Que de joie et de bonheur [first line] (AU1998-1070-006)
Dublin Core
Title
Que de joie et de bonheur [first line] (AU1998-1070-006)
Alternative Title
Que de joie et de bonheur
Subject
Description
Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1070-006) 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.
“Ange de mon berceau’’ (“Angel of my cradle”) is a French-language setting of the 1925 American hit song “Pal of my Cradle Days,” with original words by Tin Pan Alley lyricist Marshall Montgomery and music by Albert Joseph “Al” Piantadosi (1882-1955). This “beautiful mother waltz ballad” (to borrow the description on. the front cover description of the 1925 sheet music version) was a runaway success in 1925, resulting in at least a dozen recordings of the song that same year on the Victor, Columbia, OKeh, Brunswick, Edison and Vocalion labels, mostly sung by male vocalists, with the occasional orchestral version.
That same year, Montreal songwriter, composer, pianist, and recording studio owner/producer Roméo Beaudry (1882-1932 was busily turning out French-language translations and re-workings of popular American hit songs. Beaudry was, along with his friend Herbert Berliner, the most important producer of Canadian artists in the first half of the 20th century. During the 1920s, Beaudry’s Montreal-based Starr studio produced 693 francophone records, featuring almost every great name in Quebec lyric, folk and variety song with equal success.
Although Beaudry often completely reimagined the narrative in his French-language settings of American pop songs, his setting of “Pal of my Cradle Days” is a fairly faithful translation, particularly in the first verse and chorus; Beaudry’s second verse conveys the sentiments of Marshall’s second verse but is significantly different in its expression.
Beaudry lost no time getting “Ange de mon berceau” published on his Compo/Starr label: in November 1925, the studio released a recording by Hercule Lavoie (issue #15232, matrix #1880); two months later, singer-actor-pianist Hector Pellerin (1887-1953) recorded a copy for Victor/His Master’s Voice, (issue #263218, side B).
Alberta and Laurianne sing this song as a duo, with Alberta singing the verses, and Laurianne singing harmony on the refrain. Their French-language rendition is virtually identical to the Beaudry setting, and they finish by singing the English-language refrain.
“Ange de mon berceau’’ (“Angel of my cradle”) is a French-language setting of the 1925 American hit song “Pal of my Cradle Days,” with original words by Tin Pan Alley lyricist Marshall Montgomery and music by Albert Joseph “Al” Piantadosi (1882-1955). This “beautiful mother waltz ballad” (to borrow the description on. the front cover description of the 1925 sheet music version) was a runaway success in 1925, resulting in at least a dozen recordings of the song that same year on the Victor, Columbia, OKeh, Brunswick, Edison and Vocalion labels, mostly sung by male vocalists, with the occasional orchestral version.
That same year, Montreal songwriter, composer, pianist, and recording studio owner/producer Roméo Beaudry (1882-1932 was busily turning out French-language translations and re-workings of popular American hit songs. Beaudry was, along with his friend Herbert Berliner, the most important producer of Canadian artists in the first half of the 20th century. During the 1920s, Beaudry’s Montreal-based Starr studio produced 693 francophone records, featuring almost every great name in Quebec lyric, folk and variety song with equal success.
Although Beaudry often completely reimagined the narrative in his French-language settings of American pop songs, his setting of “Pal of my Cradle Days” is a fairly faithful translation, particularly in the first verse and chorus; Beaudry’s second verse conveys the sentiments of Marshall’s second verse but is significantly different in its expression.
Beaudry lost no time getting “Ange de mon berceau” published on his Compo/Starr label: in November 1925, the studio released a recording by Hercule Lavoie (issue #15232, matrix #1880); two months later, singer-actor-pianist Hector Pellerin (1887-1953) recorded a copy for Victor/His Master’s Voice, (issue #263218, side B).
Alberta and Laurianne sing this song as a duo, with Alberta singing the verses, and Laurianne singing harmony on the refrain. Their French-language rendition is virtually identical to the Beaudry setting, and they finish by singing the English-language refrain.
Abstract
Why joy, what happiness I feel in my heart, to be near you today, dear mother; to you I owe all the sweetest moments of my life. If all mothers could do as they wished: keep their babies little forever; watching them grow and then leave is their cruelest worry.
Source
VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1070 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_tc1998-1070
Language
fra
Identifier
vfc1998-0007_tc1998-1070-001b_001
Song Item Type Metadata
Standard Title
Ange de mon berceau
First Line
Que de joie et de bonheur
Transcription
Que de joie et de bonheur,
Je ressens dans mon cœur,
De me voir aujourd'hui,
Près de vous, mère chérie,
Je vous dois de ma vie
Tout-es les instants les plus doux.
[Refrain]:
Lorsque dans mon berceau
Vous me chantiez dodo,
Je n'étais alors qu'un tout petit entant,
Qui vous a causé bien des tourments,
Et j'ai dû, sans le vouloir,
Faire blanchir vos cheveux noirs.
Ah ! je voudrais qu'un jour,
Vous rendre un peu d'amour,
Ange de mon berceau.
Si les mamans pouvaient,
Comme elles le voudraient,
Garder leurs bébés toujours petits.
Les voir grandir et puis un jour partir,
C'est leur plus cruel souci.
Refrain
Je ressens dans mon cœur,
De me voir aujourd'hui,
Près de vous, mère chérie,
Je vous dois de ma vie
Tout-es les instants les plus doux.
[Refrain]:
Lorsque dans mon berceau
Vous me chantiez dodo,
Je n'étais alors qu'un tout petit entant,
Qui vous a causé bien des tourments,
Et j'ai dû, sans le vouloir,
Faire blanchir vos cheveux noirs.
Ah ! je voudrais qu'un jour,
Vous rendre un peu d'amour,
Ange de mon berceau.
Si les mamans pouvaient,
Comme elles le voudraient,
Garder leurs bébés toujours petits.
Les voir grandir et puis un jour partir,
C'est leur plus cruel souci.
Refrain
Translation
All of my cradle days
I needed you always
since I was a baby upon your knee
You sacrifice everything for me
I took the gold from your head
and put the silver threads there
I don't know anyway
I could ever repay
All of my cradle days.
Interviewer
Location
Original Format
sound cassette (analog)
Files
Citation
“Que de joie et de bonheur [first line] (AU1998-1070-006),” Vermont Folklife Center Digital Collections, accessed December 26, 2024, https://vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/items/show/373.
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