Lyr Req: La Molinera sung by Cynthia Gooding

Subject: Lyr Req: La Molinera sung by Cynthia Gooding
From: Shiamsa
Date: 28 Oct 06 - 02:50 AM

Recorded on
CYNTHIA GOODING SINGS TURKISH AND SPANISH FOLK SONGS 1953

Looking for the lyrics from both below songs, if possible (my Spanish is not great!), and where is Santirider?

The album cover notes are as follows:
ERES ALT A Y DELGADA & LA MOLINERA. These are two songs from Santirider. Cynthia Gooding sings them as one song and this is the correct way for in Spanish music one often finds a love song and a drinking song paired. In this manner the sadness of the love song (most love songs are sad), is tempered by the gayety of what follows; the livelier estribillo or refrain, is kept going.

Regards, Don

Subject: ADD: Eres Alta y Delgada
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Oct 06 - 04:25 AM

Hi, Don - This site (click) has "Eres Alta y Delgada" with one verse more than what Gooding sings:

ERES ALTA Y DELGADA

Eres alta y delgada
como tu madre,
morena, salada,
como tu madre;
bendita sea la rama
que al tronco sale,
morena, salada,
que al tronco sale.

Eres como la rosa
de Alejandría,
morena, salada,
de Alejandría:
colorada de noche,
blanca de día,
morena, salada,
blanca de día.

Toda la noche estoy,
niña, pensando en ti;
yo de amores me muero
desde que te vi,
morena, salada,
desde que te vi.

Notes from the Gooding album:

"Eres Alta y Delgada" and "La Molinera" were taught to me by a Spanish lady resident in New York. She explained that one always follows a sad song with a gay one and said that she alway heard these two sung together.

Great CD, isn't it? I hear the phrase "los colores de la molinera," but that's all I can make out from the second song.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: ADD: La Molinera sung by Cynthia Gooding
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Oct 06 - 05:10 AM

Well, hey - this site (click) has almost the lyrics sung by Gooding:

Y si no se le quitan bailando
los colores a la molinera,
y si no se le quitan bailando
déjala que se pudra (?) y se muera.
Y son, y son, y son unos fanfarrones
que cuando van por las calles
van robando corazones

Y si no se le quitan bailando
los colores a la molinera,
y si no se le quitan bailando
déjala que se pudra (?) y se muera.

...but as I said above, I hear "los colores de la molinera," and there are some other things in the Gooding recording that don't sound exactly like these lyrics.
Gooding and i could well be wrong, since several sites have it as shown above. Here's another version (almost exactly the same), from this Navarre Website, which looks very credible:

Y si no se le quitan bailando
los colores a la molinera,
y si no se le quitan bailando
déjala que se pudra y se muera.
Y son, y son, y son unos fanfarrones
que cuando van por las calles
van robando corazones
y si no se le quitan bailando
los colores a la molinera
y si no se le quitan bailando
déjala que se pudra y se muera.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: La Molinera sung by Cynthia Gooding
From: Deckman
Date: 28 Oct 06 - 10:01 AM

Muchas Gracias, Joe! ("kittos" also) Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: La Molinera sung by Cynthia Gooding
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Oct 06 - 03:02 PM

ERES ALTA Y DELGADA (Montana region)
(literal translation)

You are tall and slim like your mother
A brunette and as graceful as your mother

You are like the rose of Alejandria
Red at night and white in the daytime

I think of you all the night through, my child
I am dying of love since I have seen you.

Cynthia Gooding sang the Spanish songs well, using common texts and not inventing new lyrics. Like all folk songs, there are variants; Gooding is not necessarily 'wrong.'

I have recently obtained a copy of "Cantos Populares Españoles," Francisco Rodriquez Marin, 1882, which runs to 900 pp. of fine print, and contains many variants.
The pages are mostly uncut and the verses are given without title or index, so it will be some time before I can search out particular songs (lyrics only).

My favorite renditions of these old Spanish songs, however, are on two albums by Germaine Montero, made in the 1950's; The first contains "Eres Alta y Delgada, and won the Grand Prix du Disque, and was for a long time in the Vanguard catalogue.

LA MOLINERA (The Miller's Wife)

There are many, many verses about the miller's wife; a comic song open to invention. This note in a children's book-
"Sometimes she is sad, sometimes gay, and often plays tricks on other people. No matter how mischievous she is, the Spaniards love, her, for she is such fun. The miller's wife cheats her clients so she can buy pretty jewels. The poor miller, however, doesn't even own a pair of shoes! While the wind blows, inside the windmill the big round millstone turns, grinding grain into flour. The chorus tells that the miller's wife urges the stone to spin faster and faster."

Gasta la molinera ricos collares (2x)
(Wears the miller's wife rich necklaces)

de la harina que toma de los costales (2x)
(from the flour that she takes from the sacks)

Chorus:
La molinera pica la piedra con aire que vuela
(The miller's wife spurs on the millstone which spins with wind)

Gasta la molinera ricos pendientes (2x)
(The miller's wife wears rich earrings)

de la harina que toma de los clientes (2x)
(from the flour that she takes from the customers)

Gasta la molinera ricos zapatos (2x)
The miller's wife wears expensive shoes)

y el pobre molinero anda descalzo (2x)
(and the poor miller goes barefoot)

pp. 59-60, Henrietta Yurchenco, 1967, "A Fiesta of Folk Songs from Spain and Latin America," G. P. Putnam's Sons, NY.