A la Claire Fontaine (MS2011-3223-033)
Dublin Core
Title
A la Claire Fontaine (MS2011-3223-033)
Subject
Description
French language song text from VFC2006-0002 Beaudoin Family Collection. MS2011-3223-033 Alice Lacourse Danis Songbook. Pp. 31.
“A la claire fontaine” (“At the Clear Fountain”)’s an iconic traditional French ballad whose earliest known printed setting dates to 1704, but the song’s references to a clear fountain, a singing nightingale, and a bouquet of roses are all conventions of French medieval love poetry. It is one of the most widely collected songs both in France and in Quebec. Ballad scholar Conrad Laforte lists over 150 documented versions in Quebec alone, and more than 40 versions from Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Ontario. Versions have also been documented in Switzerland, Belgium, Connecticut, Louisiana, and Maine. "A la claire fontaine" was designated as national song by the St-Jean-Baptiste Association in 1878 and has been historically used as a quasi-hymn in Quebec. It is sung to several melodies, the most popular being that presented by Ernest Gagnon in his collection Chansons populaires du Canada (Quebec City, 1865). The earliest known commercial Quebec recording of this song is a 1901 performance by singer Eugène Danton on the Montreal Berliner/Improved Berliner Gram-o-phone label (issue #168). You can hear a 1904 re-issue of this recording was on the same label with singing credited to “L. Loiseau” on the Library and Archives Canada Virtual Gramophone: https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/virtual-gramophone/Pages/Item.aspx?idNumber=1007621700
“A la claire fontaine” (“At the Clear Fountain”)’s an iconic traditional French ballad whose earliest known printed setting dates to 1704, but the song’s references to a clear fountain, a singing nightingale, and a bouquet of roses are all conventions of French medieval love poetry. It is one of the most widely collected songs both in France and in Quebec. Ballad scholar Conrad Laforte lists over 150 documented versions in Quebec alone, and more than 40 versions from Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Ontario. Versions have also been documented in Switzerland, Belgium, Connecticut, Louisiana, and Maine. "A la claire fontaine" was designated as national song by the St-Jean-Baptiste Association in 1878 and has been historically used as a quasi-hymn in Quebec. It is sung to several melodies, the most popular being that presented by Ernest Gagnon in his collection Chansons populaires du Canada (Quebec City, 1865). The earliest known commercial Quebec recording of this song is a 1901 performance by singer Eugène Danton on the Montreal Berliner/Improved Berliner Gram-o-phone label (issue #168). You can hear a 1904 re-issue of this recording was on the same label with singing credited to “L. Loiseau” on the Library and Archives Canada Virtual Gramophone: https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/virtual-gramophone/Pages/Item.aspx?idNumber=1007621700
Abstract
[refrain: I've loved you for so long, I will never forget you]; As I was walking by the clear fountain, I found the water so lovely I had to bathe; Under the oak's leaves, I lay and dried.On the highest bough, a nightingale sang; sing, nightingale, sing, your heart is so gay; it’s filled with laughter, mine with tears; I lost my love without merit; for a bouquet of roses which I refused; I wish the rose was still on the bush and my love and I on the same terms as before.
Source
VFC2006-0002 Beaudoin Family Collection. MS2011-3223 Alice Lacourse Danis Songbook. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
Song Item Type Metadata
Supplied Title
A la Claire Fontaine
Standard Title Reference
A la claire fontaine I, G-10
A la claire fontaine ou En revenant des noces - 03415
Tranlsated Title
At the Clear Fountain
First Line
A la Claire Fontaine m’en allant promener
Scribe
Transcription
A la Claire Fontaine m’en allant promener
J’ai trouve l’eau si belle que je me suis baigne
Sur l’eau sur la riviere sur le bord du vaisseau
Sur les feuilles d’un chene je me suis fait secher
Sur la plus haute branche un rossignol chantait
Le chante rossignol chante toi qui as le coeur gai
Tu as le coeur a rire moi je l’ai a pleurer
J’ai perdu ma maitresse sans l’avoir merite
Pour un bouquet de rose que je lui refusai
Je voudrais que la rose fut encore au rosier
Et moi et ma maitresse dans les memes amities
J’ai trouve l’eau si belle que je me suis baigne
Sur l’eau sur la riviere sur le bord du vaisseau
Sur les feuilles d’un chene je me suis fait secher
Sur la plus haute branche un rossignol chantait
Le chante rossignol chante toi qui as le coeur gai
Tu as le coeur a rire moi je l’ai a pleurer
J’ai perdu ma maitresse sans l’avoir merite
Pour un bouquet de rose que je lui refusai
Je voudrais que la rose fut encore au rosier
Et moi et ma maitresse dans les memes amities
Files
Collection
Citation
“A la Claire Fontaine (MS2011-3223-033),” Vermont Folklife Center Digital Collections, accessed April 22, 2025, https://vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/items/show/799.
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