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Playlist

* D’où viens-tu bergère? Charlotte Diamond and students 2:04

* Christmas is Here (round) Joyce Poley 1:50

* Jesous Ahatonhia Crystal Shawanda w. Sultans Of String 4:39

Music notes

D’où viens-tu bergère? Wikipedia calls this familiar noël a “traditional French Christmas carol”, and some online sources say that it came to Quebec from France, but I can find no evidence that is the case. As far as I can tell, its first documentation was in church organist, historian, and folklorist Ernest Gagnon’s Chansons populaires du Canada. That was first published in 1865-7 as installments in six issues of the Quebec City publication Le Foyer canadien.

According to Gagnon, the song was a folksong that was never sung in church during his time. Soon after that, the song appeared in a songbook called Songs of Old Canada by William McLennan, along with a translation into a signable English version under the title “Whence art thou, my maiden?”

It is only later, in 1888, that D’où viens-tu bergère? was first collected in France, in a songbook called Vieilles chansons patoises du Périgord (Old patois songs of the Périgord region.) Patois, in this context, is a reference to the old dialects that were spoken in parts of various France before the French language was standardized to Parisian French beginning during the reign of Napoleon. That songbook is usually identified as this popular noël’s earliest documentation. There is no mention of it in any of the many earlier collections of noël songs that were done in the 17th and early 18th centuries. That was during the reigns of kings Louis XV and Louis XVI when composers were seeking new melodies upon which to base their compositions during a time when, because of the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the court was emulating a very stylized version of the simple life of shepherds and shepherdesses.

The song, which has townspeople asking a shepherdess about her visit to see a baby in a manger, is definitely the kind of folk song that the composers were seeking, but it is unusual as noël by being a call and response song in which the group chorus is the call part of the dialog.

It seems to me possible, even likely, that D’où viens-tu, bergère? had emerged in Quebec and brought to France in the 18th or even 19th century, where its archaic language got it mistaken as having its origin in that country. Perhaps it is time for us Canadians to claim this lovely Noël as being part of our seasonal musical heritage.

This recording is from Charlotte Diamond’s 1993 album Bonjour L’Hiver. The children are her students at l’ecole Riverdale in Surrey, BC. There are many choral versions of this song on my albums and online, but interestingly this is the only recording that sings it properly as a call and response song.

D’où viens-tu, bergère? D’où viens-tu?D’où viens-tu, bergère? D’où viens-tu? Je viens de l’étable, de m’y promener J’ai vu un miracle ce soir arriver

Qu’as-tu vu, bergère? Qu’as-tu vu?Qu’as-tu vu, bergère? Qu’as-tu vu? J’ai vu dans la crèche, un petit enfant Sur la paille fraîche mise bien tendrement

Rien de plus, bergère? Rien de plus?Rien de plus, bergère? Rien de plus? Sainte Marie, sa mère sous un humble toit Saint Joseph, son père qui tremble de froid

Rien de plus, bergère? Rien de plus?Rien de plus, bergère? Rien de plus? Y a le bœuf et l’âne qui sont par-devant Avec leur haleine, réchauffent l’enfant

Rien de plus, bergère? Rien de plus?Rien de plus, bergère? Rien de plus? Y a trois petits anges descendus du ciel Chantant les louanges du père éternel

Translation:

Where are you coming from, shepherdess, where are you coming from? (X2) I’m coming from the barn, I was having a walk I saw a miracle, it happened this night

What did you see, shepherdess, what did you see? (X2) I saw a little child in the manger Nicely bedded on fresh straw.

Nothing else, shepherdess, nothing else? (X2) Holy Mary, his mother, under a humble roof Holy Joseph, his father, trembling with cold

Nothing else, shepherdess, nothing else? (X2) There is the oxen and the donkey in front, With their breath they keep the child warm.

Nothing else, shepherdess, nothing else? (X2) There were three little angels, who came down from heaven Singing glory to God in the highest.

Christmas is Here (round) This is a relatively new Christmas treat, written by Joyce Poley who both sang and wrote Would You Like to Hold the Baby which I posted on Dec 13, 2023, and there you can find information about her. This too is from her self-published 1998 album The Gift of Christmas. As I said in 2023 and again this year, that album was one of my best thrift-store finds of all time.

Christmas is here, it’s the time of the yearTo celebrate and be of good cheerAlleluiaAlleluia, Christmas is here

Jesous Ahatonhia (The Huron Carol) was originally written circa 1643 in Wyandot, the language of the Wendat (Huron) people, by Jesuit missionary and Catholic saint Fr. Jean de Brebreuf. It survived in Wendat oral history, and in 1926 it was turned into an English language Christmas carol by a Toronto journalist and poet Jesse Edgar Middleton based on a flawed translation, That is the song with which we and the whole world are all familiar as The Huron Carol.

I posted a brief history of The Huron Carol on Dec 23, 2024 in my notes about the song, and there are many other more-detailed accounts of that interesting story available online. Whether or not you like the song, it is an important part of our Canadian heritage, and it is so well-known internationally that it forms how people around the world view Canada and its indigenous people.

In recent years the song has come under criticism mainly for two reasons: Middleton’s supposéd translation is not only inaccurate but “an incredibly Victorian-esque, sentimentalized affair which borders on being patronizing”. It also erroneously refers to the Algonquonian deity Gitchi Manitou as the Supreme Being of the Wendat people. More fundamentally, its writing is accused of beingpart of the colonial/missionary effort to absorb indigenous people into Western culture and take over their land.

I won’t go into details here about those issues now, but if you want to learn more about this song I will point you to three online sources of information, although I suggest that you read at least my brief history first because each of these assumes some familiarity with how the song was written.)

1. Here is a fairly brief article that focuses on the issue of Middleton’s lyrics: “Where de Brébeuf was telling a story about Jesus to the Huron people, Middleton is really telling a story about the Huron people.” It argues that The Huron Carol uses picturesque language that is not in the original text, and that it portrays them as a simple people consistent with European Romantic image of “noble savages”.

2. Here is a much longer article from Broadview, a Canadian magazine that covers matters related to spirituality, justice and ethical living. It reviews both of the above-mentioned issues in detail. It also reports on the perspective about the song held by the approximately 2000 Christian and non-Christian Wendat people who live today on the Wendake Indian Reserve near Quebec City, where their forebearers were re-located by the French in the 17th century after being forced from their traditional territory by other Iroquois people.

3. And here you can download a 2014 academic article from the British Journal of Canadian Studies. It is called Huron Carol: A Canadian cultural chameleon and was written by Dr. John Steckley, a Canadian scholar who specializes in Native American Studies and studied the Wyandot language for over 30 years. Besides providing a detailed analyses of the previous translations, and giving an accurate non-poetic translation of the original text, he discusses how this song has become a source of pride for most Wendat as well as for people of other first nations. The song has now been translated from its original lyrics into many of their languages.

The song is sung here by an Ojibwe singer, Crystal Shawanda who is a member of the Wiikwemkoong First Nation on Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario, with the Montreal-based folk-rock ensemble Sultans Of String. This is from the Sultan’s 2017 album Christmas Caravan. These new English lyrics were written by the Sultan of Swing’s violinist Chris McKhool and are based on John Steckley’s new translation of Fr. de Brebeuf’s original Wyandot song.

Have courage, oh you human beings: Jesus, he has come The spirits in the sky have words to share with everyone They’ve come to, in exulted voice, Say Mary’s given birth, rejoice Jesous ahatonhia, Jesus is born, Jesous ahatonhia.

Three men of great authority left for the sacred place Tiscient, the star appeared to lead them on their path with grace And stopped not far from where he lay Once found the place, said “Come this way” Jesous ahatonhia, Jesus is born, Jesous ahatonhia.

With sunflower oil they rubbed his scalp, anointing his head. “Tis the will of the spirits that you love us” elders said,“And Jesus how we wish to be, Adopted to your family.” Jesous ahatonhia, Jesus is born, Jesous ahatonhia.

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