Choucoune: A Song History
"Choucoune" began as a poem in Haitian Creole by Oswald Durand, whose use of the people's language in his verse, in the words of a 1953 Folkways booklet, gave Creole the "dignity of literature."[1] Haiti's newspaper Le Nouvelliste dates the poem to 1883 and says Durand wrote it while jailed for political reasons.[2] The title is the name of the woman at its center, and in the English translation printed in the Folkways notes the narrator is captivated by her but regrets that she was not faithful.[1] Le Nouvelliste observes that in the poem she turns from him once a white newcomer arrives, and it cites earlier writers who identify her as a real woman, Marie Noël Bélizaire of Plaine-du-Nord.[2]
Allen & Ginter, Goldfinch, from the Birds of America series (N4) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands, commercial color lithograph, 1888. A North American goldfinch, shown in fun for the English title "Yellow Bird"; it has no connection to the song.
According to Le Nouvelliste, the composer Michel Mauléart Monton set the poem to music in 1893, and the song has since been performed and adapted many times, including a Spanish version sung by the Cuban singer Celia Cruz and an English adaptation, "Yellow Bird."[2] In 1953 Folkways issued it as "Choucounne," sung by Lolita Cuevas with guitar arrangements by the Haitian guitarist Frantz Casséus, on Haitian Folk Songs, an album the label describes as lullabies and méringue de salon.[3][1]
"Yellow Bird," with new English words by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Keith and with the music credited on the sheet music to Norman Luboff, carries an original copyright date of 1957.[4] The Norman Luboff Choir recorded it that year on the album Calypso Holiday.[5] The Arthur Lyman Group's version entered the Billboard Hot 100 in late May 1961 and climbed to No. 4 that July, while another recording by Lawrence Welk and His Orchestra also charted that summer.[6][7] Larry Conger has arranged "Choucoune (Yellow Bird)" in DAD tuning for a mountain dulcimer trio or ensemble, with two standard dulcimer parts and a bass dulcimer part, published by Dulcimerican Music as a single-song download.[8]
Sources
- Smithsonian Folkways: "Haitian Folk Songs" (liner notes, FW 6811).
- Le Nouvelliste: "Choucoune d'Oswald Durand : au-delà de la langue ou des langues, autres angles de lecture".
- Smithsonian Folkways: "Haitian Folk Songs".
- Santa Cruz Public Libraries Sheet Music Catalog: "Yellow Bird".
- AllMusic: "Calypso Holiday".
- Billboard: "Hot 100, week of July 22, 1961".
- Billboard: "Hot 100, week of July 8, 1961".
- Larry Conger: "Choucoune (Yellow Bird) For Dulcimer Trio/Ensemble".
- Image: Allen & Ginter, Goldfinch, from the Birds of America series (N4) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands, commercial color lithograph, 1888. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.