21 Dec 11 - 06:40 PM (#3277977) Subject: Lyr Add: LE JOUR DE SAINT NICHOLAS (Fr. Canadian) From: Q (Frank Staplin) LE JOUR DE SAINT NICHOLAS French Canadian folk song. C'est quatre fills, quatre garçons se sont enivrés dans une danse. Le jour qu'ils sont entrés là Est le jour de saint Nicholas. 2 Ils sont entrés dans une chambre avec le joueur de violon. Ont fait dire au maître de céans* Qu'ils danseraient jusqu'au matin. 3 Ils sont dansé soixante-deux, certainement une danse affreuse. Ils ont fait de si grands efforts Qu'ils ont dansé jusqu'a la mort. 4 Que le maître de cette maison bien poliment s'en fut leur dire Quil était temps de s'afféter, Car le grand Dieu allait passer. 5 -Allez lui dire, à ce misérable, qu'il vienne prendre un coup. J'avons du vin sur notre table, Qu'il vienne s'en verser un coup ! 6 Va-t-en lui dire que contre nous, nous craignons ni Dieu ni diable. Nous prétendons de contre lui De dancer jusqu'a minuit. 7 De ces paroles audacieuses Dieu les a punis sur-le-champ. Ils ont dansé ils dansent encore. Ils danseront jusqu'a la mort. 8 Que tous les Pères et tous les mères et tous les habitants sincères Ils ont fait une procession Depuis l'église à la maison. 9 C'est à vous, pères et mères qu'élevez tous les enfants, Corrigez-les dans leur bas âge Afin qu'ils soient obéissants. Mme. Jean Bouchard, 1916, *with additions/corrections from others. With musical scores, p. 281, Marius Barbeau, 1962, Le Rossignol y Chante, Museée National du Canada. I will scan the scores to Joe Offer; he may be so kind as to pass them on for a midi. Monique may know of an antecedent in France. |
22 Dec 11 - 11:26 AM (#3278391) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Le Jour de Saint Nicholas (Fr. Canadian) From: GUEST,leeneia Thank you. Q. I hope we can get the tune. I'm always on the lookout for good tunes. |
22 Dec 11 - 11:32 AM (#3278396) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Le Jour de Saint Nicholas (Fr. Canadian) From: Artful Codger We got ya covered. Three, count 'em, three tunes will appear shortly. |
22 Dec 11 - 12:11 PM (#3278425) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Le Jour de Saint Nicholas (Fr. Canadian) From: Monique Malicorne recorded it in their "L'extraordinaire tour de France d'Adélard Rousseau", it's called "La danse des damnés" but they don't sing the last two verses. Verse 1, it's fill's (girls) Verse 3 is Ils ont dansé... (they have danced) not "Ils sont..." (they are) Verse 4, line 3, last word is "arrêter" |
22 Dec 11 - 12:13 PM (#3278427) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Le Jour de Saint Nicholas (Fr. Canadian) From: Monique Yikes! I'd forgotten to check if there was any Malicorne's rendition on YouTube |
22 Dec 11 - 02:52 PM (#3278523) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Le Jour de Saint Nicholas (Fr. Canadian) From: Q (Frank Staplin) Monique, thanks, and you have corrected my typing errors. Any idea of the age of the song? Leeneia, when I sent scans to Artful Codger, I didn't look at the music closely. What at a glance (closely spaced) looked like the "second" tune is actually three- Aimé Simard, Marcel Tremblay, and Joseph Duchesne tr. Paul Larose. The last tune was collected from Ovide Saucy, learned from Christophe Dumont. It seems that the song was widespread in Quebec, with slight variations in melody. |
22 Dec 11 - 03:17 PM (#3278531) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Le Jour de Saint Nicholas (Fr. Canadian) From: Monique Q: no idea of the age of the song at all. I had never heard of it before Malicorne. Gabriel Yacoub may know about it. |
23 Dec 11 - 04:11 AM (#3278801) Subject: Tune Add: LE JOUR DE SAINT NICHOLAS (Fr. Canadian) From: Artful Codger Here are ABCs for all five variants in the Marius Barbeau book. He provided only one complete text, a collation (as Q's notes above state). This text may not fit the tunes very well--there is quite a divergence in initial verses and verse patterns. To convert the ABCs to MIDI sound files or PDF scores, or to transpose them to the keys of your choice, feed them into the folkinfo.org ABC Converter. Eventually, direct links to MIDIs will appear here, but at the time of this writing, Mudelves are experiencing technical difficulties uploading to the standard MIDI repository. |
23 Dec 11 - 02:39 PM (#3279025) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Le Jour de Saint Nicholas (Fr. Canadian) From: Q (Frank Staplin) An excellent job ! And quick, too, considering the season. Barbeau included some 35-40 songs in the section he called "Chants religieux et miracles." I will go through them and may select a few for posting. The three volumes of Barbeau's Quebec collection contain some 1300 pages. |
23 Dec 11 - 03:10 PM (#3279031) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Le Jour de Saint Nicholas (Fr. Canadian) From: GUEST,Murray on Saltspring This is an interesting variation on the legend of the Dancers of Kolbigk [spelling?]- where the dancers disturbed a priest saying mass, who cursed them to keep on dancing - some died, but some made it to a hermitage where they were shriven and forgiven. There's a big book on this somewhere. Tthe original gives a quote from their song: Equitabat Bovo per silvam frondosam, Et ducit [?] sibi Merswinden formosam. Cur stamus? Cur non imus? I think that's how it goes. |