printed in Canada was the "Graduel romain" in 1800 followed by the "Union Harmony" in 1801. Folk music was still thriving, as recounted in the poem titled "A Canadian Boat Song". The poem was composed by the Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779–1852) during a visit to Canada in 1804. "The Canadian Boat Song" was so popular that it was published several times over the next forty years in Boston, New York City and Philadelphia. Dancing likewise was an extremely popular form of entertainment as noted In 1807 by the Scottish traveler and artist George Heriot (1759–1839), who wrote: Among the earliest musical societies were Halifax's "New Union Singing Society" of 1809 and Québec's "Harmonic Society" of 1820. One of the first registered all-civilian musical ensembles was a religious sect organized from Upper Canada called the Children of Peace in 1820. In 1833, a student orchestra was organized at the Séminaire de Québec the Société Ste-Cécile, as it was known, and was one of the earliest ensembles of its kind in Lower Canada. The first appearance of a piece of music in a newspaper or magazine was in the pages of the Montreal twice-weekly newspaper, La Minerve, on September 19, 1831. Many immigrants during this time lived in relative isolation and music sometimes obtained through subscriptions to newspapers and magazines, provided entertainment and a life line to civilization. One of the earliest surviving publications in Canada of a song on the piano in sheet music format is "The Merry Bells of England" by J. F. Lehmann, of Bytown (later Ottawa) in 1840. It was published by John Lovell in the literary magazine Literary Garland. The Great Migration of Canada from 1815 to 1850, consisting largely of Irish, and British immigrants, broadened considerably the Canadian musical culture. 1844, Samuel Nordheimer (1824–1912) opened a music store in Toronto selling pianos and soon thereafter began to publish engraved sheet music. Samuel Nordheimers store was among the first and the largest specialized music publisher in the Province of Canada. They initially had the sole right to publish copies of Alexander Muir's "The Maple Leaf Forever" that for many years served as an unofficial Canadian national anthem. By the time of Canadian Confederation (1867), songwriting had become a favored means of personal expression across the land. In a society in which most middle-class families now owned a harmonium or piano, and standard education included at least