"Father Benedict Joseph Flaget, the French priest who came to Vincennes in 1792 and taught the first school in Indiana, appears also to have been the first music teacher. In Bishop Alerding's chapters on 'Tradition and History of the Diocese of Vincennes,' he says of Father Flaget: 'He also formed a class of singing and those of the children who had the best voices were exercised in singing French canticles. They sang the canticles not only in the school and in the church, but also while laboring in the fields.' These canticles were hymns taken from the Vulgate Bible and sung in the service of the churches. They included the Benedictus, the Benedicite, the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis...

"In the collection of the Charles Lasselle MSS., now in the State Library, is a copy of a French song, entitled "La Guigniolet," sung on New Years's eve. The leader sang one or tow lines, then stopped, and the same was repeated by the company. Before retiring a last song was sung."

-- Merica Hoagland.