Pirouette cacahuète
"Pirouette cacahuète", sometimes written as "Pirouette, cacahuète", also known under the title "Il était un petit homme",[1] is a popular French children's song or comptine (a nursery rhyme or a "counting-out song").
History
[edit]The author is very probably Gabrielle Grandière, born in 1920, resident of Ruaudin, a commune in the Sarthe department, who, at the time of creation of the comptine, was a teacher in Alençon. The slight doubt arises from the fact that she didn't claim authorship until 2012, 60 year later.[2]
Structure
[edit]It was originally organized into five stanzas of the same structure (A — Pirouette cacahuète — A — B — B). A more recent variant adds three stanzas and concludes with an invitation to applaud.
References
[edit]- ^ « Il était un petit homme pirouette », titre adopté dans le Deuxième livre des chansons de France et d'ailleurs, by Roland Sabatier, p. 12 (éd. Gallimard, collection « Découverte Cadet »), ISBN 2-07-039529-4.
- ^ "L'auteure de Pirouette Cacahuète retrouvée ?" (in French). L'Express.fr. 2012-10-04. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
Further reading
[edit]- Le catalogue de la chanson folklorique française, Volume 22, by Conrad Laforte.