It started when I was looking for the text to a song called Madame Jeanette. It is a piece of choral music from the 1940's. I found what I was looking for on another blog called, an udge and a wink. It is surprising the number of people who know this obscure little piece and what a profound affect it has on it's listeners. I'm an example of that.
25 years ago, my father and I came to Salt Lake City for the first time and it was the first time I heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in person. I don't remember everything they sang on the rehearsal that night, but three songs stood out and still resound in my memory. One of them was Climb Every Mountain, another was God Bless America, and the third was this very haunting song called Madame Jeanette. The text speaks of a woman whose love lost his life in battle at Saint Pierre. She waits and watches for him until one day they take her to slumber in Piere LaChaise which is a well known cemetery in Paris. The text is as follows:
Madame Jeanette, when the sun goes down,
Sits at her door in the rush of the town;
Waiting for someone each close of the day,
Someone who fell at St. Pierre, they say.
Madame Jeanette, when the stars shine bright,
Sits at her window and looks through the night;
Listening for someone to pass down the way,
For someone who sleeps at St. Pierre, they say.
Madame Jeanette, she will wait there, I know,
Till her eyes have grown dim, and her hair's white as snow;
Wait there and watch their, till one of these days,
They take her to slumber in Pere Lachaise, in Pere Lachaise.
- Edward Lockton
Admittedly it is a sad song. Yet there is something so universal about the longing, waiting and mourning. Perhaps that is part of it's appeal. And it's something that I can identify with on a number of different levels.
Till next time.
