Between The Ox And The Donkey: A Song History

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"Entre le bœuf et l'âne gris" is an anonymous French noël, a cradle song that bids the newborn Jesus sleep between the ox and the grey donkey of the stable.[1] How old it is remains uncertain, and sources differ. The 1940 Episcopal hymnal labelled its tune a French noël of the 13th century,[2] a 1956 Lausanne printing of François-Auguste Gevaert's choral setting carries the same label,[3] and a 2022 article on the classical-music.com website dates the carol to the 16th century at the latest, perhaps the 13th.[4] The earliest printing found in the sources consulted here is in Noëls anciens et nouveaux, ou cantiques spirituels, issued at Nantes in 1792 by the widow Malassis, where the carol already stands under the heading "Noël ancien."[1] That text ends with a Crucifixion stanza that casts Jews as Christ's cruel tormentors, and an 1876 Nantes collection of old noëls still prints the same stanza.[1][5]

Carved wooden relief of the Nativity with Mary, Joseph, an ox and a donkey under stone arches

Alsatian Master, Nativity, limewood relief, 16th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0).

The carol reached choirs in the late 19th century through Gevaert's harmonization, titled "Le sommeil de l'enfant Jésus," in his ten-volume Collection de chœurs.[6] Hymnary.org names that collection as the source of the tune it calls GEVAERT.[7] Winfred Douglas made an English version for the Episcopal Hymnal 1940,[2][6] and other English texts followed, among them "The Sleep of the Child Jesus" in Sing Noël (1948)[8] and an unattributed English text set to the same tune in A Treasury of Hymns (1953).[9] Alice Parker and Robert Shaw arranged the carol for soprano soloist and chorus.[6] The same classical-music.com article counts it among the oldest French carols that people still sing.[4]

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Sources

  1. Internet Archive: "Noëls anciens et nouveaux, ou cantiques spirituels à l'honneur de la naissance de N. S. J. C." (Nantes, Malassis, 1792).
  2. Hymnary.org: "The Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America 1940, 38. Angels from on high".
  3. swisscollections: "Entre le boeuf et l'âne gris: Noël français du 13me siècle" (F. A. Gevaert, Barblan, 1956).
  4. Classical Music (classical-music.com): "French Christmas songs: 8 of the best" (Hannah Nepilova, 2022).
  5. Internet Archive: "Vieux noëls composés en l'honneur de la naissance de Notre-Seigneur Jésus" (Nantes, 1876).
  6. Hollywood Bowl: "Here, mid the Ass and Oxen Mild".
  7. Hymnary.org: "GEVAERT" (tune).
  8. Hymnary.org: "Sing Noël 54. The Sleep of the Child Jesus (Le Sommeil de l'Enfant Jésus)".
  9. Hymnary.org: "Oxen and sheep Thy guardians mild" (text).