Link: On Canvas (no online copy)

Lyrics from Liner notes to CD (via Discogs)

Song title: L’Aumône refusée

Source: Marcel Bénéteau, À la table de mes amis (2000)

Notes on the text: According to the liner notes, this is a Medieval song preserved in about a dozen versions throughout Quebec and Acadia; this version comes from Stella Meloche in Detroit, who learned it from her uncle.

Type: Strophic, narrative, ethical fable

Context: Perhaps could be sung at a soirée or other family gathering, considering it extols the value of hosting? Bénéteau’s presentation of the album might also suggest this.

Narrative: 

Begins with an exhortation to parents in the first strophe; the next 6 illustrate a fable of a poor father and his well-to-do son. When the father comes to ask for some help and finds his son’s table already set with a decadent meal, the son acts annoyed and hides his food, slipping his father bread beneath the door ‘like a dog.’ As the son sits down to enjoy his pastry, a toad jumps onto his face and begins to destroy him; he sends for his father, but it’s already too late – by the time his father arrives, he’s reduced to ‘cendres!’

While the fun narrative is probably the focus here (the song lasts nearly 6 minutes), there is certainly an ethical element to it – the values of hospitality, sharing what you have, and family are all extolled. There’s also a theological element; the son takes God’s name in vain (not cool!) and ends up being stricken down by God for his complacency. Interestingly, I couldn’t find any ‘Saint Malcom’ in the Roman martyrology; perhaps this is a unique feature of the story, but as the only named character in the plot, I would expect there to be some context for this mention.

The text is generally not rhyming (with some exceptions in the beginning) and is repeated throughout – I think this heightens the tension of the narrative. Bénéteau also builds further tension with instrumental interludes between key plot developments, and a regular but surprisingly nonmetrical rhythm.

Information on Bénéteau himself is rather scarce; what I can find is that he’s a professor in Sudbury of Franco-American studies, and has catalogued thousands of Francophone songs from the Detroit region.

This song is performed in a more intimate, narrative style. Instrumentation includes guitar, Bénéteau’s voice, a background fiddle, jaw harp at the end, and what sounds like a mandolin, but they don’t all play at once. The emphasis is definitely on the text and the narrative; even the mastering of the recording brings this out.

The music deserves a bit of analysis as well, because of the interesting nonmetrical rhythmic scheme:

I think this could either be read as a sort of elided 6/8, or simply as groups of 2 and 3 pulses. The latter idea could be supported considering the musicians were familiar with Gregorian chant, only I’m not sure whether the idea of subdividing Gregorian chant into 2 and 3-pulse groups would predate the composition of this song. Either way, the rhythms ensure the music flows very nicely and the repetition never gets lugubrious, which is remarkable for a text this long.