Dans le temps des fêtes [first line] (AU1998-1073-005)
Dublin Core
Title
Dans le temps des fêtes [first line] (AU1998-1073-005)
Subject
Description
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1073-005) 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.
“Dans l'temps des fêtes” (”In the Christmas season“) is a good-natured evocation of French-Canadian family festivities during the Christmas season, set to the melody of an 18th century French Christmas carol, “Dans cette étable.” French author, poet, and Catholic preacher Esprit Fléchier (1632-1710), a favorite of the court of Louis XVI, who appointed him as the bishop of Nîmes from 1687, composed the lyrics of “Dans cette étable,”. However, Fléchier’s melody was borrowed from an even older traditional French song “Dans le bel âge”, which, by Fléchier’s era was sufficiently well-known to have already been pressed into service for at least two other religious songs.
The authorship of the lyrics of “Dans l’temps des fêtes” remains unknown, but it appears to have originated in Quebec and was very likely dates back to the second half of the 1800s. It’s earliest known printing by folk-song collector Édouard-Zotique Massicotte is a 1917 version from singer L.-H. Cantin, who recollected having learned it around 1895 from a singer in Lévis, QC.
In 1929, singer, storyteller and actor Eugène Daignault recorded a four-verse version of this song on the Starr/Compo label (Issue # 15662, matrix # 3994). Daignault (1895-1960) worked as a food inspector for the city of Montreal in the 1920s but moonlighted as a star of Conrad Gauthier’s Veillées du bon Vieux temps musical theatre troupe. He signed a contract with Roméo Beaudry’s Montreal-based Starr label in 1926 and recorded 93 songs for that label. He was also a popular radio singer and radio, television, and film actor actor in Montreal. You can hear this recording on the Library and Archives Canada website, The Virtual Gramophone: https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/virtual-gramophone/Pages/Item.aspx?idNumber=1007637905
Alberta Gagné’s version closely resembles that of L.-H. Cantin, with the exception of one line in the first verse which is slightly garbled (in the Cantin version, the opening line of the first stanza is “Dans l’temps des fêtes, tout le monde est si gai que la toilette est pas trop ménagée”). SOURCE: E.-Z. Massicotte and Marius Barbeau, “Chants populaires du Canada,” Journal of American Folklore, v. 32, no. 123, Jan-Mar. 1919: p. 65).
“Dans l'temps des fêtes” (”In the Christmas season“) is a good-natured evocation of French-Canadian family festivities during the Christmas season, set to the melody of an 18th century French Christmas carol, “Dans cette étable.” French author, poet, and Catholic preacher Esprit Fléchier (1632-1710), a favorite of the court of Louis XVI, who appointed him as the bishop of Nîmes from 1687, composed the lyrics of “Dans cette étable,”. However, Fléchier’s melody was borrowed from an even older traditional French song “Dans le bel âge”, which, by Fléchier’s era was sufficiently well-known to have already been pressed into service for at least two other religious songs.
The authorship of the lyrics of “Dans l’temps des fêtes” remains unknown, but it appears to have originated in Quebec and was very likely dates back to the second half of the 1800s. It’s earliest known printing by folk-song collector Édouard-Zotique Massicotte is a 1917 version from singer L.-H. Cantin, who recollected having learned it around 1895 from a singer in Lévis, QC.
In 1929, singer, storyteller and actor Eugène Daignault recorded a four-verse version of this song on the Starr/Compo label (Issue # 15662, matrix # 3994). Daignault (1895-1960) worked as a food inspector for the city of Montreal in the 1920s but moonlighted as a star of Conrad Gauthier’s Veillées du bon Vieux temps musical theatre troupe. He signed a contract with Roméo Beaudry’s Montreal-based Starr label in 1926 and recorded 93 songs for that label. He was also a popular radio singer and radio, television, and film actor actor in Montreal. You can hear this recording on the Library and Archives Canada website, The Virtual Gramophone: https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/virtual-gramophone/Pages/Item.aspx?idNumber=1007637905
Alberta Gagné’s version closely resembles that of L.-H. Cantin, with the exception of one line in the first verse which is slightly garbled (in the Cantin version, the opening line of the first stanza is “Dans l’temps des fêtes, tout le monde est si gai que la toilette est pas trop ménagée”). SOURCE: E.-Z. Massicotte and Marius Barbeau, “Chants populaires du Canada,” Journal of American Folklore, v. 32, no. 123, Jan-Mar. 1919: p. 65).
Abstract
In the Christmas season, everyone is so merry, that their clothes are all they care about; you go to your neighbor and shake hands and exchange wishes, and when the glasses are full, you pay the round. Fathers and mothers await their children’s arrival, their hearts a-flutter; And without ado, the old man takes out his whiskey, and the old lady takes out her glasses, and we drink, laugh, and sing like old friends. In the great hall, the table is well set for the occasion, for all of the family: pork, roasts, poultry, and stuffing, not to mention porkchops, and a flask of whiskey, that’s a good idea!
Source
VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1073 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_tc1998-1073
Language
fra
Identifier
vfc1998-0007_tc1998-1073-001a-005
Song Item Type Metadata
Supplied Title
Dans l'temps des fêtes
Standard Title Reference
Dans le temps des fêtes, VI, A-34
First Line
Dans l'temps des fêtes
Transcription
(BEGIN SINGING)
Dans l'temps des fêtes, tout le monde est si gai,
Que la toilette est tout leur ménager.
On va chez son voisin.
On se donne la main,
Et puis on se la souhaite,
Et quand les verres sont pleins, on paie la traite.
Les pères et mères attendent tous leurs enfants,
Dans leurs chaumières le cœur tout palpitant.
Et sans cérémonies,
Le bonhomme sort son whiskey,
Et la bonne femme ses verres,
On boit, on rit, on chante comme des compères.
Dans la grande salle la table est bien mise,
En circonstance pour tout’ la parenté.
Les porcs et les rôtis, les volailles et les farcis,
Sans compter les côtelettes,
Et les flacons d'whiskey, ça, c'est pas bête!
(END SINGING)
Translation
strophic, six-line verses, three verses
Interviewer
Location
Original Format
sound cassette (analog)
Files
Citation
“Dans le temps des fêtes [first line] (AU1998-1073-005),” Vermont Folklife Center Digital Collections, accessed December 27, 2024, https://vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/items/show/320.
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