The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #104117   Message #3831300
Posted By: Joe Offer
08-Jan-17 - 11:47 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Alouette - various versions
Subject: RE: Origins: Alouette - various versions
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry for the song:

Alouette! (I)

DESCRIPTION: French: "Alouette, gentille Alouette, Alouette, je t'y plumerai." Cumulative: "Je t'y plumerai la tet, le bec, le nez, les yeux, le cou, les ail's, le dos, les patt's, la queue," meaning, "Skylark, I will pluck your head, beak, nose, eyes, neck, etc."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (McGill College songbook)
KEYWORDS: cumulative bird foreignlanguage worksong
FOUND IN: Canada(Que) France US(MW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 118-119, "Alouette!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 39, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
BerryVin, p. 68, "Alouette (Little Lark)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Fireside, p. 124, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 389, "Alouette" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 95, "Alouette"
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 60-61, "Alouette!" (1 text, 1 tune)

CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Red Herring" (theme)
cf. "Alouette (Lark) (II)" (theme and structure)
SAME TUNE:
Suffocation (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 125)
NOTES: The McGill sonbook printing gives the title as "Alouetté." - RBW
Fuld reports a claim that this was a work song used while plucking birds. I'll believe it when I see evidence.
BerryVin's editors also identify this as "a work-song which used to be sung while women plucked fowls." I'll buy it, if for no other reason than the second source. Unless, of course, Fuld got the idea from them.- PJS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: FJ118

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2016 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.


,,,and here are the Digital Tradition lyrics. Are they correct?
ALOUETTE

Alouette, gentile Alouette,
Alouette, je te plumerai.
Je te plumerai la tete,
Je te plumerai la tete,
Et la tete, et la tete, OH!
Alouette, gentile Alouette,
Alouette, je te plumerai.

Alouette, gentile Alouette,
Alouette, je te plumerai.
Je te plumerai le bec,
Je te plumerai le bec,
Et le bec, et le bec,
Et la tete, et la tete, OH!
Alouette, gentile Alouette,
Alouette, je te plumerai.

Repeat, using:
Le nez; Le dos; Les jambes;
Les pieds; Les pattes; Le cou.

@French @bird @animal @camp
filename[ ALOETT
TUNE FILE: ALOETTE
CLICK TO PLAY
JY

ALOUETTE There is also a Ukrainian version, in the minor,
probably made by Dave and Andy Spalding of Edmonton, mid '70's:


cho: Alouettski, gentil alouettski
Alouettski, je te plumerai - hoy!


Verse
Je te plumerai la tetski (je te...)
Et la tetski (et la...)
Alouettski (alouettski)
Oh-oh-oh-oh

(similarly:)
la nezekoff
le coupski, etc. JB

Is the familiar tune the one most always used for the song, or are there others? Did Rick Fielding use a completely different melody and lyrics, or what? Wish I could find the Rick Fielding album, but it's lost around here someplace...