Playlist
Le Noël des musiciens Carmen Campagne 2:45 (abridged)
Dans nos vielles maisons Jean-François Poulin & Ariane Gauthier 2:21
La belle histoire Charlotte Diamond 3:17
La cloche de Noël Le chœur de l’ecole Riverdale, Surrey, BC 1:34
Le Noël de musiciens is a traditional Czech carol called Půjdem spolu do Betléma; in English it is commonly named by its translation Let’s All Got to Bethlehem. The song is performed here by the late Carmen Campagne (1959-2018), a kindergarten teacher and acclaimed French language children’s entertainer.
Chapagne was born in the rural francophone community of Willow Bunch, Saskatchewan. Yes- they have francophone communities in Saskatchewan. Her parents had a cattle ranch. They were a musical family; all seven of the siblings started out together as a family band called Folle Avoine, which was restructured as the folk-rock band Hart Rouge in 1986 when Carmen three of her sisters retired from the band to focus on family and teaching. Three of her sisters and one brother later had solo careers as professional performers. Like I said, a very musical family.
Things changed for Carmen only a few years later when she had a baby daughter and one of her sisters-in-law, the well-known Canadian folk singer and songwriter Connie Kaldor, suggested that they record a French language lullaby album together. Carmen later told a local reporter: “I was always looking for songs to sing to my baby, and she had a lot of friends who were having babies.”
That lullaby album was Lullaby Berceuse. That was Campagne’s first CD and it won the pair the 1988 Juno Award for Children’s Album of the Year. It also led to a successful career for Carmen as a children’s entertainer, in the fields of audio recordings, live performances and videos. In 2013, she was made a member of the Order of Canada "for her contributions as a singer, songwriter and composer enhancing music for young children and using music in French-language education."
Dans nos vielles maisons is performed by Ari Cui Cui and Le Boulanger Joyeux, the stage names of Ariane Gauthier and Jean-François Poulin from Radio Canada’s very popular children’s television series Ari Cui Cui. (Radio Canada is the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s francophone counterpart and it is a TV as well as radio network.) The character of Ari Cui Cui is a perky and always-cheerful cook and vegetable gardener who loves singing, dancing, reading and making new things. In other words, she is a typical children’s entertainer, except more so. Le Boulanger Joyeux (the Happy Baker) is her sidekick for both the TV and stage presentation of Le Noël d’Ari Cui Cui.
This song is from Gauthier’s 2016 self-published album Le Noël d’Ari Cui Cui, which has the songs from the show. Besides TV and record albums, Ariane Gauthier tours road shows as Ari Cui Cui to stages and schools across Quebec and beyond. Currently, in December 2023, she is touring a show called Ari Cui Cui et les patins magiques (Ari Cui Cui and the Magic Skates.) She also writes books and many of her own songs, although this one is by Murielle Millard, a Quebec children’s TV entertainer from an earlier generation. You can watch her show’s entertaining original 1966 presentation of the song here (highly recommended for the creative puppetry.)
The last two songs in this set are from Charlotte Diamond’s 1993 album Bonjour L’Hiver. Besides being for children’s entertainment this album is designed with special attention to clarity of vocals so that it can be used as a teaching tool for French immersion and French as a Second Language classes.
Charlotte Diamond is one of Canada’s leading children’s performers and like Carmen Campagne she has been recognized as such by being made a member of the Order of Canada. (If she received the equivalent honour in Great Britain she would now be known as Lady Charlotte!) To date she has released 14 children’s albums, including the Juno award-winning double-platinum 10 Carrot Diamond. As I write this it is over 40 years since she quit teaching high school to become a full-time children’s entertainer, although she is semi-retired now.
La belle histoire is sung by Diamond. The song was written by Henri Dès in 1978. You can hear his rendition of it here. The lyrics are:
La belle histoire
Il était un petit enfant
Dans une drôle de cabane
Il était nu et tout tremblant
Entre un boeuf et un âne
Entre un boeuf et un âne
Il était un petit enfantIl y avait Marie aussi
Dans la drôle de cabane
Et puis Joseph son mari
Derrière le boeuf et l’âne (bis)Il y avait Marie aussi
Il y avait trois rois mages
Avec leurs grandes cannes
Ah le bel équipage
Dans la pauvre cabane (bis)
Il y avait trois rois magesSeraient, dit-on, venus de loin
En marche triomphale
Avec des cadeaux plein les mains
En suivant une étoile (bis)
Seraient, dit-on, venus de loin.Tout ça c’était y’a bien longtemps
L’histoire de la cabane
Avec les mages et puis l’enfant
Et puis le boeuf et l’âne (bis)
Tout ça c’était y’a bien longtempsEt comme ça n’arrive pas souvent
Une aussi belle histoire
Et qu’elle a passé deux mille ans
Ca fait du bien d’y croire (bis)
Comme ça n’arrive pas souvent
Here is a translation from the DeepL website:
The beautiful story
There was a little child in a strange hut. He was naked and trembling between an ox and a donkey (bis), there was a little child
There was Mary too in the strange hut. And Joseph her husband, behind the ox and the donkey (bis), there was Mary too
There were three wise men with their big sticks. Ah the beautiful crew in the poor hut (bis), there were three wise men
Said to have come from afar on a triumphal march. With gifts in their hands, following a star (bis), said to have come from afar.
All that was a long time ago, the story of the hut with the wise men and the child. And the ox and the donkey (bis), all that was a long time ago
And because it doesn't happen often, such a beautiful story. And it's been two thousand years, it's good to believe (bis), Because it doesn't happen often.
La cloche de Noël is sung by le chœur de l’ecole Riverdale, a French immersion school in Surrey, BC, under the direction of one of the teachers there, Alison Edgar. The song is listed in the liner notes as being a traditional noël. I was not able to find any information about the history of the song so I don’t know if it is from France or is of Quebec origins. I did find this sheet music printed in Saine-Hyacinthe, Quebec in 1952: Apparently this two-part canon (round) is just the chorus from a noël with verses.
The lyrics are:
Chante dans la nue cloche de Noël
Dis la bienvenue à l’Emanuel
Chante dans la nue cloche de Noël
Dec 16 - Pas seulement pour les gosses Part 3