Au clair de la lune
Au clair de la lune is the title and the beginning of a French folk and children's song from the 18th century. The author of the lyrics is unknown, but some sources mention Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687) as the composer , but this has not been proven.
melody
The melody is very simple and catchy and, like most folk songs, dispenses with any modulation . It consists of four rhythmically identical two-bar groups, the third of which is melodically varied and leads to the dominant . Because of its small intervals and small range, it is easy to sing and play on instruments, and is therefore occasionally used in instrumental lessons for children.
text
French text
1.
Au clair de la lune,
Mon ami Pierrot,
Prête-moi ta plume
Pour écrire un mot.
Ma chandelle est morte,
Je n'ai plus de feu;
Ouvre-moi ta porte,
Pour l'amour de Dieu.
2.
Au clair de la lune,
Pierrot répondit:
“Je n'ai pas de plume,
Je suis dans mon lit.
Va chez la voisine,
Je crois qu'elle y est,
Car dans sa cuisine
On bat le briquet. »
3.
Au clair de la lune,
L'aimable Lubin
Frappe chez la brune,
Elle répond soudain:
- Qui frapp 'de la sorte?
Il dit à son tour:
- Ouvrez votre porte
Pour le dieu d'amour!
4.
Au clair de la lune,
On n'y voit qu'un peu.
On chercha la plume,
On chercha le feu.
En cherchant d'la sorte,
Je n'sais c'qu'on trouva;
Mais je sais qu'la porte
Sur eux se ferma ...
German prose translation
1.
In the moonlight,
my friend Pierrot,
lend me your pen
to write a message.
My candle is out,
I have no more fire.
Open your door
for me for the love of God.
2.
In the moonlight
Pierrot answered:
I have no pen,
I am in my bed.
Go to the neighbor,
I think she's there
because
they knock the fire lighter in her kitchen .
3.
In the moonlight
, the amiable Lubin knocks
on the brunette.
She answers immediately:
Who knocks like that?
For his part he said:
Open your door
to the God of love!
4.
In the moonlight,
there is little to see.
One looked for the pen,
one looked for the fire.
In this search,
they found, I do not know what.
But I know the door closed
behind them ...
Explanations
There are several text versions of the song.
The original text of the second line of the first stanza was originally probably Prête-moi ta lume (lume = lumière), ie “Lend me your light”, instead of plume (pen), which in this form corresponds more to the meaning of the entire song.
In the third stanza, instead of Lubin, there is also Arlequin ( Harlequin ): Au clair de la lune s'en fut Arlequin / Tenter la fortune au logis voisin.
Pierrot is on the one hand the diminutive of Pierre (Peter), but also a slang term for the sparrow as well as the name of the buffoon in the Italian comedy.
Pierrot and Harlequin are rivals in love affairs in the Italian Commedia dell'arte . The former always has a face powdered white and wears a wide, white robe, the latter a half-mask and multicolored, tight clothing.
With expressions like Lubin (morally depraved monk), chandelle (candle), battre le briquet (lighting the lighter / kindling the fire) or the metaphor of the closing door, the original version of the song makes numerous sexual allusions. A particularly frivolous play on words is the change from pour l'amour de Dieu (in the older French a common addition for an urgent request: “for God's sake”) to pour le dieu d'amour (“for the God of love”).
Remarks
Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) used the melody as a theme in his Fantasia con Variazioni on "Au clair de la lune" op. 48 (1821).
A recording of the song made by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville in 1860 with a phonautograph was digitally reconstructed in 2008 and made audible again. This is considered to be the oldest sound recording in the world, 17 years before Thomas Alva Edison received the patent for his phonograph .
Web links
Audio samples
Individual evidence
- ↑ To change from lume to plume cf. Victor Proetz: The astonishment of words. An experiment in the comparison of languages. Austin: University Texas Press, 1971, p. 4; William Rose Benét: The Reader's Encyclopedia. New York: Crowell, 1955, p. 58.
- ↑ Cf. Mémoires de l'Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Classe des lettres et des sciences morales et politiques 22 (1926), here p. 53; [Anonymous.]: Commentaire on the chanson Au Clair de la Lune . In: Annulaire agathopédique et saucial. Cycle IV. Brussels: Labroue, [1849], pp. 93-99, here p. 97.
- ↑ See Dictionnaire de l'Académie française. Dictionary of the French Academy with German translation. Vol. 2. Grimma; Leipzig 1851, p. 504; Carl Wilhelm Theodor Schuster (edit.): New and complete dictionary of the German and French language with regard to definition, origin and relationship of the words, with the addition of the significant inflections of the main and the irregular forms of all tenses and with special reference to the art and technical terms customary in pharmacy, natural sciences, trade, etc. Revised for French by Adolphe Régnier. French German. Paris: Hingray; Leipzig: Weber, 1842, p. 708.
- ↑ Lubin is an old French baptismal name based on the Germanic root leub , liub (= dear, loved). The name was popularized by St. Lubin (lat.Leobinus), Bishop of Chartres, who died around 560. See GeneaNet . On the meaning of lubin as a hypocritical, depraved monk, cf. Charles Esmangart; Éloi Johanneau (ed.): Oeuvres de François Rabelais. Édition variorum, augmentée de pièces inédites, des songes drolatiques de pantagruel, ouvrage posthume, avec l'explication en regard; des remarques de Le Duchat, de Bernier, de Le Motteux, de l'abbé de Marsy, de Voltaire, de Ginguené, etc.; et d'un nouveau commentaire historique et philosophique. Vol. 1. Paris: Dalibon, 1823, pp. 25–28, note 46.
- ↑ Jody Rosen: Researchers Play Tune Recorded Before Edison. In: New York Times (March 27, 2008); Researchers present oldest sound recording in the world . In: SpiegelOnline (March 27, 2008).
