Origins: La Bastringue

Subject: origins la bastringue
From: GUEST,AUE
Date: 27 Jan 05 - 05:54 PM

Can anyone date this song? When and where was it first published? Many thanks

Subject: RE: origins la bastringue
From: greg stephens
Date: 27 Jan 05 - 07:25 PM

Well if you're thinking of the Canadian fiddle tune, it has often been observed that the first part is a 4/4 version of the old English fiddle tune(in 6/8 or jig time) "Oats and Beans". The second part, however. bears no relation to the second part of the English tune.

Subject: RE: origins la bastringue
From: Dead Horse
Date: 27 Jan 05 - 07:32 PM

Yeah. A bastringue has two parts sure enough.
There's the complicated bit with three sides, and the straight bit yer bash it with :-)

Subject: RE: origins la bastringue
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 28 Jan 05 - 05:39 PM

theres is a French tune with a similar name..
and also in 6/8 time. The first phrase is almost identical to La Bastringue.

Ill have to lookup the name and get back.

We have been playing this with LaBastringue in a set - with our French Canadian friends..
I should add - that we have started a French Canadian, fiddle & song session, once a month (third thursday of each month) at the WOlf & Hound in Vancouver (broadway near Alma)

Subject: RE: origins la bastringue
From: Mitch the Bass
Date: 28 Jan 05 - 06:57 PM

Take a look at http://www4.bnquebec.ca/musique_78trs/accueil.htm

Click on "Index des titres" and look for La Bastringue. There are two recordings from 1929 and 1930 but it's obviously earlier than that.

I have a tune called Villez Vous Danse in a manuscript dated around 1810 from Lancashire/Derbyshire which has the A music in 6/8 which others have mentioned.

Mitch

Subject: RE: origins la bastringue
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 28 Jan 05 - 07:37 PM

French Canada's folk diva Madame Ed Bolduc, dueting with Ovile Legare, may have been the first to put words to the tune on a Starr recording issued, I think, in the 1940s. I assume the words are hers, or his, or both; I've not seen them earlier. The tune does go back earlier, at a guess decades earlier than the cited recordings. A sample lyric:

Mademoiselle, voulez-vouz danser?
La Bastringue, La Bastringue,
Mademoiselle, voulez-vous danser?
La Bastringue va commencer.

The lady then answers. I can supply the rest of the lyrics if wanted, also I think I may have a set of directions for dancing it.

Subject: RE: origins la bastringue
From: Pauline L
Date: 29 Jan 05 - 01:28 AM

I just did a Google search and found some interesting things on http://www.labolduc.qc.ca/ehtm/e_frame.htm. According to the author of this website, La Bastringue was written (words and music) by Mary Travers-Bolduc, who recorded it on Oct. 27, 1930.

Subject: RE: origins la bastringue
From: Brían
Date: 29 Jan 05 - 02:15 PM

The same. Madame Travers (La Bolduc) was a great inspiration to the French working class in Montreal during the 1930's. Another song attributed to her has been covered by La Bottine Souriante, NOS BRAVES HABITANTS.

Brían

Subject: RE: origins la bastringue
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 09:46 AM

Read the La Bolduc words to :La Bastringue" here.
The song is a dialogue, with lady and gent taking alternate verses. MP3s of most of La Bolduc's songs are on The Virtual Gramophone.

Subject: RE: origins la bastringue
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 03:42 PM

Have a look at http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc/ where Andrew Kuntz has La Bastringue and Oats/Beans/Ninepins2 ,(and many others!)

Subject: RE: origins la bastringue
From: GUEST,ChrisP
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 03:44 PM

Sorry, that nameless guest just then was me.

Subject: RE: origins la bastringue
From: Brian Peters
Date: 11 Feb 08 - 04:33 AM

And the Joseph Kershaw manuscript from Saddleworth contains a tune called "The Portuguese Dance", which is essentially "Oats and Beans" again. Make of that what you will.

Subject: RE: origins la bastringue
From: GUEST,Mahesh
Date: 12 Mar 14 - 07:47 PM

The plot thickens. The "Oats, peas and beans" jig (or it's predecessor) was borrowed into the South Indian classical Carnatic music repertoire by one of its most revered and foundational composers Muthuswamy Dikshitar (1775-1835) for his song "Shakthi sahitha Ganapathim". There are a whole bunch of youtubes of the song, either sung by kids or performed by instrumentalists (note that sometimes the "th"'s are spelt as "t"s), a song in praise of the Hindu deity Ganesha. This was one of the first Carnatic songs I learnt (when I was around 6). I never thought about why it sounded so western and I was quite amazed when I heard La Bastringue for the first time, prompting me to do some searching. There were a whole bunch of Irish, Scottish and English fiddle tunes and band tunes which he (and other Carnatic composers) reworked into songs in this way. More details are on this wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nottuswara). Shows how good tunes can cross cultures.