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Monique's NDDD carol site: in English, in French
Quick links: Song index by name, by number : Change history : MIDI/PDF/ABC repository : General score notes : ABC converter

NOËLS DE NOTRE-DAME DES DOMS, PROVENÇAL CAROLS

The Noëls of Notre-Dame des Doms are Provençal carols from 1580 to 1610 and from 1653 to 1656. Notre-Dame des Doms is Avignon's cathedral next to the Popes' Palace. The lyrics were written by parishioners and church "staff" on folk tunes. The manuscripts are kept in Avignon's town library. They were first published in 1925 "Les noëls provençaux de Notre-Dame des Doms (1570-1610) édités pour la première fois avec la musique, suivis de dix noëls inédits de 1653 et 1656, Clamon Joseph-Noël. et Pansier Pierre, Avignon, Aubanel frères, 1925 [Transcription du Ms. 4485 de la Bibliothèque d'Avignon et de dix noëls des Ms. 1250 et 1181].
They were later published in "Trésor des Noëls provençaux, avec musique et illustrés, Saboly, les Rèire, les félibres, Notre-Dame des Doms et Denis Cassan, Marcel Petit, Culture provençale et méridionale, 1981". The book preface indicates that they were copied from the book previously mentioned above.
When they were first published, they were transcribed in "Mistralian orthography/norm". The lyrics were written for "a folksy audience that knew neither the Old nor the New Testament apart from what their priest would say about them (and who probably didn't listen very well)" according to Philippe Martel who's a friend of mine, a college teacher of Occitan and a historian. So the vocabulary is quite simple, everyday life based, straight-forward and the concepts they convey easy to grab –don't expect theological subtleties!

According to Gustave Bayle's work "Étude historique, littéraire et musicale sur un recueil manuscrit des anciens noëls de Notre-Dame des Doms", 1884, Ed. Aubanel, Avignon, Ed. Houdin, Paris, the manuscript belonged to Michel Tornatoris ("compaire Tournatory" in the carol #1-10), organist at the cathedral and who died in 1641. Gustave Bayle was a lawyer in Avignon in the late 1800's and he found the manuscript while making some research in old material from another lawyer's office.

In the post below you'll find the list of the 62 (52 + 10) of them in alphabetical order with their numbers.
They will be posted from first (#1-1) to last (#2-10) and we'll make the titles in the list as blue clickies as we go posting.
Each post will (hopefully!) consist in:

• the lyrics as transcribed in the manuscripts 4485, 1250 and 1181 kept in Avignon Town Library though I transcribed whatever was notated "vowel+tilde above" as "vowel+n" and I wrote in extenso whatever abbreviation that can be only displayed as an image. I can't guarantee you that I made no mistake at all when deciphering the original material, some handwritting would need some Rosetta Stone but I'd say it's over 99% accurate.
• the lyrics in classical writing system because most people are likely to search them using this spelling system. Note that I only changed the spelling, I didn't "sanitize" them by replacing original words by some more "genuine" ones –some words are "provençalized" French ones.
• an English translation –the result of many email exchanges between Artful Codger and me- and,
• a singable translation into French of my own making for those who know French but don't feel the courage to try their skills on Provençal –I'm actually not sure it'll come out easier! (Cf. Oc pronunciation).

For French speaking people / Pour les francophones :

• Transcription des paroles telles que dans les manuscrits 4485, 1250 et 1181 conservés à la Bibliothèque Municipale d'Avignon bien que j'aie pris la liberté de transcrire par "voyelle+n" toutes les voyelles notées "voyelle+tilde au-dessus" et d'écrire in extenso les abréviations qui ne peuvent apparaître que sous forme d'image.
• Transcription en graphie classique : je me suis cantonnée à transcrire les paroles d'une norme dans l'autre sans modifier en général quoi que ce soit au niveau du vocabulaire. Je ne peux pas vous garantir que je n'ai fait aucune erreur en déchiffrant les textes originaux, certains écrits auraient nécessité quelque pierre de Rosette mais je dirais que c'est à plus de 99% correct.
• Les versions françaises sont de ma propre facture pour qu'elles puissent être chantées, je suis restée aussi proche de l'original que possible. Bref, elles sont "mes" versions françaises, non pas "les" versions françaises, vous êtes libres de faire les vôtres.

Below the lyrics you'll find a link to a MIDI created by Artful Codger, whom I thank very much for his help and work.

Notes about some words: some specific words are often used, so instead of writing a note at the bottom of each and every song including any of them, here there are:
"bregado/bregada": "group/brigade": here, band of shepherds, set of co-workers, coterie of people...) The term "bregado/bregada" often has a militant connotation and implies a common aim. We've translated it as "countrymen"
"counfraire/confraire": member of the same brotherhood or just co-worker, colleague.
"coumpaire/compaire" (fem: "coumaire/comaire"): fellow-countryman/woman, neighbor, friend/buddy.
"sénher/senhor": senhor is mainly a term of address and means lord, but it can also be used otherwise. Sénher can mean either lord, sir, gentleman or Mr. according to the context, i.e. "Nòstre Sénher"= "Our Lord", "un sénher vièlh" = an old gentleman, "Sénher!" = "Sir!", "Sénher Untal" = "Mr. So-and-So". In Provence "sénher grand" was used to mean "grand-father" hence also "old man"
"sus": "come on", "get going" it's an expression used to exhort, encourage, urge on