SONGS of FRANCE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 556, 17 February 1950, Page 19

SONGS of FRANCE

Authentic Transeriptions from the French Broadcasting System

1O songless people has ever been discovered, and some of the earliest songs were composed by the jongleurs, troubadours, or trouvéres of ancient France, whose influence spread over the. whole of Europe. Since* those days French folk music has been largely forgotten by the rest of the world, although it still. lives yon in the provinces, as vigorous, ear-catching, and popular as jit always was. The business of taking down folk-song from the lips of the people has been very actively pursued since about the ‘end of the 19th century, so that today these songs are préserved for us all to hear. A collection of six recordings of French folk songs has been lent to the NZBS by the French Broadcasting System, and these will shortly be broadcast from National stations, starting with 2YA early in March. Some of these songs are very old. One, for instance, is a Breton war chant dating back to the Seventh Century, "when the ancierit Gaul preferred to pillage his wine from his neighbour rather than to make it himself." Some of them are in their original settings, arid some have been harmonised and given modern accompaniments, Although the songs are sung in French (many in the local patois of the district they come from), there is a lucid commentary in English, explaining the origin and meaning of each of them for local listeners.

The first three programmes contain songs from La Vendée, Brittany and

Savoy; and the fourth, dealing with pilgrim songs from shrines and chapels, is called "Pilgrimages in the South of France," The fifth and six programmes are made up from songs collected by Gerard de Nerval, a 19th Century French poet who was one of the earliest collectors of this kind of music. The whole series is bound up with the history of France, the land, its people, legend and songs. The programmes were all recorded in Paris. A second series of recordings lent by the French Broadcasting System is called Gay Paris. There are six programmes in this series also, each of 15 minutes’ duration, with English com-. mentaries as before. They consist of popular songs. that are sung. in ‘Paris | today, the jazz, ballad, and sweet songs that are sufig in the theatres and on the streets, corresponding to the melodies by Bing Crosby or Dinah Shore that we listen to out here, The titles of some of the programmes are "Sweethearts of Paris," "Cafes of Paris," and "Quays _ of Paris." They are nearly all new songs, very tuneful and easy to listen to, and will, also be broadcast from National stations early in March. Thev will be heard first from: 2YZ,