Frère Jacques

TEXT: Frère Jacques

Frère Jacques

Dormez vous? 

Dormez vous?

Sonnez les matines

Sonnez les matines

Ding ding dong

Ding ding dong

INFORMANT DESCRIPTION: Female, 42, French

CONTEXT: This woman’s mother used to sing this song to her, in her crib, when she was a baby. Then she grew up and sang it to her children. It is a French nursery rhyme used to put children to sleep. She said she sometimes even still sang it to her adult children when they had trouble sleeping. It is very tender to her and a very sweet memory. She hopes to sing it to her grandchildren. 

TRANSLATION: Are you sleeping

Are you sleeping?

Brother John

Brother John?

Morning bells are ringing

Morning bells are ringing

Ding ding dong

Ding ding dong

THOUGHTS: The translation has been adapted to English. Changing a typical French name of Jacques to John. Interestingly so because it seems the point of the French words are their melodic quality and annotation that don’t translate to english. I have definitely heard this song before but did not know the context. 

La Zandunga

TEXT: La Sandunga song lyrics:

Sandunga

Sandunga mamá por Dios

Sandunga no seas ingrata

Mamá de mi corazón

Ay Sandunga, Sandunga mamá por dios

Sandunga no seas ingrata

Mamá de mi corazón

Antenoche fui a tu casa

Tres golpes le di al candado

Tu no sirves para amores

Tienes el sueño pesado

Mi Sandunga, Sandunga mamá por dios

Sandunga no seas ingrata

Mamá de mi corazón

Me ofreciste acompañarme

Desde la iglesia a mi choza

Pero como no llegabas tuve que venirme sola

Ay Sandunga, Sandunga mamá por dios

Sandunga no seas ingrata

Mamá de mi corazón

A orillas del Papaloapan

Me estaba bañando ayer

Pasaste por las orillas y no me quisiste ver

Ay Sandunga, Sandunga mamá por dios

Sandunga no seas ingrata

Mamá de mi corazón

INFORMANT DESCRIPTION: Male, 83, Mexican

CONTEXT: My grandfather played this song for me. I had recognized it from my entire childhood so I asked him to explain it to me. It is a very traditional Mexican folk song specifically from Oaxaca. He explained to me that although the song is very old, from the mid 1800s, it is a symbol of freedom. It appears to be about a woman but is really about the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in Oaxaca. He said in Oaxaca people sing it all of the time, while working and doing chores, to each other at night, even to lovers. The actual word is zapotec, the native tongue, and means “profound music.” The song is a song from a man to a woman originally but has been molded and shaped to fit many context when speaking about something lost or something freed.

TRANSLATION: Oh! Sandunga, Sandunga by God woman!

Don’t be so ungrateful Sandunga, woman of my heart.

Oh! Sandunga, Sandunga by God woman!

Don’t be so ungrateful Sandunga, woman of my heart.

Last night I went to your house,

I knocked three times by the door knocker,

You’re no good when it comes to love,

You’re deep in sleep.

Oh! Sandunga, Sandunga by God woman!

Don’t be so ungrateful Sandunga, woman of my heart.

You offered to accompany me

From church to my house,

But you never came,

And I had to come back alone.

Oh! Sandunga, Sandunga by God, woman!

Don’t be so ungrateful Sandunga, woman of my heart.

At the edge of the Papaloapan

I was bathing yesterday,

You passed by the edge (of the river),

And you didn’t want to see me.

THOUGHTS: This song is very beautiful by the artist Lila Downs but seems to be just as compelling by any singer due to its heartfelt and emotional qualities. It seems this variation truly encompasses its folklore and makes it very interesting to listen to every time and by different singers.

Link to other variation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV4Ot_fYRb4

Chinese Wedding Rituals

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 49
Occupation: Software Engineer
Performance Date: 4/29/2022
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: english

Background: The informant is my mother, a Chinese immigrant who immigrated to the US after graduating college. She was born and raised on a small island off the coast of China.

A: On the day of the wedding the man knocks on the woman’s door, bringing gifts and money. The woman’s parents can…make demands. Their goal is to test his honesty…well, not honesty, maybe sincerity…they are testing his true love and his character. This can take a very long time, which also tests his patience. They ask to see if he’s willing to pay money….well, the money isn’t actually so important, but it represents that he can take care of her. He shares many candies with the children, symbolizing sweetness and feeling loved.

When the parents agree, I believe the groom carries the bride all the way to the car to express how much he truly loves her. Maybe Americans do something similar. It is a symbol for taking care of the bride in the future, like the gifts and money too.

At the wedding the bride and groom kneel in front of the bride’s parents, “磕头 (ke tou)” …this means their head must touch the ground, as an expression of gratitude.

On the third day of marriage, the woman must go home and make lots and lots of food to thank her parents. Because when the woman is married, she’s considered the man’s family and no longer a family member of her original family, so they must thank her family profusely. Traditionally she’s supposed to live with the man and his parents, but that’s different now…normally couples will live on their own.

The husband’s family makes a lot of food too, they will bring a basket of food to the wife’s house. Back in the old days, when they didn’t have cars, they would carry it all the way there on a long stick of bamboo on their shoulders and baskets are placed on either side. 

Me: Which if any of these traditions did you do when you got married?

A: We were married in America, so we didn’t do any of this. We just went back to China for a bit and took our wedding photos. Your dad visited my family for a while, and we invited everyone – friends, family – out to dinner. When my aunts and cousins would get married this is how the weddings were, but after I left home when I was 18 I didn’t keep with the traditions as much and people don’t do them as much anymore.

Context: This was told to me during a recorded phone call. Much of the transcription has been translated from Mandarin.

Spanish Fruit Eating Dance

DESCRIPTION OF PERFORMANCE: Spanish music was playing. She was standing, swaying her hips back and forth. She took her right hands and gestured it upward as if grabbing something out of a tree. She twisted her hand like pulling it out and pretended to take a bite out of the imaginary object. She then pretended to wipe the object all over her body until she reached her left hip and then it a swift movement, pretended to throw the object onto the floor. 

INFORMANT DESCRIPTION: Female, 72, Spanish

CONTEXT: This dance is supposed to symbolize taking an apple or fruit from a tree, eating it and then throwing it away. She learned it in a dance bar in Spain growing up in the 50s. It was a somewhat known dance that she said was very sensual and attractive. It involved the hip movement of her culture’s dance and incorporated themes of Adam and Eve and the countryside. She always loved this dance and would do it constantly to different music. To her it represented femininity and her country’s beautiful dance culture. 

THOUGHTS: When I saw this dance in person I was mesmerized. I had never seen anything like it and it was interesting because I could immediately understand that she was picking a fruit from a tree, the movements were very clear yet melodic.

“La vie est dure sans confiture.”

TEXT: “La vie est dure sans confiture.”

INFORMANT DESCRIPTION: Female, 42, French

CONTEXT: This woman learned this proverb in France growing up. In boarding school it was written in a children’s book but growing up it was clearly a popular saying. It is says when things are awry and the advice is to eat something sweet. Kind of like a remedy proverb and can also just be said in the context of eating something sweet and referencing life, the importance of sweets. Can also be used when one is sad and the advice is to eat chocolate. 

ORIGINAL SCRIPT: “La vie est dure sans confiture.”

TRANSLITERATION: “Lah-vee eh doou-rr sah-nz coh-n-fee-too-rre.”

TRANSLATION: “Life is hard without jam.”

THOUGHTS: I think this translates over to some remedies used in the west, the belief that chocolate is good to eat when sad. While we don’t connect the two the same way, sweats and life, we do in the case of the phrase “comfort food” or even “stress eating”.