Grand-père Noé (AU1998-1071-002)

Grand-père Noé (AU1998-1071-002)

Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071-002) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.

“Grand-père Noé” (“Grandfather Noah”) is a very ancient French drinking song honoring the biblical Noah for having preserved the grapevine during the Flood and Moses for having the good sense to not mistake the Red Sea for wine. In addition, some French versions include additional verses relating drinking adventures of other figures from Antiquity such as Alexander and Loth.

Versions of this song have been widely documented in French, Acadian, Quebecois, and Franco-American communities. There are actually two 17th century songs with similar texts, but different poetic structures: the first type is set out in straight-forward verses; the second type contains wordplay based on deconstructing into syllables words from the last line of each verse. Almost all versions from Canada and Franco-American New England, including Alberta Gagné’s, are the second type.

The melody of Aberta Gagné’s song is typical and has a history of being pressed into service for lyrics about drinking dating back to early 17th century Paris. This melody was so catchy that it eventually was used as the music for a wide variety of French songs, including at least three well known carols (“Prenez bergers vos hautbois,” “Allons bergers allons tous,” and “Quand Dieu naquit à Noêl”), political songs from the French Revolution, sea shanties and bawdy ballads.

Alberta Gagné learned this song from her brother-in-law, Émile Gagné. You can hear a second recording of Alberta Gagné singing “Notre grand-père Noé” in this collection (AU1998-1071-007).

VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1071 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.

Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center

Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1071

fra

vfc1998-0007_tc1998-1071-003

Grand-père Noé

Notre grand-père Noé IV, N-08

Quand la mer rouge apparut, 10707

C'est notre grand-père Noé patriarche digne

(BEGIN SINGING)

Title:     C. "Grand-père Noé "

C'est notre grand-père Noé, patriarche digne,

C’est lui qui nous enseignait à planter la vigne.

ll s'est fait faire un gros bateau,

C’est pour se promener sur l'eau.

Ce fut son, son, son,

Ce fut re, re, re,

Ce fut son, ce fut re,

Ce fut son refuge,

Pendant le déluge.

 

Quand la mer rouge apparut à la troupe noire,

Les Israelit’s ont cru qu'il fallait la boire.

Moïse qui était le plus fin,

Il dit : “ Ce n'est pas du vin. ”

Il a pas, pas, pas,

Z-il la sa sa, sa,

Z-il la pas, z-il la sa, z-il la passa toute,

Sans en prendre une goutte.

 

C'est au fond d'mon verr’ de vin que j’y trouv’ la gloire,

Prends ton verr’, et moi le mien, ami il nous faut boire.

À la santé de Nicolas,

Tu boiras ou bien tu crèv’ras.

Je bois du, du, du,

Je bois du bras, bras,

Je bois du, je bois bras,

Je bois du bras gauche,

Ça c'est ça qui m'rechauffe. [repeat last five lines]

 

 (END SINGING)

strophic, enumerative; three verses

sound cassette (analog)