C’est un petit cordonnier (AU1998-1075-018)

C’est un petit cordonnier (AU1998-1075-018)

Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-018) 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.

“C’est un petit cordonnier” (“It Was a Little Cobbler”) is one of many, many settings of a very old French song for which printed settings already abounded in France in the first half of the 1700s. The settings of this song vary widely in degree of completeness: some, like Alberta Gagné’s version, focus primarily on the cobbler’s courtship and his looking forward to the marriage and wedding night; others eliminate the courtship part of the song and paint a fanciful picture of the marriage bed, surrounded by the symbols of love (apples, nightingales, a clear fountain, etc.). The cobbler is a frequent player in French singing tradition, always seeking courtship or romance, often vilified for his poverty or poor workmanship, but sometimes, as in this case, successful in his quest.

Versions of this song have been documented widely in France, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, Connecticut, Maine, and Belgium.

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-007

C'est un petit cordonnier

La mariée s’y baigne, I, D-1

La Flamande, 04801

C'est un p'tit cordonnier en tepant sa semelle

AG: C'est un petit cordonnier.

 

[BEGIN SINGING]

 

C'est un p'tit cordonnier, en tapant sa semelle, [repeat]

Il a fait la demande à son père, à sa mère,

            [Refrain] :

J'aurais quelque chose, quelque chose à dire,

Faut pourtant qu'j'le dise,

Ça m’coûte bien d’le dire,

J'aperçois qu'ils risent,

Non, non, je l'dirai pas.

 

Il a fait la demande à son père, à sa mère,

Son père, il le veut bien, sa mère est consentante.

            [Refrain]

 

Son père, il le veut bien, sa mère est consentante,

Le rest’ de ses parents qui murmurent z-ensemble,

[Refrain]

 

Le reste de ses parents qui murmurent z-ensemble,

Murmurent tant qui voudront, nous publierons dimanche,

[Refrain]

 

Murmurent tant qui voudront, nous publierons dimanche,

Et le samedi matin, nous marierons ensemble,

[Refrain]

 

Et le samedi matin nous marierons ensemble,

Et le samedi au soir, nous coucherons ensemble,

[Refrain]

 

Le samedi au soir, nous coucherons ensemble,

Dans un beau lit carré, couvertures de roses blanches,

[Refrain]

[END SINGING]

sound cassette (analog)