"El Noi de la Mare"
Song
LanguageCatalan
English titleThe Mother of the Child
GenreFolk music
Songwriter(s)Traditional

El Noi de la Mare (The Child of the Mother) is a traditional Catalan Christmas song. The song was made famous outside Spain by Andrés Segovia who used to perform Miguel Llobet's guitar transcription as an encore.[1]

Lyrics

The main stanza has four verses and begins mostly with Què li darem a n'el Noi de la Mare?[2] In some traditional ways of singing the song every pair of verses is repeated twice. The first stanza of a common version[3] is:

Què li darem a n'el Noi de la Mare?
Què li darem que li sàpiga bo?
Panses i figues i nous i olives
Panses i figues i mel i mató

What shall we give to the Mother's Child?
What shall we give that he will find tasty?
Raisins and figs and nuts and olives
Raisins and figs and honey and mató

Variants

The text exists in other slightly different variants.[4][5][6]

Classical vocal arrangements have been made by Joaquín Nin-Culmell for soprano and John Rutter for choir.

A version of this in English has been reworked and developed to produce the carol "What Shall we Give?" as sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Recordings

See also

References

  1. ↑ Jim Tosone Classical guitarists: conversations 2000 169 "Miguel Llobet's transcription of the Catalan folk song El Noi de la Mare is perhaps best known to guitar audiences as a favorite encore piece of Andrés Segovia. Although many artists have recorded a few of the transcriptions Llobet made.
  2. ↑ El noi de la mare - L'Orfeó Català Girls Choir
  3. ↑ "El noi de la mare (Popular catalana)". Archived from the original on 2015-05-18. Retrieved 2015-05-08.
  4. ↑ Carme Riera Cançons de bressol 2011 p30 "El noi de la mare"
  5. ↑ Josep Romeu i Figueras - Recerques D'etnologia I Folklore 2000- p80 "... avui encara molt recordada i cantada sobretot per Nadal, n'existeix una versió breu i ajustada29 i una altra massa llarga i banalitzada.30 La versió abreujada, que segueixo, diu d'aquesta manera: i — Què li darem an el Noi de la Mare?"
  6. ↑ Miscellània Pere Bohigas 1981 p272 "La cançó popular d'aquest títol diu en una de les versions del segle xviii, que coneixia Verdaguer:" « — Què li darem an el Noi de la Mare? Què li darem a l'hermós Infantó? — Panses i figues i nous i olives, panses i figues i mel i mató."
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