Cypress Choral Music Pot-pourri franco-canadien - Phare-Bergh - Choral Octavo - SATB Accompanied Pot-pourri franco-canadien - Phare-Bergh - Choral Octavo - SATB Accompanied

Arranger: Erica Phare-Bergh
Format: Choral Octavo
Voicing: SATB Accompanied

This is a Barn-Burner!

• Dans la prison de Londres
• Ah! Toi, belle hirondelle
• Wing-tra-la

About this medley:
Dr. Laurier Fagnan commissioned this arrangement of three French-Canadian folksongs for Chorale Saint-Jean's performances at Podium 2026. These songs have to do with either unrequited love or faithful love. The first and third "movements" use turluttes which are interpolations of mouth music and characterize French-Canadian folksongs. These nonsense syllables are intended to imitate musical instruments. French-Canadian music is always story driven, sometimes with umpteen number of verses that often involve double entendre.

The first folksong, Dans la prison de Londres, is a fiery tale of a prisoner who convinces the captain's daughter to untie his feet and free him since he's sentenced to die the next day. Because she has a crush on the prisoner, she frees him. He then jumps ship, calling over his shoulder as he swims away that if he ever returns, he will marry her (or not?). The second piece, Ah! Toi, belle hirondelle, is the slow movement and describes a woman waiting for her loved sailor's return. She sends a swallow to fly over the seas to find him and inquire of his whereabouts. The sailor assures the little bird that he will remain faithful to his love. The final section of the medley, Wing-tra-la, is a call-and-response folksong and uses turluttes to mimic the shuttle of a weaver's loom. A tailor seeks the hand of the most beautiful girl in the county. Her father overhears this blunt "proposal" and storms in: "I won't give my daughter to a vile tailor because he might prick her with his needles!" The tailor goes away, regretting his profession.

This medley really requires fiddle, wooden spoons and bodhran (perhaps one percussionist could cover both?) in order to be effective. The character and style of the music would be lost without them as they provide the rhythmic energy along with the piano. The violin cadenza prior to Hirondelle, is intended to sound like the fluttering feathers of the bird about to take flight and needs to be played freely.

Duration 6:30