Not to weigh the episode down with a lot of history, but Lehmann is the composer of “The Merrie Bells of England” (1846), the earliest known sheet music from a Canadian composer. R. Nathaniel Dett, known for his syncopated jazz style, was arguably the first Canadian composer to play at Carnegie Hall.

Until the advent of radio, almost every Canadian household had a piano or a harmonium. Sheet music was regularly published in both the Empire and the Montréal Gazette. Songwriting was a sort of national hobby, and it was not uncommon to exchange original songs at times such as Christmas, nor for a gentleman to ask a lady’s hand with a serenade of his own composition. I daresay Émile was wooed in much the same way, although more discretely.