The first time I became aware of something like a revival in traditional music in France was when I first heard Alan Stivell sometime in the early nineteen seventies. A copy of his Renaissance of the Celtic Harp and A l’Olympia have been in my collection in various formats ever since. Of course Stivell is intensely connected to Brittany rather than France as such, but that distinction took a while to sink in to me as a young teenager.
One of the players in Stivell’s early band on the A l’Olympia album was Gabriel Yacoub who left to concentrate more on French traditional music rather than Breton, and went on to form Malicorne with his then wife Marie. They made great music and one track I’ve liked since I first heard it is Marions les Roses.
I started to look the other day at where the song came from. Google wasn’t entirely my friend as all searches led back, one way or another, to Malicorne, but I did strike a bit lucky when I came across this, different, rendition by le Duo des Salins:
Unfortunately I haven’t yet tracked down anything about the performers or their arrangement, and in particular if they were working from a source or if they’ve just adapted the known version into their style. I suspect the latter.
So I started searching for particular lines of text thinking that, as the song is associated with children going door to door looking for eggs at Easter, I’d come across other references. Some of the lines turn out to be standard lines that migrate from song to song, but I did eventually end up with something I like a lot, Chançon de Mai by Patrick Mezellier and Rural Cafe. This is in Occitan not French and from Montpelier rather than Berry where the Malicorne version is said to originate. Again, though, I have no idea of the source or the arrangement.
On the face of it, the stanzas, wishing blessings on householders, tie to an ancient view of the start of May as a time for fertility rituals. The final stanza, though is a curse.
Mès, si nos volètz ren bailar
A vòstra poart’ anarem chiar
But if you don’t want to give us anything
We’ll shit at your door
As the children’s quest for eggs continues, so does mine for an early source for the words. It keeps me out of mischief.
One thing that did strike me, mind, is that the tune is reminiscent of a well-known Breton tune in Alan Stivell’s repertoire An Alarc’h. As an aside, I only had the good fortune to hear Stivell live once. By coincidence it was the only time I went to a Runrig gig and the only reason I went was because Stivell was the support act.
Back in December 2017 I wrote, in connection with The Revenge of the Sith, that:
this is the one that suggests that Anakin is the creation of the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis, meaning that the entire Skywalker line is a creation of the Sith.
Looking back at the scene in question, I realise I was wrong, the suggestion was that the Skywalker line was the creation of Palpatine/Darth Sidious. It isn’t explicit but is implicit in the origin of Anakin who is father to Luke and Leia. This, I think, is why Episode nine is called The Rise of Skywalker and why we hear the Emperor’s laugh in the teaser. My guess is that JJ is bringing the whole sequence starting with The Phantom Menace to a conclusion.
This is the scene I had in mind, around the 2 minute 30 mark
Into my second week as a not-employee and the come down into normality is taking hold. I’ve made bread, watched some DVDs, done a lot of background reading for the next novel, and even had a long meeting from which occasional paying work might come later in the year. I previously said my intention for the first few weeks was to let things wash over me and make no hasty decisions, and I am sticking to that.
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Last November I made a fleeting reference to The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina season one. I’ve now watched season two and enjoyed it a lot more (strictly I think it is part two of season one, which seems contrived). The confirmation of the show’s renewal seems to have added a confidence to how it is produced. Crucially, Kiernan Shipka has found the truth of the character and is much more assured in the title role. Standing that I’m not its target demographic, there were still a couple of things that bugged me about it but they’re not that significant compared to the pleasure of watching Lucy Davis come out of the background.
And there were a lot of ofther things to like, including the sly use of background music (such as Hungry Like The Wolf, Man Eater and Under Your Spell at the dance in the episode Lupercalia).
The one thing that has grated somewhat about the publicity for the show has been the comparisons with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The latter part of the season did seem to flirt a little with the comparison, with its own version of the Hellmouth and the emergence of something perilously close to a Scooby Gang, and I got to wondering why people can’t be content to let it be its own thing. Having said that, there was a brief moment of joy and expectation where I was reminded of Penny Dreadful: more of that please.
By contrast, season two of American Gods continues to be a disappointing mess, although it did redeem itself somewhat with episode five, The Ways of the Dead, directed by Salli Richardson-Whitfield whom some of us remember as Doctor Allison Blake in Eureka. By happy coincidence Salli also directed Lupercalia in Sabrina.
One of the things that cable channels often trumpet is their ability to be more ‘adult’ which, in American Gods means so many F-Bombs it’s more like F-Shrapnel. I find this tiresome rather than edgy.
In the meantime, here’s Sabrina with added Joan Jett
My first full day in my new reality comprised a trip to a garden centre, some planting, and some historical research. Coffee was drunk in the morning. I made up some bread dough before I went to bed and left it to rise overnight–it’s in the oven now. A good start.
Still ’round the corner there may wait A new road or secret gate
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