Alouetté! (I)

DESCRIPTION: French: "Alouette, gentille Alouette, Alouette, je t'y plumerai." Cumulative: "Je t'y plumerai la tet, le bec, le nez, les yeux, le cou, les ail's, le dos, les patt's, la queue," meaning, "Skylark, I will pluck your head, beak, nose, eyes, neck, etc."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (McGill College songbook)
KEYWORDS: cumulative bird foreignlanguage worksong
FOUND IN: Canada(Que) France US(MW)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 118-119, "Alouetté!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 39, "Alouetté" (1 text, 1 tune)
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 68, "Alouette (Little Lark)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 124, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 389, "Alouette" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 95, "Alouette"
Harbin-Parodology, #112, p. 34, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 125, 309, 392, "Alouette"/"(Alleywetter, jaunty alleywetter)" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 73, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 66, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p .21, "Alouette" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 90-91, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 8, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 60-61, "Alouetté!" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Tom Hanford, "Alouette" (Piotr-Archive #654, recorded 08/16/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Red Herring" (theme)
cf. "Alouette (Lark) (II)" (theme and structure)
SAME TUNE:
Suffocation (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 125)
All You Etta (All you et-a, Think of all you et-a, All you et-a, think of all you et) (Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 123; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 309, 393)
Ravioli ("Ravioli, I like ravioli, Ravioli, it’s the best for me) (BoyScoutSongbook1997, p 11) (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 309)
NOTES [59 words]: Fuld reports a claim that this was a work song used while plucking birds. I'll believe it when I see evidence. - RBW
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes's editors also identify this as "a work-song which used to be sung while women plucked fowls." I'll buy it, if for no other reason than the second source. Unless, of course, Fuld got the idea from them.- PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FJ118

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