Au bois du Rossignolet (MS2011-3223-041)

Au bois du Rossignolet (MS2011-3223-041)

French language song text from VFC2006-0002 Beaudoin Family Collection. MS2011-3223-041 Alice Lacourse Danis Songbook. Pp. 35.

“Au bois du rossignolet” (“In the Woods of the Nightingale”). This venerable French song has been in circulation since the beginning of the 1600s. It has been widely documented in France and Quebec, as well as New Brunswick, Ontario and Nova Scotia. This particular text is virtually identical to that published in abbé Charles-Émile Gadbois’s 1948 publication, Les 100 plus belles chansons (p. 43). In 1925, Montreal singer Charles Marchand recorded a version of this song for the Starr label (issue # 15210; matrix #1747). Marchand (1890-1930) founded a vocal quartet called “Le Carillon canadien” in order to promote French-Canadian folk songs and new songs inspired by traditional customs and settings. You can hear Marchand’s rendition on the Library and Archives Canada website, The Virtual Gramophone: https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/virtual-gramophone/Pages/Item.aspx?idNumber=1007647385

[refrain: in the woods of the nightingale, in the woods of the nightingale]; while walking along the main road, I fell asleep in the shadow of a pine; when I awoke, the pine was flowering; I took my knife and cut a branch and made myself a flute and a whistle; do you know, sirs, what my flute told me?; it’s sweet to love the neighbor’s daughter; when you’ve seen her in the evening, you see her once again the next day.

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

Au bois du Rossignolet

Au bois du rossignolet IV, N-12

Ah! Qu’il est doux d’aimer la fille de son voisin 118

In the Woods of the Nightingale

M’en allant m’promener rele rele le long du grand chemin

M’en allant m’promener rele rele le long du grand chemin
Relin relin le long du grand chemin je me suis endormi relire li
A l’ombre (relom relom) bre-sous (relou relou z-un
Pin (relin relin) au bois du rosilognet repetez

2
Je me suis re-endormie reli reli a l’ombre sous un pin
Je me suis reveille rele rele le pin (relin relin) etait relait relait
Fleuri (reli reli) au bois du rosignolet au bois du rosignolet

3
Ah j’ai prit mon conteau (relo relo) la bran (relan relan) che.
(rele rele) coupe (rele rele) je m’en fit un flutiau (rele rele)
Un fla rela rela geolet (relet relet) m’en allant enchantant
Relan le long du grand chemin relin relin
Ah savez-vous messieurs (releu releu) se que la flute a dit
(relit relit) ah qu’il est doux d’aimer (rele rele)