70-page spiral-bound songbook with professionally scored vocal sheet music of all 12 songs with melody, chords, lyrics, translations, notes and sources, plus photostats of pages from the original notebook.
Includes unlimited streaming of Mémère & Me
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
Purchasable with gift card
$39USDor more
about
This beautiful and perplexing ballad has seen many changes of tonality over the generations, but the iambic rhythm and odd meter remained. Apparently originating in Haute-Bretagne—the Celtic region of France—early versions were in minor modes, while the earliest Acadian versions appear in Mixolydian mode, retaining the strong ostinato of the baroque hurdy-gurdy sound featured in some 20th-century Breton recordings of the piece. Why Mémère’s version sports a different title is as mysterious as the odd twist in the dialogue between the two lovers in the story.
lyrics
In the morning I arise
In the rose o’the day
To the chateau of my love
For with her to lay
Are you asleep, and dreaming too? Dear Leonore
If you’re asleep, awake forsooth ’Tis I, your love who calls for you
So the damsel doth awake
And dons her lily robe
And thereupon throws wide the door For he who loves her so
She casts herself into his arms
To softly tell
At last it’s you my cherished one The one who my heart loves so well
Be still and hold my sweet love You'll make me wilt away
The regiment calls to me
And I must obey
I’m yet engaged for six more years In Orleans
For six more years I’m off to war Oh fare thee well my dear Leonore
Six years my dear, six more years Is far too long a time
With which to suffer such torment To worry and to pine
I’ll miss you true out in the fields Fore'er in tears
Regret and tears forevermore
For the one who my heart loves so dear
Many are the good old boys
In this good old town
Surely they’ll make love to you While I’m not around
They'll tell you so from time to time Oh don't you cry
Oh don't you cry for your old love For he by now has surely died
All the boys of the town
They know not what to do
The lyrics are always the same And always the same tune
It’s not like that, with you my love Oh, not with you
For every time that you return There is always something new
credits
from Mémère & Me,
released August 15, 2020
Robert Sylvain - vocals
David Surette - cittern
Nicole Rabata - flute
Betsy Hooper - hurdy-gurdy
Steve Roy - bass
Rob Duquette - snare
Per Hanson -bass drum & cymbal
Adapting their calculated standards into a raw, live setting, the radical UK folk duo rework six highlights from their spellbindincatalogue. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 7, 2022
Traditional folk music and field recordings meld into fascinating long-form sound collages on the new LP from Shovel Dance Collective. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 6, 2022
Singer-songwriter Henry Parker puts his own spin on the classic sounds of '60s and '70s British folk on this wilderness-inspired new LP. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 9, 2021
