Lyr Req: Estivale: song of summer

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Estivale: song of summer
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 09:20 AM

From East by Edith Pattou (Orlando: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005), page 240:

... I grew better at playing the flauto. I had taken to performing for the white bear, sifting through the sheet music to find the simplest piece for a beginner.... There was one melody in particular, I could tell, he liked more than any other. It bore the title "Estivale," which I figured out meant "of the summer." ...

There you have all the information Edith Pattou gives about ESTIVALE. There could be hundreds of tunes by that name, any one of which Pattou might have been thinking of, or maybe she was thinking of nothing in particular, and just liked the title.

The URL that our latest guest posted goes to a very modern-sounding instrumental tune called ESTIVALE. I doubt it has any connection to the novel.

WorldCat finds 6 different musical scores held by various libraries, with titles like ESTIVALE or IMPRESSION ESTIVALE or SONATINE ESTIVALE, etc. The oldest of them was published in 1959.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Estivale: song of summer
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jul 11 - 06:05 PM

http://www.myspace.com/spaziodeprofondorosso/music/songs/estivale-35656611

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Estivale: song of summer
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 Mar 04 - 06:12 PM

To clarify what Malcolm said: "estival" is the masculine adjectival form of the noun "été" = "summer." The feminine form is "estivale." (That is, you would use "estivale" to modify a feminine noun.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Estivale: song of summer
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 19 Mar 04 - 12:21 AM

Ah, yes; I know the underlying story. That gets us a little closer, though your best course would be to contact Ms Pattou; she may just have made up the song or its title. "Estivale" in French is simply adjectival; no particular connection with music or song. Could be anything, really; or nothing. Perhaps someone else will know more.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Estivale: song of summer
From: GUEST,CrCeres
Date: 18 Mar 04 - 11:46 PM

The book is a retelling of the scandinavian folktale "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" (lassie goes off with white bear, discovers that he's really a prince, and has to rescue him from trolls). The song is referred to as a lovely melody, played on some sort of flute, possibly french in origin, since Pattou (the author) makes it the favorite of the ~18th century french prince. Unfortunately she didn't give any more information on it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Estivale: song of summer
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 18 Mar 04 - 11:34 PM

Who is Edith Pattou? What is the book about? Is any of the song quoted, or any information given about it? What language did you have in mind?

Help us to help you.

Subject: Lyr Req: Estivale: song of summer
From: GUEST,CrCeres
Date: 18 Mar 04 - 11:12 PM

I found a reference to a song called 'estivale'(apparently meaning 'song of summer') in Edith Pattou's book, "East". Has anyone heard of it? I tried Google, but the title is a word in at least three other languages, which makes narrowing it down to Scandinavian folksongs rather difficult.