Les filles de la Rochelle (MS2011-3223-031)

Les filles de la Rochelle (MS2011-3223-031)

French language song text from VFC2006-0002 Beaudoin Family Collection. MS2011-3223-031 Alice Lacourse Danis Songbook. Pp. 29.

“Les filles de la Rochelle” (“The Girls from la Rochelle”) is a version of a venerable French traditional song sometimes referred to as “Le merveilleux navire,” which has been widely collected in France and Quebec as well as Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Louisiana, and Switzerland. The earliest known printed source dates to 1823, but the song is probably of an earlier vintage. This particular text is virtually identical to the setting of this song popularized in Franco-American New England in the late 1930s via La Bonne Chanson (vol. 2, p. 63), the ten-booklet series published between 1938 and 1954) by Quebecois priest, musician, publisher, composer, and impresario abbé Charles-Émile Gadbois (1906-1981). In 1926, Montreal baritone Louis Chartier recorded a setting of this song for the Brunswick label (issue # 3418, side A). You can hear Chartier’s recording on Library and Archives Canada’s website, The Virtual Gramophone: https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/virtual-gramophone/Pages/Item.aspx?idNumber=1007624690

refrain: the sheet is flying, flying, the sheet is flying in the wind; [verses] the girls of La Rochelle, fitted a ship to sail in the Levant seas; the yardarm is made of ivory, the pulleys of diamonds, the main sail is of lace and the fore sail of white satin; the ship ropes are of gold and silver and the hull is finely wrought red-painted wood; the crew is all girls aged fifteen, the captain who commands them is the king of these crazy youngsters; yesterday while walking on the quarterdeck, I saw a brunette who was weeping in the shrouds; what makes you weep so, gentle maid, have you lost your father and mother or one of your relatives; I picked the white rose which made its way under sail; it went in the back wind and will return tacking; and in the night his voice so softly seemed to rise like a sob, suddenly someone cried deliriously, here is the port, roll, boys.

VFC2006-0002 Beaudoin Family Collection. MS2011-3223 Alice Lacourse Danis Songbook. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.

Les filles de la Rochelle

Le merveilleux navire I, C-10

Le merveilleux navire I ( Les filles de la Rochelle) 07101

The Girls from la Rochelle

Sont les filles de la Rochelle

1
Sont les filles de la Rochelle
Ont arme un batiment repetez
Pour aller faire la course
Dedans les mers du levan

Refrain
A la feuille s’en vole s’en vole
A la feuille s’en vole au vent

2
La grand vergue est en ivoire
Les poulies en diamants repetez
La grande voile est en dentelle
La misaine en satin blanc

3
Les cordage du navigine
Sont de fil d’or et d’argent
Ela coque est en bois rouge
Travaille fort proprement

4
L’equipage du navire c’est tout filles de quinze ans
Le capitain qui les commande est le roi des fous enfants

5
Hier faisons sa promenade. Dessu le gaillard d’avant
Apercut une brunette qui pleurait dans les haubans

6
Qu’avez-vous gentile brunette qu’avez-vous a pleurer tant
Avez-vous perdu pere et mere ou quelqu’autres de vos parents

7
J’ai ceuille la rose blanche qui s’en fut la voile au vent
Elle est partie vent arriere reviendra-z-en l’on voyant
Et dans la nuit sa voix si douce semblait monter comme
Un sanglot soudain on crie avec delire
Voice le port hardi les gars