"Sing your country, sing your land!"

Such was the advice of Dédodat de Séverac to the young Joseph Canteloube de Malaret (1879-1957) when the latter shared his dismay at the petty squabbles taking over the Parisian music scene in the Belle-Epoque. Although Canteloube had started collecting folk songs from his native Cantal in 1895, he only began the harmonisation of Baïlero in 1923, thus inaugurating the first of the five Chants d'Auvergne series that would bring him fame.

Renowned b...