worked at No. 20 until it closed in 1970, at which time he was transferred to DEVCO's central shops where he worked as a mine car repairman. Ray worked for the union from September 1974 until July 1983 and then returned to the central shops. He also served as President of District 26, U.M.W. of A. He lives in Glace Bay where he often contributes his musical talents to the Salvation Army.
The Men of the Deeps is a world-renowned male choral ensemble composed of former coalminers from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Inspired by Glace Bay activist, Mrs. Nina Cohen, and famed Nova Scotia folklorist, Dr. Helen Creighton, The Men of the Deeps was organized in 1966 as part of Cape Breton's contribution to Canada's Centennial Year (1967) with the specific aim of encouraging the people of Cape Breton to preserve in song some of the rich folklore of the Island's coal mining communities.
The ensemble first performed to thousands of people in packed theatres in Sydney, New Waterford, and Glace Bay. Those in attendance were highly impressed with the new choral group, including H.P. MacKeen, the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, who became the patron of the chorus. Concerts were then held at the Isle Royale Hotel, the opening of the Miners' Museum, the Queen Mother's visit (1967), and for Expo 67 in Montreal.
In 1976, the group became the first Canadian musical ensemble to tour the Peoples' Republic of China, after diplomatic relations between the two nations were restored in 1972. Over twenty years later, they traveled to Kosovo to perform on behalf of the United Nations Children's Fund. The chorus received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University College of Cape Breton (now Cape Breton University) in 2000. Recent concert tours have brought the choir as far north as the Northwest Territories and as far south as Arizona, Alabama, Florida and the Appalachian coal mining communities of Kentucky, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Since the group's inception, the musical director has been John C. (Jack) O'Donnell, now Professor Emeritus of music at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
