Ce sont les gens de par chez nous (AU1998-1075-015)

Ce sont les gens de par chez nous (AU1998-1075-015)

Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-015) 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.

“Ce sont les gens de par chez nous” (“The guys from our region”) is a version of a French song which dates back at least to the early 1700s. and which, over time, has developed a number of different narrative arcs.
The focus of the song is about a soldier’s return home, a time-honored theme in French traditional song about which there are dozens of songs. This particular song has been documented in Belgium, France, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec.

The opening circumstances of most versions of “Ce sont les gens de par chez nous” seem to be fairly consistent: young men leave for war without saying farewell to their sweethearts. From there the narrative begins to vary: sometimes, the youngest of them repents his decision early on and returns home; in others, the most handsome of them returns home after seven years; in yet others (including Alberta Gagné’s setting), all the soldiers return home when the war is over. The narrative then focuses on a particular solider who asks after his beloved and is told that she is in her room. In most cases, the young woman is perturbed and tells the soldier that she no longer cares for him; there ensues a dialogue in which he asks for the return of various love tokens he gave her, which sometimes ends with his departure, but occasionally ends with the young woman’s pardon and the lovers’ reconciliation. In some settings, including that of Alberta Gagné, the song narrative omits the rejection theme altogether: the soldier finds his sweetheart in her room; asks her to make him a bouquet as pink as the rose on the rosebush, speaks of his long tramp, carrying his military weapons, and observes that his lovemaking is not for anyone else.

VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1075 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_tc1998-1075

fra

vfc1998-0007_tc1998-1075-001b-004

Ce sont les gens de pars chez nous (first line)

Le retour du soldat, II, I-7

Les garçons qui s’en vont sans dire adieu à leurs maîtresses, 2609

Ce sont les gens de pars chez nous

[BEGIN SINGING]

 

Ce sont les gens de par chez nous, [repeat]

Mais quand ils boivent, ils sont bien saouls. [repeat]

lls s'engagent pour la guerre,

Sans dire adieu à leurs maîtresses.

 

Mais quand la guerre sera finie, [repeat]

Chacun chez eux ils s'en iront. [repeat]

Au logis de leurs pères :

« Bonjour, ma mère, où c’qu'est ma chère ? »

 

« Elle est en haut dedans sa chambre.

C’est sur son lit elle s'est repose.

Sur son lit elle repose,

Dans sa main blanche tient t-une rose ».

 

« La belle, faites-moi un bouquet [repeat]

Qu'il soit de roses, qu'il soit d’œillets. [repeat]

Qu'il soit couleur de roses

Comme le rosier fleurit la rose. »

 

J'ai tant marché sur le pavé, [repeat]

Ma carabine à mes côtés. [repeat]

Mon fusil sur l’épaule,

Si j'fais l'amour c'pas pour les autres.

 

[END SINGING]

strophic, four-line stanzas; five stanzas

sound cassette (analog)