À La Claire Fontaine

DESCRIPTION: French: The singer wanders by a clear fountain. He bathes, and hears a bird's song in the trees. He tells the nightingale that it has no cares. He, on the other hand, lost his love because he refused to give her the roses he had picked
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (The New-York Mirror: A Weekly Journal, Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts. Vol.14, No. 25; also alentine: ou la Nina Canadienne. Comédie en un acte); some claim a reference from 1608
KEYWORDS: courting love separation foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que) France
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 134-135, "À La Claire Fontaine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 55, "À La Claire Fontaine" (1 English and 1 French text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 333, "À La Claire Fontaine (By Yonder Flowing Fountain)" (1 French text with English translation by Arthur Kevess)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 97, "Au Bord d'une Fontaine ['Twas There Beside a Fountain]" (1 text + English translation, 1 tune)
DT, ALACLAIR*
ADDITIONAL: _The New-York Mirror: A Weekly Journal, Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts_. Vol.14, No. 25, (New York: Dec. 17, 1836), page 200, "Original Canadian Boat Song" (1 heavily arranged text, 1 tune, available on Google Books)
(Drama:) _Valentine: ou la Nina Canadienne. Comédie en un acte. Hyacinthe Leblanc de Marconnay_ (Montreal: de l’imprimerie de l’ami du peuple, 1836), page 52, "(no title)" (1 text, available on Google Books)
J. Huston,, _Le répertoire national ou recueil de littérature canadienne, compilé et publ_, volume 1 (Montreal: Lovell et Gibson, 1848), "Mélodie Canadienne" (1 text, available on Google Books)
Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 62-63, "À La Claire Fontaine" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
Grace Lee Nute, _The Voyageur_, Appleton, 1931 (reprinted 1987 Minnesota Historical Society), pp. 105-107, "A La Claire Fontaine" (1 text plus English translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [124 words]: This song has been called "The unofficial anthem of French Canada."
There is an English version "By the Clear Running Fountain," by Janet E. Tobitt, which was published in the 1949 Girl Scout Sing Together songbook, but it doesn't seem to have been very popular. - RBW
[The New-York Mirror edition] has musical notation for a melody line plus a simple piano accompaniment, and a rather bad English translation of the lyrics, followed by a long text that mainly describes the lives of the voyageurs, ending with the ascription "--Scottish Magazine."
I don't know what to make of this. I have been unable to identify a magazine of the right time period with a title similar to "Scottish Magazine" so maybe they meant it in a generic sense? - JD
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FJ134

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