Mon chapeau de paille (AU1998-1071-003)
Dublin Core
Title
Mon chapeau de paille (AU1998-1071-003)
Subject
Description
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1071-003) 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.
Mon chapeau de paille” (“My straw hat”) is a song of unknown authorship composed in Quebec in the 1800s memorializing the Battle of Saint-Denis, fought on November 23, 1837 in Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu between British colonial authorities and Patriote citizen rebels as part of the Lower Canada Rebellion. In his memoirs, journalist and politician Télésphore-Damien Bouchard. (1881-1962), who was raised in St-Hyacinthe, less than 20 miles from Saint-Denis, reported that anti-British sentiment was common among college students at the local seminary at the turn of the 20th century, who embraced “Mon chapeau de paille” as an iconic song. Bouchard also mentioned that the rumor at the time was that the song was authored by historian, priest, and nationalist Mgr Lionel Groulx (1878-1967).
The lyrics of this song, along with two additional verses, were anonymously submitted to and printed by the Montreal daily newspaper La Presse in 1905 in a readers’ column with a note stating that the reader had heard this song sung by an old man (La Presse, 23 September,1905, p.16).
In 1926, a 78rpm recording of this song under the title “Le chapeau de paille” was released by Victor (matrix 263208, side A) featuring Conrad Gauthier (1885-1964); Gauthier recorded a second version with the same title for the same label in 1930. In 1928, Eugène Daignault (1895-1960) recorded a version under the title for the Starr label (issue # 15500, matrix # 3451, side A). Settings of this song with the first four verses of Gauthier’s version were popularized in Franco-American New England in the late 1930s via La Bonne Chanson, the ten-booklet series published between 1938 and 1954) by Quebecois priest, musician, publisher, composer, and impresario Abbé Charles-Émile Gadbois (1906-1981).
Alberta Gagné learned this song from her older brother.
Mon chapeau de paille” (“My straw hat”) is a song of unknown authorship composed in Quebec in the 1800s memorializing the Battle of Saint-Denis, fought on November 23, 1837 in Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu between British colonial authorities and Patriote citizen rebels as part of the Lower Canada Rebellion. In his memoirs, journalist and politician Télésphore-Damien Bouchard. (1881-1962), who was raised in St-Hyacinthe, less than 20 miles from Saint-Denis, reported that anti-British sentiment was common among college students at the local seminary at the turn of the 20th century, who embraced “Mon chapeau de paille” as an iconic song. Bouchard also mentioned that the rumor at the time was that the song was authored by historian, priest, and nationalist Mgr Lionel Groulx (1878-1967).
The lyrics of this song, along with two additional verses, were anonymously submitted to and printed by the Montreal daily newspaper La Presse in 1905 in a readers’ column with a note stating that the reader had heard this song sung by an old man (La Presse, 23 September,1905, p.16).
In 1926, a 78rpm recording of this song under the title “Le chapeau de paille” was released by Victor (matrix 263208, side A) featuring Conrad Gauthier (1885-1964); Gauthier recorded a second version with the same title for the same label in 1930. In 1928, Eugène Daignault (1895-1960) recorded a version under the title for the Starr label (issue # 15500, matrix # 3451, side A). Settings of this song with the first four verses of Gauthier’s version were popularized in Franco-American New England in the late 1930s via La Bonne Chanson, the ten-booklet series published between 1938 and 1954) by Quebecois priest, musician, publisher, composer, and impresario Abbé Charles-Émile Gadbois (1906-1981).
Alberta Gagné learned this song from her older brother.
Abstract
In Saint-Denis in the woods on a day of storm and battle, I put on for the first time my straw hat. And without regard, against the English, these young handsome men against those villains, we fought without rest, in our straw hats. When peace returned, I often ventured under the hedges in my straw hat with a young lady I loved. And in the spring in planting season, we married, and I hung my straw hat on the baluster. We had many children, a big herd of kids is a pleasure, and they proudly wore their straw hats. But against the raging croup, the doctors had no remedy, and they all died, looking at their straw hats. In turn, their mother passed away as all things must; I have but one friend left: my straw hat. I’m very old, almost a hundred years; I am resigned to this and continue to work, to be able to wear for some time to come, my straw hat.
Source
VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1071 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
Date
Rights
Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center
Relation
Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1071
Language
fra
Identifier
vfc1998-0007_tc1998-1071-004
vfc1998-0007_tc1998-1071-004b
Song Item Type Metadata
Supplied Title
Mon chapeau de paille
First Line
À St-Denis dans les grands bois
Transcription
(BEGIN SINGING)
Title: C. "Mon chapeau de paille "
À St-Denis dans les grands bois,
Un jour d’orage et de bataille,
J'ai mis pour la première fois,
Mon chapeau d'paille.
Et sans égards contre les Anglais,
Ces jeunes beaux sur ces canailles,
Nous nous battîmes sans repos,
En chapeau d'paille.
Quelques temps après la paix fut faite,
J'allais souvent sous les broussailles,
Avec la p'tite fille que j'aimais,
En chapeau d'paille.
Et au printemps quand je l'ai épousé,
Nous faisions alors les semailles,
Et au balustre j'ai déposé,
Mon chapeau d'paille.
Nous eûmes de nombreux enfants,
Ça fait plaisir à la marmaille.
Ils ont des petits airs triomphants,
En chapeau d'paille.
Mais dans ces croups ardents,
Les médecins n'ont rien qui vaille,
Et tous moururent en regardant,
Leurs chapeaux d'paille.
À son tour la mère partie,
Sur cette terre il faut que tout s'en aille.
Il me resta mon seul ami,
Mon chapeau d'paille.
Je suis très vieux, j'ai près d'cent ans.
Je me résigne et je travaille,
Pour pouvoir mettre encore longtemps,”
Mon chapeau d'paille.
(END SINGING)
LG: I think my father sang that, did he?
AG: Ya, he...
LG: He sang that.
AG: Your father used to know, sing that song. Why...we learned it from...my, one of my oldest brother was the first one to sing that song. He used to sing it a lot. I learned it, my husband learned it. He used to sing it. It's more for a man to sing that but...
AG: Ya, he...
LG: He sang that.
AG: Your father used to know, sing that song. Why...we learned it from...my, one of my oldest brother was the first one to sing that song. He used to sing it a lot. I learned it, my husband learned it. He used to sing it. It's more for a man to sing that but...
Translation
strophic; eight-line verses; four verses
Interviewer
Location
Original Format
sound cassette (analog)
Files
Citation
“Mon chapeau de paille (AU1998-1071-003),” Vermont Folklife Center Digital Collections, accessed December 27, 2024, https://vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/items/show/289.
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