Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
LISTEN TO THE INSTRUMENTAL HERE:
youtu.be/tH1-4aiYC2s?si=PuG5RUdro4rimyrD
Fiddle by @MICHAELBURNYEAT vocals by Aurora Aguilar, vocals & arrangement by Farya Faraji. Be sure to check out Michael's awesome channel for more content on Canadian fiddling. This is a traditional French Canadian song of unknown regional origins. This lyrical motifs have been found in various melodies, but this specific melody rose to prominence in the 70's with the version by Les Karriks, a rock duo from Saguenay that would arrange folk songs in a 70's pop rock style.
My arrangement is typically folk and traditional in style, using the masterful "violoneux" fiddling style provided by Michael, with strong roots in the Gaelic fiddling traditions of Ireland and Scotland, podorythmie, that is percussive rhythm created with the tapping of shoes against a wooden board, musical spoons, and an acoustic guitar providing the harmonic progression.
The video was filmed during our family's road trip to Gaspesia, a pensinsula on the eastern coasts of Québec. The song has no known associations with Gaspesia but I was there and it looked good, so music video it was.
Lyrics in French:
Mon père m'envoie t-à l’arbre,
C'est pour y cueillir,
Je n'ai point cueilli, j'ai cherché des nids
Au chant de l'alouette je veille et je dors
J'écoute l'alouette et puis je m'endors
Je n'ai pas cueilli, j'ai cherché des nids
J'ai trouvé la caille dessus son nid
Je lui ait marché sur l'aile et la lui rompit
Elle me dit pucelle retire-toi d'ici
Je n' suis pas pucelle tu en as menti
English translation:
To the song of the lark, I watch and I sleep,
I listen to the lark and then I sleep,
My father sends me to the tree,
To collect,
I did not collect, I looked for birds' nests,
I found the quail above its nest,
I walked on its wing and broke it,
It told me, go away maiden,
I am no maiden, you have lied.
LISTEN TO THE INSTRUMENTAL HERE:
youtu.be/tH1-4aiYC2s?si=PuG5RUdro4rimyrD
Fiddle by @MICHAELBURNYEAT vocals by Aurora Aguilar, vocals & arrangement by Farya Faraji. Be sure to check out Michael's awesome channel for more content on Canadian fiddling. This is a traditional French Canadian song of unknown regional origins. This lyrical motifs have been found in various melodies, but this specific melody rose to prominence in the 70's with the version by Les Karriks, a rock duo from Saguenay that would arrange folk songs in a 70's pop rock style.
My arrangement is typically folk and traditional in style, using the masterful "violoneux" fiddling style provided by Michael, with strong roots in the Gaelic fiddling traditions of Ireland and Scotland, podorythmie, that is percussive rhythm created with the tapping of shoes against a wooden board, musical spoons, and an acoustic guitar providing the harmonic progression.
The video was filmed during our family's road trip to Gaspesia, a pensinsula on the eastern coasts of Québec. The song has no known associations with Gaspesia but I was there and it looked good, so music video it was.
Lyrics in French:
Mon père m'envoie t-à l’arbre,
C'est pour y cueillir,
Je n'ai point cueilli, j'ai cherché des nids
Au chant de l'alouette je veille et je dors
J'écoute l'alouette et puis je m'endors
Je n'ai pas cueilli, j'ai cherché des nids
J'ai trouvé la caille dessus son nid
Je lui ait marché sur l'aile et la lui rompit
Elle me dit pucelle retire-toi d'ici
Je n' suis pas pucelle tu en as menti
English translation:
To the song of the lark, I watch and I sleep,
I listen to the lark and then I sleep,
My father sends me to the tree,
To collect,
I did not collect, I looked for birds' nests,
I found the quail above its nest,
I walked on its wing and broke it,
It told me, go away maiden,
I am no maiden, you have lied.
