La voix d’un Ange (MS2011-3222-034)
Dublin Core
Title
La voix d’un Ange (MS2011-3222-034)
Alternative Title
La voix d’un ange
Maman!…C’est pour la France!,”
Subject
Description
French language song text from VFC2006-0002 Beaudoin Family Collection. MS2011-3222-034 Eva Lacourse Songbook. Pp. 60-62.
Strophic song; two verses with a refrain after the first verse.
“La voix d’un Ange” [“La voix d’un ange”; “The Angel’s Voice”] is a song with words by Henri Rollin and Léon Petitjean, set to the melody of “Maman!…C’est pour la France!,” a French patriotic song written during WWI with lyrics by Achille Moch and music by G. Saint-Servan.
Léon Petitjean (1869-1922) was born in Liverpool, studied in Paris, and immigrated to Canada. A professional actor, he played in many companies in Montreal at the turn of the 20th century. With Henri Rollin, Petitjean co-authored and acted in 1921 in the first version of the melodrama Aurore, l’enfant martyre. This four-act play dramatized the true story of the young Aurore Gagnon (1909-1920), who died of child abuse in Sainte-Philomène-de-Fortierville, QC at the hands of her step-mother Marie-Anne Houde and her father Télesphore Gagnon. Her murder and trial were sensationalized in the Quebec press.
Henri Rollin (aka Willie Plante) was born in Montreal in 1887, completed grade school, became an acrobat, and then an actor. From 1921 to 1941, he toured L”Aurore, l’enfant martyre with the troupe Nohcor-Rollin throughout Quebec (over 5,000 presentations of the play were performed between 1921 and 1950).
Around 1922, Montreal music publisher, author, composer, actor, performer and talent agent Alfred Nohcor (aka Alfred Rochon) brought out a sheet music setting of the song “La voix d’un ange” which associated the song with the act of the play in which Marie-Anne Houde is brought to trial for the murder of Aurore. Nohcor was one of the first Quebec artists to be his own producer. In 1915, he founded his own troupe, which he directed for some ten years with Henri Rollin, then on his own until the 1940s.
Strophic song; two verses with a refrain after the first verse.
“La voix d’un Ange” [“La voix d’un ange”; “The Angel’s Voice”] is a song with words by Henri Rollin and Léon Petitjean, set to the melody of “Maman!…C’est pour la France!,” a French patriotic song written during WWI with lyrics by Achille Moch and music by G. Saint-Servan.
Léon Petitjean (1869-1922) was born in Liverpool, studied in Paris, and immigrated to Canada. A professional actor, he played in many companies in Montreal at the turn of the 20th century. With Henri Rollin, Petitjean co-authored and acted in 1921 in the first version of the melodrama Aurore, l’enfant martyre. This four-act play dramatized the true story of the young Aurore Gagnon (1909-1920), who died of child abuse in Sainte-Philomène-de-Fortierville, QC at the hands of her step-mother Marie-Anne Houde and her father Télesphore Gagnon. Her murder and trial were sensationalized in the Quebec press.
Henri Rollin (aka Willie Plante) was born in Montreal in 1887, completed grade school, became an acrobat, and then an actor. From 1921 to 1941, he toured L”Aurore, l’enfant martyre with the troupe Nohcor-Rollin throughout Quebec (over 5,000 presentations of the play were performed between 1921 and 1950).
Around 1922, Montreal music publisher, author, composer, actor, performer and talent agent Alfred Nohcor (aka Alfred Rochon) brought out a sheet music setting of the song “La voix d’un ange” which associated the song with the act of the play in which Marie-Anne Houde is brought to trial for the murder of Aurore. Nohcor was one of the first Quebec artists to be his own producer. In 1915, he founded his own troupe, which he directed for some ten years with Henri Rollin, then on his own until the 1940s.
Abstract
The martyred girl Aurore Gagnon sings from heaven, asking the judge to send her stepmother and father to the gallows.
Source
VFC2006-0002 Beaudoin Family Collection. MS2011-3222 Eva Lacourse Songbook. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
Song Item Type Metadata
Supplied Title
La voix d’un ange
Tranlsated Title
The Angel’s Voice
First Line
La haut pres de ma petit mere
Composer
Saint-Servan, G.
Lyricist
Rollin, Henri
Petitjean, Léon
Transcription
1
La haut pres de ma petit mere
Cosolee par un ang’gardien
J’oublie les souffrances de la terre
Plus de douleur plus de chagrin
Dieu m’accorda ma deliverance
M’arrachant au mains des tyrans
Qui me maltraitaient a outrance
Moi qui n’etait q’un faible enfant
Et maintenant tout est fini
Heureuse je suis au paradis
Refrain
J’avais tout enfant perdu ma maman
Torture par une megere
Maintenant quel bonheur
Aupres du seigneur
Je voit la fin de ma misere
Je prie le dieu pour ces malheureux
Qui me rendaient la vie amere
Monsieur le juge pitie
Soyez inspire pardonnez leur sur cette terre
2
Vous du jury et monsieur le juge
C’est a voix d’un petit enfant
Maintenant pris du souverai juge
Demandant grance pour ces parent
J’ai supporte toute les suffrances
Malgre c’la j’ai tout pardonne
D’ici j’implore votre clemence
Pour ces malheureux devoyes
Au nom de mon martyre il faut
Les exempte de ‘echafaud
Refrain
Fin
La haut pres de ma petit mere
Cosolee par un ang’gardien
J’oublie les souffrances de la terre
Plus de douleur plus de chagrin
Dieu m’accorda ma deliverance
M’arrachant au mains des tyrans
Qui me maltraitaient a outrance
Moi qui n’etait q’un faible enfant
Et maintenant tout est fini
Heureuse je suis au paradis
Refrain
J’avais tout enfant perdu ma maman
Torture par une megere
Maintenant quel bonheur
Aupres du seigneur
Je voit la fin de ma misere
Je prie le dieu pour ces malheureux
Qui me rendaient la vie amere
Monsieur le juge pitie
Soyez inspire pardonnez leur sur cette terre
2
Vous du jury et monsieur le juge
C’est a voix d’un petit enfant
Maintenant pris du souverai juge
Demandant grance pour ces parent
J’ai supporte toute les suffrances
Malgre c’la j’ai tout pardonne
D’ici j’implore votre clemence
Pour ces malheureux devoyes
Au nom de mon martyre il faut
Les exempte de ‘echafaud
Refrain
Fin
Files
Collection
Citation
“La voix d’un Ange (MS2011-3222-034),” Vermont Folklife Center Digital Collections, accessed December 5, 2025, https://vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/items/show/879.
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