Lyr Req: Chanson de la Mariee

Subject: Lyr Req: Chanson de la Mariee
From: GUEST,michaela
Date: 28 Jun 03 - 10:42 AM

Kia ora, I've just listened to Margaret Davis singing Chanson de la Mariee, supposedly a 15th C song sung to celebrate the marriage of Anne of Britanny to King Louis of france in 1499.

It's on her CD Princess of FLowers, but I cannot find the lyrics anywhere.

It's also listed as Chanson a la mariee elsewhere.

I've tried searching ofr the lyrics but to no avail. It may take someone with a cd insert or knowelege of the song to know the words.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Chanson de la Mariee
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 28 Jun 03 - 01:06 PM

Lyrics at Chanson

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Chanson de la Mariee
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 28 Jun 03 - 01:35 PM

The song is included in Henri Davenson, Le Livre des Chansons, Cahiers du Rhône, 3rd edn., 1955. He includes a penultimate verse omitted (perhaps as insufficiently romantic) at the website mentioned:

Recevez ce gâteau
Que ma main vous présente,
Il est fait de façon
A vous faire comprendre
Qu'il faut pur se nourrir
Travailler et souffrir.

Receive this cake
That my hand offers to you,
It is made in such a way
As to make you understand
That one must, in order to eat,
Work and suffer.

Davenson describes it as "A wedding song, popular especially in the West". There are many such. He also mentions that Balzac quotes it at the beginning of his Pierette, and that Coirault attributes its composition (or at least collation in its present form) to an abbé Gusteau. Whether there is any evidence that it was sung for Anne of Britanny I wouldn't know, but it seems rather unlikely on the face of it to be anything like that old. Perhaps someone who has the CD will tell us if any source or background information is given.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Chanson de la Mariee
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 28 Jun 03 - 01:54 PM

Popular in the "west," often called a Breton song, there is no mention of any particular marriage. It also was sung in Quebec. Its attachment to a royal marriage is probably incorrect, as intimated by Malcolm Douglas.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Chanson de la Mariee
From: Laurent
Date: 28 Jun 03 - 05:28 PM

The song Chanson de la mariée (guest Q's link) seems to have nothing to do with Anne of Britanny. It's just a song used to make the bride cry (Chanson pour faire pleurer la mariée) as you can find in many parts of France.

The only song I know about Anne of Britanny start like this :
C'etait Anne de Bretagne, Duchesse en sabots.