Ah! Si Mon Moine Voulait Danser
Item Number: 00-VG182
Format: Choral Octavo
Voicing: Unison
Arranged by Godfrey Ridout
The text of this song is based on a game of words. In the vernacular of colonial Quebec, the name “Moine /Monk” is given to a small toy called in France: “German Top / toupie d’Allemagne”. Apparently, the “Moine/ Monk” is actually a top (toupie) that the child puts into a spin with a cord and as it spins, the child tries to make the top dance by whipping it lightly with the cord. So this explains the metaphor of referring to the toy top as a monk, and then singing this song which basically tells the top (Monk) that if it dances, the child will give it a list of things that are important to a monk, a hood, a cincture, a rosary, a monk’s habit, a book of Psalms and in the final verse, a general promise to give other things.
