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The main in the centre of the group (with the mic) is Mic Baudimant who was being honoured this year by the Rencontres festival. Mic is a local folklorist who has dedicated his life to breathing life into the musical traditional of Berry — the traditional name for the region in which Saint Chartier sits. The day before this photograph was taken Mic opened the festival with a concert performed by a number of very talented, young, musicians. The tradition clearly has a future. But this event looked back to the ancient art of ‘le briolage’.
You won’t find ‘briolage’ in any French dictionary, at least not one that you are likely to have knocking around the living room. Here in Berry the briolage refers to the traditional chants and songs of the men and women who ploughed the fields with their oxen. They sang to not only keep the rhythm of the plough but to encourage the animals to keep moving. ‘Allez mes joilies boeufs’ was a traditional cry which I guess could be translated as ‘come along my lovely girls …’.
For Mic these chants and songs provide us with a glimpse of the world of the very first settlers in this part of the world. The group on the stage were all singers of the briolage. Mostly they sang songs of the region but one or two gave us examples of similar traditions from Switzerland and Belgium.
I’m always fascinated by ancient musical traditions. Listen to this music and you are literally hearing the sounds of a thousand and more years ago. The briolage would seem to be a French equivalent of the aboriginal songlines of Australia, stories and tunes that reach back into the darkest reaches of time.
Typically these songs are preceded by chants and poems. These are often decorated with quite dramatic shouts which are uncannily like crack of cowboy whips. Might it be that the cowboy sound of North and South America might have its origins in the briolage.
I recorded a piece by one of the youngest and finest singers of the group. You can hear the passion and the drama of the ploughman. I think you can hear the excitement of the worker as he sets out to tend his fields!
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