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FAMOUS SONGS
music. The " Boat Song" may well find a cor-ner here on account of its origin, which Moore himself relates. " I wrote these words to an air which our boatmen sang to us frequently. The wind was so unfavourable that they were obliged to row all the way, and we were five days in descending the river from Kingston to Mon-treal, exposed to an intense sun during the day, and at night forced to take shelter from the dews in any miserable hut upon the banks that would receive us. But the magnificent scenery of the St. Lawrence repays all these difficulties. Our voyageurs had good voices and sang perfectly in tune together. The original words of the air to which I adapted these stanzas appeared to be a long, incoherent story, of which I could understand but little from the barbarous pro-nunciation of the French-Canadian. It begins :
" Dans mon chemin j'ai rencontre Deux cavaliers tres bien montes ;''
And the refrain to every verse was:
" A V ombre d'un bois je m'en vais jouer, A Pombre d'un bois je m'en vais danser."
I ventured to harmonize this air, and have pub-lished it Without that charm which associa-181 |
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