No sheet music or musical knowledge required! For only viaticum, the pleasure of singing together and honoring one’s region of origin or adoption.
Born in the sacred space at the time of the Counter-Reformation, the oral tradition of Béarn polyphonic singing then took on profane accents to spread to the present day. Following the historical, political and social changes of a harsh, superb and rural land.
“A family or sporting celebration, a friendly get-together at the café… everything is an excuse for a singer to launch a melody, which the others sing in turn, generally in three voices. The goal is not musical performance but collective fervor,” explains Michel Feltin-Palas, journalist at L’Expresshimself a fan of Béarn singing (1).
Based in particular on the work of ethnomusicologist Jean-Jacques Castéret, Polyphony in the Gascony Pyrenees (2), he recalls that this repertoire transmitted by word of mouth can be proud of a corpus of “1,500 songs, most of which are in Gascon from Béarn. Texts and music are mostly imbued with melancholy, evoking separation, betrayed love, the loneliness of the shepherd in the mountains, exile or departure for war…”. Some are based on simple and popular lyrics, others are based on rhymes and rhythms developed by learned poets.
women and young people
Long a male prerogative, Béarn singing has been open to female voices for a few decades, “which enriched it with different colors. Likewise, the new generations are seizing it in turn, in a singular pendulum movement”, note Michel Feltin-Palas.
Indeed, while the practice of the Gascon language is becoming rare, it is on the other hand reinvested with a strong cultural value, of which music is a favorable vector. “In addition, the dissemination of songs via social networks and platforms promotes a contemporary appropriation of this secular repertoire”, underlines the journalist.
Current music groups are inspired by it, creating forms “truly innovative and daring”. Illustrating this permanent renaissance which seduces, especially during festivals, a young and enthusiastic public. Originally from Béarn or conquered by the generosity of the region.