Repetoire of Songs – Saintonge

The following songs are in the Saintonge repertory.

Bis, Ter

Bis indicates that the previous line (or lines) should be sung a second time.

Ter indicates that the line(s) should be sung a total of three times.

Call-and-Answer Songs

Many French folksongs are sung in a call-and-answer style. Each verse contains two lines and (usually) a French equivalent of “tra la la”. Each successive verse starts with the last last line of the previous verse, (usually) repeats it, and introduces a new line. Thus a leader can sing the new line at the end of each verse and the whole group can sing the rest.

  1st verse: A (tra la), bis, B (tra la).
  2nd verse: B (tra la), bis, C (tra la).
  etc.

En passant par la Lorraine, Malbrough s’en va-t-en guerre, and Auprès de ma blonde are all call-and-answer style songs. When we sing them as part of our French Medley, however, where we only sing two verses of each song, we use up two lines per verse in order to fit more lyrics in. In other words:

1st verse: A (tra la), bis, B (tra la).
2nd verse: C (tra la), bis, D (tra la).

On Singing French

When singing French, you generally pronounce vowels that would be silent in spoken French. Vowels which are not to be sung are replaced by apostrophes; e.g., in Auprès de ma blonde, the line “Ell’ chante pour les filles” is sung “ell-chant-e-pour-les-fill-es”.

The Folk Processor

Like all folksongs, these songs have gone through the “folk processor”. Different people sing different lyrics. Wherever possible, I have given Luc’s versions. Here and there I have noted common alternate lyrics.

Other Resources

You can find a wide variety of French folksongs in Le livre des chansons de France, illustré par Roland Sabatier, raconté par Pierre Chaumeil, Collection Decouverte Cadet, Gallimard, 1984, ISBN 2-07-039516-2. Many of these songs date to the 18th century. Two successive volumes (Le deuxième livre…, Le troisième livre…) contain more songs, most of them French.