Some years ago, at John Merrill's bookshop in Hallowell, ME, I ran across this gem: Recueil de "La Bourrée": Chants & Danses Populaires du Massif Central. Published in 1929, this was the product of a group of musicians, emigres, and enthusiasts in Paris. The book was in good shape when I got it, but the news print has deteriorated markedly.
My original thought had been to re-typeset it using a publishing program and MuseScore, but -- with five kids, a new job, and a doctoral program -- I simply don't have the time. So I asked my daughter, Brigid, to photograph the book, and I'll be publishing the entire artifact here. As I said, the book's in bad shape, with very brown pages and some fading ink. I invite anyone who's interested, to use these images to create a more web-savvy presentation. Maybe Jack over at the French Tunes wiki will have some ideas?
Over the next month or so I will publish five or so pages every three days. In the end, I'll publish all of Brigid's source images on an attached page.
One note: in the past, I've taken the odd stab at translating small bits of French into English. I'm not going to do that here. My French is very bad, and gets even worse as small bits of writing become thoughtful essays. If anyone out there wants to tackle the translation, I would be most grateful and would publish that here.
Some front matter, first.
Title page
4th edition info
The secretary general
And the first few tunes:
This reminds me of what Frédéric Paris said about every tune having a lyric, and that tradFrench is as much a vocal tradition as a dance tradition. Hope you all enjoy this project.
