Christmas Carols and Their Stories
Puzzle 41 · Carols of Many Lands · Page 63 in print
Noels of France
The tune of the noel “Nous voici dans la ville,” famous across France, dates from no later than about 1450, and in 1676 Le Begue used it for an organ prelude.
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The words
Avignon
City of Saboly’s church and of the 1750 and 1824 noël books.
Recueil de Noëls provençaux composés (opens a new tab) · Grove (opens a new tab)
Beauvais
Cathedral city where the medieval Prose de l’âne carol was sung by the 12th century.
Besancon
Besançon, city whose old dialect noëls were collected in 1842.
Burgundy
Region where Grove thought the noël was first cultivated, with France.
Dandrieu
Jean-François Dandrieu, composer of a Suite de Noëls (early 18th century).
Dijon
Burgundian city of La Monnoye’s baptism and of the 1720 edition of his noëls.
Fertiault, Les Noëls bourguignons de Bernard (opens a new tab)
Du Caurroy
Eustache du Caurroy, royal choirmaster whose polyphonic noëls were printed in Paris in 1610.
Flute
Robin’s flute, named with the tambourin in “Pat-a-Pan” (flûte).
Fertiault, Les Noëls bourguignons de Bernard (opens a new tab)
Gui Barozai
Gui Barôzai, the pen name under which La Monnoye’s Burgundian noëls appeared (1720).
Grove (opens a new tab) · Fertiault, Les Noëls bourguignons de Bernard (opens a new tab)
La Monnoye
Bernard de La Monnoye (1641–1728), author of the Burgundian noëls.
The Oxford Book of Carols (opens a new tab) · Fertiault, Les Noëls bourguignons de Bernard (opens a new tab)
Patapan
The Burgundian noël “Pat-a-Pan” (Guillô, pran ton tamborin).
Pellegrin
The abbé Pellegrin, whose new noëls were printed in Paris from 1706.
Myrand, Noëls anciens de la Nouvelle-France (opens a new tab)
Provencal
Provençal, the language of Saboly’s noëls (provençaux).
Myrand, Noëls anciens de la Nouvelle-France (opens a new tab) · Grove (opens a new tab)
Saboly
Nicolas Saboly, music master at Saint-Pierre in Avignon, author of Provençal noëls.
Tambourin
The small long drum named in “Pat-a-Pan”.
The Oxford Book of Carols (opens a new tab) · Fertiault, Les Noëls bourguignons de Bernard (opens a new tab)
Sources
- Recueil de Noëls provençaux composés par le sieur Nicolas Saboly, nouvelle édition, Avignon: Chaillot aîné, 1824 (Google scan on Internet Archive)Internet Archive
- Grove, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1st ed., 1879–89), article “Noël”, transcribed on WikisourceWikisource
- The Oxford Book of Carols (first published 1928; 1964 printing), Internet Archive scanInternet Archive
- F. Fertiault, Les Noëls bourguignons de Bernard de La Monnoye (Gui-Barôzai), 2nd ed., Paris, 1858; Internet Archive scanInternet Archive
- Ernest Myrand, Noëls anciens de la Nouvelle-France, Québec, 1899 (CIHM microfiche on Internet Archive)Internet Archive