Songs the Professor finds of particular merit both lyrically and pedagogically. Most songs include a bit of factology, a link to an online recording, some grammatical notes, the French lyrics, and an English translation.
À la claire fontaine
Je voudrais que la rose fût encore au rosier
A stroll to a favorite bathing spot turns into a lament for lost love and a meditation on what-might-have-been. With a haunting melody.
Ah! si mon moine voulait danser
Danse, mon moine, danse!
A “spinning” song of a different kind (i.e., it has nothing to do with spinning thread). A good song for increasing your monastic vocabulary.
Au clair de la lune
Ouvrez votre porte, Pour le dieu d'amour
The arch-typical traditional French song, recounting the nocturnal adventures of Pierrot, Lubin, and an unnamed third person.
Auprès de ma blonde
Il est dans la Hollande, Les Hollandais l'ont pris
A delightful song celebrating marital fidelity, whilst obliquely commemorating Louis XIV’s bloody campaign to extend France’s northern boundary.
Aux Champs-Élysées
Il y a tout ce que vous voulez / Aux Champs-Elysées
The signature song (from 1969) of Joe Dassin. One of the positive remote effects of Hollywood blacklisting.
D’où viens-tu, bergère?
Je viens de l'étable, de m'y promener
A Christmas carol that allows antiphonal singing, of a sort. It tells you everything you need to know about what happened at the Nativity.
Douce France
Douce France, cher pays de mon enfance
One of several signature songs of the great Trenet, this one combines patriotic feeling with images of childhood and country life circa 1920.
Il était un petit navire
Empêche-les de me manger!
The best of all children’s songs, full of drama, pathos, piety, humor, and with a rousing rhythm. On top of all which, it is neverending.
Il était une bergère
Ma fille, pour pénitence, / Nous nous embrasserons
This song is now relegated to children, but its matter is far from exemplary: misbehavior on the part of cats, shepherdesses, and clergy.
Je chante
Ficelle, tu m’a sauvé de la vie!
A very happy song about a singer, who sings day and night… Very, very upbeat… From the incomparable Charles Trenet.
La Marche des Rois
Ils viennent tous présenter leurs doux vœux
Why waste time on the usual boring French Christmas carols, when there are weird ones like la Marche des rois waiting to be learned?
La Marseillaise
Pour qui ces ignobles entraves, / Ces fers dès longtemps préparés?
France’s stirring national anthem. Its “us versus them” sentiment can be (and has been) put to use in a multitude of situations.
La Mer
La mer a bercé mon cœur pour la vie
Is it schmaltz or is it poetry? Possibly both. Another great song from the incomparable Charles Trenet.
Là-haut sur la montagne
Aimer n'est pas un crime; Dieu ne le défend pas.
A mountain song that may put you in mind of Rousseau’s star-crossed Alpine lovers. My version of the melody is especially good if you like to yodel.
Les enfants s’ennuient le dimanche
Le dimanche, les enfants s’ennuient
A wonderful song expressing the same sentiment as Camus’s Meurseult: Je n’aime pas le dimanche.
Noël nouvelet
Par douze vers, voici mon chant fini
A 15th-century Christmas carol with a haunting minor/modal melody. Weirdly dreamlike. It may be compared with our “Twelve Days of Christmas.”
Notre Père
Pardonne-nous nos offenses
The Our Father in the version currently used in the RC liturgy in French. (Official from December 3 2017: a slight change to petition 6.)
O, Canada
Ton histoire est une épopée des plus brillants exploits
Canada’s national anthem in its original form. A good deal less bloody than la Marseillaise, and much easier to sing than O Say, Can You See.
Partons, la mer est belle
Il ne s'attendait pas À y trouver la mort
A sad sea song with a soothing melody. Began as French but now is widely known in French-speaking Canada as well.
Polka du roi
Voulez-vous danser, Marquise?
A delightful dramatic monologue with a Hitchcockian twist. Its morals are those of its main character, not of all French people.
Que reste-t-il de nos amours
Une photo…vieille photo…de ma jeunesse
The quintessential Charles Trenet song, about loves past, but recollected in a pleasant nostalgic dreamy haze.
Un Canadien errant
Un Canadien errant, Banni de ses foyers
A French song that is nonetheless dear to the heart of all Canadians, particularly if they are expatriates. If it does not bring a tear to your eye, you have a hard heart.
