General informations - Some definitions

Collector: This is the person who collects songs from singers.

Bearer of tradition, Source singer: This is the interpreter of the song, the person who transmitted it to the collector.

Folklorization: The process by which a song is transmitted by oral tradition and which results in the creation of multiple versions of the same song.

Song-type: Song catalogues are based on the concept of a ‘song type’. Two songs belong to the same type if they say the same thing in the same way, that is, deal with the same subject, using comparable expressions. This song-type is identified by a critical title.

Critical title: This is the title given to a song-type.

Version: A version is a song collected from a singer at a certain place and published by an "editor" (the author of the work who brought the song to public notice or the author of the manuscript where it appears). Even if the information about the singer and the place are not always mentioned by the publisher, they nevertheless are at the origin of the existence of the version.

Occurrence: A version could be the subject of several editions (by the same editor in different books, in an anthology, in a written form and then in recorded media, etc.). These are multiple occurrences of the same version.

Editor: By editor, we mean the author of the book that brought the song to the attention of the public or the author of the manuscript where it appears.

Heading: Each volume of the Coirault or Laforte catalogues is divided into groups or sections. These sections are based on generic themes, for example, Songs about religion, Songs about epic stories, Jealous and cuckolding, Joys of marriage, ...

Form: The form indicates the metric composition of verses and verses in a song.
For example, the song Coirault 4602 or Laforte I J 12 (L’apprenti pastoureau) has a form "2 FM 66 assonance in o", that is to say that the stanzas have 2 verses with feminine and masculine rhyme of 6 feet.
Quand j’étais chez mon père,
P’tit garçon pastouriau
J’allais dans la bruyère
Garder mes blancs igneaux.

Feminine rhyme: A feminine rhyme is terminated by a silent e that is not pronounced.
Quand j’étais chez mon père,
J’allais dans la bruyère

Masculine rhyme: A masculine rhyme is terminated by a syllable that is pronounced.
P’tit garçon pastouriau
Garder mes blancs igneaux.

Laisse form: A laisse form song is a song with a structure formed by verses having the same number of syllables with identical assonances or rhymes.
Ce sont les filles de La Rochelle qui ont armé un bâtiment
Pour aller faire la course dedans les mers du levant
La coque est en bois rouge travaillé fort proprement
La mâture est en ivoire les pouliers en diamant

Pre-existing tune: Patrice Coirault gives the following definition of pre-existing tune: "Pre-existing tune is understood to mean any tune, vocal or instrumental, pre-existing to the lyrics that join it to make a piece for singing or form a song. It also indicates the verbal formula, more or less short, which designates the tune in question, when one wants to refer to it or use it again, and which recalls either its first use or one of the best known. (Notre chanson folklorique, p. 207, note 2).