Filles de Cadix

Les filles de Cadix

(Chanson espagnole)

There is a long history of French writers and French composers - French artists of all kinds, in fact - looking to Spain for passions more liberated, rhythms more exciting, melodies more seductive, colours more intense than they could hope to find in their own culture and their own climate. By the middle of the second half of the nineteenth century evocations of Spain had become such a familiar feature of French music that skilled composers could produce agreeably idiomatic songs or piano pieces or even whole operas - Bizet’s Carmen is the prime example - with no first-hand experience of the country or its musical traditions. Chabrier’s España, written after a prolonged holiday in Spain in 1882, is an authentic exception.

Obviously superficial and frankly commercial as most of these

French-Spanish confections were - at least until Ravel and Debussy found a new kind of inspiration in the idiom - they inevitably become a source of satirical amusement for some of the more sophisticated of French composers. Exactly where Delibes stands in relation to all this, however, it is difficult to say. As we know from a choice example in his ballet Coppélia, he was a dab hand at the bolero and it is not entirely likely that he would be satirical about something he practised so successfully himself. On the other hand, there is a gently teasing element in Alfred de Musset’s words in Les filles de Cadix and at least a suspicion of the same thing in the music.

In fact, the similarity between the first line of the Les filles de Cadix (published in 1883) and that of the Gypsy Song in Carmen (first performed in 1875) and a later echo of the Seguidilla suggest that Delibes had a specific target in mind. Or is it just a case of sincere flattery? Anyway, whatever else, the song is a highly entertaining celebration of what the French public of the day most liked about Spanish music - the plucked guitar-type figuration and the lively dance rhythms in the accompaniment, the supple vocal line varying between the sensuously curved and the brilliantly decorative, the provocative harmonies and the exotically flavoured melody.

Gerald Larner©

Les filles de Cadix

(Chanson espagnole)

Nous venions de voir le taureau

Trois garçons, trois fillettes.

Sur la pelouse il faisait beau

Et nous dansions un boléro

Au son des castagnettes;

Dites-moi voisin

Si j’ai bonne mine

Et si ma basquine

Va bien, ce matin,

Vous me trouverez la taille fine?

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Les filles de Cadix aiment assez cela.

Et nous dansions un boléro

Un soir c’était dimanche.

Vers nous s’en vint un hidalgo

Cousu d’or la plume au chapeau

Et le poing sur la hanche:

Si tu veux de moi,

Brune au doux sourire,

Tu n’as que le dire

Cet or est à toi.

Passez votre chemin beau sire.

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Les filles de Cadix n’entendent pas cela.

Et nous dansions un boléro

Au pied de la colline.

Sur le chemin passait Diego

Qui pour tout bien n’a qu’un manteau

Et qu’une mandoline:

La belle aux doux yeux,

Veux-tu qu’à léglise

Demain te conduise

Un amant jaloux?

Jaloux! jaloux! quelle sottise!

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Les filles de Cadix craignent ce défaut-là.

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

(Alfred de Musset)

The girls of Cadiz

(Spanish Song)

W’ed just been to see the bull,

Three boys, three girls.

It was fine on the grass

And we were dancing a bolero

To the sound of castanets;

Tell me neighbour

If I look good

And if my bodice

Suits me this morning,

Do you think my figure’s slim?

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

The girls of Cadiz quite like that kind of thing.

And we were dancing a bolero

One Sunday evening it was,

A hidalgo came towards us

Dripping with gold, a feather in his hat

And his hand on his hip:

If you want me,

you, the dark one with the sweet smile,

You only have to say so,

And this gold is yours.

Get on your way good sir

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

The girls of Cadiz don’t listen to that kind of thing.

And we were dancing a bolero

At the bottom of the hill.

Along the road came Diego

Who has nothing but a coat

And nothing but a mandolin:

You, the beauty with the sweet eyes,

Do you want to be taken

To church tommorrow

By a jealous lover?

Jealous! jealous! what nonsense!

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

The girls of Cadiz don’t like that kind of thing.

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

(translation by Gerald Larner)